Sunday 21st November, Pascal and I played "chassé-croisé" (the French version of "passing each other like ships in the night!) along the Rhône Valley! He was returning from Lyon where he had spent 4 days with the other church he pastors, and I was taking the train from Valence to go to Paris for the Centre Evangélique. I left the car in the car park and SMSed him as I sped away in theTGV (the Very Fast Train!)
The kids are old enough to cope for a couple of hours, but it is reassuring to have mobile phones to keep in touch.
So what is the Centre Evangélique??
3 days of conferences, round table discussions, AGMs for different clubs including our Former Students Association from our Bible Institute. It's bumping into people with whom you studied, worshipped or worked; names you have heard of; people you have admired. It's walking down aisles of stands representing editors, all sorts of Missions, Christian organisations and ministries, Free trade merchandise ... In short, it allows a global view of what's happening in Evangelical circles in France and French-speaking countries.
This year the theme was "Missions - what priorities ?"
My aim was to find answers to 3 questions :
* Do the French churches still need input from foreign missionaries (as you will no doubt understand, this is a vital question for me!)?
* Where are the French churches at in terms of their own understanding of mission?
* What happens if Christian churches from other countries want to send missionaries into France?
In answer to the first : yes, because there are still not enough Christians being trained to work in full-time ministry or in lay ministries. But it is vital that those coming to France to work, come along side French local churches to build them up and to train them to evolve missionally. Ideas from the Emerging Church movement, the incarnational church, are filtering through. Many French Christians see the need to be more outward looking and to review their church life in order to be accessible to the Post-Modern world, and they realise that people aren't going to just walk into their church searching for God, so they have to be out there being salt and light. However, they lack experience and, perhaps, confidence to make the necessary changes. Plus, let's be fair, France is a very hard country when it comes to being open about your Christian beliefs.
As for the second question :
For most traditional evangelical churches, mission means going overseas evangelising the natives!! Although in the last 15 years, this has translated into non-governmental organisations helping the Two-Thirds World countries and organising humanitarian projects. So two main ideas came through in the presentations : Christians involved in humanitarian projects need to remember that the sharing the Gospel is our priority, and, that France is as much in need of the Gospel as any other country. In fact many immigrants are bringing the Gospel to France and there is a big increase in the number of ethnic Christian groups in France, which is changing the face of Evangelicalism here!
And for the third question : There was no direct answer to this because it wasn't discussed as such, however, I spoke with a number of people and we hope that with the advent of a new federative body (CNEF - Conseil National des Evangéliques de France - the National Council for French Evangelicals) mission organisations will contact this Council and be directed into areas which need missionary input. It's too early to say if the CNEF will produce a national strategy, but it can already present an up-to-date picture of the Christian situation here.
I must admit that I was taken aback at the lack of mission vision apparent in our churches here! My overall reaction was "There is still an enormous amount of work to be done" and, of course, I was comparing France with our Anglo-Saxon culture.
One highlight : hearing Ivory Coast and Haitian Christians talking about recent events in their countries and humbly accepting responsibility for certain errors committed on a national level! They explained how God's refining fire is renewing and maturing the Christian witness in their countries. God bless them and help us to pray for them and to help them as God directs.
