Off to Poland … again!

Posted by Nick on February 13, 2011

In May I will be travelling to Poland again – it will be my fourth visit – and I am looking forward to renewing old acquaintances but, more importantly, I am really excited to have been invited to lend a hand with the birth of a new small groups church!

For this visit I have been invited by Marcin Gochnio, who I’ve met twice before during earlier trips to Poland to facilitate small groups development workshops. Marcin is a member of Chrzescijanska Spolecznosc Warszawa Polnoc (Christian Fellowship Warsaw North) where Krzysztof Zaręba is the pastor.

So, as an encouragement to them, you and the CCI team, I would like to share with you Marcin’s invitation for me to visit their wonderful church again …

“Our church Christian Fellowship North has grown since your last visit: from about 200 persons to about 600 persons at sunday services, and I would like to share with you an exciting development that has grown out of the small groups’ ministry – as a church we have made the decision to plant a new church in the Eastern part of Warsaw, and Marek Sobotka (who is currently responsible for home groups in our church) has been chosen to be the pastor of the new church, which will be based on the small groups model.

They’ve had church services twice a month Sunday afternoon and social activites for about 9 months – about 80 people are attending and now the baby is ready to be born! In the middle of March they will begin holding separate Sunday services. It is a great moment and exciting thing for the whole congregation. As the church we pray for them at every service and Pastor Krzysztof encourages people to join the child church – of course some leaders and home groups will pass to the new church. Andrzej Jakoniuk will be responsible for the home groups in the new church. We really have on our hearts to support them as much as we can – Andrzej and some colleagues will be a part of our conference and we want you to spend some individual time with them.

The responsibility for the development of our home groups in Christian Fellowship Warsaw North has recently been assigned to Izabela Pazdyka, Agata (my wife) and me. We understand each other very well and feel very comfortable working together. Many of us in the church remember your visits to Warsaw, where we were trained to serve as small group pastors, using the 7-session, Small Groups Development course which was translated into Polish.

But as our experience is not extensive, we request your help. We would be very glad for you to be our small groups’ mentor/consultant as we look to developing our home groups ministry.

Let me tell you about our team and vision …

Izabela Pazdyka is a 35 years old woman. Her husband was a pastor who died in a car accident some time ago. Although emotionally crushed, Iza recovered well. She now serves the Lord with a grateful heart, thinking and doing His work every day. Iza works as a full-time art designer. She enjoys her work and speaks English with a moderate level of proficiency.

Agata (my wife) and I are in our early forties and we have two children (David 8, Emilka 5). For many years Agata served as a missionary in Moscow, Sweden and Poland. She is a very compassionate woman, with an amazing heart for people. She takes good care of our children and manages our home well. She studied in a Bible college in the USA and speaks English well. Agata and I are often preoccupied with our children because of recurring health issues.

I presently work as a consultant/project manager for a company dealing with organising and managing IT companies or IT departments within a company. This is basically a full-time job. Agata and I have decided to set aside time to oversee the development of small groups in the our church.

Ephesians 4:12 and 16 – that was presented by you as the basis for small groups – is the vision we want to follow. We love every word of this passage. So the first thing we want to do (we have already made a start) is to better understand the current state of our groups; to get to know leaders personally, and to assess the health of our groups. We also want to become effective teacher/trainers and coaches to teach and support others. We want to refresh our small group leaders with your small groups’ development course and be better prepared for the challenges that will come with the new church plant.

How do you feel about helping us? I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Marcin (Martin).”

Well friends, it will not surprise to you to know I said yes – and I am fired up and ready to go. I am grateful to God that he has provided the funding for this trip and I look forward to investing quality time with my Polish friends – and by the way, I am tagging this visit to Poland onto a scheduled trip to visit one of our other field partners in Africa, Dominion Impact Church, in Nigeria.

Please hold up Marcin, Agata and Izabela in your prayers as they take these courageous steps forward in developing their ability to lead, manage, guide, mentor and encourage the small groups development work not only in their own church – but in a new church plant too!

Small groups are alive and growing in Warsaw, Poland!

Building the church from within

Posted by Bill on November 20, 2010

A while ago, before we went on our ‘reunion’ trip back to Cairo, an old friend of our asked us if we would come up to his church in Bundaberg, just North of Brisbane, to talk to his congregation about small groups. read on →

Getting past our fears

Posted by Bill on September 28, 2010

Suffering by marcoIE Is it any wonder that Joshua was overcome with fear in his God-given assignment to lead a nation of untrained, ill-equipped desert wanderers to subdue a hostile Canaan – a land of fortified cities, with seasoned warriors and giants? read on →

Daring to ‘Dream BIG’

Posted by Bill on July 29, 2010

It’s OK to dream if such dreams help us in one way or another to grow, develop and prosper in our lives. read on →

Helensvale Baptist Church

Posted by Bill on January 1, 2010

Bill Joukhadar served as Associate Pastor at Helensvale Baptist Church (HBC) when he first entered the ministry way back in 1987. In 2007 – just a year before returning to Australia from Cairo, and after hearing of the small groups success at MCC - Pastor Matt Hunt got in touch with Bill and Beryl to see if they would be interested in working with HBC to develop their home groups ministry. As a result, in April 2008 HBC entered into a formal consultancy agreement with CCI to head up this work. Initially Bill worked as a consultant-trainer with the pastoral team but it wasn’t long before a successor (‘small groups champion’) was identified and affirmed in this work – Stu Quarterman quickly proved to be an excellent find.

Training was commenced the same month and nine training groups were facilitated during the following year and four coaches were also installed to oversee this work. As expected, a number of existing groups that had not undergone training folded – but groups that had undergone training grew in number and multiplied. New groups have also been added to the increasing number of “Life-groups” (23 adult/youth groups as at April, 2010) . Bill continues to monitor and support the development of the Life-groups through his coaching-mentoring role with Stu.

Stu Quarterman, Ministry Leader of HBC’s ‘Life-Groups’ says:

Church is not just about the large gathering on Sunday. A brief chat over coffee with a few people does not constitute the community which is described in Acts 2:42-47. The large group setting is limited in providing opportunities for real growth, deep relationships, truly caring for others and reaching out to the lost.

Helensvale Baptist Church on the Gold Coast recognises these limitations to the large group meetings and pursued Cells-church Consultants International’s Bill Joukhadar to help us grow. Bill implemented the Small Groups Church Plan to help.

Part of this plan consists of a training course called Small Groups Development (formerly known as Life-groups Development). It is a course which engages its participants in a small group environment where there are opportunities for real growth, deep relationships, love and support along with an edge of reaching out to those who don’t know Jesus yet.

While there is plenty of time to discover the theory of small groups, the strength of this course is its strong and clear emphasis on experiencing “Life”. (The acronym “Life” which stands for Living in Fellowship to Evangelise is used to sum up the vision presented in Small Groups Development.)

At Helensvale Baptist Church we have begun the journey of moving towards this vision of “establishing expanding networks of small groups in the church that will effectively … equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church… so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephes. 4:12, 16).

The growth of many individuals in their relationship with the Lord has been wonderful. The Lord is being glorified and our church, as a whole, is experiencing encouraging growth. One member testified about their experience in a group that has embraced this vision with these words; “I have been a Christian for a while now, but in many ways I am still just a baby, and in only 2 weeks of Life-group I feel that I have grown immeasurably, and the most exciting part is that I know in my heart that I am going to continue to grow, be inspired, challenged and encouraged with every step I take. The glory of all of this without a doubt goes to God”.

CCI’s Small Groups Development course is biblically based, practical and challenging. Its foundation is a heart of love for God and His people (both saved and unsaved) and provides a structural framework to help in being obedient. Of particular note is the encouragement it gives to engage with others through simple “reaching out in love” exercises, and the important emphasis it places on the need to work together in the work of evangelism as like a “team of fishermen”.