Tomek Krazek Interview (Part 1)

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Well, on Wednesdays, we have guests at No Compromise Radio and today is no different. We have a friend here all the way from Poland and Tomek is here.

He's a missionary that we support, a pastor there for the last 12 years. Tomek, I can't pronounce your last name very well, so I'll just mess it up in the

English version. Krozek, and it's Krozek. How do I say it? Yeah, you would say

Krozek. Krozek. Okay. Tomek, welcome to No Compromise Radio. Thank you.

Thank you. Glad to be here. So Tomek, tell our listeners how we met. How did we first kind of get in touch with each other?

Well, I think I met you first when you came to Berlin to teach a preaching class. And I was taking classes back then at Berlin, European Bible, EBTC, whatever it stands for.

I think it's European Biblical Training Center. Maybe. Yeah, that's right. And so we were in Berlin and it's a master's level class.

And the men from Europe there have to speak English in the class and read in English. And so lots of different students.

And Tomek, I really was thankful to listen to you talk about the Lord Christ and preach his word.

And you did such a good job, even in English. I thought, I need to get to know that guy better. Thank you. You're so kind.

And then now you are in West Boylston. And the geography here is similar to where you live in Poland, isn't it?

Yeah, I think it is. Yes. So I think not just the geography, but also the spiritual climate.

Tell us a little bit about Poland and why she needs the gospel and why so few missionaries are there.

And then we'll get into your testimony and talk about expository preaching. But let's talk about Poland first.

What's the spiritual condition of Poland? Well, I think it's very interesting, the climate nowadays in Poland, because Poland is strongly

Roman Catholic on one side. But on the other side, it's becoming a society in Poland.

People in Poland are becoming very secular. More and more people don't believe in God at all.

But at the same time, they would claim allegiance to the Catholic Church. So on one side, you have this generation that is becoming very secular.

But on the other side, they are still very attached to the Catholic Church, because for them, it's probably more a matter of identity than of religion.

So they might not like the church, they might not believe in the things that the church teaches, but they will stay loyal to it.

And of course, also their families will not be happy, would not be happy if they left the

Catholic Church. So a lot of people, they stay loyal to the Catholic Church because they don't want to hurt their parents, they don't want to go against their parents and their grandparents.

It's almost like a betrayal. If you leave the Catholic Church, you betray your family, you betray your national identity.

It's kind of like a death in the family to some, right? To some, yeah. Especially the more you go into the smaller cities.

Big cities change now because they're more westernized, more tolerant, and it's just different in a big city.

But the smaller the city gets, the stronger the Catholic Church is in the smaller cities. So there, you have the

Catholic Church normally having all the power in the city. They make all the shots, they make all the decisions, and they feel threatened whenever someone from a different church comes in and is trying to do the work of the gospel.

But Tomek, what I find interesting is here in New England, we are broadcasting from central

Massachusetts, 80 % of the people, not necessarily by actions, but by profession would say that they were

Roman Catholic. They don't all practice, maybe it's just Easter and Lent and Ash Wednesday and Christmas.

But it's very similar here where it's a very Catholic -controlled area, but not many really go to Mass every day or they're not really involved until they have a death in the family or until you begin to evangelize them, then they dig their heels in and resist the gospel.

So it's very similar. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So going back to the climate of Poland, there are probably a few factors that make

Poland a difficult mission field. So Poland has probably only 0 .1

% of evangelical believers at this moment, maybe 0 .2. It depends how you define evangelical.

I have to stop you there just for a second. Isn't it interesting because we listen to these folks describe what a

Christian, are you a Christian? And really the definition is the key, right? Do you say you believe in Jesus?

What does it mean to be born again? It's who's controlling the language of the survey, but for certain there are hardly any evangelicals there.

Yes. Yes. So there are not few, not many evangelicals.

Poland has 40 million people, almost 40 million people. So very few evangelicals and also very few missionaries in Poland.

Poland actually among some of the organizations is supposedly considered the graveyard of missionaries because many missionaries come and they leave very quickly.

Probably one of the reasons is the Polish language. Polish language is very, very difficult language to master.

So if you don't learn the language, it's hard to stay longterm in Poland and do the work of ministry.

But also there is something different about Poland because when you look at those countries like Romania or Ukraine that maybe in a way they're similar in their history and their culture to the

Polish country and you have several, maybe dozens of churches even planted every year.

In Poland, statistically, I think you have about two or three churches planted every year. So, so it is a, it is a weird, it is a difficult field.

Tomek, you were telling me about the Black Madonna and describe to our listeners what's going on with that and how it exacerbates or makes a bigger problem when it comes to evangelicalism.

Well, the Black Madonna is a Polish version of Mary related to the history of Poland, to the specific painting that was in a certain stronghold when, when

Swedes attacked. And so there's a certain history connected to this, this painting. The painting didn't burn, but the skin of Mary turned black.

And so we have this very strong, very strong Catholic emphasis on, on the worship of Mary.

Mary in, in, in many circles, uh, officially on, on many, uh, occasions in Poland on television and would be considered a queen of Poland.

So you have a very strong emphasis on Mary. Now I'm looking at Romans chapter one and Paul is writing to this church at Rome and here's this big city.

They have so many social problems, so many political problems, abortion, slavery.

There are, there are so many people and that means so many problems. And so how, what's the solution for Rome and her problems?

And Paul was smart and he could have come along with all kinds of social gospel strategies.

And I love it at the very beginning. I mean, we're familiar with verse 16 of chapter one, but even in verse 15, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Then he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

Jew first and also the Polish. So tell us your strategy for gospel ministry there and how important the gospel is in comparison to social structure, helping the poor, food related issues.

What's a strategy for a man like you with 40 million people in the size of Arizona and minimal human resources?

Well, uh, the strategy is the gospel in the, in the simplest way, uh, it is the preaching of the gospel and, uh, we need to make sure that it is the gospel that is being preached because if it's not the gospel, we just think it's the gospel, then there is no power in it.

So we have to make sure it is the gospel that is being preached as power of salvation to those who believe.

So, so the strategy, uh, for us is, uh, first of all, yes, preach the gospel wherever we are.

Uh, at this moment we're in this small town, Bortnice will be novel in north of Poland and, and we, we moved into the city, uh, full of hopeless people.

Uh, so, uh, we brought the gospel and we've seen over the last 10 years that God saved people through his gospel and, and he brought hope into their lives and he transforms their lives.

So on the basic level, that's, that's our strategy to be faithful in preaching the gospel and preaching the word of God.

On a larger scale, we, we would like to develop some kind of training program where, where you can train

Polish believers, Polish men to preach the gospel, to, to be able to preach the word of God, to be equipped for doing that.

Tomek, tell us a little bit about preaching in general in Poland, and there are probably men here or there, and maybe some you don't even know about who do expositional preaching, exposing people to the meaning of the text and showing them who

Jesus is and what he's done and in light of that, what he asked us to do or commands us to do.

My guess is, because people are the same everywhere, Satan is, you know, uh, with his, uh, legions attacking the church the same way.

My guess is that preaching in Poland is pretty similar to a lot of preaching in America, and that is topical, social, political, not too deep, a lot of practical how -tos.

Is that what, if you find a church in Poland that is evangelical, what's the typical kind of preaching?

Well, I'm afraid a typical kind of preaching would be what you just described, a typical kind of preaching would be very shallow type of preaching, not necessarily based on the meaning of the text.

The text would be most times just used to support the preacher's ideas and taken out of context very often.

I'm afraid there is not too much expository preaching in Polish churches.

There are churches that are committed to the exposition of the word of God, and it also seems to me like God is raising a new generation among young men, men of 20 to 25 years old.

As we've done some conferences in the past, and we've seen those young people come in, it seems like God is raising a new generation of people who are hungry for the word of God and who want to be trained to read the word of God, to study the word of God, to preach the word of God.

So we see good things happening, but in general, I would say there's a bad tendency of not preaching the word of God, of maybe giving anecdotes and telling stories and, or just coming up with your own idea and then just finding verses to support what you wanted to actually say.

So Tomek is here in our studio today at No Compromise Radio Ministry. Tomek, tell us a little bit about your background, how

God saved you, because you are one of those probably typical

Polish people with the background that you had, and you mix a little secularism and atheism and Roman Catholicism.

And so what happened? How did God save you out of all this? Yeah, you know, in Psalm 14,

I think there's the question, how do you know a fool? As a fool says in his heart, there is no

God. And so I was a fool because even though I grew up in a so -called Roman Catholic home, we actually never had a

Bible at home. And my parents would not go to church, but they would try to send me to church. But actually in my heart,

I did not believe in God. I was not seeking after God. I had no desire for spiritual things. So in that sense, there was nothing in me that I was looking for God.

But eventually, at the age of 14, God started invading my life through different areas of my life, specifically through my hobbies.

I was really wanting to play basketball, and the only team in my town happened to be coached by a missionary from the

States. So I joined the team. I was exposed to the gospel for the first time, even though I didn't care about it back then.

The other thing was English. I really wanted to learn English language, and I wasn't doing well at school with English, and my parents were investing lots of money in trying to teach me

English. And I was just too dumb to go. By the way, I have to interrupt for a second. I was shooting some baskets with my daughter,

Gracie, and Tomek the other day. He still has a really good jump shot. Thank you. And why did you want to learn

English? Well, I wanted to learn English because somehow I just had a desire to know

English. And I also, I think I did not want to disappoint my parents, and I knew how they were trying to invest in me trying to learn

English. They didn't have lots of money, but they would invest. They would hire private teachers to teach me.

So once I didn't want to disappoint them on the other side, I really liked it. Okay. Isn't it interesting as we just stop and think about our lives, how

God is providentially and sovereignly working, even in our lives before we were saved, perfectly creating us to be the vessel for Him.

And if you would like to go to bbcchurch .org, just go back a couple of weeks to around September, I think 15th or so, whatever the

Sunday is, and you can pull up a couple of messages. Tomek preached Sunday morning from Acts 2 and Sunday night from 1

Peter 1 in English. So isn't it amazing? You look back and you see the providential hand of God getting you ready for English because it was cool, so you could watch cartoons, so you could be a good business person.

I don't know what the reasons ultimately are, but it's a God -given desire, even working in the heart of the unregenerate elect.

Pretty neat. It's pretty neat because not only I could preach, or I could at least try to preach in English at your church.

Well, you were faithful in light of the grace of God that I would have you on the radio show, so it wasn't too bad.

Thanks. But also, you know, when I became Christian and when

I started getting involved in ministry, I was in a context where I was not surrounded with a lot of people and resources in Polish from which

I could learn. So in God's sovereignty, because I could learn

English at a young age with those American missionaries in my town, I was able to learn a lot of my theology through reading

English books. So I would not be doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for the

English language because I would probably be lost with all my ideas about who

God is and what ministry is. And so Tomek, tell us then, you're hearing the gospel from your coach, you like basketball,

English, and then what began to go through your mind and what were your parents thinking and your friends, and you're still a young man, we have the influence of our parents and we don't want to disappoint them.

What was happening during all that time? Well, my parents were a little bit different, unlike a lot of parents of people from my church now who get angry when their kids actually get interested in the word of God.

My parents were okay, they were not too worried about me, they were actually happy about me.

So there was not much opposition or disappointment that I could see in my parents.

What started going through my mind after two years of being exposed to those missionaries and them trying to teach me

Bible and me mocking them actually for two years and making fun of them, eventually, after two years,

I started wondering, why is their Christianity so different than Christianity that I knew until then?

When they read the Bible, it seems like they truly read the words of God. When they prayed, they prayed like they actually had a relationship with God.

And when they sang songs, they sang songs with joy, it seemed like it meant something for them.

And then another thing was they had known me for two years and they were still patient and kind to me and they didn't give up on me.

So I thought I need to go home, I need to get a Bible for myself, study this book and become like them.

That's what was in my head. So I got a Bible, I saved some money, I got a

Bible, started reading it. I discovered it to be an incredible book, but not much changed in my life.

I read through the New Testament, I knew why Bible is different than Koran and some other religious writings.

But it wasn't until a new coach came, a younger guy from California, and we became friends and he started taking me through the epistle to Galatians.

And that's when I understood the gospel of Jesus Christ and I understood that I'm a sinner and in need of a

Savior. And that's when I became a believer. And then you got married after that, so you became a

Christian first and then married after. Yes, yes. I became a Christian in 1998 and got married in 2003.

All right. And was your wife's conversion similar to yours? My wife's conversion was a little bit different because my wife, she was always into church.

She was always into church. There was, from a young age, there was a desire for spiritual things, but the

Catholic church was the only church she knew until her brother, older brother, became a believer and he kind of took a role of a father because she comes from a divorced home.

So he eventually took his sister to church and he faithfully shared the gospel with her.

And when she heard about the grace of God shown in Christ through Christ, it was just, it made sense to her right away because trying to be a religious person and work her way to God through the

Catholic church, she constantly was burdened. She constantly felt heavy because she knew she's just a sinner, you know, as much as she would try to be a good person.

She knew that she disobeyed her mom. She didn't do well at school and in various times.

So then when she heard the gospel of grace, it made sense to her. She was ready.

Tomek, I don't know how to even think through these issues myself. In particular, you have a

Roman Catholic church and they teach the deity of Christ, the return of Christ. They teach about sin, the

Trinity. And so if I'm evangelizing someone or there's a brand new Christian and they come out of the Catholic background, they understand a lot of these basic concepts because they're true.

But it seems like even though the Catholic church teaches those concepts, there's such a slavery and a works righteousness and a cooperation with God that it overshadows anything good that they do teach that is true that they teach.

And I would imagine it's the same thing in Poland as well. What's your view of, I don't mean the people in the church, there's lots of kind, nice people in the

Roman Catholic church, but as a system, why are you burdened to tell people in the Catholic system about sovereign grace and who

Jesus is? Yeah, as you pointed out, the

Catholic church is often considered to have good Christology. Also among Polish evangelical churches, unfortunately, more and more often there's a strong movement of ecumenism trying to work with the

Catholic church because they have the right view of Christ. But as I look at the Catholic church and as I see people, an average person that goes to the

Catholic church, my question is, you know, if Christ's sacrifice on the cross and his work on the cross and his resurrection is not enough, is not sufficient for salvation, then is that really a good view of Christ?

Is that good Christology? Well, in my opinion, it isn't.

And as you look at people who are part of the Catholic church, they are very hopeless. They have no hope, neither for this life nor for the future, for eternity.

They're desperately trying to work their way to heaven. They're desperately trying to do good works.

And you can see that it's not doing anything to them. Tomek is here today and he's over in America preaching here at the church.

He's going to do a youth college group tonight and preach there as well.

Tomek, if people want to know about you and the ministry there, how would they look up?

How could they get on a website? How do they contact you? We have a website.

Well, it's a Polish website, so I don't know how much it will help. It's wiernislawu .com

But of course. And then who supports you? You're receiving some support from America.

Who are you linked up with? Yeah, yeah. I received some support from America with a few churches.

There's a church in Nebraska that's been supporting us. There's a church in Flagstaff, Arizona that supported us.

There's some also individual friends that have faithfully been supporting us for many years. What's the name of the sending agency?

International Messengers, located in Clear Lake, Iowa. So if they went to that site, they could probably find a link about you.

Definitely, they can find a link in English to us. Well, Tomek, we're going to keep you around for another half hour and record another show.

I'm glad you're here and I'm encouraged because when I think of gospel ministry, whether it's here or someplace else, there might be different cultures, different languages, different ways we go about doing things.

Do you take your shoes off when you enter a home or not? There's a lot of those things and I like culture. But at the end of the day, people are the same.

That is, they have no righteousness. They need a righteousness that's not from themselves. And it is only

Christ's righteousness and His death on the cross and resurrection. Thanks for being on No Compromise Radio. Thank you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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