By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife
WISLA, POLAND (BosNewsLife)– The main preacher at an unprecedented evangelistic festival in Poland has warned this new European Union member state that it may experience a worse time than under Communism unless it builds a new society on a strong Christian foundation.
“Poland is right at the (cross road) to make a decision to build ethics and morals into the new society,” said American Pastor Mike MacIntosh, 59, of the 20,000-strong Horizon Christian Fellowship church in San Diego, California. “If they miss this point it is going to be worse than under Communism,” he told BosNewsLife in an interview. (Pictured: Mike MacIntosh reaches out to croud at Wisla).
As an example of “moral decline”, MacIntosh stressed a beer factory ranks high on a list of successful companies in Poland, a European Union nation which only abandoned Communism in 1989. He is also worried that the EU will soon have a higher GDP than America, and this could in his words lead to the same “moral decline (as) in the United States” linked to wealth.
POPE
He reflected views of Polish born Pope John Paul II, whose church supported MacIntosh’s five day Festival of Life in Wisla, a post card town roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of what was the busy Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, six decades ago.
The pastor, who was a drugs user and alcoholic before becoming a Christian, remarrying his wife and running a church, earlier told about 2,000 Poles there was life after death in an area where elderly people still recall how up to one and a half million people, most of them Jews, were massacred by Nazis during World War Two in Auschwitz.
He urged youngsters to stay away from drugs and alcohol abuse, a visible problem in this mainly Catholic country of 40 million people as it tries to overcome the difficult transition from Communism toward more freedom. The Pope has expressed similar concerns.
DRUGS
“The only one who profits from drugs is the one who sells it to you,” said MacIntosh in a sermon clearly audible in the crowded nearby bars and beer selling terraces, where some alcoholics struggled with beer bottles.
The seasoned preacher said he learned that Jesus was his “best friend” and that He is the only way to know God in a personal way. “It is not about religion, I would rather have a beer than religion,” stressed MacIntosh to the delight of beer drinkers listening nearby.
Dozens of mainly young Polish people rushed to a platform in the open air theater of Wisla to show they wanted to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. Special trained councilors accompanied the new Christians, many of whom are believed to struggle with alcoholism and broken families, organizers said. (Pictured: Polish choir rocking with the gospel on final night of main festival).
About 500 people have indicated they wanted to accept Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior, said the Festival of Life’s Chief Organizer Henryk E. Krol, who also runs an evangelical radio station for southern Poland, Sunday July 18.
KNIFE
However the event was overshadowed by incidents with a restless crowd and a knife attack, BosNewsLife learned. “On Thursday night I had a restless crowd, with many alcoholics living in the park,” recalled Assistant Pastor Mickey Stonier, who was nearly stepped by an alcoholic while preaching the Gospel. “One of the drunks in the middle did not want to hear the Good News. He had a knife with him and wanted to attack me on stage. But some of the pastors saw him and the knife, and quickly escorted him off.”
Stonier added he was determined to continue preaching his message. “If I would have seen the man with the knife, I would most likely have told him that the Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword.”
That was also made clear by a variety of hip-hop, hard-rock, and other contemporary Christian music groups that accompanied the preachers and competed for attention in and around the open air theater. “This is better than disco, I hate disco’s,” said 17-year old Jadwiga Klapa. “Some people at school think that I am strange. Most of my friends are Catholic, but many of them also come here.”
Klapa loves Jazz music and played saxophone at the festival. “But a musician does not have to be Christian. I like classical music, but I don’t think Mozart was a Christian. God gives a lot of talents to people and I pray they will be Christians one day also.”
LIFE
She and other visitors said they had never seen a Festival of Life where people are asked to come forward and openly accept Christ in their lives. There are only an estimated 120,000 Evangelicals in Poland, where religious rituals are often the norm in traditional churches.
“One of the ladies at the counter of the hotel where we are staying is a born again Christian but had a Catholic father who did not want to hear about the Gospel,” recalled Assistant Pastor Stonier.
“However one night she brought him to the theater and with tears in his eyes he came forward. Her dad for the first time acknowledged that he was a sinner and needed to be born again.”
CATHOLICS
Pastor MacIntosh said he hopes more Catholics will follow this example. “I am not against Catholics. When I was in need I visited a Catholic church for four months. The priest said that I was welcome in his church to search for God. What I want to tell Catholics is to read the Bible and to learn God in a personal way,” he told BosNewsLife.
He also loves Poland, the country he first visited shortly after Marshall Law was declared in 1982 to bring tons of food supplies from his church, driving a truck for nearly 40 hours non stop from England. “I have a message for you from my family,” MacIntosh promised his public on applause as darkness fell over Wisla. “If you have ever running out of food again, we will be there…”
The Festival of Life was organized by Polish churches in co-operation with MacIntosh. The Biblical Mission Association hopes it will lead to the further expansion of missionary activities in and outside Poland.
We must call on God to hold together the moral fibre of Poland.