About Us

Since December 2016, Glen and Jessica Shady, along with their three daughters, have served in France, a nation of 66,000,000 people known for its beauty, history, and culture. Less widely known is the spiritual darkness that persists here. In this post-Christian culture less than 1% of people identify as Evangelical Christian and only 13% believe that any religion affects their lives. The salvation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is greatly needed, and we feel both honored and burdened to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) within this context. We believe that in obedience to this command, the truth of the Gospel will overcome cultural barriers and lead generations of French people to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our goal in France is to plant multiplying churches by focusing on prayer, evangelism, and discipleship. We live in an inner suburb of Paris and are well-positioned to reach into this city. While we created French Christian Mission as independent missionaries with a burden to reach the French-speaking world, we came into partnership with Team Expansion in April 2018. We are now the team leaders for their new initiative to reach the world by reaching the city of Paris. Additionally, we now serve within a strong network of local churches and missionaries which continually equips us to push forward with our goal of making disciples who make disciples. God is good!

Married since 2007, we love living in Paris and serving as a family. Glen has a degree in Ministry & Leadership and an MDiv in Theology from Cincinnati Christian University. He has a passion for ministry, loves reading, and always follows his Chicago Cubs. Jessica’s degree is from Ball State University in Business. She has a talent for calligraphy/hand-lettering and often focuses her work on God’s Word with a desire to encourage and inspire others. We both love being parents to Elizabeth (2009), Hannah (2011), and Madeline (2015). The girls go to French school (and love it!), participate in their different activities, and Notre Dame Cathedral is one of their favorite places to visit. For the entire Shady family, there is nothing better than a summer picnic in a Parisian park with a fresh baguette.

WHY FRANCE?

France is an officially-secularized, post-Christian nation. A deep Catholic history and heritage is found with 61% of French people identifying as Catholic. Unfortunately, this does not reflect a meaningful, widespread faith in Jesus. [1]

• 85% of Catholics self-identify as “non-practicing” versus “practicing,” and 30% also identify as atheists
• Less than 5% of the total population of France attend mass weekly, and less than 10% even occasionally

Challenges to the Gospel [2], [3],

• 44% of French are atheists; over 50% for ages 34 and younger
• 25% identify as non-religious (no religious identification)
• Adherents to Islam represent 10% of the population

The Hope for France

• Evangelical Christians: 1% of total population
• There is 1 evangelical church for every 30,000 people in France.

For evangelicals, these numbers represent growth over the course of decades, with an average of one church being planted every 10 days since the 1970’s. French Evangelicals have worked to unite their efforts where possible and have established a nation-wide goal to triple their churches (i.e. 1 for every 10,000 people). Their passionate faithfulness to serve our Lord is evident, and we are thrilled to be a part of the efforts of God’s Kingdom here.

[1] IFOP, 2010: Analyse : Le catholicisme en France en 2010. Analysis published by IFOP forLa Croix

[2] IFOP, 2011: Les Français et la croyance religieuse: Résultats détaillés Avril 2011. Analysis published by IFOP for Le Journal de Dimanche

[3] Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org/fran)  & “Chapter 11. Religiosity and the Role of Religion.” Pew Research (www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise-religion/)

vision and goals

Our Strategy

Upon arriving in France in December 2016, we established three broad goals as the framework for our first years here: LEARN, CONNECT, PLANT. We have been so grateful to God, who has amazingly blessed each facet of these goals.

• Learn: Gain the knowledge and experience initially needed to start church planting
  • Language acquisition, growing cultural understanding/experience, and family transition
  • Special discipleship training (offered through Team Expansion) in February 2018
• Connect: Build a network of local believers to enable a true Kingdom work in our ministry
  • We have a church-planting team with another missionary family already formed
  • We have served at a new church since before it was planted in September 2017
  • God has enabled us to connect with Team Expansion and partner with them for this work
• Plant: We are excited to be ready to plant our first church in September 2018
  • This will be a simple church plant built to multiply. (Pray that it does!)

Planting Churches

The great needs and best opportunities of Paris have led us to focus our efforts on planting simple churches which are focused on meeting in smaller spaces like homes, offices, coffee shops, etc. This is a vital concern for a city context where space is extremely limited, real estate is expensive, and churches are frequently turned away when trying to rent large spaces. This model is also demanded by a culture where there are very few trained preachers/church planters. While there is certainly a Catholic heritage in France, culturally there is very low Biblical understanding and limited church leadership experience. As such, the needs here demand a church model which can more effectively be implemented and reproduced by any believer.

Making Disciples Who Multiply

We believe that this model better equips us to obey the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) with its full intention of multiplied efforts. Our first focus is to see new believers baptized, so we fervently pray for the French and openly evangelize. When a person becomes a Christian, we disciple them (i.e. teach them to obey). Our focus on this discipleship training is to make it reproducible for all believers to engage in learning and share it with others. We want to equip disciples who make disciples who make disciples. The discipleship process teaches them how to do and teach others to pray, to read Scripture for life change, to share their testimony and the Gospel, to engage an accountability partner, to start simple churches, among other practical Kingdom skills. Everything is infused with a prayer-first approach to obeying Christ and an emphasis on the truth and authority of God’s Word.

Contact

Phone

US: 260.824.2132
France: +33 07 68 68 73 64

Email

glen@fcmission.com

US Mailing Address

FCM Inc.
1509 Parlor City Dr.
Bluffton, IN 46714