The Changing Face of Protestantism in France

During this summer break, I've been able to catch up on lots of reading (the advantage of not having to move house and redecorate for the moment!)

I've really appreciated all the back copies of the Christian magazines - national ones, Reformed Church ones and our own Free Church ones. It's given me an overview of the current situation and issues in France.

God be praised! It's a positive picture of opening up to our world, becoming conscious of our Christian cocoon experience, looking for ways to be relevant and authentic to our society, creative (but all too few and isolated), discussing ethical issues in public forums, forming an Evangelical Council thus creating a more public (visible) identity.... and the list goes on.

The President of the French Protestant Federation (who was a pastor in our Free Church Union) gave a talk at one of our rural churches about significant changes on the face of French Protestantism. He pointed out that:

* these changes would not be easy for our rural churches to handle because they will really have to open up to a different way of doing things - basically a big culture change!

* inherited protestant beliefs and traditions are dying out ; they are becoming increasingly difficult to pass on to the next generation in any case.

* Protestant churches are now experiencing much more the conversion aspect of the Christian faith and this is differentiated by its youthfulness, dynamic energy, optimism and its ethnic diversity.

This is true of our own situation in Lamastre. However, Pascal and I have seen some of this energy, youthfulness and optimism take form in our church. We are conscious of juggling these two facets of our church life and need wisdom in leading the church on to being relevant to our town and area, and respecting the solid traditional base of the old ways.

From this .........

.... to this!

We are pleased that our church is seen by 'outsiders' as the younger dynamic version. When we meet with the Reformed Church and Catholic Church we see their struggles with old-fashioned or more rigid structures and their difficulties in 'attracting' (is that the word I should use ???) families and younger generations, and even seekers. Please continue to pray for us and all the Christians of Lamastre.

Post Scriptum : Pascal is pastorally responsible for another church in the Lyon area, a majority of Caribbean believers. They definitely fit into the new face of Protestantism in France. The challenge for them is to consolidate their theological bases and Bible knowledge, set up pastoral and diaconate structures and to take care of new believers. Pretty exciting stuff!! :-)