On December 07, 1990, Pope John Paul II sent out a letter of exhortation to all the churches of the world. This letter, Redemptoris Missio, was an invitation back to the faith – a re-evangelism for the baptized. Within this vision, he included countries that had once identified as Christian, but who currently “live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel.” Utilizing new terminology, the Pope introduced the phrase, “a new evangelization.” He followed his words with the inception of an event called “World Youth Days” – a road map of sorts to reach the youth generation.
Twenty-six years later, in the summer of 2016, the Catholic country of Poland welcomed more than 1.5 million global youth to its door. The Nazarene Church in Poland was a part of this enormous effort to reach youth and call them back to the path of faith.
Nazarenes and other Wesleyans from Poland, the USA and the neighboring country of Hungary became part of a larger, intentional evangelism team called ICE (International Center for Evangelism). Over the past 25 years, Campus Crusade for Christ has played a significant role in creating a bridge of co-work with the Catholic Church in Poland. Their long-term, relational investment opened the door for groups, including the Nazarenes, to be invited to partner in the effort.
“There is an openness in the Catholic church to partner with parachurch organizations and Protestants,” said a Nazarene mission leader in Poland. “You can a sense a new spirit of cooperation in Kingdom work.”
The goal of the ICE teams was to meet people who were on a pilgrimage of faith and be available for conversational encounters. The participants –1,500 believers from 30 nations – were a blend of many denominations, countries and language groups who were split into culturally and linguistically diverse teams of five and sent out to evangelize.
To give a scope for how impactful this effort was: the Nazarene team had opportunities to speak about the Gospel with more than 1,200 people. They prayed with over 850 and saw 16 people come to faith. As one leader said, “It was awe-inspiring to have such a purposeful evangelistic effort.”
The entire event lasted two weeks. In the first week, youth spread out across the country of Poland for a festival with different venues for drama, concerts and youth events. A clear presentation of the Gospel was shared from the stage to multiple thousands. The Nazarene team contributed as participants, facilitators and performers.
July 29 to 30, Catholic youth gathered in Krakow for a culmination called World Youth Days, including an address from Pope Francis.
In a July 31, 2016 article written by Gerard O’Connell for the magazine, America: The National Catholic Review, O’Connell quotes Pope Francis who stressed courage by saying that God wants [you] “to have the courage to be more powerful than evil by loving everyone, even our enemies.” He then continued to exhort the 1.5 million young people “to believe in a new humanity, one that rejects hatred between peoples, [one that] refuses to see borders as barriers and can cherish its own traditions without being self-centered or small-minded.”
As the legacy of a yesterday’s Pope fires the flame of evangelism for the youth of today, so too do the words of the current Pope remind all of us that God is calling us all to see and to reach our world with Kingdom eyes and willing feet. Beyond the words of a Pope, there is the voice of Christ himself reminding us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
