A Fundamental, Independent Baptist Mission
SEE’s History
The Society for Europe's Evangelization (SEE) was
founded in 1956 with the unique goal of starting independent
Baptist churches by means of permanent Gospel teams. The
vision of the
mission was
born in the
hearts of Dr.
and
Mrs.
Arthur
Sommerville
and the first
steps were
taken
towards its
small
beginning in
Cleveland, Ohio.
However, SEE was not officially
incorporated until February 7, 1957 in the state of Indiana.
At that time it became an official mission with a council of
fifteen members and was declared as a non-profit
organization.
Miss Laura Copp joined the Sommervilles in 1957
to form the first team whose mission was to start a Baptist
church in Toulouse, a city of over 300,000 inhabitants with
no Gospel-preaching church. For thirty years they labored
in that great harvest field and saw hundreds come to Christ.
There too, they founded a Bible Institute that has trained
more than 100 young people, most of whom are serving the
Lord as full-time pastors, evangelists and Bible teachers in
France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Haiti, and the United States.
In 1968, five young people arrived from the United
States to begin the Intensive Missionary Training (IMT)
program. In the years that followed, others joined them and
teams evangelized much of southwestern France, starting a
number of churches. All of these churches exist today with
pastors taught and trained in our Bible Institute.
In 1978, the Lord enabled SEE to begin a church in
the heart of Paris, the great city of 11 million inhabitants,
which is the largest metropolitan area of Europe. For several
years, the church had a fifteen minute radio program which
was aired twice daily to an audience numbering between
50,000 and 75,000 people. Then in 1981 the headquarters of
the mission moved from Toulouse to Paris where the
ministry of the Bible Institute and the IMT program
continue.
Since then, the Paris church has helped SEE plant
five new churches: one in Nice on the French Riviera, one
in Lille, the fifth largest city in France, one in Somain, one
in Aix-en-Provence, and a second church in Paris.
SEE’s Method
The Bible Institute was formally started in 1968 in
Toulouse, though the Sommervilles had given intensive
Bible studies to several French students before that time.
One of them became pastor of the new church in Perpignan
and later chaplain in the French army retiring with the rank
of General. The first time the Intensive Missionary Training
program was presented in the United States five young
people answered the call to follow this new program. What
is the Intensive Missionary Training?
SEE’s Intensive Missionary Training program has a threepoint thrust:
1) Learning the language of the country in one year.
2) Attending, at the same time, a three year Bible
Institute offering a curriculum similar to that of
good Bible Colleges in America.
3) Participating in multiple aspects of regular
missionary service.
After forty years of
experience, the IMT
program has proven
to be successful and
efficient.
By
combining
Bible
study,
language
study
and
missionary action,
this program allows
the missionary to be
effective and fruitful within a year! Students work in teamssinging (as pictured here in the Paris subway), witnessing
and preaching. When they finish their Bible training, they
will have already gained three precious years of work on the
mission field and a vision of the spiritual needs of France.
Any young person, who has graduated from high
school, has a good Christian testimony before his church and
pastor and feels called to work in France is eligible for the
IMT program. This system saves thousands of dollars to
churches in the States which can send a young person to
France for less than a fourth of what it costs to send a couple
or family. Coming as a younger person and living with
French people offers the advantage of learning the language
more quickly and usually better. There is also a greater
chance of being able to adapt to the culture and of staying on
the mission field.
These young people come as full-fledged
missionaries, since they are engaged in missionary activities
from the very beginning. Even missionaries who come after
Bible College in the States are still students in language
school for at least one or two years.
SEE’s Goal
France is one of the neediest mission fields in the
entire world. Less than one percent of France’s 60 million
inhabitants claim to be evangelical Christians. SEE’s goal
is to bring the Gospel to these unsaved millions. SEE is
committed to establishing autonomous, independent Baptist
churches in and around Paris and to training national
workers for
the ministry
as pastors,
evangelists,
teachers and
Christian
workers.
In
light of the
great
pressure of
the Ecumenical Movement in France today, SEE has
fostered the development of a fellowship of Baptist
Churches (Alliance Biblique Baptiste) for mutual assistance
in evangelistic effort, church planting and the defense of
sound doctrine and principles. This alliance is now totally
independent of SEE.
SEE’s Work
Over the past 60 years (1948-2008), Dr. and Mrs.
Sommerville have been able to plant- by the Grace of God,
14 independent
Baptist churches
in
France.
Churches have
been planted in
Toulouse, Muret,
Perpignan,
Montauban,
Tarbes
and
Limoges
in
southwest
France. In 1978,
Dr. and Mrs.
Sommerville
took an eight
member team to
establish
the
Eglise Baptiste du Centre (The Central Baptist Church) in
Paris. Though evangelizing Paris was far from being
completed, SEE took to heart the founding of churches in
Nice, Lille, Somain, Aix-en-Provence, and one more church
in Paris. A more recent survey shows that France still has
some 30,000 towns and villages which have no evangelical
service.
The Bible Institute has trained over 100 workers,
mainly French and American. The majority of these former
students are presently in full-time Christian work or actively
serving in a church in France.
SEE’s Need
1. SEE is urgently looking for a Pastor who could minister
to our English speaking service in our Bible Baptist Church
in Paris, France. There are more than 500,000 English
speaking people without Christ in Paris.
2. SEE needs young men and women who are willing, not
just to spend their vacations to help missionaries in France,
but who are ready to give their whole lives “as a living
sacrifice” to come and spend themselves to win souls to
Christ and to help establish sound churches here in one of
the neediest mission fields of the world.
3. SEE needs men and women who will invest the financial
resources that God has entrusted to them in SEE’s
Evangelistic Fund (with a special one-time gift or a monthly
contribution). This fund was created when See was founded
to enable the mission to evangelize where no Gospelpreaching church exists and to help finance the planting of
new churches. This fund has not been in vain when one
considers the many places that have been evangelized,
churches started, radio programs that reached thousands,
besides the Bible Institute that has supplied national pastors
for many independent churches. Only as this fund exists can
we undertake new projects and without it we would be very
limited. (Our missionaries come with minimal support in
order to spend their time serving on the field instead of
spending years raising support.)
4. SEE needs special gifts for our Home Office Fund to help
finance the printing of SEE’s newsletter, and for other
literature necessary to present SEE’s ministry.
5. SEE needs men and women who will commit themselves
to pray for the work in France, for our missionaries and
national workers and for God’s power to save many French
people.
………………………………………………………………
For more information about SEE contact:
Society for Europe's Evangelization
PO Box 2886•Anderson, SC 29622
Tel: (864) 261-4127
Email: seeinc1@charter.net