THE POLE AND HIS COUNTRY
By Briana Efta
BMW Missionary to Poland residing in Germany

A Country of 38,996,500 Individuals

It is easy to get caught up in strategizing how one is going to evangelize a country. It is much easier to say, "I am going to plant churches in Poland and reach the Poles with the Gospel," than it is to say, "I am going to be a living and vocal representative of Christ to this Pole." It is easier to speak of a collective entity than it is to talk about individuals. BMW's desire to be a ministry to Polish people is born out of our love for them collectively and individually. All of our strategies and hopes and wishes submit immediately to the supremacy of the privilege of loving this people. We are not in this ministry to "convert" people or even to plant a set amount of churches or reach a stratum of society or evangelize a swathe of country. We are in this ministry because God loves each Pole, and we want to maximize that message to them.

To do so, how about looking more closely with us at this ancient race of Poles? It would be difficult to summarize who the Poles are, because naturally each is an individual. There are, though, certain characteristics and attitudes common to the average Pole you would meet in the street. We have compiled the generalizations from personal observation:

• He tends to be a proud, independent person: history has not been kind to the Poles, and Poland's tendency to get carved up and obliterated by other nations has forced the race to nurse a pride for their country and a jealousy to preserve that pride.
• He tends to value a strong family nucleus: at the root of his society, the family is still one of the most sacred institutions. It has been said that Poland tends to be a matriarchal society, although how anyone could prove that lies beyond even our imagination.
• He tends to be disenchanted with government: this attitude is common among post-Communist countries, although the younger generations are slowly replacing it with cautious optimism.
• He tends to be innovative and resourceful: Communism forced the Polish person to become so by its suppression and regulation of his pocketbook, his family, his home, his job, his faith, and his future.
• He tends to be very polite and socially-conscious: who he knows is often more important than what he knows. Proper etiquette and recognition of persons are two qualities no Pole would go without: either from others, or to others!
• He tends to be jovial and good-natured, although less so in public: his house is his sanctuary, and where he most feels at ease. His interaction with people outside of the home will tend to be regulated by decorum, a certain amount of distance, and a perpetually underlying tendency toward initial caution and distrust. This, of course, does not apply if there might be vodka in his veins.
• He tends to be religious: he is a member of one of the most religious, Catholic societies in the world. He probably goes to church regularly (two to three times a month) in between the usual holidays. He also tends to be superstitious, a product of his faith which relies heavily on patron saints and rosaries and rituals.

What Is His Country Like?

• 312,000 sq. km
• National language: Polish
• Mostly flat, with mountains in the south
• Cold, cloudy winters with mild summers
• No natural barriers to deter invading armies
• Sandwiched in between Germany to the west and Belarus and the Ukraine (on the western border of the USSR) to the east. Just across the Baltic Sea to the north lie Sweden and Finland. To the south, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Where Is He Spiritually?

95% of the Polish people are Roman Catholic, with about 50-75% being "practicing Catholics." Who (or what) are they worshipping?

The Pole worships a distant God who loves him only if he is obedient to the church. He damns every person to purgatory, unless you die a martyr. To the Catholic, God is angry and will only "be appeased" by his good works.

He worships an insufficient Christ whose death wasn't enough to pay for his sins. He will have to pay for his own sins by suffering excruciating punishment in purgatory. Christ is more loving than the Father, and He listens to the advice of His Mother.

Mary is the Queen of Heaven, Co-Redemptress and Co-Mediator. In the Catholic mass, she is treated as the Fourth Person of the Trinity. As the Mother of God, she never died, having risen to heaven like Christ, and now co-rules with the Trinity. Fiercely loved by the Catholic Pole, she is the one he turns to for confession, comfort, and guidance.

How Do You Help Him Know The Truth?

The message of the Gospel is the same for everyone. The core of our Manual for Life never changes (read all four Gospels and you'll get the Message). The people who need to know the Gospel are all the same at their core as well: sinners like you and me. We preach One Message for all sinners.

However, as Christians who dearly want to make an impact for Christ in someone's life, we know that it sometimes takes more than "three licks to get to the center of every Tootsie pop!" Each person is packaged differently as they are influenced by their culture. While our message is the same, our approach might be different.

As you approach a Catholic person with the Gospel, here are a few insights and resources to get you started:

1. A Catholic needs to understand a few, key things as you explain the Gospel to him: the authority of the Bible, his absolute sinfulness, his inability to save himself through what he does, the sufficiency of Christ's death, and that salvation comes solely by faith.
2. Use your personal relationship with God to pique his interest. To a Catholic, a personal relationship with a loving, compassionate God is a foreign concept. Make you faith obvious to him, but not odious.
3. Beware of "religious jargon" that might confuse a Catholic, who could have completely different meanings for the terms you are using. Do your homework on terms he uses and what they mean.
4. Finally, remember that the power of the Word of God should be your only final resource. Use it as your "sword of truth," and you will cut deeply into the inconsistencies of the Roman Catholic Church.

To broaden your understanding of the Roman Catholic Church and improve your compassion for the people misdirected by it, read some of the following books:

The Gospel According to Rome by James G. McCarthy Catholicism Against Itself by O.C. Lambert Christ Among Us by Anthony Wilhelm Roman Catholicism by Loraine Boettner

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