“We are more than we think we were.” Isn’t that a gripping idea: more than we think we are!
This truth was solidly underscored in my mind and conviction when I read the story of French pastor Ivan Carluer, who founded a church in the Créteil neighborhood of Paris. The neighborhood consists of communists, socialists, and conservatives.
Inspired by Martin Luther King, Carluer thought, “I don’t have to build a church, I have to build a place where people will be loved, will be changed by the Holy Spirit, and by the power of God.” He acted on his conviction. “Loving people as they are and don’t try to make them look like you are, but just love them and introduce them to a God, and that will change them,” Carluer says.
He acted on his conviction and the church is now one of the country’s largest evangelical churches, prompting French newspaper Le Monde to call Ivan Carluer a rising figure in France’s Protestant movement.
In all of France, there are about 2,500 evangelical churches. The average church has about 100 people, but this church went from 20 people, 17 years ago, to over 3,000 thousand today.” The name of it is Martin Luther King Church. I didn’t mention the name earlier because we all know the difference King, one person, has made. But who knows the name Ivan Carluer?
Governmental leaders in Paris know it. to They committed $3,000,000 to the church, to share in the church’s new building that will serve the larger public. 76 people from different walks of life and racial backgrounds know it. They professed faith in Jesus Christ in a recent worship service and were baptized as a part of the church’s open witness as to who they are. 3000 people know his name, and they “rise up and call him blessed” because he shared the message of God’s love and reconciliation that changed their lives and gave them hope which they joyfully share as the church’s message.
Martin Luther King had a dream, and we know a lot about the result of it. Carluer had a dream which is becoming a reality and we are now learning a bit about. The people of Paris know more. Carluer says, “We have now like 20 percent all black, 10 percent all white, 10 percent Asian, and 60 percent cannot be defined,” he laughed. “Jesus’ color!”
And that message of love shared across racial lines has been a unifying force for positive change.