Becoming Church Together: Life Center and Eglise Francophone de Madison

Emma Wawa

By Marcia Bosscher
Collaboration Project Story Team

Church partnerships can mean many things: a commitment to shared mission, denominational ties, shared space in a building. 

The partnership between Life Center Madison and Eglise Francophone de Madison—the French-speaking congregation of Madison—is remarkable in its origin and how it has transformed both congregations. 

Originally called Evangel Life Center, Life Center is located on the southeast side of Madison and is known for its diverse ministry and involvement in the community. Eglise Francophone de Madison had its beginnings in the Ivory Coast.

Born and raised in the Ivory Coast—Côte d'Ivoire—Emma Wawa and her late husband Victorien immigrated separately to the United States, married, and began their life together in New York City. As they started their family in the mid-90s, they made the decision to move to Madison, understanding it would be a better place to raise their children. 

Committed Christians, it still took them some time to settle into a church. They longed for a worship experience that would be familiar to them.

"When I go to Church, I would like to worship. Not like, 'Oh, no, don't pray loud, you will disturb your neighbor.' No!" Emma says, laughing,.

"So, when we went to Life Center, when you enter the building, the people who greet you—that was so awesome—the way they just come to you. And then, we walked into the sanctuary and I see the worship had already started. I see people are jumping, are worshiping, and I look at my late husband and I say, 'I think we are home! This is home!' " 

The Wawas with their three children settled in.

Although Life Center (Evangel Life Center at the time) became their church home, French was their first language and they continued to gather a group in their home for weekly prayer. "We were just inviting everybody who spoke French," Emma said. "But on Sunday, we'd tell people, 'Wherever God has called you in your congregation, go back on Sunday. Go worship there.' "

Victorien had sensed a call to ministry even before he left Ivory Coast and now in Madison considered beginning a French ministry. But he wondered, was this what God had in mind or was it just his idea? 

He committed to prayer and fasting. Emma remembers him praying, "Lord, it starts from you. If it is from you, do it."  

Emma with Pastor John Clark

Victorien stayed home from work one day to pray. The phone rang. It was the Evangel Life Center pastor at the time, John Clark. Emma recalls the conversation, "This is how many years ago, but I remember it as if it was today. Pastor John said, 'Brother, how are you?' Victorien said, 'I'm good.' Pastor John said, 'Okay. In case you are seeking, in case you are asking the Lord, Lord, what do I do? I'm just coming to you saying, it is time for you to invest yourself in the French ministry in Madison, Wisconsin.'" 

Victorien reacted visibly, Emma remembers. Only Emma had known of his wrestling with this decision. 

Pastor John continued, "You don't know how to swim? Throw yourself in the water, and then you will know how to swim. Brother, the Lord has called you here, in Madison. He has called you with us here. We don't speak French. You speak French. The places I cannot reach, you can reach. So please, get yourself together and go ahead."

That was the confirmation Victorien needed to begin. Emma recalls Pastor John blessing them, saying, "Out of Evangel Life Center, another ministry is born, French ministry. Go ahead. This is your space. This is your home. This is your building." 

There was great excitement, but no one foresaw what the next year would bring. 

Just as the Wawas were preparing for their first worship service in French, Emma, coming home from work close to midnight from her second job as a nursing assistant, was stopped for a possible traffic violation. 

Mother of three, working two close-to-fulltime jobs, Emma was soon surrounded by officers and six police cars. She was taken to jail on a suspected immigration violation. 

"So, I was not even there when they started the first service we had been praying for,” she said. “I was not there. I was in jail." She was eventually incarcerated in Dodge County. 

It was a devastating season, but Emma says, "My bitterness has become betterness. I can talk about it with joy, because nothing surprises God. The Lord knew I was going to be arrested, even though we were preparing the first service. Because you know what? He's God!" she says, laughing. 

When she was eventually released after six months and 21 days there was no charge against her. It was Good Friday of 2007. Emma recalls, "The Lord said, 'Okay, now this is enough. I have trimmed her. I pruned her. She's ready to go and preach!' Because before that, I was not like this today. No!"

But this was not the end of challenges for Emma or the new congregation. Just four months after Emma's release from prison, Victorien was diagnosed with liver cancer and passed away on October 1, 2007.

Emma describes those weeks and months, "When everything was happening, he was sick, and getting sicker, I felt the Lord was talking to me saying, 'I am in your boat.' You know, when Jesus was with his disciples in the boat. I said to him, 'You're in my boat? You've been in my boat? So, what is new?'" She shared this with Victorien and he said, "You probably need to pay very close attention. He's probably getting a message to you." 

When Victorien passed away, Emma wondered, "Oh, how am I going to do this?" And she heard the Lord say, "Let us go to the other side." 

Emma was confused, what did that mean, go to the other side?  She had been a shy girl, never expecting to pick up a microphone. Now what was the Lord asking her to do? 

She began to understand. "Remember when he talked to Joshua," Emma said, "'Okay, Joshua, Moses is gone. Now you, Joshua, take the people, and let us go.' It was a clear message. He didn't say, 'Take the people and go.' He said, 'Let us.' So, that was my message the first Sunday without him, when we went back to church."

Emma became the pastor of the fledgling French congregation, eventually being ordained at the encouragement of Adam Clausen, Life Center's current Senior Leader. 

As Eglise Francophone emerged from these challenges, the congregation of Life Center was praying and supporting the ministry. But both congregations met at different times and different spaces within the building. They were largely two congregations under one roof. 

Adam knew there was potential for more in their relationship. He longed to see the French-speaking church integrated into the worship and community of Life Center—not absorbed into the English-speaking church, but the two worshiping bodies melded together, learning from each other.  

Emma remembers him saying, "I respect and value you guys, your culture. Why don't you bring your culture to us? We need to adapt to you, too. We can work together. This is a family. There is no French Church, no English church, but it is all Life Center. Let's do it together." 

There had already been joint services once a quarter. They began to meet every other month, then once a month, eventually meeting in joint services twice a month. (All services went online during the past year of the Covid pandemic but are beginning to return to in-person.)

The first Sunday of the month is a combined service and Emma or another leader preaches in French. Praise is bilingual, which includes African songs and dance, and an interpreter for the English speakers. The last Sunday of the month, all are together again and the preaching is in English. Adam often has guest speakers or a speaker from within the church speak.

"I want to serve," says Adam, "I want to steward a responsibility and a grace given to me to equip the Church, but that doesn't mean I have to be the Sunday morning face every time. Our church is learning to receive from different voices, different gifts, and different perspectives on Scripture. We're very heterogeneous."

Looking back at the evolution of the worshipping community at Life Center, Adam says, "Historically, they were in a completely different space in the church building, and they did their own thing on Sunday afternoons. I wanted them to be integrated, and I felt like we (English-speakers) had something to learn and receive from them, while not wanting them to lose who they are in their distinctive identity sense, an African community sense, but wanting to create this space where we are equal." 

Adam summed it up, "It's not 'big church,' 'little church,' ‘white church,’ ‘Black church.’ We are together. We, together, are the Church." 

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