Dear Praying Friends,
Here’s one more opportunity to pray:
Along with our 26 first-year students and a colleague, I am going to Marseille this coming weekend. Marseille is the second biggest city of France after Paris.
Friday and Saturday night, the students will present the Gospel to a partly unbelieving audience through music and drama. Both times I’ll close with a brief evangelistic message. Sunday morning I’ll be preaching in a local church there and the students will lead worship.
This kind of outing is strategic for a number of reasons. Let me mention a few:
- Many French unbelievers will get to hear a clear Gospel presentation, some for the first time.
- The students will be involved in evangelism, which allows them to bridge the gap between the classroom and ministry to people.
- The students will hear an expository sermon on Sunday morning. This may not sound like a big event, but you have to remember that in most French churches there is very little expository preaching. Rather, preachers creatively develop a theme using several biblical texts. This is not always a bad approach, but it often prevents the congregation from truly focusing on a given passage and from reflecting on both its meaning and practical implications. So this is a precious (and sobering) opportunity for modeling, since a number of our male students will be involved in some kind of pulpit ministry down the road.
- The Sunday sermon is also an opportunity to remind a specific local church that the Gospel is not just powerful to save unbelievers; it is also the fuel that keeps Christians going and growing! This may sound obvious, but it is not always as emphasized as it should be.
Dominique
