Peter Witkowski

May 29, 2022May 22, 2022 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Building Back Better: Church Growth After Covid-19

The COVID19 Pandemic has reduced the size of the average evangelical church. An overwhelming majority of churches (88%) have failed to regain their pre-COVID attendance levels. According to a PEW research study, most people who planned to return to church after the mask mandates were rolled back have already reclaimed their spot on the church pew. With each passing day, the rather bleak 2020 Barna estimation that as many as 1 out of every 3 Christians would not return to church appears to be prophetic.

Both those in the pew and behind the pulpit must once again face the question of: How do we grow the local church? Or to borrow, the language of the Gospel of Matthew: How do we expand the kingdom of God?

God’s Plan For Church Growth

In Matthew 9:35, we find Jesus’s plan for kingdom expansion. The verse says, “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” To advance the kingdom of God, pastors do not need to hangout in the metaverse, host town halls, or double down on green goo in the children’s ministry. To press back against the kingdom of darkness, we need to champion and commit to teaching the full counsel of God within the Church, to proclaiming the gospel to the lost, and to caring for the sick and oppressed.

Teach/Preach the Word

We often think of Jesus bouncing about the Judean hillside, holding tent revivals. However, the gospels report that Jesus located much of his teaching ministry within the contexts of local synagogues. Mark, Luke, and John place Jesus’s teaching ministry within these pseudo temple structures whose services were built around Scripture reading and exposition. Luke writes,

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read (Lk 4:16).

In other words, Jesus anticipated the primacy of local church preaching. Gospel expansion occurs through faithful exposition. As the apostle Paul told Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Tim 4:16).” Preaching both protects the church from decay and adds to its number through conversion.

Though preaching proves essential to kingdom expansion, it forever proves controversial. Well meaning men and women will forever call their pastors to preach less and to share more stories, jokes, and illustrations. But the local church must not give into the impulse to hire preachers that preach twenty minutes sermons that feature a joke, two moving stories about the pastor’s dog, and a brief moralistic sentiment about loving one’s neighbor. Such calls for less teaching arise not from faith but from unbelief. Again, Paul tells Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Tim 4:3).” The truth of God’s Word is never irrelevant. Preach the word!

Proclaim the Gospel

In addition to teaching, Jesus proclaimed the gospel. The concept of proclamation in Matthew is tied to evangelistic teaching. Such teaching should occur in the church. Each sermon should articulate humanity’s sinfulness and Jesus’s redemptive actions. As Paul tells Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist.” But the task of proclamation proves not to be the exclusive domain of the pulpitare. All believers should share the gospel in whatever context they find themselves. Jesus preached the coming kingdom of God when eating dinner, when chatting at the local watering hole, when visiting the dead, when resting on the mountain tops, and when walking from town to town. He evangelized all the time. The believer should do the same.

Many will punt on verbal proclamation, pointing to their faithfulness in nominal tasks. In other words, they hope coworkers will come to faith when they observe the Christian’s commitment to the company schedule. Similarly, they believe praying for a meal will bring world transformation. To use the somewhat trite phrase, many think they should “Preach the gospel always and if necessary, use words.” Jesus leaves no room for such a sentiment. The kingdom expands through words and proclamation. Unless we explain our reasons for our faithfulness at work and for our gratitude for the food we eat, the world will never connect the dots back to Christ. If we long to see the kingdom expand, we must proclaim the gospel of God.

Help Others

Some have wrongfully drawn a line of separation between the practice of teaching and proclaiming and that of caring for earthly needs. Jesus did not believe that proclamation and love of neighbor were at war with one another. He affirmed both saving those whom he healed and healing those whom he saved. While I do not believe the gifts of healing continue today (I have yet to meet someone who could heal people on demand), I do believe the principle of care remains in force. In other words, as the gospel expands into hearts, it should also improve lives. When the apostle Paul prepared to set out for his first missionary journey, the church asked Paul to take an interest in social ministry. Paul writes, “Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do (Gal 2:10).” As we carry the gospel forth into this dark and dingy world, we will encounter men who need Jesus and help cleaning out their alcohol cabinet. We will bump into women who need Jesus and a safe place to stay as the escape an abusive spouse. We will counsel with those who need Jesus and help paying their electric bill. The faithful Christian responds to both concerns. The author of James reminds us: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,”’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead (Jm 2:14).” If we have been saved, we will both share the gospel and meet needs. The failure to do either militates against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Final Thoughts

The effects of COVID19 upon the local church can be easily accessed. But so can the plan back towards kingdom expansion. To grow the church, we don’t have to hire some church guru. We need to only reflect upon Jesus who expanded the kingdom through teaching, proclamation, and helping others. And then we do as Jesus did!

May 25, 2022April 19, 2023 Peter Witkowski Memos

The Threat of Liver Failure: April Update 5.25.22

Editors’ Note 5/27/22: Since the posting of this blog, April has undergone another paracentesis. Doctors have removed more than 7 liters/14 Lbs of fluid from April’s abdomen during the two procedures. And still her abdomen continues to swell. April returned home on May 27 because we can duplicate the care that she was receiving in the hospital through prescription medicines and outpatient paracentesis procedures. The days ahead will be long and hard. Their outcome is anything but certain. But April is home. We rejoice in small mercies.

The last few weeks have unnerved us.

What started as a race to avoid a week or two of inconvenient breast cancer symptoms has become a race for April’s very life.

Last Week

As many of you know, April went into the hospital on Monday, May 16 because of some slight bloating which evidence the very early stages of liver failure. The visit proved to be more precautionary than essential to her care. Given the slight deterioration of her liver and quality of life, her medical team decided to respond more aggressively to her new breast cancer growth. They abandoned the Xeloda chemo pill during that hospital stay and began giving her the IV Chemo drug gemcitabine. After her first receiving her first dose on Wednesday May 18, April was discharged from the hospital. We still believed we had an upper hand.

This Week and Today

By the following Sunday, May 22, I was sneaking out of church early and running April back to the ED because she had spiked a high fever. Guessing that she had an infection (a suspicion that was empirically proven today and that is being successfully treated), the ER doctor admitted her to the hospital on Sunday night. While receiving antibiotics for the infection, April’s abdomen continued to swell to the point that she took on the appearance of a full-term pregnant woman. The other day, a well-meaning cleaning lady clumsily asked April, “You, have baby?” We chuckled at the thought. But alas, she faces something far more serious. The abdominal swelling (which has caused her so much pain over the last 48 hrs.) and her high bilirubin numbers has indicated that her liver is failing and could fail.

Though the doctors can and have performed and will continue to perform a procedure called paracentesis which removed 3.25 liters of fluid from April’s body and reduced her level of discomfort on Tuesday, May 24, her abdomen has already returned to pregnancy size as of this writing of the post on Wednesday, May 25. To cure her liver and to reverses the symptoms associated with her poor liver function, her medical team must find a medication that will shrink her tumors and not further aggravate the compromise state of her liver. This afternoon, April switched to her third treatment plan in as many weeks and received the first dose of the chemotherapy drug Adriamycin (happily nicknamed the red devil). She will take the IV chemo drug weekly. If all goes well, her liver function will begin to improve over the next 2-3 weeks, and she should be discharged from the hospital this weekend. If her breast cancer tumors do not respond or do not respond quickly enough, her liver will fail. Her race will end.

Though the stakes have been raised, April possesses a great desire even in the midst of great pain to keep running this race. As she said earlier today, “I never thought I would say this, but I want to start chemo.” She wants to embrace drugs that will punish her stomach, cause hair loss, and possibly damage her heart. Though exhausted, scarred, and worn, onward she goes…onward all of us go along with her in hopes of a better tomorrow. And yet the reality of the moment is not lost on either of us. Either the chemo will destroy the tumors, or the tumors will destroy her liver. The next days and weeks will prove decisive.

How to pray

Our prayer today is simple, “Lord help us.” Pray for God to restore April’s liver. Pray for us, our children, and our families to find our hope in the things above….in the steadfast love and faithfulness of our God and father. The days are long, hard, and unsettling, yet are God is good, loving, and powerful. May God be merciful us.

Contact/Support Info

Please note, we long to responded to all texts and messages. But with the many challenges facing us, our responses will probably be increasingly slow.

EMAIL US AT: BIBLEFIGHTER@GMAIL.COM

SNAIL-MAIL: P.O. BOX 158/ AMISSVILLE, VA 20106

CALL US AT: 540-937-6159.

SUPPORT US AT GOFUNDME.COM: APRIL WITKOWSKI MEDICAL FUND

May 15, 2022April 19, 2023 Peter Witkowski Memos

New Growth: April’s Cancer Update 5.15.22

Editor’s Note 5.20.22:

(Since the posting of this blog on Sunday, April’s bilirubin numbers have increased and indicate her liver is slowly failing. Acting on an abundance of caution, her medical team admitted her to the hospital on 5/16. She left the hospital on Wednesday 5/18 after receiving Gemcitabine, an IV Chemo that packs more of a punch than Xeloda. We will visit with her medical team next week and post an update then, seeking to make sense of all that has happened this week.)

We do not like bad news. And yet it is once again our currency. April’s latest scans and blood tests reveal that her cancer has once again out maneuvered her treatment regimen and has begun to grow freely. To stunt this new growth, April will take a new chemotherapy pill at the beginning of next week.

What Happened?

As the pictures on our various social media platforms make clear, this news blindsided us. Though April has had a few bad days this past week, she had regained increase mobility and strength over the last few months. She has played chauffer to our kids, cooked meals, fixed hair, helped with homework, and done many of the things that give her and all of us a taste of what life was like before cancer invaded. Perhaps even more remarkably, April completed her main physical therapy goal of walking more than a mile at a historical site. A few weeks ago, she toured Jamestown, Yorktown, and Colonial Williamsburg like a pro. She never showed the signs of extreme exhaustion and fatigue that defined her while she was on her intravenous chemotherapy regime. Despite some digestive issues (which could be noticeable at times), April seemingly had reached one of those restful plateaus within her cancer journey.

Given our most recent experiences, both April and I anticipated that her May 3rd scans would bring tidings of health. But as we all now know; those scans and the ensuing blood work would cruelly shatter our expectations. First, the scans came back showing shadowy images which suggested that the breast cancer tumors in April’s breast and lymph nodes had grown, and that a new tumor had formed in the kidney closest to her liver. To bring clarity to these images, April’s Oncologist ordered new labs to be drawn. The results of her blood work which measure tumor markers and liver function revealed that the shadowy clouds in her scans are most likely not illusions but the very thing itself. If the cancer has not grown in the spots identified in the scans, it is growing somewhere with enough force to bring deadly harm. In short, the breast cancer cells that have brought so much harm to April’s body and our lives since 2019 have once again begun marching forward bent on even greater destruction.

Thankfully, the effects of this new invasion have only just begun to materialize. This week, April’s liver produced the first signs of abdominal swelling and pain. Though the threat of additional symptoms remains forever real, they have not yet arrivied. Seeking to begin the new treatment before those effects poke significant holes into April’s quality of life, her medical team decided that she should begin taking the drug Xeloda at the beginning of next week. If the drug works, April will take three pills twice a day for two weeks. She will then take a week off. The two weeks on and one week off cycle should be able to combat April’s cancer for the next 6-8 months.

How Are We Doing?

In one sense the news of tumor growth has not shocked us. Intellectually, we both know that April’s cancer will spread, and that each treatment has a limited shelf life determined by the genetic composition of April’s cancer. And yet in another sense, the news does carry with it a certain amount of shock value, forcing us once again to think about this evil disease and the fragileness of life. Moreover, transitions between treatments prove to be an unsettling experience. Neither the medicine’s effectiveness nor its side effects come with full prove guarantees. The first 2-4 weeks of these transitions often contain a series of surprises and unanticipated twists. Few of them are good. For example, one Xeloda’s more prominent side effects is hand and foot syndrome which produces large sores in one’s palms and the soles of their feet could. April could soon struggle to walk and do simple household tasks. Though expected, the transition between treatments wearies our souls. We’d rather not go through the process of deconstructing today’s normal for the purpose of constructing a new normal that promises to be at least a little more difficult than the one we just tore down. We dislike such devolution.

And yet we remain hopefully. From a medical standpoint, April still possesses many other treatment options. Though life may get harder faster than we had anticipate, this news does not point to the end of April’s life. Her overall outlook remains unchanged.

Most importantly, our God has not changed. We know from Psalm 86 that the effectiveness of our prayer comes not from our power to persuade but from our need. The psalmist writes, “Incline your ear O Lord and answer me for I am poor and needy.” Thankfully our God who controls the stars and determined the fate of the dinosaurs still cares deeply about April, having numbered every one of her regrowing hairs. At times this week, our hearts have been very low. And our souls have felt the stresses of the moment. But our God has remained forever great. There is no one like him among the gods. Thus, we turn to him afresh, trusting that he will help us and comfort us even when we feel surrounded by cancer. Our God is gracious and merciful today just as much as he was yesterday. We look to him for hope afresh.

Prayer Requests

As always, we invite you to pray for us. Pray that the new chemotherapy pills will shrink April’s breast cancer tumors. ~~Pray that Xeloda will last the full 8 months.~~ Pray that the drug takes effect before April’s new cancer symptoms settle in and that her side-effects will be minimal. Pray that the ~~Xeloda pills~~ provide April and me with a new normal that will allow her to freely walk, do housework, and homeschool our kiddos for at least one more semester. Pray for God to give us patience with our children when the days are long, and the cancer symptoms are present. And pray for God to bless us with the wisdom that we need to navigate these times of uncertainty that begin with April’s cancer’s and yet possess the power to shape most every aspect of our lives. Come talk to the God of mercies with us.

Thank you!