Faith in Action: The Journey of the Slovak Evangelical Alliance

The Slovak Evangelical Alliance was founded after the “Velvet Revolution” in November 1989, when citizens in the then communist Czechoslovakia decided to go further on the path of Western-style democracy. In 1990, the Anglican evangelical theologian Dr. John Stott visited Czechoslovakia and encouraged representatives of Protestant churches to establish the Evangelical Alliance. However, the political development was directed towards the division of Czechoslovakia. Already during the initial consultations of representatives of the Protestant churches in 1990 and 1991, we decided to establish two separate national alliances – the Slovak and the Czech – and time has shown that it was the right decision. This was also confirmed by the subsequent division of Czechoslovakia in 1992 into two independent states: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

The founding general assembly of the Slovak Evangelical Alliance was held on January 8, 1992 in Bratislava. The alliance was registered as a civic association (or non-profit organization) at the Ministry of the Interior Affairs on January 31, 1992. So the Evangelical Alliance has been operating in Slovakia already for 33 years. We see the tasks of the Slovak Evangelical Alliance (SEA) in two areas: A) external tasks and B) internal tasks. 

1. A) Our external tasks

2. Support for interdenominational evangelistic events

SEA’s external tasks include support of evangelization events. Evangelization itself is the sovereign task of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ (Great Commission – Matthew 28:18-20).

The nineties of the last century were marked by enthusiasm for freedom, marked by an effort to catch up on what was missed and try the unknown. It was the time of the first joint interdenominational projects under the SEA banner: evangelization with US astronaut James Irvine in the Bratislava amphitheater promoted on state radio and television, or weekly evangelization with evangelist Luis Palau in the Great Lutheran Church in Bratislava. The culmination was a satellite evangelization with Billy Graham, which we organized in several Slovak cities. One of them, which was held in Bratislava, was attended by the president of the country at that time, Michal Kováč, and his wife. It was a time of full churches and stadiums, people were spiritually hungry after 40 years of atheism. We dare say that SEA has made good use of this period of spiritual awakening and coordinated many of the aforementioned activities. But of course, more could have been done. 

In the first decade of the new millennium, satellite evangelization took place with the German evangelist Ulrich Parzany, who followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Billy Graham. But gradually the interest in this form of evangelization in our country decreased. 

The second decade of this century is generally marked by the secularization of society and spiritual depression and even scepticism. The credit of churches and Christians in general in society has declined compared to the 1990s for various reasons.

2. Prayers with members of parliament

The SEA’s secular society-oriented tasks also include support of prayers in parliament or prayers with members of the Slovak parliament.

3. Social and ethical issues

We see the last but not least role of the SEA towards a secular society in the public interpretation of Christian attitudes to fundamental social and ethical issues. We still have large reserves in this area.

1. B) Our Internal tasks

2. Prayer

This includes, first of all, the organization of the Alliance Prayer Week. The annual January Alliance Prayer Weeks have been a fixture of interdenominational cooperation for decades and functioned even under totalitarianism. In Europe, they have been running year after year since 1846 for almost 180 years, which is a respectable number. Prayer is part of the DNA of the Church of the Lord Jesus and is an essential part of it. For many, the Alliance Prayer Week has become synonymous with SEA.

2. Evangelization and Mission

In 1994, representatives of The Alliance for Saturation Church Planting from Budapest also participated in the SEA general assembly and offered to supply the necessary materials and trainers if we do accept their offer. This movement has a vision to help churches to prepare leaders with a missionary vision to establish new churches. Until 2000, a total of 6 annual cycles took place, which were attended by several dozen interested people, delegated by various churches. Some graduates of these trainings have successfully applied this knowledge in the establishment of the church in practice. 

3. Support of Congregational Life

This includes Natural Church Development (NCD) training and annual spiritual-relaxation meetings for sisters from various denominations.

The principle of NCDs is based on the assumption that growth is a natural manifestation of life. If the congregation is not growing, the cause should be identified and efforts should be made to eliminate it. It offers materials for evaluating strengths and weaknesses in congregational life. The pioneer of this method is Christian Schwarz, who is the founder and president of the Institute for the Natural Growth of the Church (NCD International) based in Germany. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2010, he was personally in Slovakia to promote this idea. SEA has translated and published two of his books: The Three Colors of Service and Color Your World with the Natural Growth of the Church. The handbook Three Colors of Spirituality, which has not yet been published, has also been translated. Perhaps it will remain only in electronic form. 

Spiritual-relaxation meetings of sisters have been held since 1995 (i.e. for 30 years). An average of 50-100 sisters from different denominations attend the meeting. Several of them participate in these meetings repeatedly because of its spiritual contribution.

4. Family Life Support 

The National Marriage Week (NMW) has been organized for 15 years every February. This organization prepares various joint activities for married couples to promote the biblical idea of the meaningfulness of the family even also in secular environments – usually with a positive social response. SEA is an official partner and supporter of NMW.

5. SEA‘s Local Groups 

We currently register three local groups: in Bratislava, Košice and Levice.

Current situation

Today, we are already in the middle of the third decade of the new millennium. During the COVID years, work at SEA stagnated. There was a lack of new impulses. The change came in 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine. We managed to get a grant from WEA in the amount of USD 20,000. We have offered and distributed this help to churches that have been intensively involved in helping refugees from Ukraine.

We look to the future with a slight optimism:

We believe in a new wind in SEA’s sails. We have addressed the leadership of the Protestant churches and for the first time we have representatives in the SEA Council delegated by the headquarters of the churches.

We believe in the synergy effect of alliance cooperation of committed Christians. The perspective of SEA is also confirmed, for example, by the growing  interest in cooperation on the part of new collective members. 

We believe that SEA is a suitable platform (we do not have any other as Protestants yet) to network various missionary, social and educational activities of Christians and subsequently promote their activities under the banner of SEA.

We believe that if we are faithful to our calling and commission to carry the gospel in our generation, the revitalization of SEA will succeed and its ministry will bring blessings also to the next generation. 

By Ľubomír Vyhnánek, Chairman of the Board