“The purpose of EST is to equip Christians for effective ministry to strengthen the Evangelical movement in Poland.”
REPORT FOR 2014- 2015 October 2015
Wroclaw, Poland
Introduction
L
ong ago in a galaxy far, far away… It’s been 25 years since Rev. Zygmunt Karel and Dr. Mark Young established Biblical Theological Seminary in Wroclaw, Poland. What a different world it was just after the fall of communism! How poor was Poland at that time and how unpredictable was the future! Today’s world from Polish perspective seems so much more stable and better. There is a serious problem of refugees at the gates of Europe, a regular war in eastern Ukraine and a growing threat of various kinds of extremists in the world. Still, from Polish perspective the reality, at least its economical dimension, looks better than in the beginning of the 1990’s. Miracles happen and we are witnessing a few of them. In the late 1980’s and into the 1990’s Poland was poor and destroyed by the communists. However, this was one of the few moments in Polish history of a true spiritual revival. The churches were full of people. Catholicism after II Vatican led by Pope John Paul II was open enough to invite Protestants for cooperation. During this time, Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ or IFES entered our country. Many of the new Protestant churches and Christian institutions were then established and a new wind of changes was blowing.
EST on Sand Island in Wroclaw, Poland
Contents Introduction Dr. Wojciech Szczerba
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Chancellor’s Report 3 Marek Kucharski Academic Dean’s Report Dr. Piotr Lorek
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Promotion Report Joanna Szczotkowska and Rebecca LeMaster
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Open Academy of Theology
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EST Statistics
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Dr. Wojciech Szczerba
It is a different situation now with our developing country, 25 years after the fall of communism. We live more comfortable lives and have plenty of opportunities for development. There is freedom of speech and expression of faith taken for granted, even though in the past it was a dream of the future. However, sadly the spiritual reality is slowly disappearing in our country, somehow losing with the consumerism and the dream of economical salvation here and now. The churches, in general, are not developing as well as we had dreamed and Poland is following the footsteps of Western Europe with its secular character. The Catholic Church is not as open as it used to be shortly after the fall of communism. Polish bishops are scared of the contemporary world and – ironically – of the teaching of the new pope. Demography with its rapid decline does not help schools and young institutions to grow. Protestant churches too often turn inward, not communities open to people striving for survival. It is good to see some Polish churches and Christian organizations growing and serving larger communities, but we wish that the number would be much bigger.
After launching the Educational Center (EC) we have witnessed many blessings. We have been able to develop ministries geared to seniors, youth, communities, leaders and the general audience. It has resulted in much larger groups of students in our B.A. program than in the past. We initiated Festivals of Protestant Culture, Days of Reformation and Week of Prayers for Unity of Christians with hundreds of participants. We have established a much broader and firmer network with Christian communities than in the past and engaged in interreligious dialog. Miracles happen and we have witnessed them. Academic year 2014/15 began with the largest group of new students ever. The B.A. program, Academy of the Third Age, Open Academy of Theology, Festivals, Days and Weeks… everything worked well. The school received confirmation of its national accreditation for the next five years. There have been several conferences, a few publications like the Jonathan Edwards Reader, commemoration of 70th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s death. Finances of EST are in good hands of the Chancellor who invests our funds in an excellent way. Moreover, we are in the process of establishing a Polish advisory board consisting of the leaders of well developing churches of various denominations and a representative of a Polish Christian business. We hope
The last few years have been good for Evangelical School of Theology.
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that they will help us to make our ministry as relevant in our context as possible. We need to be close to the people and sometimes, while dealing with Ministry of Education, legal issues and big pictures; it is difficult to keep the balance. There have been several challenges in 2015. First of all, the visit of Polish Accrediting Committee caused us a few months of extra work but the Committee was convinced that EST meets all the criteria required by Ministry of Education. Second, there was the resignation of Rev. Dr. Wojciech Kowalewski, the coordinator of Open Academy of Theology. We were able to employ Rev. Dr. Edward Pawłowski, a Pentecostal pastor in Wroclaw, as a teacher replacement for Dr. Kowalewski and modified the character of Open Academy of Theology in such a way that it serves the churches and communities under new leadership. The following reports, prepared by the team of EST, develop in more details the points indicated in my introduction. They refer to the main areas of EST EC, namely its programs, finances, administration and promotion and show how important is the existence of Evangelical School of Theology EC in Polish context. We “[…] press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus”.
Marek Kucharski, Chancellor
Dr. Piotr Lorek, Academic Dean
Chancellor’s Report Academic Dean’s Overview Report The financial condition of Evangelical School of Theology/Evangelical Union continues to show an economical way of management with present available resources which provide stability for next several years. The activities in finances and administration from January to September 2015 indicate that the school’s operation is in a stable phase. However and repeatedly, EST EC needs to focus on fundraising, and take initiative to look for new resources of funding for EST EC operations.
T
he Dean’s report is a short description of various activities that took place in the EST Educational Center in the second semester of the 2014/15 academic year (February – September 2015).
B.A. Studies in Theology Program
The number of new enrolled students for the 2015/16 academic year is 27. As of September 28, 2015 there are altogether 79 students enrolled. Students, who finished the B.A. program, but did not submit their BA Ministry Opportunities thesis have two years more to write it, One of the new goals for fundraising so they are included in the statistics. has been to organize trips to Poland After a visit of the Polish Accreditation and broadening a list of individual Commission, EST has received a supporters. Fellowship Bible Church positive evaluation, which allows EST sent a small team to get involved in to continue running its B.A. in Open Theological Academy. The good Theology program. This is a great news is that after FBC team visit and success for EST and a crowning experiencing Pastor’s Retreat the achievement of its work since 2007, team gained a better understanding when it received a decision from the and appreciation for the work of EST Ministry of Higher Education and EC through OAT. Science allowing EST to run the B.A.
Personnel
studies.
Due to legal changes introduced by Currently, the school employs the Polish Senate as part of the seventeen staff workers. Rebecca reform of the higher education law, LeMaster is a missionary at EST and till December 2016 EST will prepare a paid via her mission organization. 3
new B.A. Studies in Theology Program, which will transform its academic profile into a practical profile. The change of the profile allows adjustments to the program to better serve the evangelical churches and Christian organizations in Poland. The government allows for wider flexibility of the program, so EST will have an opportunity to design a curriculum (modules and work placements) on the basis of the current needs of the churches. The new program will be launched with the 2017/18 academic year.
Academic Staff The didactic minimum that is required for accreditation within the Academic Faculty is secure for the coming 2015/16 academic year. One change took place within this group. Rev. Dr. Wojciech Kowalewski resigned, and Rev. Dr. Edward Pawlowski, an experienced pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Wroclaw, was employed in his place. In May 2015, Dr. Piotr Lorek received a second doctorate (habilitation) in the field of biblical studies from the Faculty of Theology at Christian Academy of Theology, Warsaw. His book on the Doctrine of Hell in the New Testament has been widely distributed in all academic theological libraries as well as in various churches in Poland.
Student Internship
Open Academy of Theology
All students are obligated to do their placements during the first three years of their B.A. program. This involves 250 hours of practical preparation for their Christian service by participating in the various activities of their congregations (preaching, teaching bible lessons, engaging in worship, charity and social work, etc.) as well as missionary trips to Western Ukraine and Moldova to provide Roma children with medical help and Christian words of comfort. Student Internships are a crucial part of B.A. program since they allow students to see how their gained knowledge and developed skills work in practice.
In April 2015 (as part of OAT) EST had the privilege of hosting a team from Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas USA. This trip provided the team members with opportunities to teach and preach and also connect with pastors and churches in Wroclaw and Lower Silesia. Also, the FBC team joined with OAT Coordinator (Dr. Wojciech Kowalewski) and a team from EST to plan a one-day Pastors’ Retreat at Zamek Topacz (near Wroclaw). The participants included pastors and church leaders from 15 churches as well as EST faculty and staff.
Conferences
EST continues to organize various conferences that present protestant EST runs an academic career center theology and culture to the wider in close cooperation with the Coordi- public. nator of student internship, an EST counselor and the EST promotion In April 2015, the Fifth Festival of team. Its role is to inform students Protestant Culture – Days of about Christian conferences and Bonhoeffer was organized, which trainings that take place in Poland included more than a dozen events and abroad. Also, students are in- dedicated to the person and thoughts formed about job offers, work place- of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German ments and internships. This form of theologian who was born in Breslau, activity allows students to keep con- Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). tact with various church activities. May 29-31, 2015 was the last official extension weekend of classes at EST. Christian Counseling During the special service the th The distant learning program re- graduates (4 year) shared about their quires a specific approach to the stu- experiences at EST and expressed dents’ discipleship. All of them can appreciation in a spirit of worship that benefit from the counseling program was full of passion and praise to God. by participating in regular consulta- The special speaker was Jerzy Marcol, tion meetings with our counselor, Director of Biblical Missionary Association, which is a member of Renata Burnell.
Career Center
Wycliffe Global Alliance, involved in Bible translation. The library initiated regular meetings with authors of Christian books. The speaker at the meeting in May, 2015 was Szymon Holownia, an author, a journalist, publicist, and founder of a foundation. He talked about Christianity in the world and activities for people in need in Africa. September – Lower Silesian Science Festival: This event is annually organized by the universities in Wroclaw, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and nonacademic institutions. The festival is available for anyone interested in science, technology, culture and art. This year EST organized an evening with speaker, Rev. Dr. Piotr Gasiorowski, a pastor of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Krakow, who has published a moving book To Forgive God presenting his testimony and how he dealt with the death of his wife in a car accident.
The EST Library The library collection consists of 20,900 volumes, which is the largest collection of evangelical books in Poland. In May, the library received a collection of more than 700 books in German, which were owned by the Hornigs family. Ernst Hornig, 19281946, was a pastor in the church of St. Barbara, Breslau (Wroclaw). This special library collection will be exhibited and made available to readers in the Evangelical Center Library.
Jonathan Edwards Center Wybór pism, the Polish translation of A Jonathan Edwards Reader (published by EST in December 2014) has been a big hit, with orders for the first 500 copies filled within two weeks. We had to order a second printing of 500 copies. Dr. Joel Burnell, director of the Edwards Center, promoted the book 4
and Edwards’ thought when speaking and preaching in various churches, and also during university lectures in Krakow and Wroclaw. Joel, together with Michal Choinski (adjunct professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow) also represented EST and its Jonathan Edwards Center at the 2015 Jonathan Edwards Congress in Melbourne, Australia (August 24-28). There are now eight International Jonathan Edwards Centers worldwide.
Academy of the Third Age
All the promotional activities including recruitment trips resulted in the ATA is a program which has developed enrollment of 27 new students. into a significant initiative dedicated to seniors of Lower Silesia. In the second FPC semester, ATA held 13 various The Fifth Festival of Protestant Culmeetings, which were dedicated to ture – Days of Bonhoeffer, April 8issues of culture of the world, various 13, 2015, included more than a doztheological problems, tours of en events dedicated to the person Protestant Wroclaw and activities in and thoughts of Dietrich Bonthe field of personal and social development. Apart from that there hoeffer. There were a many activiare English and German language ties including: international scienclasses conducted for the 50+ tific conference, concerts, eve of the 70th anniversary of the execuattendants. In December, we finalized a tion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, walking schedule of the ATA for 2016. in the footsteps of pre-war Wroclaw theologians, discussion at the White Stork Synagogue and in the Antioch Pentecostal Church. During the time of the Fifth FPC there was the collection of used eyeglasses, which were forwarded to needy children and adults in Roma villages in Ukraine and Moldova.
Promotion Report
End of the Academic Year Erasmus+ In academic year 2014/15, 14 Joanna Szczotkowska mobilities in various segments of the Erasmus+ program were accomplished by staff and students of EST. It was possible thanks to a European Union grant. The cooperation with partner schools and Christian organizations in Promotion of B.A. Studies various countries of Europe has been or the 2015-2016 academic year, strengthened. The school began to the B. A. studies promotion took cooperate with new partners from place via online ads, the EST website Germany, UK, Ukraine, and Croatia. www.ewst.pl, and the Facebook fan page. Promotional articles were also Theologica Wratislaviensia sent to Christian magazines (Chrzescijanin). EST also sent 500 to our In academic year 2014/15, the 9th graduate who has Christian publishing volume of Theologica Wratislaviensia house. He distributed them with each on Leadership was published. In 2015 is books that he sold. planned a new volume devoted to the topic of old age analyzed from the Additional activities included: theological and biblical perspective. Advertising campaign on Facebook. Theologica Wratislaviensia is officially Mailing 300 leaflets to pastors. recognized by the Polish Ministry of Recruitment trips to 33 churches. Science and Higher Education as a scientific journal.
Poland
F
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This event was completely organized by students in their last year. They started with worship and prayer. Then they presented a short movie, which they prepared about the school. They also had books for all academic and administration staff.
Reformation Day In October 2015, there will be a conference during the Reformation Day events. We want to celebrate the 600 anniversary of the death of Jan Hus. This event will focus on people who surrendered everything in life for Jesus. We invited some churches and organizations in Wroclaw to join us (Lutheran Church, Antioch Pentecostal Church, First Baptist Church, and Christian Fellowship Church).
Academy of Third Age (for seniors)
T
he Academy of Third Age (ATA) is a program, which has developed into a significant initiative dedicated to seniors of Lower Silesia. Many of them need spiritual and practical encouragement to strengthen their faith, knowledge, and service that they can offer to others around them - family members, friends, neighbors, individuals in their churches and community, etc.
Rebecca LeMaster
International Fundraising Projects
ATA has existed since the 2008-2009 academic year. In the last half of the year, ATA held 13 various meetings, which were dedicated to issues of culture of the world, various theological issues, tours of Protestant Wroclaw and activities in the field of personal and social development.
Preparation of applications, budgets, and reports for churches, foundations and organizations. Preparation of follow-up reports as requested by the donors. Preparation of donor receipts and additional communication with donors via email and regular letters. Worked with EST team regarding mission trip in April 2015 from Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Promotion Projects EST newsletters, reports, schedules for events and activities, and holiday greetings. Review and revise English website.
Dr. Monika Humeniuk-Walczak
various crafts and communication skills helping in self-development and ministry, excursions, e. g. “Emblems of old houses in Wroclaw”. Apart from these activities there are English and German language classes conducted for the 50+ attendants. ATA has inspired new solutions of working and serving among older people of the evangelical community of Wroclaw churches. While working with people who are retired and older, we have had the possibility to broaden their spiritual horizons by making it possible for them to get to know Christians from other churches and to build relationships with unbelievers. This project has helped the participants to reflect on their own spiritual development, has encouraged them to work through their experiences and to confront their beliefs and struggles.
EST
Prepare and/or coordinate materials to be used for promoting EST.
Some of the activities included: Lectures, workshops, and discussions about other religions and cultures, e.g. Old and New Testament cultural influences, memory of the Holocaust in a contemporary Poland, workshops on 6
Magdalena Wrona
Open Academy of Theology
O
pen Academy of Theology (OAT) is an opportunity for EST academic faculty to serve the local church and offer individual programs for churches according to their specific theological needs, availability and financial situation.
In 2014-15 the EST Educational Center Approximately, 100+ members of the developed five OAT Centers in five churches were attracted to partnership with: participate in the OAT. The objective of serving Christians, who are not able 1.“Bethesda” Pentecostal Church in to attend a theological school and Dzierzoniow. meeting their spiritual needs was fulfilled and even more – the results 2.“The Rock” Church in Wroclaw. met our expectations. Currently, after 3.Pentecostal Church in Swiebodzice. Rev. Dr. Wojciech Kowalewski resigned, Open Academy of Theology 4.Institute of Bible Studies in Ostroda. is in the process of change. 5.“Anastasis” Pentecostal Church in Legnica.
Visit of a team from Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas USA, April 11-20, 2015
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EST Statistics STATISTICS COVERING THE SECOND SEMESTER OF THE 2014/15 ACADEMIC YEAR (FEBRUARY – SEPTEMBER 2015):ACTIVITY Activity
Date
Number of people
The B.A. program
As of 9-28-15
79
The Open Academy of Theology
As of 9-30-15
120
The Academy of Third Age
As of 9-30-15
120
The Week of Prayer for Unity of Christians
1-21-15
100
Fifth Festival of Protestant Culture – Days of Bonhoeffer
4- 8-13-15
1000
Meeting with pastors in Topacz
4-16- 15
30
Meeting with Szymon Holownia
5-21-15
100
End of Academic Year
5-30-15
90
Meeting with Rev. Dr. Piotr Gasiorowski
9-18-15
74
In total:
1713
EST BA PROGRAM ENROLLMENT (AVERAGE ENROLLMENT INCREASED FROM 17,2 TO 18,2 COMPARING TO THE LAST YEAR)
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THE NUMBER OF ENROLLED STUDENTS VS. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN THE BA PROGRAM IN A GIVEN YEAR
1ST YEAR DENOMINATIONS
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