Letter from Jerry Moyer, France Field Director, World Team
Many years ago a Cuban and a Canadian got together to couple like the Barrs come we look at what skills have already
pray about the Caribbean Islands. Missionaries were scatter-
ing across the world but God laid a spot much closer to home on
their hearts. In a little over a decade the mission they founded
had moved all the way down the chain of islands to arrive in
Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It was perhaps
their most challenging field: five years of street preaching without
a single convert. Today it is the department in France with the
greatest percentage of evangelical Christians. Quickly our hearts
were pulled across the sea to the mainland, France, a country
notorious for its philosophical skepticism on matters of faith. It
too has proved a challenging field. Many people have labored a
lifetime to plant just one or two churches. This patient work has
given fruit. Every two weeks a new evangelical church is started
in France. We have not yet arrived at revival but the bases are
forming. Young men and women are being called by God into the
ministry. They sign up knowing that, at the best, the most church-
es can offer is minimum wage. Many live in low income housing.
Many of their wives work to support their pastor husbands. I am
humbled when I see their sacrifice for their own country. They in-
vest their all in hope that God will pour out grace on this country.
We at World Team France have committed ourselves to join
their labors. We have committed ourselves to being church plant-
ers. We have committed ourselves to always be training young
men and women for the ministry. We have committed ourselves to
networking with all evangelical works by generously sharing the
resources God gives us.
To be effective in this we need to recruit qualified people.
People resources are expensive, especially those brought from
overseas. Our desire is to invest well.
The Barrs came to us a few years ago through one of the
many prayer conferences we have organized for the country of
France. They both felt that the Lord was calling them to serve
in France with World Team. We have established procedure for
responding to those who express a sense of call. Most important
perhaps is a field visit. Here the Barrs met with veteran mission-
aries. We interview many like this. Some are invited. Few come.
The Barrs were questioned first to see if they had any grasp
of what they were asking to do. They were so enthusiastic that
some of us wondered if they knew just how hard ministry can be.
They convinced us that they understood very well what they were
signing up for and had no delusions about how the Lord
may use them here.
We also considered their age. We bring a young person or
couple to the field knowing that we are going to invest literally
years in training and developing them in the ministry. When a
been developed. We want to know what they can offer right now
as they are; then we ask if what they have to offer is worth the
investment. I am going to put this bluntly. We cannot afford dead
weight. We work in the desert. Everyone needs to be able to con-
tribute. Age and experience can be an advantage. In the case of
the Barrs, they come with a skill set that is immediately
needed.
Communication is a priority for us. To launch new French men
and women into the ministry we need resources. To find those
resources we need communication. Our church planters have the
content but neither the skill nor the time for delivery. We need a
graphic artist. We need people who can communicate passion in
English. We need the Barrs.
Administration is a heavy weight on the team. Praise God
we are seeing French men and women going into the ministry.
We have been able to find resources for them and new church
projects in the US and other places. One of our church planters
is giving a day a week to the administration that accompanies
these transfers of resources. Carol has worked in this very sort of
administration in the past. We need an administrator. We need
the Barrs.
In early church plants making contact with people is a chal-
lenge. Most have no interest in spiritual things but they do have
interests. As church planters we develop “non-spiritual” inter-
ests in order to find common ground with our neighbors: music,
sports, the arts. The Barrs have real artistic talents. We need
people who can use their various interests and talents to make
contact with people. We need the Barrs.
France VIE is a church planting team. We work as a fam-
ily each contributing things the other needs. The Barrs bring an
enthusiasm that warmed us all when they were here. We need
enthusiasm. We need the Barrs.
We work and pray for a church planting movement in this
country. We know that to multiply a church you start by multiply-
ing people. The Barrs have experience in discipleship. They are
passionate about investing in others. We need people who can
reproduce their life experience in others. We need the Barrs.
In an early stage of a church plant sometimes it feels like
the church planter does everything from setting up chairs on a
Sunday morning to preaching the sermon. People are needed who
can give a hand teaching, preaching and organizing. The Barrs are
not pew sitters now. They will not be pew sitters here. We need
people who can pitch in and help everywhere possible. We need
the Barrs.