France remains both a strongly secular state and a country where the Catholic Church remains dominant, the home of post-modernism where in some regions strong superstitions still hold sway. The Church in France has grown over the past forty years, but from a very low base. Evangelicals are now one in a hundred of the population, many churches being planted in some regions, and evangelicals are now getting recognition by the state and are no longer treated as a cult.
The South West of France is one of the most spiritually dark. Bordeaux, where GBM missionary James Hammond serves, is a city of nearly a million people, yet there are less than 25 evangelical churches.
How can you pray for France?
- For the 33 people groups in France who are unreached, that God would provide workers to take the gospel to these people.
- For the more than 40% of French towns and cities that have no evangelical church, that God would provide church planters to take the gospel into these places.
- For the large and increasing Muslim communities in France, that God would provide workers and inroads into these communities.
Opportunities to serve in France
- Church planting
- Student evangelism
- Training leaders
- Evangelism among Muslims
GBM stories from France
France – key facts
- Population 67.8 million (July 2020 est.)
- Population Growth 0.35% (2020 est.)
- Ethnicity Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, Basque minorities
- Language French (official) 100%, declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish, Occitan, Picard)
- Religion Christian (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic) 63-66%, Muslim 7-9%, Buddhist 0.5-0.75%, Jewish 0.5-0.75%, other 0.5-1.0%, none 23- 28% (2015 est.)
(Data from the CIA World Factbook, August 2020)