| Called to Serve in Paris: God is Opening Doors
Responding to the Needs of Paris
As we serve here in France, we are so excited to update you on a big advancement in our plans. We have officially decided to stay and serve in Paris long-term after language school. Even though our language school is just on the south side of Paris, we were not expecting to stay in this area and were prepared to seek opportunities in other parts of France. God, apparently, had different plans. We have always known that Paris is a unique entity within the country of France with its own identity, culture, and quirks, and we are now excited and honored to look toward how we can impact this beautiful city.
For the past few months we have been attending a church in Paris along with going to a small group. There have even been other opportunities like church picnics, new church plant meetings, and a large men’s retreat which has allowed us to see how the needs of Paris are currently being met. Experiencing the city and learning from local believers about the situation has just been so compelling. We truly believe that God can use us to serve the Kingdom very effectively here.
There is a French organization called CNEF (www.lecnef.org) which is leading an initiative to triple the number of evangelical churches in France (www.1pour10000.fr), and they have an up-to-date registry for about 75% of the evangelical churches in country. A search on their website for churches in Paris will yield only 74 results. The population of Paris is nearly 2.5 million! This city needs more workers and more churches now. The greater Parisian area has around 12,000,000 people and throughout this larger area there is only about 1 church for every 25,000 people.
To think of this another way, it is important to remember that less than 1% of the population of France identify as Evangelical Christian. If you add this to the minimally active Catholic population in the region, that still leaves nearly 11,000,000 unchurched people in a single metropolitan area.
Open Doors in Paris
Our desire to respond to the needs of Paris are great, but there are reasons that this city remains unreached. This is the heart of a post-Christian nation which has rejected Christ thoroughly. The cultural diversity of Paris, including a burgeoning Muslim population, does not make it any easier, and in many ways it can be more difficult to connect with people in a large city than in a small village.
Even so, a major part of our decision to stay here is that there is a harvest rolling in. For example, the church we worship at, Église Connexion (www.eglise-connexion.fr), was only planted in 2014 and its congregation already averages around 120 people. This is truly amazing for a church plant in Western Europe. A major part of this church’s success is that many churches in and around Paris are generously connected and helpful to each other.
Not only do we see encouraging efforts and results in Paris, but we see amazing opportunities for us to serve starting this January. There are multiple churches and families in the area with whom we have already had great discussions. The situation we find ourselves in is truly fascinating and clearly God’s doing.
What is Next for the Shady’s?
Learn – Connect – Plant
These three words define the framework of our short-term goals for serving in France. We knew that our language training would take us all the way through 2017, and this is the foundation of our current “learn” phase. We have also been extremely glad to have this phase include experiencing and learning about much of the French culture.
The next phase, “connect,” has always been about finding a church to plug into so that we could do effective ministry alongside those more experienced than us and learn from them. This past January, we were just hoping to find a single church which seemed like a good fit. In Paris, we have found multiple good situations and are prayerfully weighing our options. It is simply amazing!
We are not ready to do ministry full-time yet, because we are still focusing on the French language itself. In the coming months, we will continue to allow our future ministry efforts take shape and will follow God’s leading as well as we can. We are looking forward to updating you with our plans as they continue to develop.
Our call to France has always been about reaching the third phase of our plans: “plant.” With how wonderfully God has blessed our time of learning and has facilitated great connections, our confidence has never been higher that a path to our first church plant will naturally follow in the next few years.
Thank you to all of you who have supported us in so many ways. None of this is possible without your help.
Glen and Jessica Shady
Church Planters in Paris, France |
