Our dream is to build a Polish church for Elim
Newly ordained Elim ministers Monika and Pawel Kuzniar have a dream to reach the Polish community in London and pave the way for future evangelism in Poland
When the Iron Curtain fell in 1991 it was a huge historical moment for Poland, and it was spiritually significant too.
An outpouring of the Holy Spirit spread through the country’s traditional Catholic church in the 1990s, sparking a thirst for God and a new life of freedom in faith.
Then, as Poland was freed from communism and the hold of traditional religion loosened, it joined the European Union in 2004. Polish workers migrated to the West and this new freedom led to greater openness to God. Many came to faith in the UK.
Nearly 35 years on, Monika and Pawel Kuzniar are ministering to a group of Polish believers at their church, River Church in Canning Town, East London.
Their focus is on foundational teaching, fellowship and raising disciples who will take the gospel to the wider Polish community. “We began with a home group eight years ago, gathering Polish people from different churches to explore faith more deeply,” says Monika.
“We had it on our hearts to build foundations because people were hungry to learn.”
Fast-forward to 2021 and still going strong, the couple started a Polish service on Sunday afternoons after their church’s main English morning service. “It was an amazing time because there was lots of ministry in the Holy Spirit,” says Pawel.
“We also started teaching about the foundations of our faith. That’s because if you’re from a traditional religious background you often carry baggage around how you believe church and life should be.”
Since then, they have continued to offer in-depth discipleship teaching in church as well as via Zoom and in homes.
One resource that has proved invaluable here is Neil Anderson’s Freedom in Christ course, which has been translated into Polish.
The group found its teaching on topics such as healing, repentance and forgiveness so valuable that the intended 13 sessions were extended over a year and the course is now being repeated. “People had so many questions. We didn’t want to Our dream is to build a Polish church for Elim Newly ordained Elim ministers Monika and Pawel Kuzniar have a dream to reach the Polish community in London and pave the way for future evangelism in Poland. They told Direction their story leave them unanswered so we took our time,” says Monika. “God was revealing baggage from the past and the Holy Spirit was working deeply. The course was so helpful we were asked to run it again, so we began our second course last month.”
Another course, Steps to Freedom, was equally helpful – this time addressing cultural issues.
“A lot of people grew up with non-Christian influences. We have lots of occult in Polish culture,” says Pawel. “This course was a big eye-opener, looking at relationships and how people were affected by their childhood and parents’ situations.”
Fellowship has also been vital for the group. In our nation, people don’t just go to church on Sunday; they have a hunger to spend time together in homes, in the park, having meals and getting to know each other,” says Monika.
Their group, therefore, meets in homes for prayer and teaching mid-week as well as on Sundays.
Pawel explains many Polish people find attending English churches challenging, with the language barrier making it tough to understand deeper Bible teaching.
“People have a great need for same-language community,” he says. “More than that, they also need a place to be open, learn and receive.
“They come to our group expecting teaching and that when they share with us we will respond by praying with them in Polish.” Monika and Pawel want to build their community still further – in the UK firstly, but eventually in Poland too.
For this to happen more teaching is needed, they say, adding how much they would value Elim’s support here.
“We’d love to use Colin Dye’s Sword of the Spirit teaching, says Pawel. “The books have been translated into Russian but never Polish.
“We need to present Pentecostal teaching like this about how the Bible is alive today and how to believe. Also, what the kingdom of God is truly like.
“It would be great if Elim could help us translate this. If we want people from Poland to be serious with God we need this sort of teaching.” Pawel and Monika are also considering their own next steps. Newly ordained as Elim ministers, this could involve becoming pastors for a Polish church.
“We don’t have any Polish Elim churches yet, or any separate work within Elim for Polish people, but look at the Chinese church network in London,” says Pawel. “They started many years ago and expanded.”
Discipling and supporting Polish people is so important for building the kingdom of God, he and Monika say.
“Our dream is to empower this work with the Polish community in the UK, to build mature believers and train them for what we hope will be the future work of Elim in Poland!”
Pawel and Monika welcome any Elim members to join in their Polish-language discipleship course on Zoom. Email them at pawelkuzniar@live.com.
Training together
Recently ordained as Elim ministers, Monika and Pawel completed their MITs together. They shared how it helped them.
MONIKA
For me, MIT was amazing, even though it was a challenge doing it while also having a full-time nursing job with lots of responsibility.
As a pastor, you can’t do everything yourself and you need the support of people who know your weaknesses and strengths, and who have had similar experiences.
It was great to share the issues and challenges we’ve faced and to pray for each other. Our teacher shared his own experiences which was really helpful because we too have people asking us for prayer about marriage issues, suicides or when they’ve lost people.
The teaching about pastoral care had a huge impact on me. It helped me understand where I need to change. They talked about our need to be slow to judge, compassionate, good listeners and to have accountability.
PAWEL
One of the best things about MIT was the chance to reshape my theology and learn about church history.
I started training in the traditional Catholic Polish church in the 1990s, but theology and the philosophy of life in the UK is totally different from Eastern Europe.
On my MIT, I got to study Pentecostal theology. I also learned about UK church history: how England was a cornerstone for revival in the 14th and 15th centuries, how England sent more missionaries out than any other nation and about the history of Elim.
One thing that fascinated me was learning about the freedom we have in our faith, about the free movement of the Holy Spirit and how the church grows within it. This is totally different to what you’re taught in traditional or orthodox Catholicism.
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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