It's already the end of September!

Well our school year certainly started with a bang! The kids settled into their schools very quickly and are well on the way to a successful school year - thank God. Claire started High School this year and we were amazed at how suddenly she changed over summer to become a young lady.

Our two boys are going to have to decide during this year what they want to go on to. Luc will have finished his Bac Pro cursus - giving him a professional qualification with which he could find work in a garage (car mechanic). However, with the results he has he should go onto further studies. He's rather keen on spending a year in Australia. What do you know about the Gap year system .? Could he get into it as an individual ?

Marc has to decide on his senior high school programme - a general baccalauréat and in which branch: Literary (Humanities), Social Sciences, or Science or a professional baccalauréat which is like a Tech school qualification. He's more Science/maths than humanities. He's rather interested in the Army! Help! Not sure we like the idea.

So life goes on, but we are confronted by choices needing reflection and guidance. We are not in control of our lives, no matter how much we think we are. But when we are linked in with our all-powerful and mighty God, we can take steps of faith based on the information we have at hand.

Catholic schools in France

You may think that I'm getting very chummy with the Catholic Church in France because I write about what is happening in its circles and I mention a number of activities our church is involved in which are run by our 3 churches : Evangelical, Reformed and Catholic.

In fact, I read from a number of sources so I am getting info about what's happening.

From my earliest days in France, at Bible College, I was aware of the enormous Catholic Culture that underpins so much of what happens in France. I was also amazed at how much Protestants and Evangelicals were a minority and even considered as religious sects.

However, I have always been convinced that the LORD could and would renew the Catholic Church from the inside and this would bring about REVIVAL and CONVERSIONS. Working through the Catholic Church would have much wider ramifications than through our small evangelical churches. (I'm talking about the Holy Spirit - not me! I'm well and truly committed to Evangelical Churches!)

We are seeing steady growth within the charismatic and pentecostal churches now and they are being targetted by the media searching for scandal in order to sully their reputation.

I came across an article on the Catholic School system which confirms my thoughts on reaching people for God through Catholicism. "Le défi de l'enseignement catho. Oser une parole de foi." (the magazine La Vie, 24th Sept. 2009) "The major challenge that the Catholic Church faces is to survive the breakaway period of the 1970s and 80s and to find ways in which the youth of today can reconnect with their spiritual heritage."

Since 2005 the bishops have been re-working the basic principles of the Catholic School system to re-affirm their foundations in the Christian faith. Measures include explicitly announcing the Gospel in the schools' religious education classes and including a Christian perspective on every day events in the school day, and teaching Christian culture as a living culture (not just as heritage).

Do you know the Biblical passage where Paul writes to the Corinthians assuring them that it's not important who they ally themselves with (Apollos, Cephas, Paul ...). What is vital is that the Gospel of Jesus-Christ is announced. 1 Corinthians 1:11-17 and 1 Corinthians Chapter 3.  There is evidence of that happening in the Catholic Church - on a national and on a local level. Be thankful that our All-powerful God can reach whomever He wants, and let's pray that more and more people want to hear Him !

Getting ready for the new school year

Pascal and I went for a long walk this morning - it's our second last day of official holidays. So our thoughts and conversation turned to the next school year which starts 5th September.

Given that activities need to get off the ground pretty quickly if they are to have a chance to get established, we discussed in what direction we wanted to encourage our 2 churches to head. The St Fons church has a good dynamic leadership and is already fairly clear about the vision of their church. The Lamastre church is different and needs to have a period of reflexion leading to some practical outcome. We think we should ask three questions to get started :

1) What is "church"?  This seems pretty basic, but it needs to be defined and stated out aloud.

2)  What is a Church Council and why did the church members vote me onto it ?

3)  What do I think our church should 'look like' in 5 or 10 years time ?

Just as an example of what we could be discussing in our church is : in what way could we impact our local community and what are our opportunities for mission and evangelisation ?

Lamastre is inundated with tourists over summer, even more so since the Global Financial Crisis as people stopped travelling overseas for their holidays. What if we planned a regular summer mission (like you Aussies do Beach Mission! - Christians do a very limited amount of them on French beaches) and had church members distributing tracts or something leading up to a Christian Music concert ? We actually organise one every summer in partnership with the Reformed Church, but there is no before- and after-work done.

Let's look at our local situation. Traditionally, summer is a time of long holidays and resourcing ready for an increasingly busy professional and private life. Yet we discovered on coming here, that it's actually a very busy time for those who cultivate ! All the farmers are hard at work harvesting their fruit and vegies; people work long hours in their vegie gardens and benefit from the results. If you don't want waste you have to preserve or freeze your products. So asking church members to invest in a summer campaign could be too much. On the other hand, we could work hard on mission over summer and then let ourselves sink back into a less energetic routine over the winter months. However, Christmas is a big thing in our church as well and we have added a number of regular efforts which require extra people and energy.

In fact the Evangelist Eugène Rard, supported by the mission "SEMER" (which means SOW), has been following the caravan for 4 years in a bright yellow car with an open Bible on its roof. He takes a team of young French and foreign Christians with him and links up to local churches all the way around where the Tour stops each night. He explains : "The churches are often shy and don't dare show themselves [when the Tour comes through their town] or they don't know what to do. Most of them make the most of our team's presence to be more audacious. The evening events are often really pleasant and encouraging. On the other hand, although the church members willingly lodge the team, the financial support [coming from the churches] is very low."  

I know it's another year away, but you could pray for French churches to be bold in planning events which reach those who come into their 'firing line' !!