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GEOGRAPHY

Area 543,965 sq.km. The largest country in Western Europe.

Capital Paris 10.7 mill. Other major cities: Marseille 1.4m; Lyon 1.33m; Lille 1m. Urbanites 73%.

PEOPLES

Indigenous and immigrant ethnic minority figures are approximate due to naturalization, assimilation, illegal immigration and intense anti-foreign propaganda obscuring the issue.

Indigenous 84%.

French 72.3%.

Regional minorities 9.4%. Breton 1.9m (26% speak Breton as first language); Occitan 1.6m; Alsatian 1.5m; Provençal 800,000 (30%); Flemish 750,000 (15%); Basque 730,000 (11% – 3 dialects); Corsican 341,000 (80%); Catalan 260,000.

Other 2.3%. Jewish 750,000; West Indian Antillean 280,000; Roma (Gypsy) 280,000 (4 languages); Réunionese 12,000.

International minorities 16%, of which 37% were foreign-born. Many illegal immigrants.

North African/Middle Eastern 9%. North African 3.7m, of which over 1.2m are Berber (Kabyle, Shawiya, Riff, etc.); Lebanese/Arab 180,000; Turk 180,000; Kurd 50,000.

European 5%. Portuguese 750,000; Italian 523,000; German 560,000; Spanish 413,000; Armenian 250,000; Polish 143,000; Russian 100,000; Yugoslav 100,000.

Asian 1.3%. Vietnamese 300,000; Chinese 180,000; Lao/Hmong 100,000; Cambodian 80,000; Tamil 30,000.

African 0.7%. Representing every Francophone nation and most West African ethnic groups – Malinke, Soninke, Fulbe, Wolof, Tuareg, etc.

Literacy 99%. Official language French. Regional languages in decline. French is the first language of 120 million people worldwide. All languages 25. Languages with Scriptures 12Bi 3NT 11por.

ECONOMY

Stability and growth leading to a high standard of living. The fifth largest economy in the world with a strong industrial and agricultural base. The service industry is now 70% of the economy. Danger signs: bloated bureaucracy, heavy state involvement in industry and commerce and an over-generous social welfare system resulting in high taxation (54% of all income) and persistent unemployment (11%). HDI 0.918; 11^th/174. Public debt 42% of GNP. Income/person $26,270 (92% of USA).

POLITICS

Democratic republic with strong executive presidency. A core member of the EU, but torn between being a good European state and retaining its own unique identity and culture.

RELIGION

Secular state with freedom of religion, but with a long history of severe persecution of dissenters and reformers before the 1789 Revolution. Rising concern in the 1990s about the activities of 'sects' led to the formulation in 2000 of legislation to limit the activities of any group labeled as a 'sect'.

Missionaries from France
P,I,A approx. 600 in 56 agencies to 55 countries: France 293, Burkina Faso 33, Togo 23, Chad 23, Cameroon 21.

Missionaries to France
P,I,A 1,519 in 155 agencies from 40 countries: USA 738, UK 230, Canada 74, Switzerland 70, Germany 64, Korea 34.

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Answers to Prayer

1 Evangelical Christianity has grown over the past 40 years despite the massive secularization of society, indifference and decline in church involvement. In 1940 the evangelical Protestant community in France numbered 60,000; in 1960 they were 100,000; in 1980 Evangelicals reached 277,000 and in 2000 they were 488,000.

2 The Roma (Gypsy) minority is now the most evangelical people in France. A people movement since 1960 has brought 25% of the population to personal faith in Christ – most in the Gypsy Evangelical Misson (links to AoG).

Challenges for Prayer

1 There are major spiritual strongholds that hinder acceptance of the gospel:

a) The brutal persecutions of the Huguenots (French Protestants) in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries is a dark stain on the soul of France. Many were slaughtered and 200,000 fled to other lands – to their enrichment and France's impoverishment. Yet Calvin, the great reformer and theologian, produced the only authentically French theological expression of Christianity. The loss of its biblical Christian population was a contributing factor leading to the explosion of the French Revolution.

b) The French Revolution in 1789-1801 was one of the defining moments of world history. While some good came from this upheaval, it also spawned much violence, desires for world domination, the deification of humanism and ultimately the ideologies that distorted world history for 200 years and only ended with the collapse of European Communism in 1989. The effects of that cataclysm still deeply affect French attitudes to themselves, other nations and to Christianity itself.

c) The insensitivity of the Anglophone nations, especially England and the USA. Evangelical Christianity is seen as an Anglo-Saxon imposition on France together with the cultural, linguistic and economic 'imperialisms' perceived to be eroding the French way of life.

d) The surprisingly widespread involvement with occult practices. The 50,000 full-time practitioners of these black arts outnumber the 35,000 known Christian workers. Every level of society is involved, with its inevitable spiritual impact.

2 France is at a crossroads. Like the national comic hero, Asterix, there is a brave fight against globalization, the need for radical reforms of the bloated welfare state, and state involvement in industry. The government needs courage to take painful decisions which are right for the country but resisted by those with vested interests.

3 France remains historically and culturally Catholic, but there has been a massive numerical decline in both Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. The non-religious have risen to 20% of the population and non-practicing 'Christians' have risen from 10% in 1970 to 50% in 2000. Regular church attendance has plummeted to 6 – 8% of the population. Great swathes of French society have no meaningful contact with a Christian church and have a profound ignorance of, and indifference to, the gospel. Without a dramatic change, Christianity is doomed to marginalized insignificance – pray for such a change!

4 The Catholic Church has lost much of its influence in society. Baptisms have declined from 75% of all children in 1970 to 20% in 1999. Many Catholics reject papal infallibility and rigid rules on contraception. Tensions exist between conservative traditionalists, liberals, modernists, radicals and charismatics. The latter group is where there is most life, and they have helped many to see the truths of God's Word and the need for a living, personal faith. Pray that more people may discover these.

5 Protestants were accepted at the Reformation, and at one stage some estimate that 48% of the French population had embraced the new teaching. Persecution in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries and humanism and nominalism in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries have reduced this to 1.6% in 2000. Protestantism is a respected moral force less tainted by the 'guilt' of the Catholic Church, but is spiritually too compromised by liberal theology, universalism and tolerance to exploit that advantage. Protestants are more numerous in Alsace and the south but nominalism and decline are too common. Yet there are staunch evangelical believers in most Reformed and Lutheran congregations. Pray for a restoration to the faith and commitment of their martyr forebears.

6 Evangelical Christians are few, scattered and split up among more than 130 Protestant denominations and nearly 3,000 congregations. Growth has been steady, doubling the number of Evangelicals between 1965 and 1990. Over 1,000 evangelical churches have been planted in the past 20 years. The Pentecostals, and the AoG in particular, have grown the fastest, tripling their membership over the same period. However, much of that growth has been among Roma, Antilleans and other migrants (the latter two forming a high proportion of most Parisian evangelical congregations). Pray for:

a) An impact to be made on the core French population. To most French people, the evangelical message is still seen as an alien ideology rather than a home-grown faith. Public over-reaction to extremist suicidal sects led to many evangelical groups and agencies being labelled 'sects' by a government commission in 1999. Evangelicals are described as 'extreme emanations from the Reformed Church'. This has made all forms of outreach more difficult.

b) Unity among true believers. The diversity and fragmentation of the evangelical witness hinder cooperative effort. The FEF (Fédération Évangélique de France) and the AEF (Alliance Evangélique de France) have become important for cooperation. The Fédération Protestante links together a wider spectrum of Reformed Protestant and Pentecostal denominations and is important in giving a larger common platform to Protestants.

c) Revival. Few Christians are delivered from spiritual bondages; fear of witnessing, indifference, marriage with unbelievers, and church divisions are the baleful results.

d) Vision. Many factors, such as dysfunctionality, insecurity and loneliness have created a search for truth and those who live it and proclaim it, which local Christians need to grasp. France Mission has promoted the goal, now being more widely embraced, to ensure the planting of one church for every 10,000 people by 2010. This will mean doubling the number of congregations in the country.

7 The unreached sectors of French society are many, such as:

a) The nearly 50 million French people who have no real link with a Christian church.

b) The many large cities with few evangelical churches – Nancy has three and Nantes, eight.

c) Of the 38,000 communes, around 35,000 have no resident evangelical witness. Many rural communes are quite traditional and resistant to change.

d) The Basques in the southwest who are virtually without an evangelical witness in their language.

e) The Loire Valley, Brittany, Picardy, Limousin, Champagne-Ardennes and Calais which are particularly lacking in evangelical congregations.

f) The island of Corsica. Birthplace of Napoleon, it is renowned for its violence. In the population of 260,000, there are 12 small groups with 250 evangelical believers.

8 The unreached minorities:

a) The large Portuguese, Spanish and Italian communities are more receptive than in their native lands. They have generally not adapted well to French society, but there are few believers who evangelize them in their own languages. There are only seven Portuguese or Spanish congregations for over one million people.

b) The Jewish community, fourth largest in the world and the largest in Europe with 320,000 in Paris alone and a further 100,000 in Marseille. Eighteen workers in five missions labour among them (MT, GMU, CWI, JFJ and the French TMPI). There are about 600 believers among them and three known assemblies of Messianic Jews.

c) North Africans are almost entirely Muslim, few ever having heard the gospel. The majority live in large low-cost housing areas in larger cities. The growing hostility and racism of French 'Christians' have both antagonized them and provoked a strong, well-organized Muslim movement that complicates Christian outreach to them. Pray for French and international churches and agencies seeking to break down barriers through friendship evangelism, radio, film, BCCs and literature. Agencies involved: AWM, CCCI, WEC, SIM, SBC, UFM, IMI and IFES.

d) The Berbers form a large minority among the North Africans and possibly make up the majority of Algerians. Kabyle believers have been increasing in number and are active in reaching out to their own people in France and North Africa and producing videos, tapes, radio programmes and literature in Kabyle. The JESUS film on video is being used widely in various Berber languages.

e) Black Africans have come in large numbers as students, refugees and work-seekers from Muslim areas of Francophone Africa. There is little specific outreach to the Bambara, Wolof, Malinke, Soninke and others. Pray for effective church-planting strategies and the committed workers to implement them.

f) The large number of Indo-Chinese refugees of the 1970s and '80s from France's former colonies is gradually being absorbed into French life. A small minority have become active Christians – some integrated into French churches, others in their own ethnic churches mainly planted through the ministry of CMA. There are 11 Hmong-Lao groups, seven Chinese (one through COCM), three Cambodian and two Vietnamese congregations, but the few pastors and missionaries can hardly cover the many scattered communities.

g) The growing Turkish, Iranian and Afghan communities need to be evangelized.

9 Islam is now the second religion of France. Its growth has been largely through immigration and a higher birth rate, but there are an estimated 150,000 French Muslims – mostly through marriage to a Muslim. There are deep divisions within French Islam between fundamentalists and secularists, which is exacerbated by the civil war in Algeria. There is also a large under-class of young people that is becoming a seed-bed for crime, violence and Islamism. Most Muslims are urban. There are less than 100 Christian workers seeking to reach them, but there are nearly 2,000 known Muslim-background believers with 15 groups meeting.

10 There are over 12 residential Evangelical Bible Schools and Seminaries, both denominational and interdenominational, with around 250 students. Notable among the latter are the European Bible Institute in Lamorlaye, Institut Biblique de Nogent, and the Vaux Evangelical Seminary. There are also denominational seminaries for the Baptists, Pentecostals and the Aix-en-Provence Seminary for Reformed Church students. Pray for:

a) Full-time workers to be called for ministry in France. There are only about 3,000 full-time Protestant workers (about one-third being foreign), and few of these are successful pioneer church planters – most of the latter being expatriates.

b) A deep work of the Holy Spirit to equip those trained with both the theological understanding and spiritual maturity to make an impact for eternity. There is a serious lack of basic Bible knowledge. Most, even educated believers, are content with a minimum of understanding.

c) The blessing of the whole Francophone world through French and foreign students who graduate. A high proportion of students are from other lands.

11 French Evangelicals, though few, have sent out over 300 missionaries into 55 lands. General missions interest in Protestant churches is low and support small. The largest agencies are: YWAM (68 workers), AoG (52), Mission Baptiste Europeéne (18), WBT (18), OM (13), SIM (11), Cooperation Evangélique dans le Monde (11). Pray for the vision for world evangelization to be embraced by the churches. Pray also for the impact of the French edition of Operation World, entitled Flashes sur le Monde.

12 French and foreign missions have a vital servant role to play in evangelism and church planting. There are not enough full-time French Christian workers to begin to meet the need. Missionaries find it hard to adapt and win acceptance, and church-planting has had limited effectiveness when foreign patterns are imported. Increasingly missionaries are finding a useful church-planting ministry with indigenous structures (SBC, France Mission, Eau Vive, BCU, ECM, WT, TEAM, UFM, GEM, GMU, WEC, etc.). Fruit is hard-won, discouragements many, and the missionary dropout rate high. Pray for good identification with French culture, perseverance, effectiveness, provision of adequate financial support and spiritual power.

13 Youth ministries are vital in a nation where dysfunctional families are 'normal', moral absolutes absent and where many young people are bored, frustrated and confused. Pray specifically for:

a) Children's ministry – CEF ministers through Good News Clubs and Christmas clubs in homes. From their Paris base, French literature for children is exported across the world.

b) Young people are more receptive to the gospel. Many groups and missions have specialized in this ministry – Youth for Christ, YWAM, CCCI, Young Life, Eau Vive, ECM, TEAM through camps, clubs, coffee bars and ministry in secondary schools; Teen Challenge among drug addicts; SU in schools and through Bible reading notes. Pray for many young people to be saved and integrated into good evangelical churches – the latter step usually being much harder than the former!

c) There are 68 universities and over 2 million students in tertiary education – 300,000 of these are foreign students. Ministry to these students has national and worldwide implications! Witness in this highly secular and post-Christian environment is hard. Student protests have increased during the 1990s – rebels without a worthy cause. The evangelical witness has been slow to develop, but now there are 2,000 students linked with the 55 GBU(IFES) groups. Less than half the universities have a GBU group, and most are very small and predominantly made up of overseas students. CCCI and Navigators also have a growing ministry on campuses. Students are more open than ever, searching for reality in an ideological vacuum.

14 Christian Help Ministries for prayer:

a) The Bible Society published the Good News Bible in French in 1982. Pray for the impact of God's Word. Only 5% of the population owns a Bible and 80% has never even handled one. The resources of the Bible Society are heavily committed to providing Scriptures for other Francophone lands. A new French study Bible was published in 2000.

b) Literature is a valuable tool for evangelism and discipleship. Literature campaigns by CMM (EHC), CCCI, and OM have been useful to sow the seed widely. Pray for Christian publishing houses and bookstores (80) of which 11 are run by CLC.

c) Radio and TV evangelism became a new tool when local broadcasting licences were more easily obtained. Pray that Christians may cooperate to make effective use of these media. An association to promote this was started in 1982. Radio Évangile (French branch of TWR) is involved in training French believers for local broadcasting. The latter also has a significant ministry via TWR Monte Carlo and by means of satellite and FM (8 hrs/mo). HCJB broadcasts a further 12 hrs/mo to France from Ecuador. AWM's Radio School of the Bible, primarily for North Africans, is aired on 3 French stations.

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