I am a bit preoccupied this weekend
with the precarious nature of so many churches in France.
We were a bit late setting off for Action Biblique this morning so we diverted instead to see our friends the Bixby's at Pessac Baptist Church. When the service started we were about 20, but I think by the time we finished we were more like 30. Two families had phoned in ill - that meant 10 fewer people, but we Daveys added 4. The Pessac Baptist Church is doing well. It's one of the stronger churches. (We sang "In the sweet bye and bye we shall meet on that beautiful shore" in French ! I recognised it from a Charles Ives setting. I shall ponder that for a while.)
However although the Pessac Baptist Church is doing well you hear now and again of churches struggling and wondering about their future - even city centre churches. A Pentecostal group in Blaye has closed down.
I spent a while the other day talking with a chap from one of the city centre churches. Numbers have fallen and people say that the pastor's preaching is not brilliant (whose is?) and that his wife doesn't do all the things a pastor's wife should (and where in the scriptures do we read of the biblical office of the pastor's wife ?) and so on and so forth. This chap is worth his weight in gold and he will continue to serve the church and stand by and encourage the pastor. Still these churches need help.
Meanwhile I was trying to think how to communicate the barrenness and the opportunity here. I thought of a comparison with Cardiff.
In about 1982 I settled in Cardiff. The city had at that time about 250,000 people. In a local Christian bookshop I asked if they had a list of evangelical churches in the city. They did some quick sums. There's about 50, they said, covering the spectrum from restoration churches through to exclusive brethren. Now I guess there'd be more like 60.
Bordeaux has almost a million people now. When I collude with people to count up the evangelical churches (same kind of spectrum) we run out of steam in the low twenties. There are some African churches we don't necessarily know about, so let's say there are 30 churches. The vast majority of those churches are small, even by UK standards.
We were a bit late setting off for Action Biblique this morning so we diverted instead to see our friends the Bixby's at Pessac Baptist Church. When the service started we were about 20, but I think by the time we finished we were more like 30. Two families had phoned in ill - that meant 10 fewer people, but we Daveys added 4. The Pessac Baptist Church is doing well. It's one of the stronger churches. (We sang "In the sweet bye and bye we shall meet on that beautiful shore" in French ! I recognised it from a Charles Ives setting. I shall ponder that for a while.)
However although the Pessac Baptist Church is doing well you hear now and again of churches struggling and wondering about their future - even city centre churches. A Pentecostal group in Blaye has closed down.
I spent a while the other day talking with a chap from one of the city centre churches. Numbers have fallen and people say that the pastor's preaching is not brilliant (whose is?) and that his wife doesn't do all the things a pastor's wife should (and where in the scriptures do we read of the biblical office of the pastor's wife ?) and so on and so forth. This chap is worth his weight in gold and he will continue to serve the church and stand by and encourage the pastor. Still these churches need help.
Meanwhile I was trying to think how to communicate the barrenness and the opportunity here. I thought of a comparison with Cardiff.
In about 1982 I settled in Cardiff. The city had at that time about 250,000 people. In a local Christian bookshop I asked if they had a list of evangelical churches in the city. They did some quick sums. There's about 50, they said, covering the spectrum from restoration churches through to exclusive brethren. Now I guess there'd be more like 60.
Bordeaux has almost a million people now. When I collude with people to count up the evangelical churches (same kind of spectrum) we run out of steam in the low twenties. There are some African churches we don't necessarily know about, so let's say there are 30 churches. The vast majority of those churches are small, even by UK standards.
Comments
When you say the churches are struggling and numbers are dropping... is this overall, or are there some groups that are "doing well" and attracting people to their group to the detriment of others?
Or are people becoming disinterested in gathering together?
In Bordeaux there is the usual city "musical churches" factor as people move around from congregation to congregation.
But sometimes I think the tide just turns in a church. It's almost like these 'losses of confidence' where nothing dramatic has heppened but people become unhappy and decide to leave.
I suspect that at those times it takes a work of God of some kind to turn the tide again. And that is the fundamental answer, of course.