Ewangeliczny Kościół Reformowany w Gdańsku

The Seed of a Second Polish Reformation

AN ARTICLE FROM “CHRISTIAN RENEWAL” OCTOBER 27, 2004

By Gerry Wisz

Pawel Bartosik and Gerry Wisz

The Reformation seemed to have stopped at the borders of Eastern Europe, with notable exceptions in what is today the Czech Republic and, to a lesser but no less dramatic extent, Poland.

The Reformation made inroads into Poland, but was providentially hindered by Jesuit zeal, a vacillating king, and an entrenched Roman Catholic bishopric. Nonetheless, the Reformed faith has a history in that nation, with seven Reformed churches -- now mostly Barthian in orientation -- still open in major urban centers.

Far more exciting, however, has been the inroads the gospel has been making through other, newer fellowships, especially since the nation came out from under communism.

The Polish Baptist Union has 70 churches, although only two have predestinarian pastors. Pentecostals have approximately 150 churches, and the Methodists and Lutheran fellowships are even smaller than the Baptists and - like their counterparts in America - a mixed bag when it comes to scriptural faithfulness with warring factions between the evangelicals and liberals.

Polish Calvinism

Are there any faithful, covenantally Reformed churches at all? Yes, but only three, although if Pawel Bartosik , 27, an assistant pastor in a Baptist church in Gdansk is successful, maybe soon four.

Bartosik in his final year of seminary studies, through reading and global email correspondence, has recently come to the position of covenant theology, including the conviction of paedo-baptism and a more theocratic orientation toward governments ruling for righteousness. He has also "left behind" dispensationalism for an optimistic eschatology.

"I have come to this from reading, talking with others and studying," he said in heavily accented but grammatical English. A former student of Roman Catholic theology when at university, Pawel found himself unexpectedly converted. Like many new Christians in Poland, he gravitated toward the Baptist church, but having a bent for theological investigation, studied further until he eventually embraced Calvinism.

That led him to seminary study and ministry in one of the two openly predestinarian Baptist churches, this one in the Baltic Sea port city of Gdansk – of Lech Walesa and Solidarnosc (Solidarity) fame. It is a congregation of about 200 - not all members sharing the leadership's views of sovereign redemption.

The Transition

Bartosik, a young husband and father, recently had a tense but necessary talk with the church's senior pastor about his new convictions. "He was very understanding, although I will not be able to teach about baptism," he said. "I hope to stay here in ministry for the time being, but want to plant a new church in Gdansk."

At least one family in the church already shares Bartosik's convictions for reasons similar to his own, and Pawel is not without friends. (…) Pawel has received encouragement from the ministers of the three covenantally Reformed churches. None of these fellowships is large, each with no more than 35 in attendance on Sunday mornings. Like Pawel, most of the pastors in these churches were baptistic, then gravitated toward Calvinism, and eventually - some of them quite recently - embraced covenant theology.

The churches are in the western part of the nation, closest to the German border, in the cities of Wroclaw, Poznan and Legnica. All the pastors are or are in the process of being seminary trained, with one in Wroclaw, Sebastian Smolarz, having studied in Scotland and the Evangelical Theological College of Wales. They have adopted the Three Forms of Unity, are considering adopting the Westminster Standards, and - now confederated - are moving toward a Presbyterian form of government.

Marek Kmiec, also a teaching elder in the Wroclaw church, studied at Multnomah School of the Bible in Oregon, and later came under the influence of the Rev. Dennis Tuuri, pastor of Reformation Covenant Church. "Marek started reading and listening to tapes of Van Til, R.C. Sproul, and Greg Bahnsen and has been influential on the other pastors," Pawel said.

The Work of Ministry

The pastor of the Wroclaw church, Bogumil Jarmulak, 35, has been involved in the translation of several shorter Reformed works, among them excerpts of Calvin, Lorraine Boettner, and J.R. DeWitt. He also has translated the Heidleberg Catechism. The churches also, together, publish a quarterly called “Reformacja w Polsce” (Reformation in Poland), which enjoys a circulation both in Poland and among Polish Christians in other countries. The pastors' own articles and translated excerpts of other authors - such as Doug Wilson, Boettner and Bahnsen - make up the journal.

Conferences are also a staple among the group, which are put together with the participation of the other Baptist churches, and some with the help of the Laski Trust Fund, based in Wales. Summer family teaching conferences have been sponsored for years, and the three churches just recently put on its first homeschooling conference.

"It is very new in Poland," Bartosik said, "and not legal." Only qualified teachers and university professors are permitted to teach children outside the government, private or Roman Catholic schools, Pawel said. Nonetheless, interest in homeschooling is on the rise, and materials are slowly being developed.

Today, Poland has the largest economy and population of any of the former Soviet-dominated nations in Eastern Europe, and along with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia is the destination for increasing Western investment across different industries - from manufacturing to financial services.

Could it be that in these days of heady capitalism in Eastern Europe that the still-new environment of liberty will not only foster prosperity, but a renewed God-consciousness among a people formerly held under communist domination for 40 years? One can only pray so. Pastor Pawel Bartosik can be contacted via email: gdansk@reformacja.pl Bogumil Jarmulak can be contacted on schestow@gmail.com