Missionary couple Simon & Radia Allchin reflect on over two decades of experience
As a missionary couple we came to Marseille over 20 years ago to develop a church plant which had been started by an American missionary a few years before our arrival. The task wasn’t always easy, but little by little the small group of believers became an established church in the district of Saint-Louis (a suburb in the north of Marseille), and eventually we managed to buy our own premises thanks to the prayers and support of many people… including France Mission supporters.
After about 15 years of being the principal pastor of this church, a new missionary couple arrived (Thierry & Laurence Steux), but Radia and I continued an active role in the church as members of the pastoral team. The time has now come for Thierry to retire, and so the church is now faced with some major challenges, especially as I have chosen to no longer play an active role on the pastoral team. However, this doesn’t mean that we’re no longer involved here, as I’ll explain shortly.
The following are the three major challenges now facing the church in Saint-Louis:
1) The need for bigger premises. The building we bought a few years ago has become too small, so we can no longer invite other people on Sundays, especially families with children. This obviously limits potential growth. We could create house groups, but in this area it’s important for believers to meet together on Sundays and especially to share the meals we have every three weeks or so. These meals provide an opportunity to invite new people but, for this, we need premises with rooms adapted to our needs.
2) The need for new and younger church leaders to replace those who are retiring. This is now a problem in many French churches. Some might say that new leaders should come from within the local church. We agree with this and are grateful for the faith and commitment of people in our church. However, with all the social problems of drugs and family breakdown in areas like ours, it isn’t easy to find new leaders with a solidly biblical vision and appropriate experience. And north Marseille’s reputation as a centre for drugs, gangs, and violence doesn’t encourage young Christian missionary couples to come and live here with their children. Although this reputation is rooted in facts, there is still a lot of media exaggeration. Many families have brought up their children in this area without any major problems.
3) The challenge of Islam. In this part of north Marseille, most of the population is from a Muslim background. These people will not come easily into a church building, so the church must think of other ways of going to them. Projects for new mosques and a Muslim cultural centre are on the drawing boards. We all want to see Muslims coming to faith in Jesus, but there’s a real spiritual opposition, especially concerning the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
As for our future ministry, we don’t have any current plans to go elsewhere. We’ll probably share our time between Saint-Louis and other churches and Christian groups in the area. Our main ministry will be evangelistic, playing an active role in a small team of about 10 people from different churches who meet regularly to pray and work for gospel outreach to the thousands who live in this part of Marseille.
The Church is God’s project to save people from every nation, tribe, and language, and despite this rather sober assessment of the current situation, we believe by faith that He has not finished with north Marseille. Thank you for all your support and prayers that enable us to carry out this mission.
