The denomination’s President, Patrice Niveaux, provides an overview
[After two articles in which Paul Cooke looked at the National Council of French Evangelicals and the FEF Network, this article continues our survey of evangelicalism in France by focusing on FM’s main mission partner. This time, Patrice Niveaux introduces Perspectives’ core values; in the next issue he will explain more about their training strategy.]
Perspectives has been in existence for more than 50 years and was born from a merger between France-Mission and Vision France. Today, Perspectives has around 90 churches and church plants and around 180 workers (pastors, church planters, pastoral assistants, foreign missionaries, administrators).
Perspectives has a national Board who provide the organisation with overall leadership and who validate new appointments, transfers of pastors, church-planting projects, etc. Then there are directors who work in the different regions of France to accompany, recruit, train, encourage, evaluate, and propose new challenges locally.
Our core values are very clear:
1. We want to live a passion for Christ
A passion for the Bible and theology has an important place in our spiritual tradition. But this only makes sense if it stimulates our trust in Christ, our love for Him, and our hope of soon being in His presence. He’s the one we want to know and make known. We want to deconstruct false oppositions between Church and everyday life. Let’s proclaim and live the lordship of Jesus in every area of our lives, seven days a week!
2. We want to serve our neighbours
The Church doesn’t exist for itself but for the world! We want to meet our neighbours where they are. We encourage our communities to look outward and value the Church scattered during the week as well as the gathered Church. Individual and collective rootedness in the relational fabric of our locality must be a priority, especially in the world of work.
3. We want to train disciples of Jesus Christ, who in turn train others
Jesus certainly engaged with the crowds, but He invested above all in a small number of disciples whom He trained to continue His mission. Today, too, discipleship must be at the heart of the ministry of our churches. We want to deepen our knowledge of the Word of God, to learn to follow Jesus, to let ourselves be transformed by Him... and we pass on this training to others! It’s not just the pastor’s responsibility, we all have a role to play.
4. We want to try to multiply ourselves
Sharing the gospel with the greatest number of people requires the multiplication of churches. Each local church is invited to engage in this dynamic of multiplication, whether by actively supporting a church plant, by launching a new community, or by developing the church across different sites or via different services. We encourage initiative, innovation, and experiments – which also means that it’s OK to make mistakes!
5. We want to value a diversity of ministries
Churches often rely on the ministry of one person and on one type of ministry. Perspectives wants to recognise and value ministries in all their diversity (whether salaried, bi-vocational or volunteer) with a single mission: equipping the people of God for service!
6. We want to develop a culture of generosity
We want to be generous and invest in God’s mission, beyond our local needs. Jesus told the disciples to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6.33). This implies a movement towards sending and giving: a spirit of generosity. People with their gifts and abilities do not belong to us, they build the kingdom of Christ. Let’s seek to send them as much as we seek to attract them. The finances we have are not simply for our local needs, but for the needs of the kingdom.
