Francophone History

The Fellowship French mission was founded in 1958 during the persecution years in Quebec when those proselyting could be jailed for their “crime”.

Hundreds of churches and individuals across Canada began to prayerfully support the work in Quebec and exciting things began to happen. They also gave financially and sent workers to assist in the discipling of new believers and in the development of churches.

In 1971, with 17 Francophone churches, the AEBEQ Region (Association d'Églises Baptistes Évangéliques au Québec) was born. Since that time, over 84 churches have been established and French Canadian leadership are ably supported and trained by the Region’s church-based seminary, SEMBEQ. Today, there are between 8,000 and 9,000 believers worshipping every Sunday in the AEBEQ churches.

While we praise God for the work He has accomplished in this Region of our country, there is still much work to be done. There are still six million Francophones within Quebec, plus another 800,000+ Francophone outside of Quebec (Ontario: 488,000; New Brunswick: 233,000; Manitoba: 100,000) who are unreached with the Gospel.

Over the years the Fellowship Francophone ministry has been ably led by Marcel Cotnoir, David Dobson, Terry Cuthbert, and, more recently, Steve Jones and Sergei Li.

In 2014, in recognition of the growing maturity of our AEBEQ Region, a new model for reaching Francophone Canada was launched. While keeping clearly focused on the crucial fact that Quebec and other pockets of Francophones throughout Canada are still a tremendously needy mission field, Fellowship churches and individual donors across Canada are being encouraged to engage in collaborative relationships with Francophone church plants through strategic partnerships.

In 2019 our Fellowship International department made Québec one of our official fields of interest and some missionaries have been sent from Fellowship Baptist churches across Canada to serve in Québec. From 2015-2022 new partnerships were established between English-speaking Fellowship churches and donors, with seven new Francophone Fellowship church plants being established. Through mutual prayer for one another, sending short-term mission teams, and the sharing of resources, God is doing a great work among French Canadians.

Pastors and church leaders can learn more about church planting partnerships in Québec by going on a Québec Vision Tour (QVT):

  • Live QVT: Visit Québec for 48 hours and meet church planters on location.
  • Virtual QVT: Visit Québec in a 90-minute zoom gathering of Francophone church planters.
  • QVT Enroute: Attend a two-hour meeting with Québec and National Fellowship leaders in your area.

 

To learn more, read the Reaching Francophone Canada document and Direction Document: Vision, Mission, Values and Strategy.