French, American: it's all the same !?

When I have described to American evangelicals the intellectual and emotional resistance that one faces when sharing the gospel in France, I have on a number of occasions gotten the response, “Yes, isn’t it terrible. It is like that here in the States too.” Well, is it really?

My wife was in the courtyard of our apartment complex talking to the daughter of a neighbor. The seven-year-old exclaimed, “But in light of the suffering in the world, how can you say that God exists?!” Now how many American seven year-olds do you know who would respond this way at the mere mention of the name of God?

Our neighbor has now become a believer and her daughter (above 9 years later),
who spoke with Louise in the courtyard, attends the Dijon GBC's youth group

As I mentioned in the earlier blog entries “RELIGIOUS SMOKE”, the Crusades and the Inquisition irreparably marred the European psyche. At about the same time that the United States was experiencing a tremendous spiritual revival, C.S. Lewis stated:

“Certainly I feel that very grave dangers hang over us. This results from the apostasy of the great part of Europe from the Christian faith. Hence a worse state than the one we were in before we received the Faith. For no one returns from Christianity to the same state he was in before Christianity, but into a worse state; the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulteress.”(“Letters,” 15 Sept. 1953, 89)

C.S. Lewis' "Letters"

In the 16th through 18th centuries Protestant believers fled to North America to escape European politico-religious persecution. In 1776 on the New Continent, the United States consequently inaugurated religious freedom and separation of Church and State as founding principles to protect people from the tyranny of the power of the monarchy wedded with the authority of the Church.

In 1789 on the Old Continent, France inaugurated state secularism to protect people from the tyranny of the power of the monarchy wedded to the authority of the Church. Seeing no other way to uncouple the authority of the Church from the power of the Monarchy, the French revolutionaries overthrew both, and promoted secularism as the remedy to the problem of Christendom that had been plaguing the Continent for centuries.

The Rights of Man

So France and the United States arrived at two opposing prescriptions to the common menace of Christendom (the majority Church wielding domineering political power). The United States promoted freedom of religion; Europe promoted philosophical secularism.

The United States is admittedly pragmatic, while Europe is hubristically philosophical. Take for example the American philosopher Benjamin Franklin’s aphorisms that still guide people today: “a penny saved is a penny earned,” and “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

My wife regularly pulls out vignettes from Franklin's life found in Isaacson's book. Our kids smile and humor her! (source: www.barnesandnoble.com)

Now compare the tenor of Franklin’s sayings to some European philosophers:

“God is dead” (Nietzsche).
“God’s only excuse is that he does not exist” (Camus).
And “even if God did exist, it would change nothing” (Sartre).

Friedrich Nietzsche

Albert Camus was the second youngest-ever recipient of Nobel Prize for literature in 1957

Jean-Paul Sartre received the Nobel Prize for literature, but refused it.
Sartre spent some time at the Château de St. Albain which was then owned by the Schweitzer family (Sartre was Albert Schweitzer's nephew); it is now the property of GBIM

Just as Jesus and his apostles formed the foundation of Christianity, just as the Founding Fathers formed the foundation of the United States, the Enlightenment philosophers formed the foundation of today’s Europe. And much of Europe's intellectual foundation was resolutely anti-religious, laid to protect people from suffering and death at the hands of Church authorities empowered by the monarchy.

The upcoming blog entry, “PHILOSOPHICAL MIRRORS,” will provide a chronological overview of some of the foundational voices of Europe from the 16th to the 20th century.

Caveat: if philosophy class was not your cup of tea or coffee or… just abstain. But if you would like to glimpse one of the chief contributors to European resistance to the gospel then read on.

Application: A pragmatic thought concerning evangelism: “Different strokes for different folks.”

As we all know, one faces obstacles when sharing the good news of Christ even in the United States where 35% of the population is evangelical, where laws were designed to promote religious freedom, where the mindset is pragmatic, where there is a favorable religious past—Christians made significant contributions to societal wellbeing.

How much more then does one encounter obstacles when sharing the good news of Christ in France where only 0.8% of the population is evangelical, where laws were designed to protect people from religion, where the mindset is philosophically anti-religious, where the atrocious religious past has marred Christ's reputation.
In light of these stark differences, it simply makes sense that one might use quicker, more direct approaches when sharing the gospel with an American, than with a European; it takes time for the European to overcome the visceral reaction against Christianity, to work through the intellectual questions, to discover who Jesus really is and what life with Him might truly be like.C. S. Lewis captured the heart of these differences by simply saying that one does not woo a divorcée as one does a virgin.

Hungry hearts in the home of the Sacred Heart

“We were filled with nervous anticipation, not knowing what the response would be,” Susie Hobert wrote about the Montceau church's outreach to the neighboring town of Paray-le-Monial (12,000 inhabitants). The Montceau congregation, 30-some strong made the trip to Paray for the first evangelistic worship service.

Susie and Dave Hobert (center) have been serving in France for 25 years

“We knew there would be unbelievers in attendance, because we took three with us from Montceau” and three others from Paray also attended. “We served refreshments after the meeting and most of the people stayed around to talk. Gérard, the pastor of the Mâcon church, brought the message, entitled "Contentment in a Troubled World." This is one small step for church planting, but one giant leap for the Kingdom!”

Sharing from the Bible in Paray-le-Monial

Susie Hobert writes:

The region of Burgundy in France is one of religious mysticism. Some of these beliefs have taken root over the centuries, and although some smile about them, they usually pass as acceptable.

Burgundy, France
(map thanks to: www.discover-france.info/regions_%20Burgundy_map.htm)

Biblical Christianity had spread to this region via traveling merchants, who, along with their wares, carried copies of the Bible, newly translated into French. Since few people knew how to read and even fewer could afford such a luxury as owning a book, the Bible was often read aloud in the public square of Paray-le-Monial.

Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, France

Initially this incited people to have readings in their homes and study the Bible for themselves when possible. With growing religious intolerance, these people sometimes risked their lives to continue in this way. In 1562, a group of worshippers were burned alive in a barn where they met near Paray; this fanned sparks of intolerance into a flame of religious wars that would last a century.

French Huguenots at the stake

The Edict of Nantes, one of official tolerance, was signed in 1598, permitting religious freedom of worship, as long as it was outside the city walls and could not be heard by those passing by. To curb the influence of the growing Protestant population, different religious orders were brought into the city — Jesuits, Visitandines and Ursulines. The latter came to teach young girls, who were sometimes forced into their schools.

Henry IV signing the Edict of Nantes

In 1671, the visions of a young nun in the convent in Paray began what came to be known as the Sacred Heart Movement. (All Sacred Heart churches throughout the world are a result of this vision.) The nun, who was known to be unstable and given to excesses in her worship, declared that she had seen, heard and touched Jesus and that He wanted her to give a message to the world: that He was hurt because people weren’t worshipping his sacred heart.

Stained glass from a Sacred Heart church in California

On the surface this movement seems simple enough, but it goes beyond thanking Jesus for His love and sacrifice for us. There is great detail given to the blood and water that poured out of Jesus’ side after His death, which represents the Church that came out of His side, just as Eve came out of Adam’s side. The water represents baptism, and baptism in the Roman Catholic Church is necessary to belong to Christ’s Church. There is a heavy emphasis on emotion and a lack of biblical instruction and understanding.

Tolerance of others’ religious beliefs diminished to the point of non-existence, culminating in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Protestant marriages were no longer recognized, thus making it impossible to pass on property to their children, who were considered illegitimate. Many Protestants at this time left France to go to more welcoming places, such as Switzerland and Germany. Protestants who left risked their lives, as they were not allowed to travel freely.

So in the 16th and 17th centuries, Paray’s population was about one tenth Protestant — there were over 50 influential Protestant families. By 1701 there were only 15 left, and after 1729, we have no record of any.

Present-day Paray is a pilgrimage town for the Sacred Heart movement. It is also a center for the charismatic Catholic movement; its summer conferences are well attended. There is still a fair amount of sacred lore which continues, such as stillborn children being brought to the Chapel of the Virgin of Romay, to be revived long enough to be baptized, in order to escape Limbo. Pope John Paul II made Paray one of his 3 stopping points on one pontifical trip to France.

We have begun outreach events and have held two Sunday services in Paray. We are not interested in engaging people in a Protestant vs. Catholic battle. We are praying for God to lead us to people with hungry hearts, who want to study the Bible and understand it.

The Montceau church reaching out to the people of Paray through this evangelistic worship service

Won’t you pray for the Montceau church’s outreach to the people of Paray-le-Monial, that God would put them in touch with people with hungry hearts ?

Worshipping Jesus Christ in Paray-le-Monial

A note of interest: the hall where these services are held is the tower of the old St. Nicolas Church; it is all that remains of a building that was completed with funds from confiscated Protestants’ property.

"You can't start a church from students!"

How many times have I been asked the question, "How can you build churches using young adults?" Actually, I have heard it more often as an assertion: “You can’t start a church from students!”

Well, fortunately no one convinced the GBIM Porto team of that.

The Comunidade da Graça of Porto, Portugal (Grace Church Porto), began in 1997 when a small group of college students started meeting in Tim & Julie Hawkins’ living room to study the Bible.

Edite (left) and Gami (center) were two of the students who helped start the Porto church

After a relatively short amount of time this student-led group perceived that they were living out the church in terms of worship, community, and mission and realized that they themselves were indeed a full-fledged expression of the local church. Since then, this missions-minded church has seen many people come to Christ and has also started points of light throughout the Greater Porto area.

Grace Church Porto

In 2002, Grace Church Porto decided that it would be wise to start the legalization process in order to be recognized as a valid expression of the church by the government and other churches. This also enabled the church obtain the legal status permitting them to financially support Charis Associates Alfredo & Rita Abreu, the Comunidade da Graça's own missionaries to Lisbon.

Alfredo is the former General Secretary for InterVarsity Portugal and is currently the director of the Portuguese Bible Society. He and his wife have begun a spiritual community in their home in Lisbon.

In June 2005, Grace Church Porto held its charter business meeting where the necessary documents were signed. It was just a short time later that the Comunidade da Graça was recognized legally for the very first time.


Gami Rosário, one of the university students from the 1997 bible reading group, was named the first Portuguese elder of the church, serving alongside GBIM missionaries; Alfredo Abreu will probably be named elder in coming months.

Gami is a child psychologist and Helena is working on a doctorate in psychiatry

Edite Briosa, also from that original student bible reading group, is serving as deaconess and has been a key figure in many of the church’s administrative activities, not the least to mention in the legalization process.

Edite also serves with the European Friends of Charis Associates committee

The church’s missionary vision hasn’t yet waned; it continues to pursue planting more points of light. Grace Church Porto sees itself as a church multiplier, and spiritual family connector, as it continues to pepper the Greater Porto area with expressions of Christ’s Bride.

For example, at the end of 2004 Grace Porto teamed up with an international church in Lisbon, which sent one of its finest couples to Porto to start Riverside International Church. This is now a point of light of about 30 people. Several Grace Church members have planted flourishing points of light, and some are praying towards starting new ones in their workplace, play places, and amongst their friends, families, and neighbors.

The Comunidade da Graça and the Riverside International churches gather for fellowship, worship and witness

So the FGBC can celebrate the coming out party of yet another sister church born from a group of students, the Grace Church of Porto, Portugal!

Plausibility and pray-ers

I had just turned the 8 P.M. news on, desperately wanting to get the latest on the reaction of the Muslim world to the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban. “R-r-r-ring!” went the phone. “Gr-r-r-r” went I.

Things degenerated from there. The telemarketer was from France Télécom, the phone company touting its new service. “No thank you.” “But this will only take two or three minutes.” “No. Thank you!” “But it is for our premium service.” “I am not interested. Thank you for the offer. Good bye!” “Sigh!” “Click.”

Can you relate to this sort of exchange with telemarketers? Do you “just say no” before you even hear what they have to say? I mean, this was the French equivalent of “Ma Bell” ! Why did I react this way when this was my phone company offering me a way to save money?
Because in 2003, France Télécom was fined 40 million euros over a phone book dispute.
Because in November 2005, France Télécom was fined 80 million euros for obstructing DSL competition.
Because in December 2005, France Télécom’s mobile division “Orange” was fined 256 million euros having conspired with two other companies to hinder competition. (Source: Libération, Nov. 9 and Dec. 1, 2005)
So I just said “no!” because I cannot imagine France Télécom offering me anything that is not overpriced, because I do not like the thought that the excess that I have been paying them is paying the fines levied against them, and because they have been hindering me from getting better, less expensive service elsewhere.

In comparison, this animosity is just a smidgen of the visceral reaction that many Europeans have toward the Church.

Due to the Crusades (killing others in the name of Christ) and the Inquisition (killing Europeans in the name of the Church), Europeans often just say “No!” to any offer to discuss Christianity, Jesus or the gospel.

This refusal to even listen to potentially advantageous information, whether it be less expensive telephone service or the Good News of salvation, is due to the reigning plausibility structure.

Plausibility structure is a grid of unquestioned assumptions through which new beliefs and ideas are filtered. Plausibility structure is society-wide group-think, the unquestioned, preconceived “givens” in that particular culture. Implausible, unfamiliar ideas, i.e. unbelievable according to that culture’s grid, are filtered out and rejected a priori. Those that are plausible—that agree with the grid—may be kept for further consideration.
For example, the evangelical movement in the United States asks the question, “Why, if there is so much evidence contrary to the theory of evolution, is it still accepted by many as a virtual fact?” Australian microbiologist Michael Denton, in a book that shook the evolutionary world, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985: 75), opines that it is because of the reigning plausibility structure. He explains:

The fact that every journal, academic debate and popular discussion assumes the truth of Darwinian theory tends to reinforce its credibility. This is bound to be so because, as sociologists of knowledge are at pains to point out… the plausibility of any theory or world view is largely dependent upon the social support it receives rather than its empirical content or rational consistency. Thus the all pervasive affirmation of the validity of Darwinian theory has had the inevitable effect of raising its status into an impregnable axiom which could not even conceivably be wrong.

Evolution became the infallible, accrediting grid through which passed any scientific theory and empirical data prior to consideration. It is the active plausibility structure within science, that which is taken for granted without argument. Results and theories, therefore, are inevitably skewed and colored in favor of evolution.

I have often shared reasons for why evangelism and church planting is difficult in France and Western Europe only to receive the response, “Yes, it’s like that here (in the U.S.) too.” Well, no it is not because the United States did not initiate and, after two centuries of spent gold and spilt blood, lose the Crusade wars. The Church in the United States did not subject its own people, for 650 years, to the fear of torture and death to insure doctrinal purity. Europe has a millennium of Christian history riddled with the blood of its own people and carnage instigated by the Church. This affects Europeans in a way that Americans can never comprehend.

Today, Europeans freely cite the atrocities of the Crusades (and the ostensibly religious wars in Belfast and the Balkans) and express their disgust at the Inquisition as reasons to not even consider Christianity; it is no longer plausible.

John Robb, Unreached Peoples Program Director with World Vision, says, “Satan works… by trapping a people in society-wide presumptions about reality.” In settings where “Christ is not obeyed… such strongholds go unchallenged, sometimes for centuries, gaining strength with every passing generation” (see Perspectives, 145-151).

But God has not left believers without resources to evangelize and plant churches within the European plausibility structure. Prayer is divinely powerful. As the Apostle Paul said:
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NIV).

I believe that in part, what Robb and the Apostle Paul called “strongholds,” sociologists call plausibility structure. John Robb observes:

Bold, determined spiritual warfare is required to weaken and dislodge these fortresses of presumption which are blockading “the knowledge of God” and denying “the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5). No amount of persuasion can liberate an entire people from such darkness. Prayer is utterly essential.

My wife and I have stepped up our prayers for Europe. Would you please consider renewing your commitment to pray for a missionary in Europe, monthly, weekly or daily? I am deeply grateful to the many faithful pray-ers involved in the spiritual warfare here in Europe and to the intercessory teams that have participated in evangelism and church planting through prayer.

For example, Mary Ellen has been praying for Europe for over 30 years. She wrote:

“Dear Paul, I am thankful that all went well. I woke early Sunday (think I was to pray)…”
“Dear Paul, We have been praying…. I still think of our prayers on the Eiffel Tower…you are working with a good team. Tell them that we are praying for their desires to be realized.”

I am more convinced than ever that “prayer is utterly essential” and that the good things that are happening in Europe today (and the next couple of blog entries will highlight some encouraging ministry developments) result as much from the ministry of intercession, as from the faithful efforts of the Christian workers in Europe. So thanks Mary Ellen, and thanks to all of you faithful pray-ers for Europe!