Diasporic Churches and Mission in Britain - 1: The Challenge. # 92. 11/10/2022
Out of Many, One People
Welcome, to a visit to a common topic, in response to a general request from Dr Harvey Kwiyani of Global Connections, which I hope will encourage discussion and thinking on a topic that is vital for the churches, both locally and globally.
Diasporic Churches and Mission in Britain – 1: The Challenge
‘We will launch a new forum in January that will focus on issues of mission in the context of world Christianity in the UK. With this forum, we will seek to build missional bridges with diaspora Christian communities in the country for the sake of God's mission here. As we prepare to launch the new forum, we would like to hear from you if you have any ideas on how best we can engage the Christian diaspora.’ (‘Global Connections’ bulletin, Sept 2022).
This blog is my response to Global Connections’ request, which has rightly identified the major issue for both local and global mission today. This response partly overlaps with an earlier blog: ‘One River, Two Streams: Global Christianity in Britain Today’, # 53, 09/11/2021. Relevant material is also in blogs on ‘Black Majority Christian Groups at University’, # 72, 12/04/2022; ‘Institutional Racism in the Church of England 2’, 22/01/2021; ‘Renting Church Buildings to Other Christian Groups’, # 59, 11/01/2022.
Part 1, today, will look at the background to the challenge. Part 2 next week will look possible responses.
The biggest question facing 21st century Christianity is whether the rapid growth of Christianity in the Majority World will lead on to the renewal and revival of the Christian faith within the old Christendom; or whether the acid of post-Enlightenment irreligious secularism, that has so eaten up the fabric of western Christianity, will also irresistibly undermine and then destroy Majority World Christianity. Will secularism ultimately be triumphant universally, or will Christianity have the resources to push back against it and bring God’s blessing and shalom to all peoples?
It is an encounter aptly described in the sub-title of Wesley Granberg-Michaelson’s stimulating book ‘From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church’, Eerdmans, 2013. (The main title can be considered unfortunate if ‘Timbuktu’ is used as patronisingly joking short-hand for the exotic ‘other’! Rather, Granberg-Michaelson’s use points to the fact that it is ‘the spot on the globe that’s in the geographical centre of the world’s growing number of Christians’, p xiv). He sums up the challenge thus: ‘The spiritually fervent churches of the global South need the enrichment of the commitment to the tradition and catholicity of Christian faith carried by churches rooted in the global North. And those churches need the enrichment of brothers and sisters in the global South who are discovering fresh and vital pathways for participation in God’s mission in the world. Building that bridge is the critical global calling today in concretely expressing the unity of the global church. . . . These major divisions in world Christianity, experienced geographically, spiritually, and institutionally, were at our doorstep . . in the places I have called home – Chicago, Geneva, New York, and Grand Rapids.’ (pp 20 & 80). And, of course, London, Birmingham, Manchester and the whole of Britain.
What’s across the Bridge?
Inevitably this is the view from one side of the bridge – I am from the ‘historic’, long-established and predominantly indigenous churches of England, so my accounting of ‘diasporic’ churches has the limitations of an outsider view. As regards bridge building I think the following characteristics of ‘what’s on the other side’ need emphasising.
1. Large numbers.
One indication is the list covering almost nine pages of ‘new churches in Newham’ (East London) assiduously compiled by Colin Marchant (in ‘The Desecularisation of the City: London Churches, 1980 to the Present’, edited by David Goodhew & Anthony-Paul Cooper, Routledge, 2019). In the same volume Andrew Rogers lists the number of Pentecostal congregations in ten London boroughs, five of which record over 100, and developing points made in the report ‘Being Built Together’ on new Black Majority Churches in Southwark which he edited. My own experience in Brent, and then Tottenham, would bear out this account of numerical size and complexity, with the proviso that in an ever-changing situation the numbers are never static. At one point an office block in Tottenham which was scheduled for demolition had five different congregations using it on a short term basis for worship.
2. Diversity.
a) Of organisation. Such a list will include long established predominantly African Caribbean denominations such as the New Testament Church of God, or the Church of God of Prophecy (often with headquarters in the USA); newer West African based churches such as the fast-growing Redeemed Christian Church of God; also independent churches which have effectively become a denomination such as Kingsway International Christian Centre. Whilst most focus on conservative Christian orthodoxy, there are some where elements of traditional African religions are stronger.
In addition there are a proliferation of independent churches, usually set up by ‘charismatic’ leaders which thrive or shrivel depending on their capacity to gather support.
b) Ethnicity.
Virtually all the diasporic groups in Britain will have churches reflecting that diaspora, mostly with mother tongue worship, but in English where the intention is to reach a wider range of ethnic groups, including the English. Whilst West Africans provide a large section of the total, other ethnicities are well represented such as Hispanic or Tamil congregations.
Occupying middle ground are the growing number of international charismatic churches, of which Hillsong is the most high-profile, with both English and ‘diasporic’ members; possibly, as I have suggested elsewhere, forming a new ‘urban’ youthful quasi-ethnicity, united by a developing music/fashion/language culture from a variety of ethnic parentages.
c) Culture.
Across such a wide range of peoples and churches generalisations about cultural traits are bound to be subject to innumerable qualifications. But very broadly there are at least three areas where diasporic churches will tend to differ from common English patterns:
expressiveness, and the more ready expression of emotion in worship;
authoritarianism, with both parents and leaders demanding greater obedience;
supernaturalism, and a more ready expectation to see the direct action of God in
everyday life.
When put in the mix together one outcome is that diasporic churches are often marked by what may be termed ‘default pentecostalism’; that is, regardless of whether or not Pentecostal specifics such as belief in a ‘second blessing’ Baptism in the Spirit, or speaking in tongues are present, the overall ethos is marked by expressive worship, strong ‘prophetic’ leadership and the expectation of everyday miracles.
What are we looking for?
It could be argued that we already have ‘missional unity’ in that a very wide range of churches from various denominational, spirituality and ethnic backgrounds are seeking to serve God and different communities in their distinct and different ways, with varying degrees of co-operation. What more do we want?
I believe the following elements are weak or lacking from the above:
* Love, expressed in relationships. If we are not meeting Christians of other traditions and ethnicities then quite simply we are not able to develop the sort of relationships that enable love to grow between people, so that it is more than a disembodied abstract principle rather than something we know in our hearts.
* Learning from each other, so that as Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith’ (1:11,12). As Granberg-Michaelson says there is a vast syllabus of potential learning here, but it only happens through close interaction.
* Witness to the world. ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (John 13:35). Our separation hinders a major authentication of our witness – that there is a love between people different in many ways, not least ethnicity and culture – that grows from us all dwelling in Christ and which the world often values and aspires to, abut which we squander when we are not in close relationships.
When Christians of different ethnicities in the one society are not finding ways to give substantial expression to our belonging together in faith then our spirituality, understanding and witness are all severely dimished.
What Hinders Building Missional Bridges?
1. Tradition and Cultural Reinforcement.
There is comfort and reassurance in that with which we are deeply familiar, whether that is the beauty of traditional Anglican choral worship in a jarringly materialistic society, or the refreshment of mother tongue, gestures and ways of affirming and encouraging in a society that can make us feel insignificant or unwelcome. When under threat such traditions can be clung to more closely, or even consciously augmented, as treasured foci of our identity. But treasuring them as our exclusive expressions of faith, worship and fellowship keeps the body of Christ in our locality or nation permanently divided and impaired.
2. A false theology of growth.
What is God’s desire for his churches throughout the world – that they are expressions of his desire to see a new creation of people seeking first his kingdom of love, holiness, justice and peace, or that they add more and more people to name Jesus as Lord. Both, of course, go together but the concern for numerical growth – vindicated by statistics that ‘homogenous unit’ churches grow fastest – has often predominated and seen as validation of diasporic churches largely focussing on evangelism amongst their fellows, with little concern for their failure to exhibit cross-cultural relationships that express love, learning and witness as listed above.
3. Looking after one’s own interests.
The above characteristic is intensified in new, independent or emerging churches where growth is essential both for their survival and also their capacity to provide the founding pastor with sufficient income for him to focus on evangelism and pastoral care of his flock. In such contexts the entrepreneur pastor can have a single-minded focus where attending to building relationships with Christians of other ethnicities or church traditions is an unnecessary distraction. It can be argued that this is preferable to situations in the ‘historic’ churches where the hope and expectation of growth has gone off the agenda, and the requirement for survival with dwindling resources leaves little energy for building relationship across quite different ecclesiologies and traditions.
In this respect a serious temptation is mouthing the empty rhetoric that ‘we are all one in Christ’ whilst making no attempts to earth that in actual practice, or ignoring the real differences, either theological or personal, that divide us. It is one thing to create a feel-good atmosphere by claiming it, another to make sacrifice the time and energy to actually express it in practice.
4. Suspicion.
Seeing the growth of diasporic churches as a direct result of racism in the historic churches is a serious mis-reading which downplays the essential role of black agency in building up such churches, as black leaders such as the late Joel Edwards or Joe Aldred have pointed out. Nonetheless a generalised doubt as to how welcome one might be in a ‘white’space can inhibit people’s readiness to explore a ‘historic’ congregation, when one can be sure of a ready welcome amongst one’s ‘own’ people. Further a range of cultural factors, as well as fear of racism, can make people feel uncomfortable in historic churches.
Conversely the fears amongst some ministers in historic churches that ethnic diversity will introduce an unwelcome biblical literalism or more spontaneous worship can lead to a preference for ‘them’ worshipping down the road.
Having laid out the groundwork, next week I will look at ‘What enables missional bridges?’ and practical initiatives that can be taken.
********************
Intercultural Church Conversation 2022.
An online conversation on intercultural worship and leadership to help you engage different ethnicities on the journey towards a united church - Thursday 13 October, at 7pm, an online conversation on intercultural church
The Intercultural Church Conversation (ICC) is a series of online events to promote the significance and application of an intercultural approach to church in the UK – in a season when there is division and polarisation in both church and society.
For this session our focus is on intercultural worship and leadership.
There are three aims for the event:
1. Conviction – An intercultural approach to church is biblical and theological
2. Confidence – How to “do” intercultural church (descriptive, not prescriptive) and best practices
3. Connection – Developing relationships, talking in huddle groups, and sharing where to go for further resources.
(My blog ‘Nine Steps to Building Multi-ethnic churches’ # 79, 14/06/2022, is on this topic. I have also written a booklet on the principles and practice: ‘Worship in a Multi-Cultural Society’, available from Grove Books.)
Hi John,
Thanks for an excellent post. I lead an intercultural Anglican church in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and I'm finding your blog both challenging and helpful.
In your second last paragraph, you refer "the fears among some ministers in historic churches..." In relation to welcoming more ethnically diverse congregation. My experience has been that as we have become ethnically diverse over the last 8 years or so, a number of the white British church members have felt somewhat culturally displaced. I hear occasional phrases like "it doesn't feel like my church any more." It's hard to know how much of that is to do with the factors you mention (Biblical literalism and spontaneous worship), and how much is unconscious bias against the other. But seeking to grow an intercultural church brings risk of losing those people, many of whom have served faithfully and well in the past.
At the same time, the newly arrived "internationals" often move on quite quickly, so that the church leadership have to cope with a (psychologically) unsettled indigenous white British membership and a (geographically) not-yet-settled group of newcomers. It takes courage and theological commitment to welcome this rather turbulent situation and hold the course.
Thankfully, I personally love being in a culturally and linguistically diverse group of Christians for worship, and can't imagine church any other way.