News from France Mission churches

France Mission is growing!

France Mission began over 50 years ago, in 1957, and until the 1970s was to remain a very small movement with just six churches.

But God had given France Mission's leaders a vision for church multiplication, a vision which still motivates FM today.

By 1990, there were 39 FM churches. Today there are 64! Across France as a whole, a new evangelical church is being planted every nine days, and France Mission is one of several movements with a vision to see an evangelical church established in every town of 10,000 people.

A new church-plant will often begin as an "antenne" (outpost) of an existing church. So France Mission's church in Chartres has "antennes" in Beaumont-les-Autels and Châteaudun, and the church in Asnières an "antenne" in Taverny.

As these new churches grow, they become "églises en formation" (developing churches), later "églises en structuration" (churches with their own legal identity and leadership structure) and, as God gives growth, "églises majeures" (adult churches).

And then the whole process begins again as the "églises majeures" begin to plant their own "antennes"!

Perhaps it's easier to understand the process if you think of bees. When a hive is full, the queen and some of the worker bees swarm and settle in a new hive. Both hives prosper.

Or strawberries! In the first year of a strawberry plant, you'll see leaves. The next year, there'll be fruit. The year after that, the plants will send out runners. If the runners are allowed to take root, in the following year there'll be leaves, then fruit, then more runners!

Healthy hives expand. Healthy plants multiply. Healthy churches grow by multiplication. This is the vision that has motivated France Mission for more than 50 years.