News & Events
The Way, the Truth and the Life
When I was a student (long ago!), there was a craze for trying to cram as many people as possible into phone boxes and Minis.
Nowadays we play the same game on Sunday morning in the dedicated large room on the ground floor of our home on the south-west edge of central Paris!
It’s been three years since my wife Kerry and I came here with a clear commission and prophetic confirmation from God to start a new church called ‘le Chemin, la Vérité et la Vie’ (CVV) and God has blessed us mightily.
When the church plant started in October 2008, there was a core group of about 20-25 people. We saw slow but steady numerical growth for the first two and a half years and then, more recently, an acceleration. The number of people who would now regard CVV as their church is around 90-100 although thankfully they are never all present on the same day! We did manage to get just over 90 into the room at the last water baptism service!
Three quarters of the church are French and all meetings are conducted in French; the Brits and other internationals all make their best efforts and it works well.
Many in the church live right across the Paris region and some travel at least an hour to get to the Sunday meeting, with the average travel time at least 30 minutes. This is a challenge in seeking to build community, but we have a growing network of life groups across different parts of the city - currently five and probably at least two new ones early in 2012.
Knowing that God’s purpose is for us to grow, we have been looking for somewhere larger to meet since 2009. We have visited, telephoned and emailed hundreds of different places including cinemas, theatres, conference centres, other church buildings and private schools (it is not possible to hold church meetings in state schools in France). We have not yet found a suitable location which would be available permanently for Sunday meetings, so we have now begun a nomadic life of moving from one place to another on successive Sundays. However, in recent weeks a potential opportunity has come up for a permanent home in an ideal building in the very centre of the city - so this is currently our main prayer focus and would be a wonderful fulfilment of God’s prophetic promises and faithfulness.
Our leadership team from the start has been made up of myself and two men to whom God spoke in very different ways about joining CVV. For George (and Gill) Tee, for 10 years the leader of the Jubilee Church in Coventry, there was a heart conviction and many prophetic words for them to move to Paris in summer 2008. For Johan and Maryse Sode, who had been in Paris for the last 30 years, it was a longer process of prayer and conviction that they were being called to a new venture in a new church on the other side of town. For all of us, it has been a challenging time of change and personal growth which will no doubt continue as God leads us into the next phase.
We are now seeking to develop a wider leadership team as different giftings become apparent and we rejoice that God has sent us many talented musicians and young men well able to preach. 2012 is going to be an exciting time as we see the next stage of God’s plan unfold for Paris.
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Reproduced from Connect Magazine, Spring 2012.
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