The members of our little church plant in Ecouen, a village of about 15,000 people that is about seven kilometers down the road from us, recently made a decision to take an active role in their spiritual walk by investing in a church-based theological training program called ITEA in France. This is more than just a series of bible studies, it's a system of biblical education that is to involve the whole person, encourage character development and provide a church-based community that advances and learns together.
We had decided quite a while ago to not "do church" the way we've seen it replicated all around us, with a sort of evangelical liturgy, a sermon, and hand-shaking after, but rather to be open to the needs of our group and be ready to do "think different", so this wasn't that much of a reach.
One of the things that has happened almost immediately is that we've seen people really progressing in their biblical knowledge and in their participation in our sunday training times. Instead of remaining more or less passive and relying on the person preaching to provide the spiritual food, they are learning how to feed themselves. This training program has several levels ranging from a sort of Alpha course follow-up right to seminary and PhD levels so it will serve the church very well.
We've also gotten a lot more deliberate about trying to train people to take over various activities in the church in the future. For the past several months, Auralie, the daughter of Joseph who is the main pastor of the church, has been taking keyboard lessons from Russ and playing in the worship band. It's something we've tried to set up several times in the past but it just didn't seem to happen, but now this year it is. She is doing quite well, learning chords, scales, and fingering, and playing by ear. Her interest and enthusiasm for playing has opened the door for others to try to improve their musical ability as well.
Well, that's the good news.
The bad news about Ecouen is that we're facing somewhat of a crisis in terms of where we meet. The people now present are basically there because of a series of outreaches that were done in the town of Ecouen from 1995-2000. These outreaches used a large building in the town of Ecouen (aptly named the "Ecouen Center") owned by Greater Europe Mission and so naturally, the church started meeting there as well.
However, the building was in need of a top-down renovation and was eventually sold to another christian mission organisation that has just about finished this renovation and is ready to launch a very significant youth ministry as well as use the center for church retreats.
With the new role and ministry opportunities for the center, it will be very difficult for us to continue to meet there since there will be times when all the rooms will need to be used and we will no longer have a meeting place.
The renovations were supposed to be finished by november 15, 2009, but are taking a little longer than first thought (somehow this always seems to be the case in France...) so we have a little breathing room, but still the problem remains. We have tried looking at renting, but don't have the resources for this, and we don't really have any good possibilities at the moment.
Several years ago, this type of situation would have really caused us a lot of stress, but I've seen God at work in and through his people in so many ways that though I'm concerned, I'm not really under a lot of pressure about the whole situation. No matter what happens, I believe that God will continue to call people to Himself, and that those who are faithful and obedient will continue to grow and have an impact on those around them.
We don't know what's going to happen, but we are still convinced that God has a plan for this city and for these people.
Thanks for praying with us as we try to discern just what that plan is.
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