Through our website, The Gospel Coalition aims to circulate excellent, gospel-centered biblical, theological, and pastoral resources. Our site, which attracted more than 31 million pageviews in 2012, enables us to deliver these essays, news reports, book reviews, videos, sermons, and much more for minimal cost. But the website also gives these resources a global audience. Last year more visits came from Sydney, Australia, than any other city except Chicago. London and Singapore also appeared in the top 10. The main factor limiting our reach has been language. Until this year. Working with friends around the world who share our beliefs and priorities, TGC began hosting a Spanish-language website in February. Today we are grateful to God that we can announce the launch of a French-language website [Twitter | Facebook] filled with editorial content provided by pastors, theologians, and other church leaders in France, Quebec, the United States, and elsewhere. We are merely providing the technical support; the French-speaking editors control the content. They do not propose to simply translate English resources into French. Instead, they hope to highlight and assist the French-speaking church by producing and distributing thoughtful, faithful resources from a variety of sources, including materials they write themselves. Two men in particular have been and will be instrumental in guiding the Évangile 21 initiative (which is the name given to the Euorpean French version of The Gospel Coalition; the Quebec French organization is called Sola). Aurélien Lang, who currently serves at the Foyer Evangélique Universitaire de Grenoble, will oversee the site while Mike Evans, director emeritus of l’Institut Biblique de Genève, will serve as publication manager. Joining them on the editorial team will be Matthieu Giralt (graphics and video) and Fadi Akl (technical assistance and conference registration). Lang and Evans will oversee a growing group of translators and collaborators committed to the sufficiency of Scriptures and the doctrines of grace. On the background and need for the site, Evans remarks:
In 2012, Don Carson, John Piper, and Henri Blocher were the keynote speakers at a conference held in Geneva based on the theme of gospel-centered ministry. Ever since we have been under pressure to launch a website and continue with regular conferences. We are aware of a keen and increasing sense of interest among the new generation of Christian leaders for resources that will inform and stimulate gospel-centered ministry. It’s taken time to get everything on course because we’re dependent on the enthusiastic commitment of volunteers. Our debut is modest, but we are aiming to progressively increase the content of the Évangile 21 site in the coming months.
Through all these efforts we hope to serve, encourage, and collaborate with a network of French-speaking Christians who can stamp the next generation with gospel-centered resources for the global church. May the Lord himself strengthen his blood-bought church through the faithful proclamation of the gospel.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
