Since 2000, The Huguenot Fellowship has been raising funds for the establishment of the James Montgomery Boice Chair of Practical Theology at Aix. Your tax-deductible gifts go a long way toward meeting this need.

James Montgomery Boice, the much respected pastor of  historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for 32 years, was an articulate spokesman for the Reformed faith in America and around the world. He had a deep burden for the spiritual needs of the French-speaking world and for the establishment of a vigorous, witnessing church in France. 

When Dr. Boice went to be with the Lord, the Huguenot Fellowship could think of no better, no more appropriate way to remember him than by the creation of a Chair of Practical Theology in his memory. The James M. Boice Endowed Chair of Practical Theology will ensure the continued teaching of the practical skills that will equip future leaders for the crucial work of spreading the Gospel and establishing Christ-centered churches wherever French is spoken.

We are grateful to have reached our first goal of $750,000. We are keeping the fund open, and encouraging additional contributions, since the real cost of a faculty position is considerably more than can be covered by the interest on this principal. Thanks in advance to our generous donors!

Contribute to the James Montgomery Boice Chair Fund.

Learn more about the books authored by Dr. Boice.

Jean-Philippe Bru is the current occupant of the James Montgomery Boice Chair of Practical Theology at the Faculté Jean Calvin. The Rev. Bru was born near Bordeaux in 1965, but grew up in Nîmes, a major center of Protestantism in France. His family embraced the evangelical faith in the 1970s. After high school, Jean-Philippe attended the Seminary in Aix for a year. He then trained as a missionary in the Baptist Church, and was sent as a church-planter to Rumania. There he met his lovely wife, Dana. Together they returned to Aix so that Jean-Philippe could complete his studies. Dana is a scholar in her own right, an expert on European literature.

After receiving the Masters degree at Aix, the Brus accepted a call to help with a church- planting effort in Lyon, alongside Francis Foucachon, another graduate from Aix. After six years in that work, the Brus were called to do evangelism in Saint-Girons, a town at the foothills of the Pyrénées, the mountain range bordering on Spain. He has also been a regular translator for Editions Excelsis, the largest evangelical publishing house in France. Jean-Philippe was ordained in the year 2007 in the Evangelical Reformed Church.

Here is how Jean-Philippe describes his sense of call to the Seminary at Aix: “If I accepted the position of professor-coordinator of practical theology, it is of course because I have always been drawn to teaching, but it is especially because I have become more and more aware that pastors needed, in addition to their formal training, to be able to reflect theologically about their practice and to enlarge their toolbox in order better to face the challenges of their ministry.” Jean-Philippe believes the Faculté Jean Calvin is the right place to carry this out.