Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

re ordained ministers have privileges inac- ®° Szymon Burma, “Wyznania - Baptysci’, Panorama Polska, no. 2 (1987), p. 28. ° The journalist did not see any difference between role of the pastor and a Roman Catholic priest during a Baptist service. She assumed the ministry of the pastor to be the same as the liturgical duty of the priest. Danuta Dabrowska, “Baptysci czyli chrzciciele”, Razem, no. 31 (1984), p. 15. 181 cessible to other members. Weakening discipline in churches has been visible lately. Transgressions which once were inad- missible, today are acceptable and tolerated. Pastors no longer serve, but administrate the church. The decision to become a pastor requires seminary, and some members cannot imagine having a pastor without a diploma. More often only pastors preach sermons in the Sunday service. There is a second stage of believers - lay people. This group is now seen as less important in church ministry. It is more and more difficult to find someone who is not ordained to be a leader of a home Bible group, director of a choir or teacher at a children’s camp. As believers, we have become passive consumers. We give a very high and responsible task to full- time ministers, and place ourselves among the pious.” In the rest of the article, the author claimed that Baptist churches were becoming very much like many Western churches, weak and ineffectual, and placing responsibility and decisions in the hands of professional leaders. In part, she was right, especially when arguing for the priesthood of all believers. However, constant and rapid changes in the world press churches to unwillingly make some alterations within congregations, including music, leadership methods and mission strategies. What is a worship service to many members of today’s congregations causes cultural shock to others. Changes after 1989 and the New Millennium The Communist era in Poland ended in 1991.% As noted by historian Norman Davies, the whole Communist world was challenged by the Soli- darity movement, which resulted in the establishment of a non-communist government led by Tadeusz Mazowiecki in 1989.° The Catholic Church, though playing a key role in national and political changes, gradually became weaker and more inconsistent in the 1990s.”° The authority of the *” Lucyna Jakubowicz, Slowo Prawdy, no. 9 (1983), pp. 15-17. * Norman Davies, Serce Europy: krotka historia Polski (London: Aneks, 1995), pp. 7-11. [Polish translation of Norman Davies, Heart of Europe: a Short History of Poland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984)]. ® Davies, Serce Europy, p. 7. ” Jarostaw Gowin, Koscidét w czasach wolnosci: 1989-1999 (Krakow: “Znak’, 1999), pp. 5-6. 182 Catholic Church in Poland reached its zenith in 1989, when public surveys showed that 90% of citizens felt the church exerted a positive influence on social life. But only six years later, the results were different. Only 50% of the people viewed th