When Christians watched the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games this summer, what did they think? Some were horrified at what they saw as a disgraceful parody of the Last Supper. Others raised their eyebrows at much of the distasteful content of that evening and just breathed a sigh of relief when the beautiful balloon cauldron appeared.

French Evangelicals had similarly diverse reactions, but they also had other things on their mind. They had worked and prayed and planned for a huge, united mission and prayer campaign.  Their nation was traumatised by political division. There was no government. The Olympics were meant to be about joy, unity, celebration and, for Evangelicals… sharing the Gospel! With the social media storm raging about an offensive ceremony, what was the right thing to do?

EEA’s member alliance in France is CNEF – the Conseil National des Evangéliques de France.  The CNEF team decided to take time to pray, reflect, gather information from the ceremony organisers and listen to their members. And then they acted.

CNEF publicly expressed the sadness and offence of Evangelicals within the context of secular France, through social media, official statements and a meeting with the head of the Central Office for Religious Denominations at the Ministry of the Interior headquarters.  They asked, “If the goal of the games was fraternity and inclusion, why target and mock the faith of a few?” Why humiliate and hurt Christians? They also expressed CNEF’s support for France’s style of secularism (laicity) which means “the State guarantees that everyone, believers or not, will be respected in their essential convictions within a Republic that wants to bring people together.”

But CNEF chose not to talk about blasphemy. Perhaps there had been blasphemous content, but CNEF knows that blasphemy laws are used to persecute and even kill Christians around the world. However painful, CNEF wanted to support the human right of freedom of expression, while asking and expecting the Olympic organisers to do better. The “promotion of divisive, ideological propaganda” was not appropriate.

In its official communiqué, CNEF expressed its concerns, but they also accepted the apologies of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee. Then they got back to what they wanted to focus on; prayer and mission!

All the prayer and preparation bore fruit. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of so many, including CNEF, the Ensemble 24  mission initiative was a tremendous success. Throughout the games, activities happened across the city. The police were always supportive, and the atmosphere was fantastic. Thousands of New Testaments were distributed and large numbers of people were prayed for. Turning the opening ceremony offence into a Gospel opportunity, some talked about the actual Last Supper.

There was prayer for the Olympic Games themselves. Did you notice the number of Christian athletes who gave their testimonies in front of the television cameras, even in secular France?

The Olympic Games may have started badly for Christians. But Christians stayed focus. And the Good News was seen and heard. Praise God!