New roles within EP – What are we actually going to do?
The request made to Tatiana and me in January — to dedicate ourselves together to Evangelical Poland after finalizing our involvement with Bread of Life — came at a very special moment. Not only because it was special for us personally, but also from the perspective of Evangelical Poland itself.
Because why suddenly expand with two full-time positions in an organization with barely 10 people, some of whom only work part-time…?
After eight years of building relationships and trust, the turn of the year marked the moment when EP was given the opportunity to take on a larger role in church planting, cooperation in evangelism, and making international project support more accessible. And all of that happened more or less simultaneously, while there was only one coordinator — Andrzej Górski — and only one person working full-time in the back office. Not just slightly understaffed, but drastically so! 😊
Andrzej’s responsibilities had to be divided. I, Reinier, take on the operational side as COO, while Andrzej, as CEO, remains responsible for strategy and all international relations. We are also dividing project leadership responsibilities — I will oversee cooperation in evangelism, social ministries and the annual conference, while the remaining areas stay under Andrzej’s leadership.
The situation regarding the back office is similar. Administrative and practical project support will largely become Tatiana’s responsibility, while she will also receive the wonderful challenge of serving Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking churches in Poland. With her background and experience, she is the ideal person to contribute to the new reality of Evangelical Poland.
Because since 2020, large numbers of Belarusians (due to persecution), and since 2022 even larger numbers of Ukrainians (due to the war), have come to Poland, the church landscape has changed significantly. In Poland, only around 0.2% of the population was evangelical, while in Belarus and Ukraine that percentage is many times higher. And it is precisely from that part of the population that many people have arrived in Poland. Along with all the challenges of integration — including church integration.
What Tatiana’s role in this area will ultimately look like, we honestly still do not know. But one thing is already clear to all of us: the need is enormous!
And so, both of us have our own challenges, but above all… deep gratitude that together we may play an active role in responding to the calling we all know from John 17:
“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:21-23)
