Paul, a first year degree student at Redcliffe College, wanted to use his six-week placement to find out more about life as a missionary in France.
According to Paul, only 2.2% of the country’s population is Protestant, and a fraction of these are evangelicals. The majority of church congregations are relatively small.
“I spent time with three churches in the Loire region, each with less than 20 members,” he explains. “They had experienced problems due to false or legalistic teaching in the past, and I found that mission in that context meant coming alongside hurting Christians, listening to them and helping them.
“Maria is a good example. About ten years ago, there were a lot of difficulties in her church, which left her very withdrawn and harbouring a lot of negativity. Over the last few years, missionaries working with the church built a good relationship with her, particularly supporting her when her husband died. Now she’s completely changed. She’s much happier speaking about her faith and her non-Christian friends see a huge difference.
“People in France seem to be very sceptical of evangelism projects. I think they need to see the effect that God has on the lives of others. This is happening more and more as the damage of false teaching is repaired and people begin to experience a personal relationship with God. That way the gospel is being spread most effectively by French Christians’ relationships with non-believers.”
This is confirmed by the growth these churches have experienced in the last few years. Paul says that people are starting to bring their friends and are naturally communicating the gospel to others. There is more confidence within the churches and a real eagerness to get involved.
Placements at Redcliffe are an important part of helping students find out about themselves, and how they fit into the ‘big picture’ of mission. So what did Paul discover?
“Something I hadn’t really considered before is that I had often thought of mission as going somewhere to bring my gifts and knowledge to help people and churches in need,” he says. “It is so easy to see myself as the important one, and to forget that the aim is to bring the people I am working with to a point where they don’t need me any more. My ultimate aim should be to help the churches to grow and become strong and stable enough to support themselves; to survive and thrive without the support of missionaries.”
Written by Joanne Appleton, Redcliffe College
