Right now, more than 10,000 athletes are gathering in Paris for the start of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. They are accompanied by coaches, spectators, vendors, journalists, media professionals and volunteers. It is estimated that 15 million visitors will pass through the French capital this summer, people from nearly every nation on earth, in one place, at one time.
The International Mission Board’s Paris team is making the most of this God-given moment to bring the gospel to the nations. The team will host a combined six weeks of pre-Olympic, Olympic and Paralympic gospel outreach.
Evangelistic events started in May and will continue through September. Each week will be fueled by anywhere from 40 to 100 short-term volunteers, serving alongside IMB missionaries who live in and around Paris and several local French churches.
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Global team
Jason Harris, team leader for IMB’s Paris team, gave an update after pre-Olympic week two.
“We had 40 volunteers, 14 summer interns, 15 French partners, eight IMB team members from other parts of Europe, four IMB team members from Asia and two IMB team members from Africa join together in partnership with Antony Baptist Church, just outside of Paris for one purpose – to make Jesus known!” Harris said.
Over the course of the summer, volunteer teams will come from churches in Alabama, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Illinois, Virginia, Nevada, Oklahoma and New York.
“We had a Haitian Baptist Church that we partnered with from Delray Beach, Florida,” Harris said. “Many of them are French speakers, and they were really helpful in terms of communication. They all had a servant’s heart to go out and share the gospel.”
In total, more than 300 short-term volunteers will serve throughout the events. They represent 35 different Southern Baptist churches in the U.S., nine parachurch organizations, Baptist volunteers from Korea and Brazil, Haitian Americans, Chinese Americans, college interns and more.
Opportunities
While the Olympics provide athletes a platform for incredible feats of physicality and global recognition, they also present singular opportunity to magnify the One most worthy to receive our praise – Jesus. Harris shared they are already witnessing spiritual victories. “We are seeing God break spiritually rocky European soil and open hearts to the gospel.”
Harris added, “We had interactions with around 5,400 people in various projects including spiritual surveys, passing out balloons to children, five–minute English, distributing New Testaments and Olympic pin trading.”
The team also hosted outreach events in partnership with local French churches, including an evangelistic film showing, a children’s festival, a talent show and a pick-up volleyball tournament.
“We had excellent interaction with lost people at each event,” Harris said, adding that these events provide an open place for fun, informal connection between believers and non-believers and lead to gospel engagement.
Overall, the team counted 396 gospel shares, 500 Scripture portions — a copy of the New Testament or the gospel of John — distributed, 10 digital engagement contacts made, 200 Olympic pins distributed and used to share the gospel and five professions of faith. They also saw nearly 75 people step into a church building for the first time.
“Every person we interacted with had a story: some were resistant to the gospel; some willing to stop and talk for hours; some extremely open,” Harris said.
Like Philippe, an older widower who walks around the city daily in loneliness. Phillipe was deeply touched by the testimony of one of the volunteers who spent an hour sitting with him and sharing how Christ brings comfort.
Or Emmanuel, whose father passed away two days before they met him. Members of the team met him on the street and shared the gospel with him. They prayed with him and invited him to upcoming outreach events. He brought his niece to the kid’s club and met the pastor of the local church.
“He received the lived-out love of Christ and heard multiple testimonies,” Harris said. “He was deeply touched.”
In the weeks to come, the Paris team will continue their strategy of bold evangelism, evangelistic events and outreach points in key locations around the city. Alongside U.S. and local French churches, they will make the most of this unique moment to reach Parisians, French people and the nations on their doorstep.
“It’s going to be an intense summer,” Harris said. “I’m excited for it.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Kristen Sosebee and originally published by the International Mission Board.
