Church planting in Poland 

An encouraging number of Baptist churches are being planted in Poland, a country under “a strong influence of secularism”, according to the European Baptist Federation (EBF)

There have been approximately 20 new church plants in Poland and several of those have been facilitated by EBF, reports the latest EBF Mission Partnerships News.

Almost 90 per cent of Poland's 38.5 million population claim “a nominal” adherence to Roman Catholicism, says the newsletter.

The Baptist Union in Poland comprises 90 established churches with more than 5,000 baptised members.

Church planting is an important part of the Baptist Union's strategy, and the newsletter highlighted the “crucial role” played by emerging young leaders such as Lukasz and Ola, a husband and wife team in their twenties.

Lukasz and Ola started working with a large Baptist church called 5N in Poznan, a city in western Poland. 

The couple have established student Bible-study groups and also a youth group, and their goal is to build up a healthy Christian missional community that grows in faith and numbers.

The church is structured around group meetings on Sundays and one-to-one discipleship. During the week they also meet for a Bible study and an English Club where the regular attenders can also invite newcomers. They also organise outreach events and various conferences.

‘We managed to organize a country-wide conference that was attended by 120 people,’ said Lukasz. ‘It was a time of encouragement, fellowship and learning. Last winter we also organised a week long skiing camp which became excellent occasion for Bible-centred discussions. Since than four new people visited Sunday services regularly and three of them joined discipleship groups.’

He continued, ‘Our group is very young. I am 25 years old and other leaders are my equals. Most of our people were not raised in Protestant Churches and we try to create a culture friendly environment of faith. At the same time my focus is to preserve the biblically sound teaching.’
 
Whilst the statistics are encouraging, Baptists in Poland are calling for prayer, continued the newsletter:
 
Pray for an openness of the people of Poland to the message of the gospel, as Poland is now widely influenced by secularism.
 
Pray also for Lukasz and other young mission minded leaders who have a vision for church planting, that they may be successful in reaching out to the multitudes.