The beauty of France stands in great contrast to the darkness of it’s spiritual climate. From taking a quick look at France it is easy to see that it is a spiritually dark place. Only 0.8% of the population is Evangelical, and while a great many of the French will say they are Catholic it is only by heritage. They see no association between being Catholic and a belief in God and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Due to the fact that only about 4 or 5% of Catholics in France are practicing Catholics Islam has become the predominatly practiced and fastest growing religion in France. This is due in large part to immigrants from French speaking North Africa. This increase has created tension between both the anit-religious who frown upon any kind of religion and those who see it as a threat to the French culture. France is one of the most secular countries in the world with a tremendous separation of church and state. It is now against the law for any student to where a religious symbol of any kind to school, Evangelicals have now been listed among groups that are dangerous by the French Parliament and it can now be considered against the law to have sunday school because it can be seen as influencing minors pyschologically. Cults have done a great deal of damage to the ability of evangelicals to witness because of the fact they evangelicals have been grouped among the cults by the French government.
Besides the anti-spiritual government the general population does not fair any better. France has the highest abortion rate in Europe, with 220, 000 being preformed every year. Around 6% of the population attend church at all where as in the united states 47% of the population attend church every weekend.
As is shown by this short list of facts France desperately needs the truth of the Gospel. This is why TEAM exist. To, by God’s power, fill this need through the establishment of churches with a missions to reproduce, and to bring light to this dark place.
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