Reflections by Paul Cooke, France Mission’s UK Director
On 2nd March 2025, FM’s main partner organisation in France – Perspectives – trialled their first ever “church-planting Sunday”, providing an opportunity for churches to pray for church-plants in their area and to seek the Lord’s guidance about whether they themselves should consider planting.
On 1st March 2026, the initiative was repeated, but not just in Perspectives churches. This time all 500 or so churches in the Réseau FEF (French Evangelical Federation) were invited to take part. The needs in this area remain great: over 4,000 churches still need to be planted before the goal of one evangelical church for every 10,000 people in France is reached.
This coordinated event is a great example of increasing unity and collaboration within the evangelical world. The volunteer training programme discussed by Peter Calvert below is another example – as it happens, another Perspectives initiative that’s been taken up by the Réseau FEF.
This spirit of unity and collaboration was very important in last year’s Célébrations 2025 – joint regional services coordinated and promoted by the CNEF (French Evangelical Alliance) on 5th October. Over 85 such services took place, with more than 70,000 people attending. As David Violleau from Agapé France told me: “Our joint service with churches from across the Ille-et-Vilaine department was attended by around 1,000 people. A historic first! It was such a powerful witness to our world that Jesus is still worthy of celebration today! It was also deeply encouraging to see over 1,000 evangelical Christians from the region, united in their diversity, lifting up the name of Jesus with one heart. This is a truly significant moment for the gospel in Brittany.”
This was just one of the projects that France Mission supported last year through its General Fund.
