Caring for Refugees and Strengthening Churches in the Czech Republic

Years before the war between Russia and Ukraine began, a Ukrainian family moved to the Czech Republic and immediately started looking for a church. They wanted a local congregation with charismatic theology. That was all they’d known in their home country. Throughout Eastern Europe, the small number of protestant churches that did exist tended to be charismatic.

For more than a year this family tried, and failed, to find a charismatic-style church. As they scoured their new hometown, Kromeriz, they kept hearing about another kind of church—one that believed the gifts had ceased—in the middle of Kromeriz. Each time they would walk or pass Bible Fellowship Church of Kromeriz they would think about visiting, but they never did. Eventually, the need for local fellowship with other believers was too strong. So, one Sunday, they didn’t walk past the church. They visited. In God’s providence, that family’s decision, on a whim, to give this local congregation a chance, would lead to extraordinary ministry for every member of Bible Fellowship when the war between Russian and Ukraine erupted.

As soon as that family visited, they noticed two wonderful realities. First, they learned God’s Word. That’s because the pastor, Lojza Klepáček, preached through whole books of the Bible verse-by-verse. Second, they were warmly embraced by the members of Bible Fellowship. It didn’t take long for this Ukrainian family to decide that this church they had actively resisted visiting for more than a year was where God was calling them to join.

This family would embrace Bible Fellowship’s high view of hospitality and would pay-it-forward when friends, acquaintances, and other fellow Ukrainians fled their war-torn country and came to Kromeriz. Many of these refugees had little money, were looking for a place to live, somewhere to work, and a community to join. This Ukrainian family that had previously moved to the Czech Republic introduced many of these refugees to members of Bible Fellowship. In turn, the church practiced biblical hospitality, eagerly embracing their new neighbors, some of which were Christians, and some who did not know Christ. In total, more than 50 families would be ministered to by the saints at Bible Fellowship of Kromeriz.

For their pastor, Lojza, Bible Fellowship’s eagerness to serve the strangers and refugees was the fruit of nearly twenty years of investment in the congregation. If someone had told Lojza during his first year as a pastor in 2006 that nearly 20 years later that level of practical ministry and love would one day be baked into the church’s DNA, he would have found it hard to believe.

“When I became the pastor, there were just a dozen or so people and they fought about everything,” Lozja said. “I was young and maybe a bit naive, so I didn’t realize at the time how challenging a situation I was going into, but the solution to the conflict was the same as the solution to any spiritual problem: teach them the truth and love them. I obviously had the opportunity to do that through my Sunday sermon, but I also made sure to spend a lot of time with the people, helping them see what the truth looks like lived out in real life.”

Even at the beginning, when Lojza was young and focused on the church’s serious spiritual challenges, he prayed that one day the Lord would allow his congregation to train younger men, to help prepare the next generation of pastors and spiritual leaders for the Czech Republic. He had personally been the recipient of that training at European Bible Training Center, a member school of The Master’s Academy International (TMAI) in Berlin, Germany. There he had learned sound theology and seen how the Lord was using that school to supply the German speaking church with a new generation of pastors.

“After a few years at the church, we decided to start a training center and see what the Lord would do with it,” Lojza said. “It was gratifying to see our church embrace the idea and actively participate in the ministry. Everyone played a role. Even women in the church cooked meals for the students those first years. It was an invaluable part of our ministry, getting to show students that the whole church trains the next generation of leaders.”

From just a handful of students, the Czech Bible Institute, now one of 18 TMAI member schools across the globe, has grown steadily. Today, there are more than 90 students enrolled. They are also seeing significant interest in training men from Slovakia, the country next door to the Czech Republic. The two countries existed as one communist nation before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“At our most recent conference for church leaders, nearly half of attendees were from Slovakia,” Lojza said. “In fact, we are planning on having a conference in Slovakia in the coming years to encourage and strengthen the churches there. Hopefully, we can help establish a Slovakian training center in the coming years.”

The recent conference Lojza was referring to brought more than 400 people from across Slovakia and the Czech Republic to their church and training center. It was the largest attendance yet, and it pointed to the extraordinary growth of interest in expository preaching and reformed, biblical ministry across the region.

“It's almost as if a reformation is going on here,” Lojza said. “Every year the conference grows, the opportunities for ministry expand as the training center welcomes more men. It’s confirming the genius of the TMAI model. You train the men who lead the church, they go out and produce biblical churches, and that sound teaching has a profound effect on people. Many churches are asking for help. The need is great, and we are eager to see what the Lord does through our church and the TMAI training center here and, hopefully, in Slovakia in the coming years.”

For Lojza, all this ministry in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and to refugees from Ukraine, ultimately comes from their emphasis on expository preaching and sound doctrine. When Scripture is clearly taught, believers are strengthened to love others, the needy are cared for, and the next generation of leaders is secured. Lojza knows all the ministry he’s part of is because of his connection with TMAI, both through his education at European Bible Training Center and what the Lord is doing at the Czech Bible Institute.

“The fit with TMAI has been the most natural,” Lojza said. “We have so much in common with them and the partnership continues to bear extraordinary fruit.”

The Master’s Academy International, the ministry highlighted in this story, is a partner ministry of the John MacArthur Charitable Trust. The Trust supports this ministry, and several others, that share the theological convictions of John MacArthur.