In order to raise awareness as to the difficulties that face the church financially in raising the funds from within, despite sacrificial tithing from the congregation lets look at the following issues:

1. The issue of finances

Nowy Sacz is a large town/small city with a population of about 85,000 around 100km south of Krakow, in the Beskid Hills, southern Poland. It is called the Polish 'Tuscany', highly popular with tourists all year round for summer activities or winter skiing.

Not only is Poland a predominantly Catholic country, but the South of country is the most strongly controlled. The culture is Catholic, with schools, government and most buildings owned by or under the influence of the Catholic Church, which stands against any non-Catholic voice. Protestant Churches are very few in number and are usually small, often due to cultural pressure, oppression or lack of a permanent building. Communism fell only 15 years and up until that time, large public gatherings of many non-registered religious group was prohibited by law. In order to survive and legally register and exist, a range of small independent groups worked together to form loose denominations. The current government would like to prevent any new, unassociated church groups starting.

As a recent member of the European Union, Poland is still relatively poor. The average GGC (Gods Glory Church) member's income will be 6-10 times less than in the west (UK/US). Materials and foodstuffs, however are only 2-4 times cheaper, with many imported items costing more than in the UK. This has led to millions of people leaving the country for work, often leaving family in Poland. The knock-on effect has meant a lack of tradesmen, but as Poles and their funds slowly return, Poland is now experiencing a buildings boom with sharply rising costs for land, buildings and tradesmen. Despite this background, GGC continue to see many people born again and full of faith in this area. Each meeting sees them praying for the city, the government and the population.

As Poles return and foreign investment is sharply increasing, we are seeing very high rates of capital growth. Building projects (housing, shopping centres, motorways etc) are now a permanent feature of life in Nowy Sacz. A new motorway is being built from Krakow to Nowy Sacz which will further bring in commuters, investment and an increase in population. As a result we likewise expect an increase in church growth, and an increase in building costs in the future. Now is the time to invest!

Here is a quick selection of photos from Nowy Sacz and the surrounding villiages, towns and tourist attractions.

God's Glory Church has been in existence for around 20 years now. It associates with the ‘Kościół Zielonoświatkowy' (Evangelical Pentecostal Church) which is the largest single grouping of protestant churches in Poland, with each church group being autonomous, independent and free to govern itself and own its own property, and open to working with other church groups.

It is a founding member of the 'Evangelical Alliance' in Poland.

Around 5 years ago, Jack Orlowski, an English teacher, became the main Polish pastor of the Church following a powerful and supernatural call of God. He took the bold step of giving up all he and his family had, left his city, job, friends and ministry and moved to  Nowy Sacz, by faith. His obedience to the call, as well as his personal sacrifice, brought a huge change to the spiritual dimension of the town. He started working in a local school as an English teacher and serving the church. Pastor Jack was also given a strong vision from the Lord about the church and the town. His gifted and passionate teaching and heart for people brought many to the church by the grace of God. That was also a moment of great transformation and release in the spiritual realm in our area. At that time, there were 25 believers meeting, and this has now grown to about 100, plus children, plus many visitors and ‘sympathisers'.  Many gifted people have become involved in the church since then. Some came from other parts of Europe following a similar call, believing that God is going to do great things in this town. People travel too from surrounding towns to meet with us both on a Sunday and during the week, for ‘small-groups'. Some have purposely chosen to live in Nowy Sacz, purchase property here or seek employment here, precisely because they feel called to work with GGC.

Each year we baptise new believers and focus on mission and preaching the Gospel.

Last year in GGC, saw the introduction of 8 housegroups across the city, with around 80% attendance. These have hugely blessed the church and the local community, bringing personal and spiritual growth to members, as well as reaching the local population through group based projects.

GGC is a church which firmly believes in empowering and investing in its members.  The church provides training and ministry opportunities for all with a heart to serve. With a long term vision, it is already investing in the next generation of leaders by sending them to bible college, training others in music, multimedia, preaching, leadership and other related ministries.

GGC is a stable and mature church, enjoying good relationships with the other Christian, protestant churches in the city. It is found that GGC members are spiritually sensitive and faithful, hardworking people. From the outward-focusing good works we undertake in the community, we uniquely enjoy good press, with occasional newspaper articles about GGC and its ministries (click here for 'Prasa o nas' newpaper cuttings)

GGC have a foundational three-fold vision:
1) for Prayer and Worship to be a passion, with sound, systematic bible teaching alongside,
2) for building a ‘family' church with healthy relationships between people, strong families and confident youth
3) for blessing the community in and out of the church by serving in any way possible. 

GGC as a church has a vision for a large church having a significant influence on the town, in terms of values, and of bringing blessing to the community.

Ministries

What does the church do?

This is a church of outstanding potential, amazing talent and passionate serving hearts.
As a sign of the measure of faith and the heart to serve of GGC members, the following is a list of most of the ministries currently undertaken by GGC.

1	Uniquely in Nowy Sącz,  GGC provides a legally recognised Sunday School, as protestant Children do not attend the Catholic religious teaching provided by the local schools.  GGC have an approved programme providing the children with nationally accepted educational qualifications, which must legally be accepted by schools.
2	GGC run two weekly youth groups both of with have a sound bible-based programme aiming at investing in young people giving them training in the area of character development, practical and relational skills and strengthening their faith.
3	An Alpha course is provided as needed for new comers resulting from evangelistic meetings, or personal contact.
4	A project for the homeless provides food and clothing for a number of homeless people, especially in the cold winters. This has led to seeing some of them housed, employed and being born again.
5	GGC also provides for the needs of around 15 particularly poor families, providing them with, for example, financial assistance, Christmas hampers, transport help and education.
6	Having a large number of teachers in the church, GGC provide the community with educational services too. This range from English language teaching, mathematics and other general homework assistance.
7	A local Romany gipsy community has richly benefited from a new educational initiative of which GGC is the patron. GGC have provided chairs, tables, staffing and educational services for a temporary ‘pre-fab' building established on public land.
8	The ‘New Hope' mission for recovering alcoholics has been a very successful and necessary ministry in Nowy Sącz. With many of the attendees being born again and attending the church.
9	Since the early years of the church a regular Prison ministry has been very fruitful.  This provides relationship building with inmates, through letter writing and visits, as well as English lessons, and Bible Study meetings. One of the former inmates of years ago was very powerfully born again as a result and is now a proven, trusted deacon and small-group leader in the church.
10	In conjunction with the Samritan's Purse, easy year GGC provides the ‘Christmas Surprise' ministry, supplying up to 800 children with Christmas presents. GGC members visit schools, children's homes and invite others to special meetings to present the packages. The presents are usually prepared  and provided by foreign donors, but Christmas 2006 saw a customs and excise delay making it uncertain they would arrive in time. GGC members took it upon themselves in faith, to provide almost 100 packages themselves, from their own limited finances. A special offering brought in around 2000zl to help cover some of the costs. Faith has risen as a result and 2007 promises to be even greater.
11	The ‘Level-12' Youth Conference (now on its 20th meeting) convenes three times a year with usually over 100 attendees. Lead by Pastor Jack Orlowski and Trevor Hawes of GGC, together with four youth pastors, this seeks to build firm foundations of Christian Character, a life of faith, and knowledge of God's word.  (see http://poziom12.kzns.org (in polish)) Between meetings GGC run youth leadership training events.
12	This year GGC will start a new youth initiative 'Mega-Mlodziezowa' (MegaYouth) centered in Nowy Sacz. Without their own building this will be logistically difficult, but as usual, their focus is on serving and responding to the call of God even before he provides a permant base for them.
13	With a number of excellent English-polish translators in the church, GGC provide translations of many English resources, such as Enemies of the Soul discipleship course (OCC), and many other articles on a range of subjects. This ministry is necessary as there is only a small, but growing, resource base of good Christian material in Polish.
14	GGC also has an active Website (www.kzns.pl (in polish)) aith over 400 visits a day including video, weekly sermon recordings, and helpful advice and teaching on a range of topics. Through this website the leaders receive a lot of contact with people throughout Poland to whom advice and support is given. Click here for a recent sermon in English.
15	‘Generation-T' and ‘Mission Poland' are two major mission organisations in Poland who train up and send out missionaries to Poland and beyond. Pastor Jack Orlowski serves on leadership of these, and 2007 will see a sizeable team sent to Nowy Sącz.
16	GGC also works with the Gideon Bible organisation and is responsible for the storage and distribution of 8000 bibles in the area.
17	A monthly gazette is also published by the church full of interesting articles on faith, history or bible teaching, testimonies, crosswords, humour, encouragement, editorials and announcements.
18	Pastor Jacek Orłowski also runs a Marriage preparation course for people both in and ouside the church. Such a course is proving key to our desire for healthy families and strong relationships and marriages.
19	As mentioned GGC also run up to 8 house groups where they systematically study the word of God, offer discipleship, prayer, outreach projects and offer support to one another.

In addition to the above, GGC also provides the usual activities of healthy churches - evangelism, worship concerts, prayer nights, fasting, teaching conferences and family support, easter events, new year meetings, councelling, giving to the poor, leadership training, mentoring, active discipleship and church weekend retreats.

Again, this list is provided to demonstrate that the church is far from apathetic, and is faithful, active and hardworking, bringing fruit forth from what little they have. These existing ministries would be greatly enhanced by having their own premises on which to host them. There are also further ideas which members already have on their hearts to do, but cannot be undertaken until a building is secured.

Please help us continue these ministries!

Why does the Church need a building anyway!?

GGC currently meet in a hall above a post office, near a shopping centre near the town centre. It is of note that no protestant evangelical church in Nowy Sącz has ever had its own permanent building and it is felt that this is hindering church growth for a number of reasons:

• WE ARE GROWING! - Lack of space is now a concern.  The hall currently being rented can hold up to around 100 seated, and now attendance is regularly above that with visitors and new-comers. Further, there is only a very basic ‘cupboard' for a kitchen, and inadequate facilities for the three Sunday school groups. With its own facilities, this would no longer be a concern.
• Cultural acceptance. Although GGC fully understand that a church is a body of believers and never a building, the outside world community strongly believe the opposite. A group of people calling themselves a ‘church' without any building is seen as a cult, temporary, poor, weak and suspicious. Having our own building helps bridge the cultural gap and realise the main mission goals to reach people with the Gospel.
• In the past, protestant groups have been ‘evicted' from rented places of meeting when Catholic hierarchy have discovered that a protestant group is meeting there and evangelising. GGC have also been officially denied permission to evangelise when they have rented halls for large public meetings. With their own building, they can freely meet without threats of eviction or fear of evangelising.
• Renting a hall also means the church cannot guarantee to have the use of the building when it is needed - despite a high rent.  Other long-standing tenants with perhaps closer or inside relationships with the owners sometimes get priority. Recently, with local and national elections being held in the rented hall on a Sunday, GGC has had to meet on a Saturday or in homes for some weeks, bringing confusion to outsiders and visitors. GGC saw up to a month of disruptions in the first quarter of 2007, due to building repair or other bookings.  If GGC had its own building this would bring further stability, regularity of Sunday meetings and hence growing confidence in visitors and new comers.
• There is a need to raise the profile and presence of the church in Nowy Sącz through a wide range of forms of advertising initiatives. GGC has requested permission to mount a banner, placard or billboard informing the community of the presence of, and the meeting time of the church but this has been refused.  The owner fears attacks and a reduction of tenants/loss of revenue. Other advertising (on busses, posters, newspapers etc) in other locations is not as culturally acceptable in Poland. Having spoken to people who do attend GGC and are born again, it is found that they had been searching for a church like GGC for many years but never knew it existed, or where it met. Having a building of their own, GGC would gain presence in the city and could provide advertising on their own premises without problems.
• Security is inevitably a concern at the moment with many other tenants also renting the building. With a large amount of bulky specialist equipment or instruments for worship and ministry, GGC has the use of a large locked cupboard on the rented premises. Although precautions are taken and some smaller items are kept in homes, a recent break-in to the rented premises saw a number of expensive items stolen. These have now been replaced by donations, but with a building of their own, GGC could ensure better security, including a site manager living on the premises.
• Preparation time.  As a testimony to their faithfulness and hard work, a number of people arrive 1½ - 2 hours before the start of every meeting to set up all the equipment and make numerous trips to homes to collect equipment not stored on-site. This time could be given over to prayer, ministry or family, if GGC had their own premises.
• A number of ministries GGC members have a heart to understand are not currently possible due to lack of suitable premises to host them.  There are members ready and willing to help with an open ‘Pregnancy crisis centre', further work with homeless or children amongst others.  Without a secure, safe and definite place to host these ministries, they cannot be undertaken in this culture easily.
• For a church comprising mostly poor people, in a poor country, costs of renting are an issue. GGC currently spends over 2000zl a month on rent in addition to  other costs which is as much as some people's total monthly income. This periodically is increased, and is set to increase more in the future as Poland becomes more prosperous. Further, of course, GGC would still hold no capital stake in a building, thus reducing its financial capabilities in the future. As seen from the ministries undertaken, this does not stop the church doing a lot but it does take funding away from other areas. (See finances section below).  With its own building, it is believed it could receive an income through letting its own facilities, thus making it much more self-sufficient. (There is a need for larger conference or concert halls).
• Perhaps the most important reason is that the Elders and the members have clearly heard from God on this issue that now is the time to seek a home of their own. With prayer and fasting focusing on this issue there is complete unity among all the leaders that this is God's will for the church.

Be assured such a momentous project will in no way distract the church from its central and foundational mission of preaching the gospel, reaching the lost, helping the poor and lonely and encouraging the saints. We realise in full that such a building is to serve the body of Christ and help advance the Kingdom of God and never the other way around.

Help make church history!
Help build a church in Nowy Sacz, Southern Poland!
Help us establish a Christian centre for now and the future!

Donate via PayPal: All major currencies and credit cards accepted.
Alternative method if you do not want to have a PayPal Account or do not have a credit card: You can also donate via international bank transfer. Your bank will need these details: Bank IBAN (International Bank Account Number):    PL 98 1240 1558 1111 0010 0973 5744 Address: BANK POLSKA KASA OPIEKI SA I Oddzial Nowy Sącz ul. Zeromskiego 6 33-300 Nowy Sacz Owner/Name: Kosciol Zielonoswiatkowy w Nowym Saczu Then tell them how much you would like to donate. We also need larger donations and pledges for major building and renovation works, and for specific ministries. Contact us if you can be a partner.