When asked about any anxieties, fears, obstacles, or discouragements from the past year, Mariusz “Max” Bartkowski struggles to answer. Max is pastor of Kościół Baptystów Łaska (Grace Baptist Church) in Bydgoszcz, Poland and while they have certainly been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways, it has been a blessed year. Against the backdrop of previous years, this pioneering gospel initiative has seen much progress and the main difficulty Max recalls relates to their meeting place. Twice a week, they rent a hall for gathered worship and had to move to a larger space to comply with COVID-19 guidelines, and had to change their meeting hours to work around the building owners’ expectations, which created a fair amount of confusion for visitors and even church members.
Nonetheless, this was a small price to pay. The church was committed to gathering throughout the pandemic and able to do so, trying to respectfully and responsibly comply with the various regulations and restrictions. God continued to add to their number those who were being saved (seven people!) and new visitors continued to find their way to the church, despite pandemic limitations on the church’s usual evangelistic work. At present, the church usually has 35-40 people who physically gather and another 6- 10 people who regularly join online. This numerical growth is very encouraging, but seeing the people themselves grow as followers of Christ is even more-so. They have seen people over the past year win battles with depression. Couples have resisted attacks on their marriages and are getting stronger relationally, becoming more forgiving and loving. Husbands and fathers are for the first time in their lives taking responsibility for the spiritual health and personal growth of their families. This is all of God’s grace.
As the church looks to the future, they hope to see men stepping up to various responsibilities in church life and thereby raised up from within their number to assist in leading and serving the church as elders and deacons. While God has been faithful to strengthen and build the church over the past year, they also realise they cannot let the ongoing pandemic prevent them from evangelising their city, so are thinking of creative and new ways of reaching people with the good news of Christ.
Pray that the church would continue to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” they would make their requests known to God and rest in his peace.
Praise God for growth over the past year and pray that the perseverance of the church to gather for congregational worship and discipleship would bear fruit in sincere repentance, strong faith, and bold gospel proclamation.
Pray for the witness of the church, especially in these unstable and uncertain times, that they would think clearly and creatively about ways they can reach their city with the good news of Christ.
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