From the May-August 2011 Issue
Advancing in southern France
Tony and Barbara Hynes
One of the most noticeable changes in the church in 2010 was the increase in membership from 16 to 22. This increase in manpower, and especially of new gifts and youthful energy, enabled the church to develop its evangelistic outreach and engage in new activities. For example, on Saturday 18th December an evangelistic meal was organised for almost sixty people. About half of them had never been to a service in our church; some were members of church families, others were personal friends and contacts.
Three days later ten thousand Christmas cards arrived (better late than never!), so church members mobilised again and managed to distribute eight thousand before Christmas Day. Those cards stimulated a good number to visit our newly created web site and a few others phoned or wrote for further information or a personal visit.
Of course the arrival of a new pastor was for us the main event of last year and a welcome meeting was organised in the local Assemblies of God chapel. It was good to have Martin Leech with us as he had contributed to the training of our pastor at Guessens. Another encouragement was the participation of the two pastors from the Baptist church at Toulouse, who in recent years have moved to a more Reformed position. We were glad also to see a few gypsies with their pastor and also the leaders of the English-speaking Christian Fellowship. Already we have been able to help these very varied groups in different ways and we look forward to more opportunities this year.
More space needed
Changes often bring problems. But not all problems are negative. Our main problem at present is the lack of space as the Sunday morning congregation has increased since last August from twenty-five to forty. Our meeting-room has a wall in the middle which goes two-thirds across the width of the room. The pulpit is now by the window and opposite this wall, so that the preacher looks at a divided congregation. As the room is less than 80 square metres the two ‘groups’ remain united in worship and prayer. In actual practice it works out quite well as those that need translation or have young babies can stay in the ‘noisy’ part while others remain in the main room. However this can only be a temporary solution. At the AGM which was held early in March the church decided to create a building fund with a view to purchasing land or a suitable property in the near future.
Youth work
Another ‘problem’ is that our Sunday school children are growing rapidly into young people with quite different needs. We are planning to reorganise that aspect of the work completely and this will probably mean returning to the typically French ‘Wednesday club’ for children’s work and Saturday activities for the teenagers. We have recently had contact, however, with the young pastor at the Baptist church in Béziers. He has a full-time job and a family of four young children. When we met him on Sunday he said how lonely he felt as the other ‘evangelical’ churches in town are all ‘charismatic’. We hope that we shall be of mutual help and encouragement in the future.
No conversions
A more basic problem is that although we have seen growth in membership over the years we have not seen conversions. Most of the newcomers who have started coming regularly to the Sunday service have made a profession of faith elsewhere and have come to the town as jobseekers or refugees. The weekly market stand provides the opportunity to witness to others, especially North Africans, but none have expressed a desire to study the Scriptures regularly or to come to a church service. Recently we organised a French course similar to ‘Christianity Explored’, but the results have been disappointing. Will you join us in praying for conversions?
Doctrinal base
Not only have we made progress numerically, but we have advanced in setting the church more clearly on a Reformed doctrinal base. After several months studying the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith the church agreed that all office bearers must adhere to it. We have started to prepare the church for the nomination of deacons and eventually other elders, but French individualism seems to slow down the process. We try to encourage regular reading of good Christian literature by purchasing books for the church library, but many seem to have lost the art of profitable reading. Although most French evangelicals have a great appreciation for Spurgeon they seem to be ignorant of the Calvinistic theology behind his preaching and his adherence to the 1689 Confession.
Associate members
We created the status of ‘associate members’ in order to accept two couples into closer fellowship without according them full membership. The French couple, are members of a church at Arles, in the Rhône delta, but they have a holiday home 50 km away, where they spend five months in the summer. During that time they are glad to contribute to the life of the church and fully participate in activities.
The American couple, are living with their five children near Limoux, where they are working to plant an evangelical church. He has started a Bible study group in his home and has a stand at Limoux market every Friday morning. He has an increasing number of contacts through these activities and also with parents of other children and contacts in the basketball team. His French is improving slowly and he is hoping to begin a regular Sunday service in the autumn. This situation is quite new for him. His home church, where his father is the pastor, is in a town in Texas which is smaller than Limoux, but with seven Baptist churches – not counting Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and various Pentecostal groupings. We would be delighted to welcome them as full members but they are hindered by differences in small practical details.
Please pray for us all as we work on these problems and look to ‘the Lord who provides’ (Genesis 22:14).