Kevin’s Story: Reversing the Shortage of Worship Music in France

"I had to confiscate a loaded pistol from one of my students once,” Kevin recalls. He had been working as a school’s band director in a rough part of town in the US. While he enjoyed using his love for musing to be a positive role model for his students, serving in that environment eventually brought him to the end of his rope. “God, I can’t take this anymore,” He prays. “Just tell me what you want me to do next, and I’ll do it—but it needs to be clear. Pull a ‘Gideon’ on me.” 

The next day, Kevin’s phone rings.  

He picks it up, and hears a friendly voice say, “Hi Kevin, I’m Florent Varak. You don’t know me, but we need a music person at my church in France.” As he listens to Florent describe the need, Kevin realizes, “We’re moving to France.” 

Kevin and his wife, Cheryl, move to France, where they continue serving to this day. After joining the church, Kevin uses his expertise to rework the church’s music ministry, and the church grows at a rate of about 10 percent a year. God eventually grows them to 300 attenders (which is quite large for a church in France), then starts using their congregation to plant new churches. All in all, their church has been a part of 10 new church plants. “Two of them weren’t even Charis Alliance churches,” Kevin says. “They just saw that we were doing a good job at planting churches, so they asked for our help.” They’re currently planting a new church that meets at Florent’s house. 

As a country that’s less than two percent evangelical, music ministry in France looks a lot different than it does in the US. English-speaking churches have an endless number of worship songs to choose from, but French-speaking congregations have very few. Most of the worship songs they sing have been translated from English. “And they don’t always pick the best songs to translate or do a good job of translating them,” Kevin says, “but that’s all there is to sing.” On top of that, music classes aren’t as prevalent in French schools, so it’s a lot harder for churches to find talented worship leaders.  

That’s why Kevin has taken it upon himself to start solving this problem. “We translate songs, produce and record them, then provide sheet music so that churches can use them,” he says. And because of that work, congregations across France now have rich, meaningful worship songs that help them connect deeply with God. 

But the need is still far bigger than one person can tackle alone. There are so many more songs waiting to be translated, recorded, and sung by French-speaking believers. That’s why Encompass is sending Kevin interns to help carry the vision forward. If this kind of ministry stirs something in your heart, contact an Encompass mobilizer. God wants to use you to make an eternal impact!