Brief History

Poland is unique as a former Eastern Bloc country. It has known wars, holocausts, and even 120 years where the people had no land to call their own. During this time, the Catholic Church provided unity and identity for the people. At one time 97% of Poles claimed membership with the Catholic Church and a powerful allegiance to their own Pope John Paul II.

Since the fall of Communism Poland has been an aggressive leader in Western business cooperatives. Today, you can see McDonalds, Ikea, Toyota, and Hypermarkets with more than 50 cash registers that eclipse the small markets of the past and are changing the way people think and what they value. As in many other former Eastern Bloc countries, the young people of Poland live in a world their parents never imagined. At any high school or university it's clear that the God and traditions of their parents has little relevance to the daily realities faced by Polish young people.

Great Commission Ministries is seeking to plant a culturally relevant church in Poznan, Poland amongst the 100,000 university students that live in that city. A team led by veteran Pastor Jack Stockdale has been living in Poznan since March 2002.

Today, 38 million people live in Poland and all of the 40,000 professing evangelical believers (approx. 1 out of 1,000) would fit into a large sports stadium at one time. It has been estimated that attendance in the Catholic Church since 1998 has decreased by 25%. At the same time, the Jehovah's Witness church has grown at four times the rate of the evangelical church. Denominations like the Brethren Assemblies, the Baptist Union, the Pentecostal Church, and the Evangelical Free Church are viewed by most Poles as sects.