Cristian Barbosu felt the hand of God in his life ever since his early childhood (first grades to the end of high-school) when God used Cantarea Romaniei (a Communist Artistic Festival) to train him to speak in front of crowds, not knowing then that his life vocation would be the pulpit ministry. The complexity of God’s creation amazed him, and in high-school, while he would go hiking in the Retezat mountains, God searched his heart and drew him to Himself. The test of his faith came in 1989 when he was sent to a military labor unit by the Communist government where the loyalty of his faith was purged.
God did not stop molding him, and through a series of orchestrated circumstances He protected him during the Romanian Revolution of December 1989, when being a soldier he had to fight, and afterwards God prevented him to start a secular career, stopping him on the day of his entrance exam to become a law student of the University of Cluj. At the age of 20, Cristian was baptized in the Baptist church of Curtici. At that time Cristian worked as a customs officer (same word in Romanian as the one for the tax collectors), where he had a “Temple pinnacle” experience seeing and getting the taste of all the riches of this world. In his specific style, God took him and from a tax-collector he made him a pastor. He went to study in the United States and graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago (1991-1995), then from Dallas Theological Seminary (1995-1999) with a Master of Theology, and now he is about to finish his doctorate program (PhD) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield, USA. He was a pastor at Maranata Baptist Church of Arad between 1999-2003, and in 2005, along with a team of faithful people planted Metanoia Church of Arad, member of Romanian Baptist Union.
His passion for Scriptures and for the contemporary generation brought him to BIG in 1999, as one of its founders where he serves as vice-president. God also brought into his life Anne, his wife, a French MK, who flamed his passion for the lost and the needs of this generation even more. They have been married for 15 years and have two daughters (Fiona (11) and Tara (7) all of them presently thoroughly enjoying the vibrant context of their ministry at Metanoia.
BIG is a dream come true for Cristian, because of its interdenominational unity and team spirit. He sees it as a necessary pulse for the contemporary generation and a positive impulse of Christian values and principles over the gray background of Postcommunist Romania.
We live in a world with a dynamic of change beyond our parents imagination. Despite a historic anchoring in religious tradition, our (...)