Paris marathon, Week of Fashion, and the Church

Yesterday was a very interesting Sunday.

Our seemingly dead car has been resurrected back to life (or at least, starting & running). Since it wouldn't start after we spent a lot of money getting a rebuilt starter put in, it just sat in our underground parking spot for a couple of months. I did pray that God would "heal" it, although my faith was limited. However, God may have done so, as it's now starting & running.

We all piled in yesterday morning & started on our way to our church for morning worship. After getting about halfway there, we found policemen blocking our usual route. We discovered that it was the annual Paris marathon. Last year we also got blocked and ended up giving up. As my wife was teaching Sunday school, we were more perseverant. When the Bastille Tower was in view, I had her & the kids get out of the car, then drove around looking for parking.

After parking, I drove around for a little, then found parking, hopped onto the metro, and arrived at the stop Bastille. When I came up above ground, I saw a mass of runners. The path of the marathon was on Rue St. Antoine and right by our church. After a couple of minutes, I daringly followed a stroller across the road to the other side that our church was on.

Before entering the building, I admiringly watched all these committed runners passing me by. I also thought of the statement that has run through my mind recently. "If a local church were to close its doors & cease functioning, would its neighbors even notice?" A follow question is "Would the neighbors care?" I think some of our church's neighbors would notice, which is a good sign.

This isn't a particular criticism of our church. One reason we have chosen it is because of our appreciation of its efforts to try to reach out to Parisiens & others in ways that we feel are culturally appropriate for here. I know of other churches who in my opinion have very little possibility of impacting their particular neighborhood because of these church's lack of vision, dysfunction, fear, self-centeredness, etc.

In the afternoon, I took a bus & metro to attend the art exhibit of an American artist named Shinekia Thomas (http://shinekiathomas.blogspot.com). I got out at the metro stop Tuileries and began crossing the Tuileries Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon that yielded some priceless views of Paris. In the Tuileries, I walked between a couple of shiny buildings with signs about the week of design & fashion that was ending yesterday. Now I understood why Shinekia Thomas was doing a 1 day exhibit on fashion at our arts center le Pavé d'Orsay.

I spent an hour at the art exhibit and met some interesting people. One American I met there was from California had been in Paris for 10 years and had been working in the high fashion industry as a clothes maker. I met someone who hoped to create a business that marketed different designers on their way up. While there weren't as many people there as there have been at some other opening nights, the atmosphere was very warm. The clothes maker commented that he felt a warmth about the place that he hadn't felt in most other places & that he hoped to come back.

This is what our arts center is all about. Our style is not preachy nor confrontational. It's about being a warm oasis in Paris where people sense a different spirit from the world.

After time at the art exhibit, I attended a special worship service at another church in the Marais section where our church is located. It was held at a Lutheran church with a strong focus on the arts. The service was organized by Crescendo France, a group that is part of Crescendo Int'l, a ministry to musicians in classical & jazz music. The service featured some classical music, a short sermon by the Lutheran pastor, & time to go to different prayer stations located on the ground level. At least 150 people were present.

Our pastor mentioned that the Marais section of Paris had at least 3 distinctives: (1) highly artistic, (2) highly Jewish, and (3) distinct identity. Its known as being the primary gay section of Paris. Right across the street from the Lutheran church is a popular gay bar that had a long line to people waiting to get in while we were entering the church building.

I love days like yesterday. I was in 3 different locations (4, including our apartment) where God's people were gathered and being light and reaching out in different ways to Parisiens.

This morning our kids start back to school after 2 weeks of school break. Our lives get back into "normal" rhythm. My wife commented that we had more people over the past 2 weeks than we ever have had during previous school breaks. This is a reminded of this current season of opening our home & lives to others.