Army of the Lord

The Army of the Lord, also known as The Lord's Army, is an evangelical "renewal movement within the Romanian Orthodox Church". The founder of the Army of the Lord, Father Iosif Trifa, as well as consequent leaders, Ioan Marini and Traian Dorz, felt that "people needed to come to the Gospel and that the Orthodox Church in Romania needed to return to her true mission: to serve God and to represent God in the midst of our nation". Tom Keppeler writes that "what Wesley was to the Anglican Church, Trifa was to the Romanian Orthodox Church. As Wesley's preaching and ministry drew crowds from the working classes, so Trifa's as well was a ministry that grew among the villagers and workers of the fields". In the 1930s and 1940s, "millions of Romanian Orthodox, including priests and religious, took part in its activities of evangelization, printing and open air meetings". Members of the Army of the Lord greet one another with the phrase: "Praise the Lord!", followed by the reply: "Forever, amen!"

WWW Official Site

Basic Pietism and Key Evangelism

Source:
In his foundational book <>, he outlined the purpose and strategy of the movement.

4 Basic Pietism

Christocentrism
Sign of the cross
Receiving Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Oblation/Church Volunteer Work and Abstinence from Alcohol
Voluntariness

5 Key Evangelism

Discipleship which is Best Sermon
Acts of mercy
Love and Prayer
Forgiveness and Justice
Distribution of Christian Literature

Persecution under communism regime

After 1948, the movement was declared illegal by the communist regime. During this period, the "Lord's Army", led by Traian Dorz in the difficult years of Stalin, who had spent 17 years in jail for this reason, was part of the "silent church", an informal ensemble of Christian believers from various denominations, which refused to obey the Communist authorities, being for this reason considered as "printing and spreading forbidden literature", "plotting against social ordering" and "enemies of the people."