Hillsong Church Paris

It's Saturday afternoon and our household is a beehive of activity. Our 5 year old is playing Sesame Street online on our broken computer located right next to me on the dining room table. My wife and 3 year old are making a yogurt cake in the kitchen. Our 1 year old is shaking a poster made by her 5 year old brother (much to his chagrin) and crawling around the apartment exploring. Jenny, our current helper, is making paper chains in the office that will be part of our 5 year old's birthday party in 8 days. He's actually turning 5 on February 4, while our baby turns 1 on February 2.

Our kids tend to let down on Saturdays after a busy week in French school. Our 3 year old likes to hang out in her pajamas for a good part of the day. Our son likes to play games on the computer. We limit his choices to online educational web game sites like Sesame Street. With all the garbage on the Internet today, we need to carefully screen what they have access to.

Last night I got to finally visit the young Hillsong Church in Paris. Anne, our previous helper, really raved about it. Jenny, with limited French, needs an English-speaking church and to meet some people her age. I went with her to help her find it, as well as to see it for myself.

I've known of the Hillsong movement since 1994 because of some of its now world-renowned songs like "Shout to the Lord." From Sydney, Australia, its fame has spread around the world. It planted a congregation in London, England, which in turn started the Hillsong Paris church.

I was definitely one of the older attendees last night. While I'm not exactly sure how many were there, it must have been at least 300-400, which lots of teens and 20-somethings. I ran into former Mission Radicale attendees Michael, David, Laura, and Patricia, which was fun. All are fully involved in Hillsong Paris, which is encouraging to see.

The pastor of Hillsong Paris is an Australian young man named Brandon who must be in his upper 20s or early 30s. All the worship band was in this age. The preacher last night was the pastor of Hillsong London and probably is closer to my age than Brandon's.

The service was in English, with the message translated into French by a young woman named Isabelle. The music was all in English, with the lyrics translated into French and flashed on the screen underneath the English ones. The music was lively and loud, but not as loud as I had expected. Perhaps my Mission Radicale days got me accustomed to loud music.

Hillsong Paris has recently started a kids' church that also functions during the sermon. I spoke with Gerard, a French man who coordinates this. It functions up through age 10, although I'm not sure if our 3 and 5 year olds would be able to stay awake for a Friday night service that starts at 7:30 p.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m. But a church with lots of young people needs to think about children's ministry, as there will undoutably be marriages and children that come in the next few years.

I very much enjoyed the service. I enjoyed the life and youth of it, even though I felt a little uncomfortable being older than the majority. However, I am excited that there is this kind of church in Paris for younger people. I like the idea of having church on a Friday night, although it might be tough for our family to participate in at this stage.

One of my questions concerns language. Obviously, the fact that the primary language of the service was English didn't seem to keep French people away. I think that the majority of those present were native French-speakers, although I'm just guessing. Perhaps for this younger generation, having it in English might actually be an attraction, rather than a negative distraction.

I don't think that any one church will be able to handle the vast spiritual need in Paris. There is the need for lots of churches with different styles and even languages. Hopefully churches, both old and new ones, will be able to network, coordinate, and cooperate, rather than feeling a competition or a turf mentality.

One great book that I'm reading is Pete Ward's Liquid Church (Hendrickson Publishers: Peabody, Massachusetts, 2002. There will be future blogs on thoughts from this book. Stay tuned.