Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

that changed the world around it. The Baptist Church in Poland has never achieved even near the size and influence on Polish society that it had between the two world wars. However just after World War II the Baptist Church became recognised as a young free church, together with the Meth- odist Church, United Evangelical Church, and Seventh-Day Adventists. In 1987, a newspaper noted that without the Baptists, life in Poland would ®? Maria Konopnicka, “Piesn Pracy’, Stowo Prawdy, no 5 (May 1949), p. 1. °° Alfred W. Kurzawa, “Blogostawienstwo Pracy’, Stowo Prawdy, no. 5 (May 1949), p. 2. Michat Stankiewicz, “Szésty przeglad piesni koscielnej’, Stowo Prawdy, no. 7-8 (July- August 1976), p. 37. 180 have become morally impoverished. The principles of abstinence from alcohol and cigarettes seem to have been the Baptists’ best-known traits.°* The local worship service is the part of the testimony viewed by others as the Baptist Church. Outsiders judge the entire denomination based on a one-hour church service, including who the Baptists are and how they pray, read the Bible, sing songs, and interact with one another. All of these elements serve as indications to others of how the believers worship God. Despite the revolutionary political and economic changes taking place around them, the Baptist Church did not experience significant change in their services. Many local churches maintained the same methods and liturgy of worship since World War II. The old style of worship closed the door to new forms, which could bring life and prepare the church to address the needs of a new generation. One journalist observed — not incorrectly — that the pastor of the Baptist church functioned as a priest. The role of a pastor-leader had been very much influenced by the system in which the Baptist church existed during the Polish People's Republic.® The words of Polish writer Krzysztof Kraszewski, that “any change, even for the good, is a bad change’, describe perfectly the attitude of many congregations even now in Poland. An approach to worship that has not changed since World War II gives churches a feeling of stability, but deprives the Baptist church of many creative and inventive people in a period of change. The final decade of the last millennium saw a crisis in choral music in Baptist churches. The development of new types of music and the new generation's lack of interest in traditional choirs caused many churches to end their choir ministries altogether. Church member Licyna Jakubowic described the developments in the 1980s: In our churches there is a lack of enthusiasm for ministry both inside the church and outside. More and more people in our churches work fulltime, and they no longer have a pastor who has a regular job and was chosen from the congregation. In our churches there exists a division into spiritual preachers, presbyters, deacons, board members, presbyters of divisions, etc. More and mo