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The beauty of the Izmir Protestant Baptist Church attracts many visitors, providing an outreach opportunity for the congregation.

Baptists of Turkey By Eron Henry

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ourage and daring mark the life of Baptists in Turkey. Though Turkey’s government and constitution are officially

secular, it is a majority Muslim country. While this in itself is not problematic, discriminatory laws and practices and extremist Islamic elements can make life difficult for Baptists and other Christians.

Throughout much of its history, this would not have been so for much of the geographical area that now constitutes Turkey. Turkey has a deep Christian heritage that goes back to the Early Church. Many of the travels by the Apostle Paul recorded in the book of Acts were in Turkey. The epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians were addressed to churches located in modern day Turkey. The book of Revelation was addressed to seven churches in what is now western Turkey. The first seven Christian Ecumenical Councils took place in the territory that is now Turkey.

Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, was the capital city of

the Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman empires and was, for centuries, a major Christian center. It was inaugurated in 324 AD and dedicated in May 330 at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine, after whom it was named. Constantine had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman kingdom. Christians in Turkey are now a minority. It is estimated there are approximately 120,000 Christians in Turkey, out of a population of more than 76 million. Only a few thousand Protestants, among whom are Baptists, are in the transcontinental country, which straddles both Western Asia and Southeastern Europe. Sunni Islam is the majority religion. The Izmir Protestant Baptist Church was dedicated in 2005, three years after its founding. The building was originally an Anglican chapel that was later taken over and used as a

government office and dance school. It required extensive repairs and renovations when Baptists were granted permission to take over the property. “We had a house church. We talked to the governor of Izmir

and asked for a place we could come together to worship,” founding pastor Ertan Çevik said. “They told us there was an old church building. For one and a half years, we had to go through the procedures to formally become a church. After that they decided that the church could be given to us.” Izmir’s municipal government loaned the building free of charge to the congregation for an indefinite period of time. But there was one condition. “The congregation had to restore and guard the decaying structure,” said Çevik.

Çevik was born in Turkey but immigrated with his family to Germany while a young child. He came to Christian faith at age 16, was later ordained by German Baptists and returned to Turkey in 1989 and founded what is now the Izmir Protestant Baptist Church.

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Ertan Çevik, founding pastor of the Izmir Protestant Baptist Church addresses the Annual Gathering in Turkey

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