France

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Official name: République française Area:674,843 sq. km Government: Official languages: French Monetary unit:euro Cities:Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice

DEMOGRAPHY Population:64,473,140 Population density:114/sq km ECONOMY GDP (PPP): per person: </small>

LIFE & LIBERTY HDI

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Location 1.2 Climate 1.3 Natural Resources 2 Demographics 2.1 Peoples 2.2 Provinces 3 Life 4 Economy 5 Government 6 Religion 6.1 Islam 6.2 Buddhism 6.3 Christianity 6.3.1 History 6.3.2 Churches 6.3.3 Church and State Relations 6.3.4 Mission and church planting 6.3.5 Broadcasting 6.3.6 Councils and Networks 7 Future Trends 8 For More Reading

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

• France is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. Due to its overseas departments, France also shares land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana) , and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin).

[edit] Climate

[edit] Natural Resources

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Peoples

[edit] Provinces

• The Provinces of France

• The Cities of France

Boulogne-sur-Mer:

The spiritual need is very great in this 12th-century coastal town, popular with British day trippers. Christian gatherings have come and gone. Pray, for the small French church that has been planted with its many ups and downs. A couple hopes to move into the town in 2008 and take full pastoral responsibility for the church. They have a vision for a market stall, youth work and outside evangelism.

Roubaix

The town of Roubaix is more than half North African. Many of the believers are from a Muslim background. North Africans seem to be more open to the gospel than the French at this time.

[edit] Life

[edit] Economy

[edit] Government

• The French Republic is a democracy organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic.

[edit] Religion

[edit] Islam

• Islam is the second largest religion in France. Muslims, who account for 10% of the general population, out number Evangelical Christians, only 0.8% of the population, 11 to 1.

[edit] Buddhism

[edit] Christianity

[edit] History

[edit] Churches

[edit] Church and State Relations

[edit] Mission and church planting

• France still has many towns that have no evangelical church.

• WEC International is starting churches in towns that have no evangelical churches.

• Gospel Missionary Union is using a boat for outreach in Southwest France. See also Mission Ships.

• There are major spiritual strongholds that hinder acceptance of the gospel:
  • The brutal persecutions of the Huguenots (French Protestants) in the 16th and 17th Centuries is a dark stain on the soul of France. Many were slaughtered and 200,000 fled to other lands — to their enrichment and France’s impoverishment. Yet Calvin, the great reformer and theologian, produced the only authentically French theological expression of Christianity. The loss of its biblical Christian population was a contributing factor leading to the explosion of the French Revolution.
  • The French Revolution in 1789-1801 was one of the defining moments of world history. While some good came from this upheaval, it also spawned much violence, desires for world domination, the deification of humanism and ultimately the ideologies that distorted world history for 200 years and only ended with the collapse of European Communism in 1989. The effects of that cataclysm still deeply affect French attitudes to themselves, other nations and to Christianity itself.
  • The insensitivity of the Anglophone nations, especially England and the USA. Evangelical Christianity is seen as an Anglo-Saxon imposition on France together with the cultural, linguistic and economic ‘imperialisms’ perceived to be eroding the French way of life.
  • The surprisingly widespread involvement with occult practices. The 50,000 full-time practitioners of these black arts outnumber the 35,000 known Christian workers. Every level of society is involved, with its inevitable spiritual impact.

• The unreached sectors of French society:
  • The nearly 50 million French people who have no real link with a Christian church.
  • The many large cities with few evangelical churches — Nancy has three and Nantes, eight.
  • Of the 38,000 communes, around 35,000 have no resident evangelical witness. Many rural communes are quite traditional and resistant to change.
  • The Basques in the southwest who are virtually without an evangelical witness in their language.
  • The Loire Valley, Brittany, Picardy, Limousin, Champagne-Ardennes and Calais which are particularly lacking in evangelical congregations.
  • The island of Corsica. Birthplace of Napoleon, it is renowned for its violence. In the population of 260,000, there are 12 small groups with 250 evangelical believers.
  • The immigrant populations of France. More than 10% of France's population is made up of non-European immigrants. While there has been exceptianal work done amoung various Asiatic and African groups the North African/Arab Muslim population continues to remain unreached. Many of the people groups found in the traditonally "closed" nations of North Africa and the Sahara are to be found in France. The church is offered an enormous opportunity to reach the unreached through ministry in France.

[edit] Broadcasting

[edit] Councils and Networks

[edit] Future Trends

[edit] For More Reading

• Wikipedia
• Joshua Project
• GRN