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 PrintableVersion Black lifeA review of white Christian attitudes towards black and other ethnic minorities with the UK with diverse culture and modes of worshipImagine. An inner-city area of Britain. Sunday. You stumble into a Victorian Free Church building. Predominantly Caribbean people. You join the group at the front as they're praying for God to move. 'Electrifying!' says a friend, anticipating the worship. As people return to the pews, a music group leads into the first song. 80-year-old women are dancing with hands in the air. The song finishes. You pray together out loud, praising God, praying for others, praying for yourself. Another song. Harmony. Rap rhythms. No problem with young boys' behaviour - they're on the bongos. After an hour, the pastors appear. 45 minute preach. Passionate message. 350 responsive people. Stories from experience. Encouragement for the oppressed. Songs of response to God follow. A conga as you give the offering. The other pastor challenges non-Christians and backsliders. An altar call. 25 people go forward. After two and a quarter hours, the meeting finishes. You're deluged with people who are glad to see you and ask you to come again. 'A conga is not my style', I hear you say. Maybe. But what should our priorities be? When I suggested to a Nigerian friend that if she went abroad and shared her faith, she might suffer racism, she said: 'Life's too short.' What she was asking was: 'What's God trying to do in the world today? I want to be involved with that!' Black Christians believe they can learn from their white brothers and sisters. But can whites learn something from black Christians in Britain? Would partnership with them be a good thing? Let's look at some important issues. Helping post-moderns become followers of JesusA recent churches survey concluded that: 'Low average age is highly desirable, if not essential to church survival and growth.' (1) What things are important to many Generation X-ers (17-37-year-olds)? If we do not reach that generation, how will we reach the next? SpiritualityDisregard of authority and older generations. Survival through (often dangerous) self-sufficiency. Music and visual images. Behaviour and action rather than talk. Friendships and relationships. How can we reach out to X-ers? Listen to and accept them unconditionally. Move towards their worldview. Emphasise Christian community. Don't over-intellectualise - the gospel is a story. Tell your struggles and how your faith is relevant. Get involved in community issues. (2) Can black Christians help us in these areas? Black people have grown used to oppression. Their faith is nothing if not in God helping them through trouble. As with most non-white people in Britain, God is very close to the surface of their lives. Even for their sadly criminalised younger generation, more than three times as many Caribbean as white 16-34-year-olds say: 'Religion is very important to how I live my life.' (3) There appears to be an increasing congruence in culture between white, black and Asian young people in Britain. Robert Beckford says: 'Much evangelical song-writing draws deeply from black gospel music.'(4) Involvement by Caribbean Christians in their community is legendary, from a large credit union and helping others buy houses to practical help for children with working parents, drug addicts, prisoners, supplementary education, etc.. Their faith necessitates action. Again, as with most non-white people, personal relationships are more important than personal achievements. For many people whose origins are not Western, words are of little interest until they've seen your lifestyle. PrayerThe daily amount of time spent by church members in prayer was such a concern to the new FIEC President at Caister that Jonathan Stephen jokingly suggested he might survey his home church on the subject! Isaac Ifinnwa tells of a Nigerian Christian with not enough food to feed his family. He prayed about it. He was given a surprise gift but felt it right to give this to God's work. As he got home, a motorbike screeched to a halt in his yard. The rider said he had just driven 2,000 km, gave him another substantial gift, turned and drove off. This is not an isolated example of God's provision. You trust God for everything when you can't feed your family. To show how seriously they mean their prayer, some black-led churches in Britain fast for two months of the year. It is not uncommon for individual African Christians to fast one day a week. Multicultural evangelismIt's estimated today that there may be as many as 1,000 Christian evangelists in Britain from other countries. While many churches can be content to grow from transfers of Christians, black Christians living in the UK are often keen to reach out. One church in heavily Muslim Walthamstow has grown to 450 people in nine years through a principle of reaching non-Christians. Eddie Mungai, an evangelist from Kenya interviewed at Word Alive, mentioned two areas where British Christians could learn from Kenyans. One area was in evangelism - he was surprised about how little zeal we had in our outreach. Humanly speaking, it's through zeal like this that 70% of all evangelicals now live outside the Western world. As we celebrate 50 years of Britain as a multiracial society, what does the present and future hold? A suburban university has three times as many in the Islamic society as in the Christian Union. Some predict that Birmingham will be a majority Muslim borough by 2020. How can we reach out to people of other faiths with radically different lifestyles? How can Christians understand Asian young people grappling with two cultures? People of other faiths can be quite different from white people. Their cultures can also be more similar to Bible cultures. They understand suffering, oppression and injustice, have extended families, respect their elders, consider family honour important and are very hospitable. Black people are often far closer to people of other faiths in these areas than white people. Africans have lived alongside Muslims abroad. A Sierra Leonian Christian friend of mine who visits door-to-door is easily accepted by people of other faiths as they recognise a similarly oppressed person in Britain. Further, Caribbean young people have grown up among two cultures and African young people now have to do the same. They are admirably prepared for relating to young people from another faith background. PartnershipJoel Edwards, General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, says: 'Understand what God's trying to do in the country and work for that.' In his prayer, Jesus prays: 'I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one . . . may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me . . . May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.' (John 17.20-23). The visible unity of believers leads to the world believing in Jesus! How can you make your fellowship more attractive to black people? The other area where Eddie Mungai thought we could learn from Kenyans was by 'loosening up' in worship. Kevin Ford observes: 'Music instantly stratifies a church along generational, cultural and ethnic lines. Older people will not tolerate anything that hurts their ears . . . and X-ers (other ethnic groups? - Ed.) will not tolerate boredom . . . There has to be a permeating attitude of acceptance towards all cultures and all generations.' Could a genuine movement of power and responsibility to younger and ethnically varied leaders help our churches? Colour-blindness?How can we affirm black people already in our fellowship? Firstly, we can acknowledge racism and celebrate diversity. Beckford says: 'Most white evangelical Christians still believe in a colour-blind God - a God who does not see colour. Therefore good Christians don't talk in terms of black or white, just good, bad and Spirit-filled. One of the consequences of denying colour, race and identity is that the racism of many white evangelicals goes unchecked.' Marvin Rees adds: 'When I look out, I'm not colour-blind, I see diversity.' If we see the diversity of God in plants and animals, then surely in people. In Genesis 12.3, God promises reconciliation for the diverse people groups mentioned in Genesis 10. Secondly, Joel Edwards says we need to appreciate the value of 'black Christian communities' within the church. Communal responsibility for each other. Congregational participation is encouraged. Liberation and justice are emphasised. Space is available to acknowledge racism. The presence of black leaders exercising authority. Servant leadership of black people is developed. (5) Partnership is painful, costly. To keep the unity of the Spirit, Paul says we must: 'Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love' (Ephesians 4.2). Let Joel Edwards have the last word: 'Two approaches are common from white people. Either they imperiously tell blacks what they should be doing or white liberals are frozen by political correctness. But if you come alongside as a fellow traveller and tell us how you think we need to change, that's very powerful.' Alan Sharp1. BFBS, Cytun, Welsh Evangelical Alliance: Challenge to change: results of the 1995 Welsh Churches Survey (BFBS, England, 1997), ch. 6. © Evangelicals Now - December 1998 |
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