Roman Baranowski is an assistant pastor with a heart for evangelism in Poland.
When did you trust Christ?
When I was 16, I ran into some old friends with whom I had gone to Sunday school, and they invited me to their youth group. I went once and liked it so much that I started to go every Saturday. Then, I began to read the Bible. After six months of attending youth group, Sunday services, and reading the Bible independently, I was invited to an evangelistic service. At that service, I gave my life to Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
What have been the defining moments of your Christian walk?
The first significant growth in my faith occurred during Operation Mobilisation outreaches in Poland. I was trained there to share my faith and had the privilege of speaking. Another critical experience was when I gained permission from the Communist government to go on a mission for a year. It was the most significant growth in my Christian life. After that, I joined the evangelism department, where I led the teams from the ship going to schools, prisons, and speaking events. I saw God at work when the churches worked together, so when I returned to Poland, I started encouraging churches to work together.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
My attitude is always to improve what I am doing. The teaching, seminars, and resources at ELF strengthened and sharpened my ministry. It is also very helpful to meet with people from other countries who share their experiences. I want to attend ELF this coming year to strengthen and sharpen my preaching skills.
In the YRM, I expect to acquire some knowledge and skills that will help me more effectively in helping churches in the revitalisation process. I look forward to developing some consulting skills and taking practical steps the church needs to take to succeed in revitalisation. I expect to get some valuable skills to encourage churches to begin the revitalisation process.
What is your ministry?
I am an assistant pastor in Lodz, Poland. I help the senior pastor in preaching, teaching, and counselling. In addition to these roles, I am the church board chairman and in charge of evangelism at my church. I also minister internationally, doing evangelism and training evangelists, and I teach from time to time in different seminaries.
What is your leadership role or what were your past leadership roles?
I was a pastor and evangelist at First Baptist Church in Gdansk from 1990-1994. Then, I was a church planter and pastor at Radom Baptist Church from 1994-2007. Following this, I was the National Coordinator of the Next Generation Alliance from 2006-2007 and the Central and Eastern Europe Coordinator of the same organisation from 2007-2011. Lastly, I was the LPA coordinator for Europe for the Luis Palau Association from 2012-2013.
Why should someone invest in your ministry?
There are not too many native people in Central and Eastern Europe who do evangelistic ministry, and even fewer go to other countries to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. We need training and resources to improve our evangelistic ministry.
