Underdogs Don’t Win. Individuals Are Crushed.

Reflections on Ministry in Poland

Maybe a year and a half in Poland has left me somewhat nostalgic, but I love America, I miss America. As we learn the language and observe this culture so foreign to our own, we often catch ourselves comparing the two. One culture is home, and the other, well … it’s growing on us. We can observe many similarities, but a few stark differences exist.

The longer I’m away from home, the more I see “American Individualism” emanating from across the Atlantic. We Americans love stories about people who overcome all odds. We root for the underdog. Whether it’s pilgrims surviving the first winter or sending the world’s great superpower back across the pond with its “tail between its legs” or a handful of men holding off Santa Anna’s army allowing Sam Houston to rally the troop, stories of one man or a handful of people making a difference are forever ingrained in our folklore. It’s why Sylvester Stallone made six Rocky films, and it’s why Jack Bauer of 24 has saved the country from certain destruction something like five times with yet another adventure planned for this fall. Though we know the outcome, we can’t avert our eyes.

American fascination with sports has fed this obsession as well. One needs to look no further than the Milan Indians. In 1954, from a little school of 161 students, Bobby Plump’s last second shot rocketed his team to victory over the heavy favorites and enormous Bearcats of Muncie Central. The story of the Milan Indians wrestles with “The Miracle on Ice” for the distinction of the greatest upset in sports history.

Polish people respect Americans, consider us allies, and can’t get enough of Hollywood or our stories, but they don’t buy the underdog stuff. Theirs is a completely different history. Around the time we claimed our independence, Poland was completely dissolved. Polish history is littered with invading armies and neighboring countries that pillaged and claimed what was rightfully Poland’s.

One of the great uprisings in modern history ended in tragedy for the Polish people. The book A Question of Honor documents how for sixty-three days 40,000 soldiers, including 4,000 women, held off the Germans though they had only 2,500 guns at their disposal. They hoped for rescue by the Allies, but the opposite in fact occurred. The Russian Army camped outside Warsaw, counting on the Germans to eventually annihilate most officers and resisters. The purpose, of course, was so Stalin could have a much easier path in establishing his puppet government. In that uprising, 22,000 soldiers and 200,000 civilians sacrificed their lives only to see the country fall into Soviet control for another fifty years in spite of the incredible efforts.

Underdogs don’t win in Poland. Individuals are crushed. Strength is found in family. Protection is found in community. Ginger and I have seen this truth played out time and time again in our neighborhood. We live in a block, which can be described as several high-rise apartment buildings in close proximity. For many, these apartments have been passed down from grandfather to father to son. In the apartment below ours, three generations totaling ten people live in roughly 800 square feet. Yeah, I have no idea how they do that.

Living like this creates a tight community. In other words, if your neighbor has a problem, it becomes your problem—not out of pressure but because it’s the right thing to do. Four teenagers had planned on attending our teen camp this summer, but they have all backed out because of the wedding of a former unrelated resident. Two nights ago, a drunk driver clipped our neighbor’s car at midnight. We watched from our window as the entire building sprang to life—not to gawk but to chase down the car, phone the police, and check for injuries.

This aspect of their culture has ramifications on how we share the gospel in Poland. Don’t miss the point. The message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is for all cultures. But the presentation is not a “one size fits all.” Though this aspect is changing some now, for years American Christians presented the gospel to their neighbor as “a personal relationship with Christ” or emphasized to their unsaved colleague that “Jesus died specifically for you.” Without overstating, the individual aspect of the gospel has little appeal for a Polish man or woman. Why would they want something that singles them out from their family and neighborhood? Why would they want to forge ahead alone? Underdogs don’t win. Individuals are crushed.

In our first few weeks, Ginger and I noticed a word that kept coming up in the church service. Kos’ció? (kosh-chewl) is the word for “church” in Polish, yet over and over we heard the pastor and various Christians refer to the church as a zbór (zboor). During one of our Polish lessons, I asked our teacher (a staunch Catholic) the difference. Her reply was negative. She told us that the word describes the church in a very informal way; it turns out that most Catholics in Poland agree. The problem is that zbór is the Polish translators’ word of choice in many places throughout the New Testament, though most Polish Catholics have no idea, having become accustomed to the spoon feeding of their priests rather than the meat of God’s Word. The word denotes Christian family or Christian community and is precisely the message we must emphasize while sharing the gospel to Poles. For converts who risk alienation from their family and their neighborhood, what resonates is the idea of being part of a Christian Family or members who know each other by name, who pray for each other and open their homes for Christian fellowship, the idea of being part of the Body of Christ.

In our short time here, one experience stands out. Last summer we had the privilege of witnessing a public baptism for three Christians in our church. We went to the lake in town and watched as they were publicly baptized before hundreds who were swimming 200 yards away, What a test for those young believers as they publicly distanced themselves from their former lives. As they came out of the water, it was the hugs and prayers of support coming from their zbór that left the greatest impact on us. For those new believers, the message of reconciliation from alienation, as described in Colossians 1, changed their lives forever.

Jason Stover and his family are part of a church planting team in Siedlce, Poland. He graduated from Northland Baptist Bible College (Dunbar, WI) with a bachelor’s degree and is pursuing a master’s degree from Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (Ankeny, IA). His sending church is Bible Baptist Church in Romeoville, Illinois, where he served as both youth pastor and senior pastor. God has blessed him and his wife with three children. Check out his family blog.