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The white Frenchman heads up La Défense Alliance Church in the progressive business suburb of Paris. The faces of his congregation foreshadow the ethnic mix of heaven. The mostly immigrant community, representing at least 20 countries, started a social ministry two months ago.

"Once a month, people can meet for free with two professional social workers, both members of the church, to explain their problems," says Bieselaar. "We try to help solve problems and redirect the persons to the right administration and social work. We listen, give advice, and sometimes assist in a very practical way. We have been dealing so far with people who have been financially bankrupt and those who have been looking for a job but did not know where to start. Our church is then becoming a resource center, both spiritually and socially."

Other group do similar ministry in the seething suburbs: the Salvation Army, some Baptist groups, and others, which prefer to work quietly by making friends with the immigrants, one by one.

Of course, evangelicals can only do so much (thank God some other Protestants and Catholics are also involved in reaching out to Muslims). There are 350,000 of them and 5 million Muslims among the 60 million people who live in France.

But even France's half-a-percent evangelical population can be "a helpful, salutary safety net for some," says Henri Blocher, a well-respected Parisian pastor who also serves as adjunct professor at Wheaton College.

"Maybe," he ventures, "no better tool for integration into an old European nation could be found, if one sees things from a sociological-political angle." Christian parachurch organizations and churches provide immigrants with "family-like warmth," he says. "That is most wanted." They also hook people up with jobs, living quarters, and a way to navigate through the French bureaucracy.

The French Christians—the real ones, who make room for Christ in their hearts—may be few and far between. But when the few of them reach out to a Muslim—like a minority to a minority, like one son of Abraham to another—then it warms the heart. And takes away from the ire and fire.

Then the true liberté, egalité, fraternité takes hold, little by little.

Agnieszka Tennant is senior associate editor of Christianity Today. In March, she reported on the growth of French Christianity in "The French Reconnection."

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Agnieszka Tennant is also author of our March 2005 cover story, The French Reconnection.

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November (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49