Ministry amongst People of Other World Faith Backgrounds. # 201. 03/06/2025.
Out of Many, One people
Welcome, to a topic of major importance to the church in this country, and one which has received comparatively little attention in these blogs (but see #184 interview with Rev Ajay More). This may partly be personal – for many years I was a church leader in a community with a very high proportion of people from other world faith backgrounds, but for more than a decade I have lived in an area with a large ‘black’ population and been concerned with broader issues of ‘race’ in church and society. So, at the start of a new century of blogs, a look at an important question for virtually all churches in this country. Input from leaders currently involved in such ministry will be appreciated.
Ministry amongst People of Other World Faith Backgrounds.
The recent Policy Exchange report on ‘A Portrait of Modern Britain: Ethnicity’ (reviewed at blog # 198) highlighted both the size of Britain’s South Asian background population (around 7.5% of the overall population) and also their increasingly widespread dispersion. Whilst there is a significant number of Christian background people in that group (10.24%, including Chinese), the vast majority are of other world faith backgrounds. So ministering amongst people of other world faith backgrounds is now an issue for virtually all Christian leaders.
Issues for the leader.
* Pray.
The great gift of ministering amongst people of other world faith backgrounds is our helplessness. People don’t come to us for funerals, marriage or ‘christenings’. We are not expected to care for the elderly, lonely or sick. Occasional visitors are less likely to drop into our services (though surprisingly many still do). Whilst the simple ‘prayer > clear answer’ hope is rarely fulfilled directly, nonetheless the conviction of Christians down the centuries, as well as the teaching of scripture, is that when we pray earnestly God moves, often in ways that are unpredictable or unexpected, so that shoots of faith appear and can flourish. The first call of a leader is to pray, to encourage the congregation to pray, and – whether short or long term – watch and wait for God’s Spirit to draw people of all sorts to Jesus. In relation to prayer, I always cherish the words of one Christian leader from a Hindu background that such ministry is ‘difficult but not impossible’.
* What am I aiming for?
Augustine of Canterbury got a polite but discouraging reception when he presented the Christian faith to King Aethelberht of Kent. The king listened politely, but in effect said ‘Thanks, but no thanks’. They had their own religion and were happy with that. Augustine could have thought task completed and sailed back across the Channel. But he was under compulsion from the gospel, and indeed the Pope. Augustine stayed, and slowly and not without significant setbacks, the gospel spread.
So, Anglicans today who disavow any attempt to persuade people of other faiths into becoming Christians are sawing off the branch they sit on; with predictable results. But clergy who follow in Augustine’s steps have to give thought to how they will carry out their mission today. A brash, arrogant, insensitive and full-on proclaiming of faith will put up barriers, create resistance and block off the growth of trusting relationships. A quiet avoidance of conflict and complete silence about wanting anyone to turn to Jesus in repentance and faith – seeking a nil-nil draw – will lead to the slow death of the church. Between those two poles are a continuum of approaches which leaders and congregations must, in prayer and reflection on experience, seek to discern in offering both the blessing and the challenge of turning to Christ.
* Assessing Context.
As Britain’s multi-ethnic population diversifies so the variety of contexts increases, almost exponentially. What is the proportion of people of other faith backgrounds in your area? From what geographical backgrounds, and which faith – and indeed variant of that faith? Why are they in this country – escaping rural poverty, perhaps several decades ago; for career or educational advancement, as refugees? Do they form a settled community with strong religious, cultural, even educational institutions; or are they mainly fairly isolated individuals, drawn by better housing, career choices and educational hopes? And what combination of those variegated factors affect the individuals or clustered groups in your area? It is essential to turn your eyes away from stereotypes and pre-formed assumptions, and let the local community and its people shape and fill your heart and mind as the living context in which you minister.
* Learning.
You need to know. You need to gather information. The Church of England’s Data Interactive Parish Map (which now seems to me harder to use than it was!) is a helpful tool in giving a picture of the religious and social context of your parish. It needs fleshing out with meeting people,and walking around with a sharp eye. You need to move on from a basic understanding of the faiths around you to a growing richness of the nuances and practices of that faith.
Beyond that basic learning lies an important question as to how much time and energy should be put into a deeper engagement with one or other world faith. Given that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, the attempt to move beyond a basic understanding requires setting aside time and energy, including the study of texts and languages, and quite possibly with registration for an accredited course. There is a real need in most multi-religious localities for people with specialised knowledge so it is an important calling to explore and consider before God.
* Encouraging Asian Christians.
South Asian Christians will appear in our churches. Will they be welcomed, both as fellow believers, but also as people with a specific background from which we can learn. My sense is that too often churches are slow even to begin that conversation, and of discovering ways in which they might distinctively contribute to the church’s ministry. Some will be concerned to witness and evangelise; others perhaps with an enclosed mentality where there is little expectation of the church growing outside its received boundaries. But nurturing the faith of Asian Christians can lead to ready expansion through their network of family and friends. But as with other church members, we need time to discover what this person brings to the overall life of our congregation.
* Contact with Faith Leaders.
Part of an induction of any minister into a community should be meeting with other faith leaders (and also leaders of diasporic churches) along with other major players in the local community. Usually they will be expecting us to take the initiative, and will welcome it. Friendly relations in themselves witness to the wider public, which is over-ready to assume that religion is always a source of conflict and disorder. Such good relations will be central should conflicts appear, with last summer’s riots in Southport and elsewhere are a case in point . How relationships then develop is partly dependent on the personalities involved. In my experience most faith leaders, apart from enthusiasts, are too taken up with their own issues to desire for regular inter-faith meeting and contact; but again, as with developing specialised knowledge, there might be a calling to get involved in such areas as Scriptural Reasoning.
* Be Alert.
In multi-faith communities most ministers will find thfruitful opportunities to nourish Christian faith in people are far more rare; the dangers of hopelessness and cynicism more real. The resultant danger is that we are blind to the occasional opportunities that present themselves – which is why constantly nurturing an alert prayerful spirituality is so central. But opportunities do arise. The casual conversation can develop into serious sharing, the chance contact is worth following up. I like the phrase used many years ago by the Rev Christopher Lamb of ‘loitering’. In communities where the minister won’t naturally be called on, simply being around does make us available for conversations to start and develop.
Issues for the Congregation.
* Welcoming.
First responses to newcomers are always vital (see blog # 77 ‘Steps to Being Welcoming’). A South or East Asian visitor to a church – whether they are of Christian or other background - is likely to feel even more unsure that do most British newcomers, so as ever the response of sidespeople (or other lay members) is unusually consequential. In a society where people who are not pale-skinned can still encounter aloofness then a welcome that is warm without being intrusive immediately registers that the culture of the church is different from their experience of what Britain’s ‘Christian’ society is usually like.
* Teach that the Bible comes from a ‘multi-faith’ context.
It is disturbing how easily unsettled the church in Britain has become from finding members of other world faiths in our midst, as though at a local level Christianity has always existed in a context where people were either Christians (whether intentional or just passive recipients) or unbelievers of some sorts. Our understanding is also clouded by the assumption that in scripture the alternative religions were really ‘nothing’ – their essential emptiness and falsehood so obvious that it needed the merest statement of God’s truth to lead to either acceptance or to a morally degraded and culpable rejection. Whilst the Old Testament conflicts between covenanted Israel and the surrounding idolatrous nations need to go through several re-workings of our understandings of idolatry, nationality and religion, and the nature of faith, the New Testament situation compares more readily with our experience of relating to other faiths. In Acts 17 we read that Paul was ‘exasperated’ (v 16) by the idolatry he found in Athens, but his response was respectful engagement and discussion, responding to their religious aspirations and quoting their poets. Our church members need to be helped to approach people of other world faiths with respectful seriousness and a desire to enter into their thought world.
* Expose prejudices.
The villainization of other faiths, very notably Islam, is still common, even if for many people personal encounter at work or with neighbours defuse the prejudices. It is important for church leaders to accelerate this process wherever we are. Stressing what we can not only respect but learn from others, such as the place of fasting in Islam, is important, as is recounting positive encounters. Travelling in Algeria during Ramadan I was struck by the courtesy, hospitality and tolerance I consistently received. Part of our overall responsibility as leaders is to generate in all our members a valuing and respect for all humanity, alongside loyalty to our own locality and heritage.
* Awaken Expectations.
Our church was invited to lead a monthly family service in a very small neighbouring congregation. When they discovered that two of the team taking the services were South Asians memers of the congregation were surprised – Christians were white (and now black) people; ‘brown’ people were not! Such insularity may be diminishing but not completely finished. Church members need to hear the stories of people who have turned to Christ from other faiths, if not from their own membership, then from visiting speakers. Whilst ‘high’ expectations can be unrealistic in such ministry, much more dangerous are ‘low’ expectations (including, it may be said, those from traditionally Christian communities set within strongly Muslim or Hindu societies). Many congregations need a serious enlargement of what they can expect God to do amongst people of other faith backgrounds.
* Be good news to your community.
Any conviction that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all humankind will seem threatening to people loyal to other faiths, however gently and subtlely we express it. But God has revealed himself not just through words but especially through a person, so too our faith is not to be expressed only in proclamation but also in service to those around us. Whilst the basis of that should primarily be caring and loving relationships that church members have with their neighbours, nonetheless as a body churches need to be finding some ways to be seen as an expression of God’s love; and not expressions that are only concerned in winning converts. For many years our church ran a lunch club where students from the school could drop in and relax. There was, and could not be, formal Christian input; rather the aim was that pupils could see and remember that the Christian faith naturally expressed itself in a desire to serve and do good (Titus 2:14). Often running language classes or parents and toddlers’ groups can serve this purpose.
A more focussed opportunity is being invited by local primary schools to host a visit explaining Christmas to the children. Being welcoming, developing an imaginative pattern of presentation, even offering simple refreshments, can again be important in developing a positive perception of the church and the Christian faith in the minds of children and young people.
* Specialised appointments.
The increasing administrative burdens on parish ministers – of safeguarding, of privacy concerns and secure record keeping, of finance - often in churches with few administratively able lay people, means it is exceedingly hard for many clergy to move beyond simply keeping the church and its services running. It requires commitment and intentionality to move outside our given circle of relationships and demands to spend time with people from other faiths. It is slow work. So, the first need is to pray for workers in the harvest, lay people with a heartfelt conviction to minister beyond those of Christian background. Beyond that is there the possibility and resources to appoint someone specifically to take forward this ministry? The South Asian Forum at the Evangelical Alliance is a possible starting point to explore such specialised ministries. But they need strong backing from the congregation and not left to get on with the ministry as loners. And they will need careful and wise supervision to not become isolated.
Conclusion.
Ministry to over 4 million people of other world faith backgrounds is a major challenge to the Church in England. Whilst some South Asian communities, especially of migrants from the rural areas of Sylhet in Bangladesh and Mirpur in Pakistan, still form encapsulated and separated groups, people of other backgrounds, especially if university educated, are more ready to explore outside their own traditions. Indeed, such ministry may be ‘difficult but not impossible’ and by prayer and faithful witness there is growing trickle of South Asians of other faith backgrounds putting their trust in Jesus. May God give us grace to play our calling in taking that forward.