Toulouse, France

Toulouse is located in the Southwest of France, about 3 hours from Bordeaux, and 2 hours from the Mediterranean Sea. With almost 1.5 million residences in the greater metropolitan area, Toulouse is France’s technology and aerospace hub, boasting fourteen universities and the AIRBUS headquarters.

Toulouse is a beautiful city, and like the rest of France, you can find some of the most beautiful and historical churches in the world. However, less than 1% of the population are Evangelical Christians, and less than 8 % attend any church, including the Catholic Church. France has a historical animosity towards organized religion, and most French people have a profound ignorance of the gospel.

For French Christians trying to share the gospel, this means long and difficult work. The good news is that the number of Christian Evangelicals is growing, but slowly.

Here are some of the statistics from Opertion World, 7th Edition:

• There are about 64 Million People in France
• There are about 603,000 Evangelical Christians – Less than 1%
• They have the 6th largest economy in the World
• The number ofEvangelical Christians are growing, 2.4% Annual Growth at the time of the survey
• Around 51% of the French identify as Catholic, but less than 8% attend mass in any regular way
• There are nearly 50 Million French People with no real link to a Christian Church
• Of the 37,000 communities, around 35,000 have no evangelical Church
• Islam is now the second religion of France, through immigration
• Less than 10% of the French People own a bible, and 80% have never even handled one

What you can pray For:

• Praise that Evangelical Christianity has grown over the years
• Pray that there would be continued unity among Evangelical Christians in order to spread the gospel
• France’s religious history is stained with violence, and France came out of the enlightenment to culminate a modern-day atheistic existentialism and materialistic view of life. Please pray that the Lord would soften their hearts to hear the gospel.
• The decline of religious faith has created a spiritual hunger. We pray that Christians would be prepared patiently and relationally to share the gospel with those who are seeking answers.
• Church Planting efforts such as ours. The broader Evangelical organization has a mission to plant one church for every 10,000 people.