Settling into a new church

Église Saint-Lazare (ESL) meet in a cinema in the 9^th arrondissement of Paris near the St Lazare train station. It belongs to the Association Évangélique des Églises Baptistes de Langue Française (known as the Association Baptiste) and also has links to the Acts 29 church-planting movement. I’ve been attending for a couple of years now and, alongside teaching English, I’ll become more involved in the life of the church.

The motto of the church is Croire - Vivre - Proclamer (“Believe - Live - Proclaim”) and there is a heart for sharing the gospel with colleagues and friends across Paris, with a particular emphasis on the 8^th and 9^th arrondissements.

Most people attending the church are in their 30s and 40s and there are quite a lot of students too. About 70 people attend on a Sunday morning. There are six homegroups which meet weekly except for the first week in the month when the church has its prayer meeting (usually on Zoom). The service is quite traditional in style, with songs and prayers in the first part of the service, followed by a sermon and final song.

The first cinema showing starts shortly after the end of the service, so after-church coffee now happens in the Pret A Manger sandwich bar (no accents for this American chain!), a two-minute walk from the church. As the church has grown in numbers, there were so many people gathering in the cinema foyer for after-church coffee that it was too noisy and crowded for the cinema showings and the cinema clients.  

Please pray for wisdom as I develop relationships at Église Saint-Lazare and that God will guide me into situations where I can share the gospel and help make disciples. Please also pray that I can develop my English-teaching opportunities to be “salt and light” for those that I teach.