Welcome. Ill health hindered me from doing a follow up and wider discussion around ‘Colonialism’, which will now come out next week. I am very grateful to David Wise for agreeing for me to republish his recent talk. A recurring theme of these blogs is to build up an ongoing deposit of experience and wisdom around the topic of culturally diverse congregations; which David shares with us superbly.
Intercultural Congregations (Jan 12 2023) by Rev Dr David Wise
Introduction
From October 1987 until January 2015 I was a pastor here at Greenford Baptist Church. During this time the church transitioned from being a White British congregation, to one with people from approximately forty-five nationalities regularly attending. During worship different languages were used with songs, dance and prayer in styles that were used ‘back home’. Every aspect of congregational life reflected the cultures from the different ethnicities that made up the congregation.
My doctoral research, completed just over a year ago, investigated how this transition occurred.
The overarching theme that emerged from the research conducted through the focus groups and interviews was that the lived experience of people who were a part of GBC was that they felt welcome, safe and fully accepted within GBC. This was set in the context of the experience of individuals of often not feeling welcome, safe and accepted in wider society and, for some, in other Christian contexts. Key components of GBC that were identified by research participants were the way that the use of their first language was welcome within congregational gatherings, the way that they were encouraged to engage in congregational worship using their whole body, not just their voice, and the sharing of food, dress, art and other aspects of their culture of origin. The ‘Third Culture Kids’, those who were born and grew up in the UK but whose parents had been born and grown up outside of the UK, from their lived experience growing up within GBC, believed that they were better equipped to navigate both professional life and general life than their peers who had not had the experience of growing up in a context like GBC.
Whilst reflecting on the research findings I have realised that there are several interlocking components that seem to have enabled the transition that took place at GBC. I have grouped these under four headings which forms the shape of this talk. The first is thinking that enabled transition. Under this heading is the tackling of racial prejudice and in particular the role of the tapestry metaphor. The second is attitudes that enabled transition; this surfaces in the practices of hospitality and vulnerability. The third is structures that enabled transition; here the key components are the Sunday morning meetings especially ‘Connection Time’, also the numerous social events with food and conversation. Finally, leadership that encouraged thinking, attitudes and structures that enabled transition.
Thinking that Enabled Transition: De-Centring Whiteness
We all use pictures or metaphors to describe the church. Popular ones are ‘body’ or ‘bride of Christ’. GBC used ‘tapestry’ as a key metaphor for the congregation for over 25 years. It originates from Colossians 2:2; ‘I want you to be woven into a tapestry of love’ (Message version). One of the most significant features of this metaphor is that in a tapestry the picture is revealed only by the distinctiveness of the threads. These distinctives arise from the different ethnicities and cultures represented within the congregation. From Ephesians 2:8-10 and Romans 1:19-20 the phrases ‘masterpiece’ and ‘everything God made’ (the same Greek noun) make clear that it is the church that makes known to the world something of what God is like. John 13:34-35 makes plain that it is through our relationships with one another that God is made known. Using the tapestry metaphor we see that it is through the juxtaposition, acceptance and development of difference that an image of God is revealed. In a tapestry the colour that there is most of, usually the background colour, is the least significant. Colours that stand out because they only occur occasionally often indicate the most significant detail. This means that cultures or ethnicities that there are least of within the congregation can be the most significant. An implication of this for GBC was that it tried to ensure that the ethnic and cultural uniqueness of each ethnicity was expressed within GBC so that all can be enriched. Always guiding was Revelation 7:9-12 an image of heaven, our destiny. It seems from this image that distinctiveness of ethnicity both in physical appearance and language is something that lasts into heaven. There is something about our joining together as one, but with our differing ethnicities, that is reflective of the nature of God. There is a real sense that living this out on earth is an anticipation of heaven.
In Willie Jennings’ most recent book After Whiteness (2020) Jennings draws on the understanding he developed in The Christian Imagination (2010) to assert that the goal of Western Education/Society is to promote ‘white self-sufficient masculinity’ (2020: 8). In contrast, Jennings claims God’s goal is the creation of ‘the crowd, that is the gathering of hurting and hungry people who need God … people who would not under normal circumstances ever want to be near each other’ (2020: 13). Jennings wrote of a ‘diseased centeredness … sickened by whiteness’ growing from ‘the pedagogical imperialism of the Euro-colonialists’ that shaped education, language, ideas and ‘rituals of evaluation’ (2020: 140-141). He describes the ‘consistent refusal … to place oneself in the journey of others … where I am willingly changed … by non-white peoples’ and thereby ‘to release oneself to the crowd’ (2020: 141). It is striking, from the findings of the research at GBC, that people did allow themselves to be changed and enriched by their encounters with people from different ethnicities. Jennings further comments that ‘in the long histories of Western colonial education, rarely if ever have people or peoples been allowed to name and voice … disagreements separate from the refereeing positioning of whiteness’ (2020: 142). Again, the research showed clear evidence that within GBC the ability to disagree without Whiteness being the reference point was developed.
This research has shown that the research participants at GBC had developed friendships that allowed ‘the paths of life to crisscross’. From these friendships a community was built where Whiteness as an organising conviction had been decentred. At GBC a viable and stable genuinely multi-ethnic church congregation seems to have been formed. Although practical and structural changes were clearly important, the prominent role of the tapestry metaphor in the life of the church seems to have been a crucial element in enabling this process. It is significant that the tapestry metaphor envisages engagement that moves beyond just Black and White. The ethnic landscape in Greenford was far more complex than a binary construct of Black and White with Asians, Chinese, Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans and Middle Easterners also among the church members. The tapestry metaphor, with a diverse range of colours, is a visualisation of the inclusion of people from any ethnic group. What developed at GBC seems to be an embodiment of a theological conviction that all human beings are of equal value.
An examples of the effective decentring of Whiteness as the norm was that at GBC you did not need to use English in order to be accepted. This decentring was reflected in sung worship in many languages and in the styles used ‘back home’ accompanied by dance. The freedom to use their first language in prayer and sung worship is a significant component in feeling welcomed and accepted. Tambara commented, “So, to have a church where your language is being spoken in the songs and the prayers, you feel welcome … [people] feel like they are human beings and not just second-hand citizens or whatever”. Similar comments were made by research participants regarding the freedom to use bodily movement/dance within services.
The decentring of Whiteness was also reflected in the clothes people wore, the art on display, the flags surrounding the worship area and the food that was served. In preaching there had been a move away from a Euro-centric purely cerebral approach, to one that drew on feelings and imagination and drew the congregation into participation in the hermeneutic process. In this way, Whiteness was also decentred in the way that scripture was handled.
Tapestry as a metaphor for church became a significant feature of GBC’s shared identity. The insight that this metaphor had seemingly overwritten what Jennings describes as a ‘diseased social imagination’ (2010: 6) is perhaps the most significant finding of this research.
Attitudes that Enabled Transition: Hospitable and Vulnerable
Hospitable
In Christine Pohl’s book Living into Community (2012) she comments that: ‘Communities in which hospitality is a vibrant practice tap into deep human longings to belong, find a place to share one’s gifts, and to be valued. The practice of hospitality reflects a willingness on the part of a community of people to be open to others and to share insights, needs, and contributions’ (2012: 159).
From Genesis to Revelation it is clear that prioritising giving and receiving hospitality and welcoming and allowing yourself to be welcomed by others, especially strangers, is a Christian calling.
Research participants reported that having their own food eaten and enjoyed by others and eating and enjoying even unfamiliar food prepared by others was a significant component in the building of relationships. Tabia commented: “It makes you feel very proud. You feel appreciated. They don’t just like me; they like what I eat and they are eating it too, so they are connecting with me. They are connecting with me; they are acknowledging me. It’s very important”.
Research participants had experienced GBC as a place where they were welcomed, not just with a superficial initial greeting but it was a space where they were treated as equals. It was a place where they flourished through being able to grow, use their talents and a space where they received training and opportunities for ministry and leadership. Many of those who arrived at GBC were migrants who had recently arrived in the UK and had no existing friends or relatives here. They arrived as ‘strangers’ but found welcome, acceptance, friendship and support, which in turn they gave to others. Honoria expressed this very clearly, “to have this acceptance was something that captured me … I didn’t need to be tense or pretending … I always be myself here. It was always a place where I really felt at home ... everyone is really open to accept people”. This account from Honoria is especially significant as she came from a family that she described as racist and arrived in the UK expecting to be badly treated because of her nationality.
Research participants reported feeling free to be themselves. Having the national flags and artwork of people who were a part of the congregation hanging on the walls in the hall used for the main meetings was also mentioned by research participants as being significant, as it was a sign that people other than White British were welcome there.
Within GBC, as it was experienced by the research participants, the biblical values of welcoming strangers and hospitality were embedded.
Vulnerable
I have been asked several times in the light of my research, how can British church leaders best learn from people from other ethnicities.
I reflect that being vulnerable to the challenges and insights coming from people from other ethnicities is vital. The practice of not privileging British views and being open to the views of others has been a key component in the development of the genuinely multi-ethnic life of GBC. The intentional setting aside of a Euro-centric approach to biblical interpretation was a key part of enabling the congregation to hear and positively engage with theological, ethical and cultural perspectives arising from outside Europe and North America.
Talking about the arrival within GBC of the first people who were not White British, Betsy commented:
I think our ways were what we had been brought up with and what we were used to. We assumed that was the norm and that people who came in from the outside were going to come round to our way of thinking, be English and be the norm like we thought we were, because we thought it is really our church, really our country, so they’d come in and must adapt to what we are used to. I think we might have thought like that in the very beginning and then of course that changed.
An attitude that recognises that one’s own cultural values and understanding are not automatically superior to someone else’s, and that consequently each person potentially can be enriched by learning from someone who might be considered inferior by many in church and society, seems to have been an important factor at GBC in enabling the transition to become a genuinely multi-ethnic church.
The practice of vulnerability and the willingness to sacrifice British ways of doing things was an important aspect in GBC’s development.
Structures that Enabled Transition: Sundays and Training
The most significant findings about structure relate to what took place when the congregation gathered on Sundays. However, structure that created space for social interaction, structure that enabled the training and release into ministry of members of the congregation and structure that enabled the voices of minorities to be heard were also important.
The decision to change the structure of the Sunday morning meetings seems to have been a highly significant aspect of the transition at GBC. The previous structure had been unchanged since the 1960s. The meeting was extended to around two and a half hours. The first section of a little over an hour was everyone together for worship/prayer etc, then there was a twenty-five minute ‘connection time’ in the middle when refreshments were served and people were encouraged to talk to each other, finally there was fifty minutes of activities in age specific groups which for the adults was interactive Bible teaching. Newly added weekly ingredients in the first section of the meeting included time for testimonies, celebration of birthdays and anniversaries and a time for ‘prayer ministry’. Overall there was increased time for singing, praying, creative activities (such as dance, poetry, drama) and more time for Bible teaching. Eating together after the service became a monthly event. The lengthening of the time the congregation was together, the extra activities added and the creation of ‘Connection Time’ as a central part of the time together, rather than an optional add on at the end; seem to have made possible many of the features that research participants found helpful and welcoming. Research participants reported that the time spent within the congregational meeting for the celebration of birthdays and an ‘open microphone’ opportunity for people to share anything about recently experiencing the activity of God, was important to them. The opportunity to dance during sung worship, which enabled people to worship God with their whole body, was likewise seen as very significant. In the previous structure of Sunday gatherings there was not adequate time for these ingredients to be regularly included.
The most significant addition to the Sunday gathering was ‘Connection Time’ between the end of the singing/prayer focussed session and the start of teaching in age groups. Research participants commented that this created space for new people to be personally welcomed and introduced to others, for new friendships to begin and develop and for the conducting of business, as is normal in many West African churches. The inclusion of numerous social events, frequent Sunday lunches and church weekends were commented on. Structuring these into the life of GBC, in the view of the research participants, created many opportunities for friendships to develop with people from outside of their own ethnic groups.
Ensuring that the voices of ethnic minorities within GBC were heard was also partly about the use of enabling structures. An important element of this was the investment in training with the Leadership Training Group (LTG) and the use of external training courses. The LTG was a 16 month long programme that I devised. It was a mixture of working on character and skills. This training enabled people from ethnic minorities within GBC to be equipped for leadership roles. The Leadership Team and Staff Team during the period researched had members who had been born and grown up in Brazil, Grenada, Jamaica, Nigeria, Singapore, and Trinidad as well as UK born Black, mixed race and White. Others holding wider leadership roles had been born, and grown up in, Cameroon, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the United States. Such a diversity enabled the voices of those from ethnic minorities within GBC to be clearly heard.
Most of those who were recognised as leaders within GBC, either in the senior Leadership Team or in one of the many other leadership roles, were graduates of the LTG programme. This intentional investment into people, most of whom had no previous experience of leadership, public speaking or Christian ministry, created a significant resource for the development of GBC. It also had a profound effect on those who participated, Alvita commented:
I left everything and came here. So, to come somewhere, be a stranger in a place and then to, in a sense, find myself fitting in and then being given opportunities I never, ever would have thought about; it was shocking (voice breaking).
The interview with Alvita, who had grown up in the Caribbean, took place twelve years after she was a part of a LTG at GBC. For her, taking part in a LTG not only helped train her for leadership, but also had a significant impact on how she viewed herself being welcomed and accepted as a part of GBC.
Leadership that Enabled Transition: Learning and Serving
As I reflect on my role in leading during the developments at GBC in the light of the research and wider reading, there seem to be some significant factors that enabled the transition. The first has been a willingness to learn. In the chapter Understanding Intercultural Congregations (Wise, 2021: 84-98) drawing on my experience at GBC and elsewhere I wrote about the importance for me, as a church pastor, of undertaking academic study, of deep listening to members of the congregation, of visiting overseas contexts and of giving and receiving hospitality. Here I add the willingness to take risks alongside the recognition that sometimes relationships and projects will not have a happy conclusion.
GBC’s Leadership Team Vision for most of the years covered by the research included the statement:
The aim of the Leadership is to serve Greenford Baptist Church by seeing her discipled for the work of Christian service, to be built up until we all come together to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, to become mature people reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature. (Ephesians 4: 12-13) (Greenford Baptist Church Leadership Team, 2007: 1).
This vision is for servant leadership, leadership focused on building others up in unity. It is important to note that leadership at GBC was always by a team which brought together people with different perspectives and different gifts.
Conclusion
There is so much I could have talked about today but we agreed that I would present the four concepts of Thinking that Enabled Transition: De-Centring Whiteness, Attitudes that Enabled Transition: Hospitable and Vulnerable, Structures that Enabled Transition: Sundays and Training, Leadership that Enabled Transition: Learning and Serving with some illustrations of what they looked like in practice.
As you can see from the handout this talk and my full thesis is available to you. I am happy to have further conversation today or subsequently.
References
Email me (DWise@waverleyabbeycollege.ac.uk ) if you would like a copy of my DTh thesis.
Jennings, W.J. (2010) The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press.
Jennings, W.J. (2020) After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Pohl, C.D. (2012) Living into Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Wise, D. (2018) Greenford Baptist Church London in Baptists Together Spring, pp 17-18. This article was the source for the summary of the Tapestry metaphor and is available at https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/513632/Baptists_Together_magazine.aspx There is a much more in-depth examination of the Tapestry metaphor in my thesis.
Wise, D. (2021) Understanding Intercultural Congregations in Reddie, A.G., Boanerges, S.A. and Searle, P. (eds.) Intercultural Preaching. Oxford: Centre for Baptist Studies in Oxford. pp. 84-98.
David can contacted on dwise@waverleyabbeycollege.ac.uk. 01252 784723
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David’s talk was part of a day organised by the Baptist Union on 'Successfully Building Multi-ethnic Church' providing theological and practical input, based on doctoral research around local church where people of many ethnicities are genuinely engaged. Below are the main sessions delivered through the day.
There is a recognition that many churches are committed to becoming multi-ethnic but struggle in the process. This is not surprising, building multi -ethnic churches is a complex and challenging undertaking. The aim of the conference was to provide church leaders with theological and practical support based on recent doctoral research by some of the conference contributors. The conference drew together practitioners and academics, experienced in the field of multi-ethnic church. Contributors included Rosemarie Davidson-Gotobed, Wale Hudson-Roberts, Dr Usha Reifsnider, Dr Israel Olofinjana, Dr David Wise, Dr Arthur Brown, Sharon Shek and Sarah-Jane Nii-Adjei.
Usha Reifsnider outlined a theology of multi-ethnic church drawing on her research into the experience of Guajarati Christians in the UK. Israel Olofinjana, drawing on his research, presented some of the Intercultural Challenges within the African Diaspora. Arthur Brown talked about his experience of being involved in the establishment of a multi-ethnic church in Lebanon and Sharon Shek talked about the current experiences of some of those who have newly migrated to the UK from Hong Kong. These are all available on You Tube.
There was very positive feedback from those who attended the conference. The main ‘criticism’ was that one day was too short to discuss these issues. So, planning for follow on conferences later this year is already under way with Birmingham and Yorkshire being likely locations.
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This is a heartwarming story. Many Thanks.