The movement has continued since 1888 - when the First Baptist Church in Slovakia was established in Kezmarok.

Today the Union is comprised of 24 local congregations and about 20 mission stations.

The current population of Slovakia is roughly 5 million including, the Hungarian minority - 10% of the total population.

During the Communist period, Baptist evangelism was mainly confined to personal contacts. Services and other events were organized only in church buildings.

After the collapse of the Communist system, Baptists were not sufficiently prepared to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the nation. Only at the end of the last century the new missionary board clearly defined the goal of Baptist mission in Slovakia.

Since then the most important objectives for mission work have been: preparing and sending out new indigenous missionaries to places where Baptists are scarce, supporting itinerant evangelists who are to distribute Bibles, Christian literature and offer correspondence courses aiming to sow the Good News of Jesus Christ, equipping pastors and missionaries with new skills for effective ministry to contemporary society and planting of new congregations in Slovakia.

The Baptist Union President – Revd Dr Jan Szolos says: “the church planting projects are treated with a particular attention because there are only a few of them. There had not been a vision for church planting in the 90s when there was a time of good opportunity. Only about 10 years ago our union developed appropriate vision and started sending out the indigenous church planting teams.”

Let me introduce the two church plants in Nove Zamky and Zvolen which are very exciting new missionary initiatives among the indigenous people in Slovakia. The European Baptist Federation is actively supporting these mission projects.   

Christian Community in Nove Zamky

Indigenous church planter Pal has written in his recent report:

Currently we run two services each Sunday in Hungarian and Slovak languages. Two different groups of people attend each service. During both services there are children’s classes offered. This summer a lady accepted Christ as her Savior. She had been attending our services for several months. She also shared her testimony how she had found Christ and thanked the church for accepting her into the spiritual family. 

In July a mission team from El Paso, Texas, came and helped with a two-week English intensive language course. Classes for children were held each morning, and classes for adults were offered in the evenings.

In summer we held Family Fun Days with hotdogs, live music, inflatable games and other activities for families. During these days we were able to talk to many people. This provided also natural opportunity to introduce them to our church.

In August we began organizing a craft and game time for children. This was a way to keep in contact with those we had met through the English outreach. Often the parents stayed as their children did crafts and played games, which was good for building relationships. Since September through December we resumed our weekly adult English classes to the community. Before Christmas we organized a party. We are thankful for contact with so many new people and pray for them.

In early 2011 we hope to do a renovation of our meeting rooms: painting, blinds, wall decorations, etc. We are also planning to do more advertising with signs and posters in the city. In January we will add an English class for older children (ages 10-14) to our weekly classes. We will also start a Friday night game and activity time for this age group. There is a plan to do an outreach in the local secondary schools. In April we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of ministry in Nové Zámky. We hope to plan something special to commemorate the occasion.

We are expecting an addition to our family! Our new baby is due in March, and we are looking forward with excitement!

Mission Station in Zvolen

Indigenous church planter Martin has written in his recent report:

We moved to Zvolen in April 2010 and the second half of that year was only the beginning of our ministry here. Since we are a young family we relate well to our peers, so they are our primary target group. We were involved in building many relationships. In September we started a small group meeting on Sunday evenings. We started out with three couples from the mother church in Banska Bystrica who are the church planting team. We pray for new people to join us.

We made numerous efforts to build relationships with our neighbors. We spent time with them on a playground with our 2 year old son who likes to play with the other children. We also invited some of our neighbors to our home and organized a party for them. We went to a public event during the Advent in order to build new relationships.

Next opportunity came at Christmas. We baked a lot of cakes to give them out to our neighbors. They were surprised and some of them invited us for a visit in their homes.

As a result of these opportunities, now we have good relationship with four neighboring families. These people need to know Christ as their Savior! And we often pray for them, minister to their needs and share the Gospel with them in a practical way! As we think about our future work, we consider new forms of reaching out to people here in Zvolen. We want to make more contacts, so that more people can hear the good news of Christ.

Prayer requests:

1. Salvation for those who regularly attend Sunday meetings and particularly for new contacts. 
2. Continued growth for the young believers.
3. Open door of ministry in new places, including homes, clubs and schools.
4. Wisdom to use God’s word effectively in the ministry of spiritual counseling.
5. Ability to see the real needs of people and ways to appropriately meet these needs.

To help planting reproducing churches!

To help growing healthy churches!

For the glory of God!