Even if you haven't been to Paris yet, you can already picture its landmarks in your mind: The Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and many others. Popular cinema has filled your head with romantic images of attractive lovers strolling across ancient bridges from the Right to the Left bank of the Seine. You imagine intellectuals discussing weighty matters at a terrace cafe, a beautiful woman's skirt flowing in the wind as she rides a bike past your table on the cobble-stoned street, and a waiter who refuses to speak English even though he clearly understands everything you are saying. Paris means so many different things to so many different people. If you look hard enough, you'll probably find them all.

Journey Corps invites you to set aside your preconceptions of Paris. Instead, approach the "City of Lights" as a unique learning context that God can use to shape you for his mission to restore all creation. Don't imagine that you are bringing Jesus to Paris! Follow Him here, learn from Him, and let Him transform you with His love for the French-speaking world.

Transformative Community Living

Journeyers live together at OIKOS, a household of Jesus-followers who share life and work together in order to be shaped for God's mission in the Paris region and beyond. OIKOS is a training community that facilitates hands-on, church-based formation for "World-Christian" workers. OIKOS serves a church planting movement in the ethnically diverse Eastern Suburbs of Paris. The OIKOS house is within 30 minutes of the 20+ local churches that WorldVenture and its partners have established there. We recognize that the global nature of our church planting work in this world class city provides a rich environment to develop young leaders for our rapidly globalizing world. Transformative Christian community is cultivated as follows:

Transformative Community Living

• Mentors
• Local Church
• Community Service
• Common Meal
• Household Chores
• Global Service

Every Journeyer works with a seasoned mentor to develop a learning agreement and an accountability structure. This connects each Journeyer to a locally established leader who can empower him/her for personal growth.

Every Journeyer participates in the life of a local church, serving according to his/her gifts and engaging in a weekly home group. This connects Journeyers to the larger evangelical community in the Paris region.

Every Journeyer engages in a weekly activity outside the church community. This could be a club, a sports team, a class, or a community service project. Whatever the activity, the purpose is to engage unbelievers with a servant's attitude and to learn from them. This connects Journeyers to the broader community in the Paris region.

Central to OIKOS' community life is a weekly common meal. All Journeyers help to prepare these meals together. After the meal, there's a time of teaching, worship, sharing and prayer. It is the moment in the week when the OIKOS community comes together to tell our stories and to care for each other as a household in service of the broader community. This connects Journeyers to the other OIKOS members.

A household must be maintained. All Journeyers participate in chores: cleaning, gardening, house maintenance, etc. This helps to create the "household" identity and further connects OIKOS members to each other as they depend on each other in daily life.

Every Journeyer participates in a two-week service project in Africa. This connects Journeyers to the broader French-speaking world.

Language Learning and Love

• Formal Language Study
• Bi-cultural Mentors
• Multi-cultural Household
• Global French speaking Church
• Global Service

For those Journeyers who do not yet have a mastery of the French language, the Paris region provides a wealth of formal study programs. The appropriate program is selected according to the learning needs of each Journeyer.

Each Journeyer is paired with a mentor experienced in cross-cultural, bi-lingual living. Learning goals appropriate to each individual are established to guide and to empower Journeyers to navigate cultural differences effectively.

OIKOS intentionally cultivates a diverse membership. Members are recruited from various national, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. A balance between native French and native English speakers is carefully maintained. Multi-lingualism is modeled and encouraged. Journeyers' formal language and culture learning opportunities are maximized by the informal, daily-life learning experiences that this diverse community naturally provides.

OIKOS serves a church planting movement in the multi-cultural suburbs of Paris. The Paris region is a hub of global French-speaking networks. Our local church communities well represent the diversity of the global French-speaking church. As Christianity worldwide acquires an ever-clearer African and Asian character, it is not surprising to encounter Jesus' influence flowing from the global South along post-colonial immigration lines into European urban centers. Through local church participation, Journeyers are inevitably exposed to this influence.

This Sunday, Jesus-followers in 25 different African nations will worship the only living God using the French language. When we think of the global French-speaking church, we should not imagine the Lord's supper is always taken using baguettes and bordeaux. Worldwide, the francophone church is majority African. Mission OIKOS is serving the broader French-speaking world through short-term and long-term service projects to Africa. We are sending leaders developed in our Paris region churches to serve our partners in Africa. Journeyers are required to participate in a 2 week global service project during their internship.

Globalized Ministry

Journey Corps Paris has two financial tracks

Track 1:

$2,500 monthly total ($30,000 annually). Each Journeyer needs $3,500 (for outgoing expenses) and 100% of your monthly commitments 30 days prior to departure.

Track 2:

$2100 monthly total ($25,200).  Each Journeyer needs $3,500 (for outgoing expenses) and %100 of your monthly commitments 30 days prior to departure.

Other Beneficial Options

• $100 per month for reentry: This money will be held in your account and then given to you when you return to the States. This money is taxable income.
• $200 For School Debt: This money will be used to pay off school loans. The money will be paid directly to your school.
• For Future Ministry: This money will be held in your account for future overseas ministry with WorldVenture. You may raise as much as you want for this purpose. The money will be held for up to one year after you are complete with Journey Corps.