Around 6,500 teenagers and young people from churches across France gathered in Zénith d’Auvergne at a large triennial congress – Echo 2023 – that seeks to encourage young members of evangelical churches to discover God’s calling. The theme of Echo 2023 was ‘See, I Am Doing Something New’ (Isa. 43:9).
The programme was based on three areas: ‘Me and God; Us and God; You and Me’. It included preaching, worship, workshops, concerts and special programmes for Ados (12–17 years old) and Jeunes (18 and over). Christian youth workers also offered training and connections. Seminars addressed issues such as Bible reading, Christian ethics, science and faith, and sexuality.
‘We hope that the young people will not only experience a conference, but will prepare themselves for their future, that they will discover their ministry, Christian organisations with whom to serve, and experience mission in the simplest and most concrete sense of the word’, said event coordinator Samuel Tricoire.
The conference is organised by the youth department of Assemblies of God (ADD), one of the largest evangelical denominations in France. Their hope is that ‘churches will confidently accompany these young people in the visions they have for their city, their region and their country’.
France has almost three quarters of a million evangelical Christians in around 2,300 churches, according to the National Council of Evangelicals in France. Despite having grown 15-fold growth since 1950, evangelicals are still a tiny minority, representing just over 1% of the French population.
Evangelical events with thousands attending are uncommon in Southern Europe. Why did so many come to this one? ‘It is a good question’, answers Tricoire, ‘I would say the fact of creating a group dynamic, not just a youth dynamic, has been key: the churches are mobilised and a group effect is created. It is also important that we were supported by the ADD movement and that the evangelical community is alive and growing’.
