Biography:

Louis Charles DeMeo was born in Framingham, Massachusetts on September 18, 1952. He graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1974. He received his Masters of Divinity from Luther Rice Seminary. Pastor Louis DeMeo was ordained in March 1981, and married Janey Goodey in September 1981. They have two children aged twenty-two and eighteen. He and his family were missionaries to France from 1982 - 2003.

Louis DeMeo founded the Theological Institute of Nîmes (ITN)–which has now become the Theological & Missionary Institute (IT&M)–one of the largest of a handful of theological seminaries in the country. Many of the Institute's graduates have become full time Christian educators, pastors, and ministers. And many have taken advantage of the link to Luther Rice Seminary and received their Masters degrees. (The school benefited from a diverse board of advisors and teachers from prominent Christian ministries including the late Dr.Stephen Olford, Dr. Howard Hendricks, Dr. Gene Getz and also enjoyed various teachers from Calvary Chapel.)

DeMeo also founded a non-denominational Evangelical Church, l'Eglise Evangélique de la Grâce, and a Christian Day School in France which was affiliated with ACSI. 

DeMeo's ministry includes intense church-planting which he has been doing since 1978 directly or indirectly founding works in Canada, America, France, Africa, Romania, Geneva, Switzerland; Albania and Morocco. He has trained leaders and pastors presently working in Montreal, Canada; Boston, Massachusetts; England, Togo, West Africa, Hungary, Switzerland, Albania, Italy and five locations in France.

The Day School is one of the first private Protestant Evangelical schools to be established since the persecution of the Huguenots, and is presently one of less than fifteen such schools in France. In 1981 Louis DeMeo worked on the Committee of Religious Affairs at the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and for seven years served as a chaplain for the Professional World Surf Tournament in France, and also started Christian Surfers France.

Louis DeMeo was active in fighting for religious liberty in France since the establishment of an official government cult list in 1996 in which ITN and numerous other Evangelical churches were falsely listed. He was asked by the U.S. State department to testify at a Helsinki commission hearing on June 1999 concerning the religious liberty problems in France. Read article: http://www.menschenrechtsbuero.de/pdf/july99.pdf   Since then the DeMeo's have been involved with ministering to government officials through various platforms including the Presidents Prayer Breakfast and other events.

Not only is Louis a church-planter, but also an initiator of humanitarian programs helping the local community, working with local authorities. His church in France helped prolifically during the 1988 Nîmes flood, had active bus-ministry programs, and youth programs to underprivileged children in Nîmes and elsewhere. The church also helped in various catastrophes ranging from that of the Bosnian war and the bombing in Toulouse.  In January 2005, DeMeo took 25 students for an evangelistic outreach to France, Italy and Switzerland. In June 2005, DeMeo helped in the last Billy Graham Crusade bringing 20 students with him—a great blessing since he received Christ through Dr. Graham's ministry in 1972. 

DeMeo's wife, Janey, is founder of a Christian non-profit organization helping suffering children throughout the world: Orphans First ( www.orphansfirst.org ). She is also a writer and author (her new book, Heaven Help Me Raise These Children! to be released January 2005 by Silas Publishing ( www.carepoint.com —click resources, then scroll to parenting). 

In November 2003, the DeMeos left France for America for the educational needs of their children. They presently teach at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California.  Louis's teaches several books of the Bible as well as personal evangelism and church planting.