The history of Word of Life in Bratislava
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- Published on Saturday, 03 March 2012 01:01
The movement Word of Life was founded in 1983 in Uppsala, Sweden with a clear vision: "Teach my people the word of faith, show them the spiritual weapons they have, teach them how to use them and send them into winning battle for the Lord." The hunger for God, His Word and for His supernatural power was enormous. The local church in Sweden grew dynamically which resulted in a great missionary work, mainly in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Central and Southern Europe, which includes our country - Slovakia.
The first missionaries of Word of Life came to Slovakia in the late eighties, just before the fall of communism. New Christian converts often lacked sufficient preparation for Christian ministry. To this end, Word of Life in Brno opened the Bible School for Central Europe in 1994. Many of today´s leaders of local churches went through that time of preparation, including senior pastor Peter Čuřík and associate pastor Martin Hunčár as well as their wives, Katarina and Daniela. During the nineties, the forming church hosted important evangelization crusades with respected ministers (Australian Evangelist Steve Ryder in 1990, Reinhard Bonnke in 1990, astronaut James Irwin in 1991, founder of the movement Ulf Ekman and evangelist Bengt Wedemalm in 1993 during the Danube festival etc.).
The start of a new church
Peter Čuřík (then a university student) led the newly established church community with the help of Martin Hunčár during their studies in 1993. After a year, some of the church members felt the need to study the Word of God more deeply at the Bible School. They asked the Mission Department at Word of Life in Uppsala for support. Christian Heim was sent and became one of the Bible school teachers in Brno, Czech Republic as well as a pastor in Bratislava. In 1995 the Word of Life Church in Bratislava was officially proclaimed. Christian was the pastor in Bratislava from 1994 to 1997. Leadership was passed to Martin Hunčár who was appointed as a lead pastor for some years.
In 2002 the role of a senior pastor was passed on to Peter Curik confirmed by the leadership of the mother church Word of Life in Uppsala, Sweden. Peter's invocation was done by Carl Gustaf Severin and thus began a new chapter for the church in Bratislava. Gradually, a new core of elders and leaders was established and the church grew dynamically in numbers and outreaches developing various ministries for children, youth, seniors, charities, missions and home cell groups. We also founded Word of Life mission points with appointed leaders in seven cities in Slovakia: Banská Bystrica, Banská Štiavnica, Nitra, Žilina, Komárno, Sereď and Michalovce (year 2017). Our vison is reflected in words that Lord gave to pastor Peter Čuřík in 2002: “Built up and train believers, so they can bless and change the world”.
Milestones of our growing church
Christian Magazine: An important milestone was the first publication of our magazine Víťazný život (Victorious Life) in 1998. We continue to publish the magazine to this day quarterly with around 3000 copies per edition. The Magazine has become a great carrier of the Message of the Gospel to our Slovak nation.
Publishing house: In 2003, we started a publishing organisation carrying the name of Word of Life. Since then we have published more than 50 book titles (year 2017) and distribute other Christian books from different publishing houses. Both Peter and Martin have written several important books too, which are a huge blessing to our Slovak audience. Our bestselling foreign authors are Stormie Omartian, Joyce Meyer and John Bevere.
Faith Conferences: Since 1998 we host the annual Conferences of Faith conference where hundreds of Christians came together from all over Slovakia to attend. We have hosted great ministers of the Lord which include Carl-Gustaf Severin (Sweden), Rani Sebastian (Malaysia), p. Srini (Dubai), Thomas George (India) and many others. In 2015 when we celebrated 20 years of our ministry, we hosted John Bevere (USA) and Joakim Lundquist (Sweden) and some 2000 participants from our nation and Central Europe.
Children and Youth: In 2005, we started to arrange children´s camps every Summer to date we have seen a new generation being raised in the Lord's name. This naturally lead us to forming youth camps that started in 2014. It is a great joy to work with the younger generation, providing them with the space for sports, fun activities, friendships but above all spiritual revival.
Israel: We love Israel and want to be a blessing to Abraham´s descendants. Every January we hold a Commemorate Holocaust Day where we engage in important topics that include guests speakers like the Israeli Ambassador(s) in Slovakia as well as Slovak members of Parliament. In 2010, we participated in a great Israel tour with 1500 participants including 37 people from our church. We continue to organize tours to the Holy Land and fervently pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Evangelism: We have hosted several Alpha courses and different Summer Evangelistic Outreaches. We host Gospel presentations in the main square of Bratislava with our Gospel outreach group where we actively pray for people on the streets of Bratislava. This outreach tour has become very successful other Slovak cities as well. We have seen many immediate and sudden miracles as Jesus has healed individuals (this being confirmed with medical doctors stating that healing has taken place). Many such incidents have been published in our magazine Víťazný život (Victorious Life).
Building leaders: In 2006, we initiated a very successful Pastors’ course with the help of our fellow church in Sweden. This 8-month long Course affiliated with ORU University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had 84 graduate preachers from all over Europe. Many of these graduates including our Slovak leaders Peter and Martin continued further studies in order to build even a deeper foundation and gain a greater knowledge of church history and its theology.
In 2008 and 2009 we opened a daily Bible school for Central Europe in Bratislava. During a two-year period, we hosted anointed Bible teachers. We offered 24 subjects covering various topics of Christian faith, life, history and ministry. Our students conducted mission trips to various countries which included Austria, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic. More than 90 students from all over Europe graduated from our Bible school and have become pillars in their churches.
Mission: We sent our first foreign missionary to India for four years where she has served as a Bible school teacher has also authored a book to help local leaders. Several other individuals from our church started a very successful NGO in Uganda called Good Future and Hope which helps poor children find a new home and family. The NGO builds new houses for these children providing wells with fresh water, schools and even building a hospital.
Cooperation with other Christians: In Bratislava – together with other pastors in the city we formed a union called Kresťania v meste – KvM (Christians in the city). This has since become a huge blessing for our church and to the city of Bratislava. Under the supervision of this organisation we continue helping homeless people as well as organising beneficial concerts or heading joined conferences. These conferences hosted well known speakers such as Ulrich Parzany from Germany, Sergio and Kathy Scataglini from the USA, Carlos Jimenéz from Columbia as well as Rice Broocks from USA.
Our church premises: In 2012, we managed to reconstruct and arrange our new premises at Tomášikova 30, Bratislava. The facility includes a main hall for 300 people, a nice and cosy cafeteria, rooms for children ministry, admin offices and our publishing house. The church continues to thrive believing the best days are still ahead!