Michael Peter Woroniecki (also Michael Warnecki, Warneki, Worneki, Mike War, and Mike Wazowski;Suzy Spencer, Breaking Point, St. Martin's Library, p. 176,213 (Warnecki, Worneki "and a few other names") born February 4, 1954) is an American evangelical street preacher, known for his ministry on college campuses and at various public events across the US over the span of the last 30 years.
Early life and family Woroniecki was the youngest of a large Polish Catholic family who was raised in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. His mother became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Movement in the early 1970s and sought to introduce her children to the born again experience. In 1972, seeking a way out of Grand Rapids, he "made a deal with God" that he would attend prayer meetings with his mother if he could make All-City tailback in football and thus receive a scholarship for college. He got the title and the scholarship.
Woroniecki attended Central Michigan University (CMU) where he studied psychology and played varsity football from 1972 to 1976. He boasted of being able to bench press 400 lbs and run a 4.5 second 40-yard dash. Woroniecki explains in his Christian testimony that he forgot his deal with God and had a "wild streak", involving himself in alcohol and partying. Woroniecki states that he was known to his teammates as the "Crazy War" and says he was arrested the summer of his freshman year for fighting in a bar, just to prove to his peers how tough he was.
During spring football practice in 1974, Woroniecki suffered a disabling football injury that threatened his athletic aspirations. About the same time, Woroniecki's mother gave him a Bible, which he began to read. Woroniecki says God used this time of suffering and depression to break him of his pride, preparing him to receive the Gospel.O'Malley, p. 102. Woroniecki attended the annual Catholic Charismatic Conference at University of Notre Dame the weekend of June 14, 1974 with his family. He was in the stadium when he says he told God that he didn't know what the saying "born again" meant, but that he wanted everything that the Lord had for him. While sitting alone in the stadium, Woroniecki says that he gave his life to Jesus. At that moment, Woroniecki believes that he "met the living Jesus". "The grass and goalposts were the same but I was changed" says Woroniecki, adding that he found significance in the recently painted Touchdown Jesus on the library mural right in front of him.
Woroniecki returned to college football practice in July that same summer. One day after practice, while in a bar with his teammates, Woroniecki says he ordered water in the place of his usual beer. His friends becoming curious, Woroniecki explained that he had met Jesus. Used to his outrageous life-of-the-party humor, they all mistakenly thought he was joking, and Woroniecki became the focus of ridicule and rejection by his teammates. He writes that he could not understand why people like Roger Staubach, a famous Christian athlete, were respected, yet he was rejected, until he read John 12:24 and 25. He reasoned that if the world hated Jesus without cause, they would also hate and reject him if he followed him.
The same year, Woroniecki and his teammates went on to win the NCAA Division II Football Championship for the only time in Central Michigan's history.O'Malley, p. 103. Woroniecki graduated from Central Michigan with a B.S. in Behavioral Sciences in 1976. While at CMU, Woroniecki met a cheerleader from Detroit, Michigan, Leslie Jean Ochalek (later renamed "Rachel Rebekah"). Woroniecki and Ochalek married in 1979.
Education Charles and Rose Woroniecki, Michael Woroniecki's parents, were members of the Basilica of Saint Adalbert, a Roman Catholic church in the Polish west side of Grand Rapids. Michael Woroniecki attended a Catholic grade school adjoining his family's parish and then advanced to West Catholic High School, another parochial school in Grand Rapids. During his senior year of high school in 1972, Woroniecki began attending Catholic Charismatic prayer meetings, part of his "deal with God."
After graduating from Central Michigan, Woroniecki attended Melodyland School of Theology at Anaheim, California starting in 1976. A month after returning home from seminary that summer, his mother died from colon cancer.
Woroniecki applied to the Dominican and Franciscan Orders of the Catholic Church with the intention of helping to bring reform from within the Church. In his final round of interviews with the Dominican seminary near Chicago, Illinois, Woroniecki was refused immediate admission and decided on a different course of action. He then applied to the Franciscan seminary in his own hometown of Grand Rapids. After a semester of study at Aquinas College, Woroniecki was again offered an extended preparatory period. He chose to pursue other means of study.
In 1978, Woroniecki was accepted at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, a non-denominational institution. Woroniecki says he was "deeply grieved" by the professionalism and business-like attitude towards the things of God at Fuller. This atmosphere, Woroniecki claims, ultimately compelled him to stand on the campus lawn and preach "the living Jesus" to fellow students and professors when they came out of the chapel. He confronted classmates over the attitudes of scholastic pride and hypocrisy that he thought to contradict the life of Jesus of Nazareth.O'Malley, p. 104. Woroniecki obtained his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller in 1980.
Upon returning to Grand Rapids, Woroniecki briefly attended and occasionally preached at Maranatha Church. Shortly thereafter, Woroniecki left to start his own home church and street preaching ministry.O'Malley, p. 105.
Ministry Preaching Woroniecki returned to Grand Rapids after graduating from Fuller Seminary in the summer of 1980, where he preached on the streets and at various events while carrying a sign or cross, starting his own ministry called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship. As a result of, according to Woroniecki, "youthful zeal" and a city unsure of how to handle his unconventional evangelistic approach, Woroniecki was arrested numerous times over the next year and a half.Evangelist Michael Woroniecki Meets the Press in the 'City of Churches, Curt Christy, December 1, 1981 In October 1981, he offered to leave town if the pending charges against him would be dropped.Street Preacher Will Leave City to Beat Charges, Steve Grinczel, The Grand Rapids Press, October 8, 1981Steve Grinczel,"Woman Prefers to See Street Preacher Tried", Grand Rapids Press, October 12, 1981Assistant City Attorney Michael D. McGuire, "Dissent!: Woroniecki Case, Grand Rapids Press, October 18, 1981 The offer was accepted and Woroniecki began to travel the US, stopping first in Atlanta, Georgia where street preaching is permitted.Follow Up: High Volume Street Preacher Reports Progress in Sunbelt, Grand Rapids Press, December 14, 1981"Traveling Preacher Arrested," Arizona State University State Press, November 3, 1986.Jeanette Waite, "Anti-Mormon Protest Disturbs Campus", BYU Press, October 6, 1994 Article
To deliver his message, Woroniecki chooses college campuses, large sporting and political events as well as city centers. His wife and six adult children are often seen ministering alongside him.The Truth About Michael Woroniecki "Website" In the early 1990s, he shipped a Ford van to England and then ferried it to France. The family traveled together across Europe and then to Tangier, Morocco. In May 1995, they preached in Casablanca, where Muslim law makes it a crime to declare Jesus as the Son of God. A riot resulted and the family was arrested. They were interrogated for eight hours by state officials, then ordered to leave the country.O'Malley, p. 106; Seattle Times News Services, Around the World--Rabat, Morocco, "Oregon Missionary Family Arrested in Casablanca", The Seattle Times, May 31, 1995; "Casablanca ", USA Today (European Edition), approx. May 31 – June 2, 1995, p. 2.
Since leaving Grand Rapids 30 years ago, Woroniecki and his family have preached in all 50 U.S. states, Latin America, Europe, Russia and Morocco.Article, Judgment Day? Freedom of Speech on Campus, John Nakatsu, Kaleo (The Voice), March 19, 2008Going for the Gold Steve; Grand Rapids Exile Preaches on at Olympics, Steve Grinczel, The Grand Rapids Press, August 4, 1996
Music Michael Woroniecki began creating music with an electronic keyboard in 1986.Michael and David Woroniecki Bio on Reverb Nation.com "Site" In the early 1990s he began using this music as another form of ministry on the streets of Europe. During the summers of 1992 to 1996 he performed in downtown city plazas and centers in places like London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Berlin, Budapest, Athens, and Moscow. Woroniecki says he used the music along with dances and Biblical skits as a means of communicating the gospel in countries where they did not speak the language. Michael does not consider himself professional but believes "that music is a powerful tool to touch people of all walks of life".
During the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Woroniecki was reported to have performed with his family outside the various venues using the event to reach the international crowds with his message. Beginning in 1997, Woroniecki traveled throughout Mexico and Latin America, playing on the streets.
Woroniecki claims that, from 2006 to 2009, he has self-produced eight music CDs which he and his family have distributed in their travels.Michael and David Woroniecki on Reverb Nation "Website" Music by Michael Woroniecki: Time Seizure-2002-English, Traveline: ¿Donde Puedes Ir?-2003-Spanish / English, Measures of a New World-2008-English, Las Alturas de los Quebrantados-2009-Spanish / English , Mi Amigo-2009-Instrumental, Aperture, 2009-InstrumentalVaried Followers share Faith with Campus, The BG News (Bowling Green), Stephanie Guigou, September 25, 2008 "Archive"
Religious views
Woroniecki preaches that one must "get alone, study the New Testament and seek the Living Jesus to be Born Again".God's Warriors come to UCO, Aaron Wright, The Vista, University of Central OK., August 28, 2007 "Archive" He says that today's "churches" are not the true Church as seen in the Scriptures and cannot save anyone.Spencer, p. 137.
Woroniecki has used large banner signs and often a wooden cross to convey his message for the past 35 years.Michael Woroniecki preaches Jesus not murder, Central Michigan Life, Heather Bellife, May 22, 2002 "Archive" In his ministry Woroniecki addresses the Biblical themes of hypocrisy in the institutional system, grace, salvation, forgiveness, hell, judgment, deception and the consequences of sin. Because of this, Woroniecki has taken his share of verbal and physical opposition. He claims that these are the "last days" and that Jesus will soon return to judge the world.Interview with Woroniecki family member outside the Republican National Convention, Baron Dave Romm, KFAI-News FM 90.3 and 106.7, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, September 3, 2008 Explosion, Michael Woroniecki, Tract, circa 2003"Archive" Woroniecki cites various Scripture verses in his pamphlets to substantiate his message that only by faith can a man be saved from hell and reconciled to God, a doctrine accepted by most mainstream Christians and defined by Martin Luther as sola fide.Fact or Fiction, Michael Woroniecki, Tract, circa 2002"Archive" What About YOU?, Michael Woroniecki, Tract, circa 2003"Archive" Slammed, Michael Woroniecki, Tract, circa 2004 "Archive"