A mutual inconvenience: why pursue intercultural church in the UK today?
Rev Dr Israel Olofinjana, Director of the Evangelical Alliance One People Commission, shared at our recent NextGen East event about the kind of theology and churches needed to reach the UK and the wider world today. He highlights the need to move beyond multicultural churches to truly intercultural communities to better reflect God’s wisdom to the world.
After studying theology in Nigeria, Rev Dr Israel unexpectedly had the opportunity to come to the UK as a missionary. He shared:
‘In London, I started observing different churches. I saw that there were white majority churches, there were black majority churches, but that were different flavors of black majority churches; there were African Caribbean churches, there were Ghanaian churches, there were Nigerian churches, Kenyan churches.
I started to reflect that, if I planted a church, it would probably ended up being a Nigerian church. So I felt, if God has called me all the way from Nigeria, to be a missionary in the UK, then it defeats the whole point of it, if I start leading a Nigerian church, so I abandoned the church plant, and decided to look for an English church, very different for what I was used to. So I started attending a Baptist church in southeast London.’
Rev Dr Israel went on to become the first black pastor in the church’s 100 year history. ‘Through that journey’, he said, ‘I started to help other church leaders to realise that actually, UK is a mission field. We are here, not by accident, but God has called us.
But the question is this: if UK is now postmodern, is multicultural, is multi-ethnic, what kind of theology do we need to reach out in this current context?
There are three theological approaches:
1. Cross cultural
Historically, this has been the main way Western mission agencies have approached sharing the gospel. Olofinjana reflected, however, that ‘what our theological education is catching up with at the moment is that mission field over there has actually moved over here now.
‘And the thing is this, the experience of those who have gone overseas, whilst that is valid and is important to reach out to people here, it’s not enough. What do I mean by that? A Ugandan in Uganda is very different from a Ugandan in the UK… The reason is this, they have crossed the frontiers, those who are here, and their experience has been altered, and has been reconstructed. Now that they are here, they are going through a three-level process of surviving, existing and flourishing.
A Ugandan in Uganda is very different from a Ugandan in the UK… The reason is this, they have crossed the frontiers, those who are here, and their experience has been altered, and has been reconstructed.
‘When people come here, there is the initial shock of coming into the Western world, there is the visa process, and what that means for life and experiences. I’ve been to churches where sometimes pastors don’t fully understand what the visa process looks like. Because if you have a British passport, you are likely to travel anywhere in the world without inhibition, without limitations. But if you have a Nigerian passport, there are so many things that comes with the process you go through at the customs. At the moment, I’ve got both, so I have the joy to be able to have that. But I remember one of my travels to the UK, using my Nigerian passport, I was detained in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam for about an hour just because of my passport. Fast forward 15 years, after I had my British passport, I went to the same place, and no one batted an eyelid.
So the experience of coming as an economic migrant, which is where we have called people, or refugees or asylum seekers, those experience is very different for someone who is leaving as an African in the continent of Africa. Two different experiences. For those who are living on the continent. They are in an environment even though it might still be difficult and tough, but they are in a place where at least they are still accepted as who they are.
Whereas when you cross cultures, there are several things you are wrestling with. Over here, migration issues, race issues. And so the question again, is do we have enough theology to combat racial injustice? Or is there something deficient in our theology, that has not been done to address those issues?’
Applying a simple cross-cultural approach to the UK isn’t enough.
2. Multicultural
Rev Dr Israel noted: ‘there are many multicultural churches at the moment. And what that simply means is that people of colour are represented in our congregation.’
This is obviously good thing, but Olofinjana pointed out, ‘oftentimes, when we look at the leadership is still very different. I’ve been to a lot of churches, where people of different nationalities are represented in the congregation, but at the governance structure, at the leadership level, at the board level, the culture that shapes the church is still very monocultural. It’s not multicultural.
‘And so we have multicultural churches, we have a multicultural approach, in trying to reach out to the internationals and while that draws people in and welcomes people, it doesn’t integrate them. Multicultural churches create what I would describe as segregational inclusivity.
‘What I mean by that is simply we have churches where yes, people can get together. But it’s at that representational level. It hasn’t gone to inclusion, and definitely has not included equality. And so there’s a challenge. If we’re going to move beyond the second approach, we need an intercultural approach.’
Multicultural churches create what I would describe as segregational inclusivity.
3. Intercultural
Intercultural theology begins with a question – how can we see the diversity God is bringing to the British Church as a gift to us?
Olofinjana shared: ‘If God has brought people from different nationalities to us, they are a gift to us. They are here for such a time as this in a time when British churches are declining, and the churches that are actually growing are migrant churches.
‘The churches that are growing at the moment are Hong Kong churches, because of the Hong Kong migrants. There are churches that are going from 50 to 100 to 800 to 1000. Do you know this is happening right now? They are growing at a phenomenal rate. And so if God has brought this gift of diversity to our shores. How do we want to ensure that we do not waste it? How do we want to ensure that this mission resource is, is fulfilling its potential?
‘And that is where we need intercultural theology to reach out to the internationals, an intercultural theology that affirms the equality of everyone that affirms the humanity of everyone that says at the start, “I am, because you are”. Not, “I think, therefore, I am”. It’s not an individual or an independent attitude, but a theology of interdependence that realises that actually we need each other at all levels. That is the sort of theology that we need, and that is one that I’ve been working on with other people.
‘Intercultural theology mutually inconveniences. I am actually inconvenienced, you are mutually inconvenienced. It’s not just one person being inconvenienced; we are all inconvenienced. The best way to describe it is what Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter two, where it talks about God created a new humanity, a church. A church that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are now creating this new humanity church in Christ, that is intercultural theology. That is the kind of theology that we need to reach out to this context.
‘One of the hardest places to share the gospel at the moment is Europe. It is one of the toughest places to share the gospel at the moment. Because of our postmodern, secular, enlightenment worldview, that simply means that people are not interested in religion. People are interested in God but not in religion. And so it’s a tough environment.
I could have a mega-church by now
Olofinjana recalled meeting a Ghanaian missionary to the UK who said ’a lot of the effort I’m putting to plant churches at the moment, but if I do half of those efforts in Ghana, I will be leading mega-churches by now. But here are those efforts, I’ve only managed to reach about 50 people.’
Welcome to the mission field of the UK, where we need to think about the missionaries that are arriving on our shores.
Israel reflected: ‘Some of those missionaries are coming, you know, we call them economic migrants. I prefer to call them missionary migrants. Because they have come from God. Some have come, obviously, as asylum seekers, and as refugees, but God has sent them here for a reason, and they are in our churches.
‘Some of those missionaries are coming, you know, we call them economic migrants. I prefer to call them missionary migrants. Because they have come from God.
'So how is our theology going to enable them to fulfil their potential, so that together, the world Christianity that is now represented in Britain, will be able to reach out to our multicultural society that we have at the moment?
‘In order to do that we need an intercultural missionary movement, to reach out to this multicultural, postmodern society. It is my prayer, that we’re able to construct this theology together, which is still ongoing. It’s not ended. It’s just in its early stages, I think, to be able to see what God might do in this season.’
Hear more from Rev Dr Israel in his full talk at NextGen East on YouTube.
Find your local NextGen event to explore God’s global plan and where you might fit in.
Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is the Director of the One People Commission of the Evangelical Alliance. This network of key national church leaders across different ethnic backgrounds supports and equips the UK church as it seeks to become more integrated, effective and unified.
He is also the founding Director of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, which aims to help Christians, churches, pastors and missionaries from different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and countries work together in mission. Israel is senior pastor of Woolwich Central Baptist Church in London.