By Shanna DiPaolo, Spring 2009

Sharing the Gospel in Poland

Five years ago, Avant Ministries launched Short-Cycle Church Planting, tasking inaugural Team Poland with establishing a reproducing church in five years.  This summer the team wrapped up their work and began heading back to the States, eager to share what God is doing in Poznan, Poland.

The team leaves Word Zone, an independent, mature church, in the hands of capable Polish leadership.  "When I began working with these people I thought, ‘How will God use this as a basis of the church?'" said team leader Kenn.  "I can see now how God wanted to use them.  As they've grown over the last couple of years they've turned into amazing leaders."

In order to plant a church and encourage it to maturity in five years the team utilized the Short-Cycle Church Planting principles - High Trust, Overt Witness, Restricted Scope, Tactical Advantage and Simultaneous Activity - while trusting God had a plan for Poznan, Poland. 

He did.

Poland is nominally Catholic, but many are spiritually lost, searching for something that is personal and dynamic and can offer hope and security. "The Polish people are looking for something," said Scott Harris, vice president of field ministries.  "There is a latent thirst in that country to know how to study the Bible."

The team noticed this thirst and began to teach inductive Bible study methods to a few Polish believers.  From those beginnings came the Word Zone church plant - which has grown from an informal Bible study of a few curious individuals into a body of believers with a burden to see their country come to faith.

Now Team Poland members come home to embark on their next ministry assignments. And the next step for Word Zone? The first Short-Cycle Church Plant is now planting. They have committed to starting another church in Poznan and are hoping to plant more churches in other areas of the country.