Our History

Our church’s story began with a profound question from a well-respected pastor who has since gone on to be with the Lord. In 2018, Pastor Edouard Nelson of Eglise des Ternes invited us to consider starting an international English-speaking congregation in their chapel space at 8 Rue des Ternes in the 17th arrondissement.

At the time he challenged our leaders with a simple question: “If you had the choice, why wouldn’t you take an opportunity to preach the Gospel?” The answer was obvious. Our planting pastor and his family as well as several others began praying for the future congregation at Ternes and made preparations to begin meeting.

On Easter Sunday in 2018, our congregation began to gather weekly at the Ternes Chapel. The original vision was to see “communities of light” multiply in and around the City of Lights in order to reach an estimated 3-4 million English-speakers in Paris including students, professionals, singles, families, refugees and more from every nation around the world.

For many churches, the initial years after the pandemic were focused on rebuilding a sense of community. During this time, our church slowly grew to pre-pandemic levels as members were added and new believers in Christ were baptized. We were able to host outreaches and community events while taking important steps to secure the future of our church.

At the end of 2024, our congregation took an important step of faith to grow into maturity. With a unanimous agreement to continue to pursue our mission and vision under a new administration, we took on a new name: Grace Fellowship International Church.

Our church is now looking to the future with hope for God’s purpose and plan. Our mission and vision remain, and the question that we began with continues to be our driving purpose today — to preach the Gospel of God’s amazing grace in Paris and welcome others with the welcome that we ourselves have received in Christ (Romans 15:7).