Quebec 0.56% Evangelical

Recent Evangelical History:
In 1950 there were only 4 French-speaking Baptist churches in all of Québec, with less than 500 known evangelical believers of any stripe. Several missionaries from English-speaking Canada came, preached the gospel, began church planting, and were thrown in prison by the Catholic church for a total of seven years (surprised yet?).
In the 1960’s, Quebec experienced what is known as the “Silent Revolution.” In the early 1960’s, around 95% of French-speaking Quebeckers were practicing Catholics. Within a dozen years, less than 5% of the French-speaking population was considered to be practicing Catholic (Basically, what took France 200 years to live out took place in one generation in Quebec).
In the 1970’s and early 1980’s the national Baptist church movement, along with the Assembly of God and Mennonite brethren movements, exploded exponentially, then slowed in the mid 80’s until around 2000. Recently, among the Baptists, a massive church planting movement, in conjunction with a vibrant and growing French seminary, is spilling over into all parts of Quebec. Their goal is to grow from 75 churches to over 100 by 2010. However, even with this encouraging movement, of the six million French-speaking Quebecers, nearly two million live in communities with no evangelical church of any kind.
A Nation Within A Nation:
Percentage of Evangelicals in English-speaking Canada: 13%
Percentage of Evangelicals in French-speaking Canada: 0.56%
This is why I speak of “French-Speaking Quebec” rather than “Canada.” Simply saying “Canada” gives a false impression of the area. Toronto, On and Montreal QC are two radically different cultures who speak two different languages, with radically different cultural histories…