Catch The Fire Lyon: A Family With Citywide Vision
When Geraldine talks about what God is doing in France, her words convey the excitement of someone who is not just observing momentum, but also helping to steward it.
Geraldine serves as the pastor of Catch The Fire Lyon, a church she planted several years ago. She also carries wider leadership responsibilities within Catch The Fire as a cluster and sphere leader for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and as a member of both the European board and the world board. From that vantage point, she sees both the local details and the broader movement. Again and again, one theme rises to the surface: God is stirring hunger, visibility, and courage in the Church.
In Lyon, Catch The Fire meets in an old Lutheran church in the heart of the city. When they are able to open the doors wide, people sometimes walk in from the street thinking they are visiting a historic church building, only to find themselves in the middle of worship. Geraldine sees this as part of a wider curiosity growing across France, especially among young adults. People are entering churches, including old Catholic buildings, simply wanting to know who Jesus is.
That hunger is not limited to one stream of the Church. Geraldine sees a deepening unity among charismatic Catholics, evangelicals, and other leaders in the city. She helps gather leaders to pray for Lyon, organizes events and conferences, and serves with others across denominational lines. Catch The Fire Lyon has also hosted three-week schools modeled around themes such as hearing God's voice, the Father's heart, inner healing, and the prophetic. Over the years, Geraldine estimates that around 850 to 900 people have gone through these schools.
That long-term investment in people is now flowing outward into the city.
One of the clearest examples is the March for Jesus in Lyon. Geraldine was invited to serve as vice president of the March for Jesus in the city, working with a leadership committee made up of Catholic and evangelical leaders. Last year, they were surprised by the momentum as churches began joining together. This year, even with extreme heat, around 4,000 to 4,500 people took part in the march, and approximately 7,000 gathered for the outdoor concert that followed, where Jesus was proclaimed through worship, testimonies, and an invitation to respond.
The public visibility was remarkable. Geraldine led communications for the March for Jesus in Lyon, and in just a couple of months their Instagram account received more than one million views across different videos. A TikTok account also began gaining momentum. National media took notice, and Geraldine and others were interviewed by journalists and national television. Interestingly, she believes one reason Lyon drew attention was the visible unity between evangelical and Catholic believers.
For Catch The Fire leaders, there is something deeply encouraging here. Geraldine is honest that partnership across different church backgrounds requires flexibility. It can feel stretching at first, especially when other groups do not share the same language, style, or DNA. But the fruit has been significant. The city is seeing a public witness to Jesus, and Catch The Fire is becoming more visible not through self-promotion, but through humble participation in what God is doing across the wider body of Christ.
Geraldine's heart is not only for large public gatherings. Catch The Fire Lyon is also involved in evangelism and outreach in smaller, more personal ways. The church has run Spirit Cafe-style outreach, inviting people in for coffee and offering prayer, dream interpretation, encouragement, and healing and prophetic ministry. They have done treasure hunts, listening for clues from the Holy Spirit, and then going into the streets to look for people God may be highlighting.
One story still moves Geraldine. During a treasure hunt, one of their team members believed he recognized a T-shirt he had seen in prayer. He approached the woman wearing it and told her he sensed she wanted to know Jesus. The woman said she was not interested. But her eight-year-old daughter, standing beside her, looked up and said she wanted to know Jesus. The mother, though she had no Church background, allowed the team to pray for her daughter.
For Geraldine, that is the kind of encounter that keeps leaders saying “yes.” It is the joy of being available to God in the streets, in the church building, in citywide partnerships, and in unexpected conversations.
This July, Geraldine is also helping coordinate Lyon's involvement with Awakening Europe's evangelistic initiative, with the goal of seeing people reached across Europe (around 50 people had already registered locally at the time of this interview). For Geraldine, this is part of a wider stirring: the church is being drawn back to the streets, back to prayer, back to boldness, and back to a simple confidence that Jesus is worth making known.
Her encouragement to Catch The Fire leaders around the world is clear. There is grace right now to open doors, build friendships across the body of Christ, and say yes to the opportunities God places in front of us. It may require flexibility. It may require learning new skills. It may require stepping into spaces where we do not feel fully prepared. But when leaders choose humility, unity, and courage, God can give visibility to Jesus in ways no one could manufacture.
Geraldine sees Catch The Fire moving into a season where love for the Father's presence and apostolic impact belong together. The call is not to choose between intimacy and mission. It is to let mission flow from intimacy.
As leaders, we can take heart from what is happening in Lyon. God is stirring hunger in unlikely places. He is drawing people into worship through open doors. He is gathering churches together in public witness. He is meeting children, young adults, seekers, and whole cities with the invitation to know Jesus.
And He is reminding us that a movement marked by the Father's love can also be a movement that builds boldly for the sake of the Kingdom.
