We hope you had a blessed Easter! We feel blessed that God is growing our church plant in Paris.
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
– William Carey, missionary to India
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– John Hugh
I have said, whatever I do for the rest of my days, I will do all I can to champion missionaries. What I mean is the journey, the adventure, the living, and ultimately the ministry of God using diverse situations for His good and glory.
One missionary told me, and I believe this:
“It’s like you’re constantly living at a high, high altitude. The air is thinner. There is less wiggle room for mistakes and any irregularities are amplified. Plus, you’re more isolated from all you know. In many ways, everything is just more intense.”
The end of 2024 and January 2025 was a pivot point for us. A lot has gone exceptionally well for us here, both in church ministry, school for our special needs son, and fantastic school for our other two sons.
Yet it has been a haul since the Covid year (2020-2021) in moving to France, moving again between French cities after only 1 year, a more fragmented Christian community, a different way and pace of life: global city, small apartment, language learning, culture hoops to jump – just all of it.
A latent issue of mine – seeking approval and self-worth in both ministry acclaim and the validation of God-given gifts – crept back into our lives. This undermines everything that is most important: marriage, family, and a relationship with the Lord.
How does this play out here?
I begin prioritizing ministry activities over everything else. For our new church in Paris, much of the work occurs in the evening. So, it’s possible to be out 3, 4, or 5 nights a week for groups and meetings. I can anticipate getting home around midnight- 1am because of the commute on a train from the center of Paris to our apartment. Afterwards, I’m still trying to get up early to take the kids to school.
By burning the candle at both ends, it puts more stress on the marriage and Linda to carry the load at home. I can feel the pressure on all fronts, and most of all, on my own sense of worth to make the church plant happen and work.
This is not an isolated issue. I know many pastors here across Europe, and in the United States, who can base identity and reputation on what we “achieve”, even if it’s “achieving” for Christ. Seriously, pastors know how to say the right things.
What did we do at the beginning of 2025? We recalibrated to be here for the long term. On this blog, we want to show how God can bless a ministry and family – in spite of our flaws, misguided efforts, and yes, sin. It’s all the work of God in the end. He works greatly when it’s obvious that the work belongs to Him.
Particularly in the last 4 months, we’ve seen fruitfulness and growth in our church plant, both numerically and in the depth of our groups and individuals. A highlight was our 2 year anniversary on Palm Sunday and then our Easter service. Our first worship service in a Parisian cafe was Easter 2023 with us averaging 15 a Sunday at first. We had over 80 people for Easter 2025 and our regular Sundays are closer to 50+. A big jump in two years.
Our church plant has grown because of God – and not us.
Linda took a 3 month sabbatical from church and other commitments from January to March. Our new church was great with this. We have done marriage counseling, coaching, mentoring, assessments, so Linda and I know all the correct knowledge. But at the end of the day, you need to just be disciplined, add rhythms that honor God first and not ambition, and make necessary changes for your family. I started being more present at home. Linda had a lot of time to devote to our marriage and parenting – without the interruption of church life and pastoral care, a reality all ministry families learn to juggle, some better than others.
It wasn’t easy for me to see Linda step away for a season. She is an integral part of our ministry, but we saw God bless our church plant in the last few months that is only His hand – not ours. It was a good season for me to be reminded that whatever or wherever our work, labor, toil – it’s never ever really our gig.
The only way to avoid the subtle sins in church – ministry pride, missionary pride, worship pride, small group size pride, mission trip pride – is to humble yourself. If God wants something to occur, nothing on earth will stop it. Those were wise words shared to me by my best ministry coach. He told me that back in 2007 with the first church we planted. And it’s still true for all things in my life.
You don’t focus only on numerics with church planting, yet it helps when you see that number having grown from 15. Ultimately it’s God who brings people and connects them. For us, our main priority is to be faithful. That’s a cliche because that’s a phrase thrown around all the time in the church. I am more specific in our case as missionaries: to be faithful to what’s most important. My personal walk with the Lord, my marriage, and my role as father. In the end, it is the foundation of all good fruit. And when I faithfully tend to those, I see everything else flows out of God’s provision.
I’ll end with 2 thoughts from this Easter. One, I watched The Robe again. It’s a very good movie, and an even better novel. I’m now re-reading it. It is fiction, written by a pastor. Yet I’m always so moved at the change in Marcellus in the movie. A man drunk (literally) with all Rome had to offer, yet hollowed by shame, who won the robe of Christ at the foot of the cross and was changed. He steadily became new. I am still moved by Miriam too, the lame girl with a captivating voice, who stopped singing because of her bitterness towards life and God. And then she was healed completely, and began to sing again. All while she remained lame, physically.
To become a Christian, it’s always personal. God uses your story and changes your story. You were who you were, and by grace, you now are who you are. As Paul wrote, “But by the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Cor 15: 10). At our Easter service, we had the first baptism within the church setting (we’ve had one other at a partner church). I’m always so touched at baptisms. It’s also such a vulnerable moment for the person. There’s a glimpse into the invisible becoming visible. I always find it difficult to speak. You can’t rationalize it.
The Gospel is ultimately about the power of God, not human wisdom, thoughtful suggestions, helpful advice, social philosophy or even social work. It’s the power of God to change human lives – which is nothing we can do and everything God does. It’s not our natural stance – even after 20 years of ministry and dropped in a new hard context – to put our trust in all or any of our achievements and put it altogether in the finished work of Christ.
I have seen the promise of new, resurrected life is for everyone – even me in France. God has being doing a new work in me – digging deeper outside my cultural comforts and in a far away place from our family and deep network. I realize His grace, again and again, when familiar trappings and safety nets no longer exist. From the moral to the murderous – Jesus is there. Different seasons bring this reality more to bear clearer and clearer.
2025 is a new season for me in France. I am thankful God has honored hard work internally in our marriage and family. We are busy with the church plant and watching God reach, save, and expand His kingdom when we step away from being the center. We are praying for a complementary space to the cafe worship space to help with families and overflow. We are praying for stability to an international congregation with local neighbors who attend and have no plan to leave France.
Please continue to pray with us! Linda has told me all along she would like to plant a second church in France if God wills it. We both love people and love the local church – we want to see it grow and multiply to see the Lord in fullness in France.
As always, thank you for reading!
We raise all own financial support, so we can go to hard places.
We take seriously our call to ministry – to challenge others, to challenge ourselves, to be unashamed of our gospel witness, and to love others deeply like the Lord loves us. You can be a small monthly donor – $20, $25, $30, $50 – or give a 1 time end-of-the-year gift to sustain our ministry in France.
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So excited to see what God is doing. Can’t wait to come back. Hopefully beforehand the end of the year 😍🥰❤️
I enjoyed this letter and all the wonderful news. Thank you and love you all!!