Auburn’s Al Jackson trades pulpit with Alabama church planter in Paris

By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist

This summer looked a little different for Al Jackson — he spent a month preaching from a different pulpit, one that was a lot closer to the Eiffel Tower than his usual spot.

It all started with an article he read in The Alabama Baptist back in 2016.

“That article was the catalyst,” said Jackson, pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn. The feature story was about Parker Windle, a young man he crossed paths with some years ago. Windle had grown up in church in Selma, answered the call to missions as a teen at First Baptist Church, Aliceville, and was now a church planter serving in Paris.

Missions partner

The sidebar article said Windle’s church was looking for missions partners.

“So I reached out to him and told him that my wife, Kem, and I would be in Eastern Europe for a trip not too long after that and would love to come by and hear him preach,” Jackson said.

When they visited Windle’s church, Jackson offered the pulpit swap idea. 

Windle, who joined the staff of Emmanuel International Church first as youth pastor then as pastor after his Journeyman term in Paris with the International Mission Board a few years back, liked the idea.

The church — an English-speaking congregation — has more than 40 nationalities on a normal Sunday. 

It’s part of the International Baptist Convention’s church planting ministry called Catalyst which aims to plant English-speaking churches for internationals in non-English-speaking countries. Between 3 and 4 million people in Paris can speak English and similar opportunities exist in other cities.

“Our vision as a church has been evolving — we want to expand by church planting,” Windle said. “We started seeing opportunities to plant more churches in the Paris area. Our church is capable of sustaining itself, but we needed some help if we were going to have some gospel advance.”

So this past summer Windle took Jackson up on his offer, came back to Alabama and stayed in his house for a couple of weeks, then traveled around the state visiting partner churches to raise awareness and support. He said Lakeview members took good care of him and his wife, Kyrah.

“Lakeview was a big encouragement to us,” Windle said, noting he preached at the church twice. “They’re very missions-minded.”

Jackson said his time in Paris with Emmanuel was encouraging too.

“They have a real vision to plant English-speaking, Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches throughout the city of Paris and across western Europe,” he said. “It was a blessing to get to see firsthand.”