Rivers in the desert: the story of African Christianity in Britain

by Sheila Akomiah-Conteh

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isa. 43:18–19, KJV

Introduction

It is undeniable that the landscape of Christianity in Britain has changed drastically in the last 60 years. The predominant drivers of these changes have been secularisation and migration. British Christianity has seen steep numerical decline because of secularisation, and great diversity and some numerical growth at the same time, as a result of international migration.

The disintegration of Christendom from the twentieth century can be seen in the drastic decline in the power and popularity of the church. This “social process of religion losing power, popularity and plausibility” is what is widely referred to as secularisation.¹ While various commentators may disagree about the timing, causes and measurement of secularisation, it is generally acknowledged and accepted as the most prominent cause of the demise of Christianity in Britain in the post- Christendom era.²

Britain’s era of Christendom with its widespread social appeal and church attendance was premised on certain structural and ideological social conditions that are no longer in place. We now live in a radically transformed sociocultural and political era and must therefore begin to consider the available agencies of our age that promote or can potentially restimulate Christian growth. The former archetype of Christian Britain may be slipping away, but as Isaiah 43:18–19 highlights, to comprehend and embrace the new thing God is doing, it is sometimes necessary to let go of the past and forget the former things. Such renewal and refocusing of the mind can lead to clarity and appreciation of the new move of God. In this regard, Stuart Murray notes, in Church After Christendom, “Christendom is fading. We may grieve or celebrate its passing, but we cannot revive, restore or recover it.”³ A paradigm shift regarding the extant and future British church is already underway. It is time to stop talking about historic decline and start thinking about what is new in contemporary British Christianity.

In this article, I trace the development of one of the most significant contributors to numerical growth and ethnic and theological diversity to British Christianity in recent times. I highlight some of the distinct contributions and ongoing impact of African and other Black Majority Churches on Christianity in contemporary Britain.

The phenomenon of Black church growth in Britain

The prospects for the church in Britain have been defined by an enduring narrative of decline for many decades but something new is happening. The presence and influence of old and established institutions is undoubtedly waning, but many new and innovative groups are emerging. New forms of Christian growth are occurring all over the country amid the general climate of decline. These pockets of growth are like ways in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. One of the most significant contributors to these pockets of church growth in contemporary Britain is immigration, with a consequent rise of new churches, especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ethnic minority as “a group within a community which has different national or cultural traditions from the main population”.⁴ This includes Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and “Other White” communities. According to the Institute of Race Relations, BME is the terminology normally used in the UK to describe all people of non-white descent.⁵ The term “Other White”, on the other hand, is a classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom, referring to persons who consider themselves “white” but are neither British nor Irish.⁶ There has been an explosion of BME and Other White churches in all the major regions of the UK in the last 40 years.⁷

One of the most recent regional investigations into the phenomenon of new churches was undertaken in Scotland in 2019.⁸ Here, it was discovered that 65 per cent of all new churches planted in the city of Glasgow in the years 2000–16 were ethnic minority or BME churches. In the BME church category, those that are led and primarily attended by Black or Black British Christians of Caribbean and sub-Saharan African heritage are often known as Black Majority Churches (BMCs). Some Black church leaders resent this designation due to the fact that it is not they themselves who have called their churches “Black churches” or their version of the Christian faith “Black Christianity”. These names have been created and imposed to a large extent, by white commentators and observers. Black church leaders feel therefore that Black people should not assume that the intention behind these names is positive or favourable.⁹ Although this assigned description is controversial and has been widely challenged by several Black church leaders and advocates in the past and present,¹⁰ I will maintain it for the sake of clarity, and to serve as the provisional starting point for our discussion.

BMCs are currently some of the fastest growing churches in Britain. They also have some of the biggest congregations in many urban centres in the UK. For instance, the 2012 London church census reported a 16 per cent increase in church attendance in the city since the last count in 2005. This growth was mainly attributed to the proliferation of new BMCs in the capital. BMCs were responsible for 28 per cent of overall church attendance in London, and nearly half (48 per cent) of all church attendance in inner London. Overall, it is estimated that one in five (19 per cent) Black Londoners go to church every week.¹¹

Another detailed study in the London borough of Southwark found that at least 240 new BMC congregations had been founded in the borough.¹² In her report in The Guardian in 2016, Harriet Sherwood highlighted that the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a West African-originated denomination, is now thought to be the fastest growing church in Britain, with over 700 branches nationwide.¹³ In the same report, British church statistician Dr Peter Brierley also observed that RCCG has now overtaken longer-established Pentecostal churches in the UK such as the Assemblies of God and Elim.¹⁴

In the Scottish region, new research shows that 79 per cent of the new ethnic minority churches founded in the city of Glasgow in 2000–16 were African Churches.¹⁵ Modern-day discussions of mission and Christianity in the UK will therefore be incomplete, unbalanced and even misleading without the mention, inclusion and acknowledgement of the growing presence, prominence and contribution of new churches, and Black Majority Churches in particular, to the contemporary historiography of British Christianity.

Historical development and origins

The rise of Black Majority Christianity in Britain is usually traced to the late 1940s mass migration of Caribbean peoples to the UK and, later, the arrival of other Black Christians from various countries in Africa. The rejection and difficulties faced by these new migrants as they sought to integrate themselves into the local culture and into existing Christian congregations subsequently resulted in the foundation of various independent, Black-led churches. These new groups also arose to serve the distinctive spiritual and social needs of the new Black Christians, hitherto unfulfilled by the existing British churches. The inability or unwillingness of British churches to meet the distinct spiritual and social needs of Black migrant Christian communities remains one of the core reasons for the continued existence and massive growth of Black Majority Christianity in contemporary Britain.

The origins of Black Majority Churches in Britain, however, date further back to the beginning of the twentieth century when one of the first Pentecostal churches in Britain was established by an African businessman in Peckham in 1906.¹⁶ Thomas Kwame Brem-Wilson was born into an affluent family of merchants in Dixcove, in Ghana, West Africa, in 1855. He served as the schoolmaster of a missionary school before his migration to Britain in 1901. The Revd Brem-Wilson was one of the first people to be baptised in the Holy Spirit during the inception of Pentecostalism in Britain.¹⁷ In response to the Pentecostal revival, he founded the first Black-led Pentecostal church in Britain, then known as Sumner Road Chapel, in 1906, leading it until his death in 1929.

After the death of Brem-Wilson, the church’s leadership dynamics changed as several white ministers took over its management because of its affiliation to the Apostolic Church and Assemblies of God denominations. This may have blurred the historical origins of the church as the first Black-led Pentecostal Church in Britain. Now rebranded as Sureway International Christian Ministries, the church is still active and is now led by the Revd Dr Steve Armah, another Ghanaian missionary.

Unlike its successors, therefore, the first Black church in Britain did not develop as a response to social struggle but primarily from a missiological initiative. That is not to say that the development of the later Black churches was not missional, but it highlights the primary impetus behind the rise of the Black churches in the UK at different points in history. Additionally, although it was colloquially referred to as the “Black man’s church” in those days (mainly because it was Black-led), Brem- Wilson’s church was a very multicultural church with a diverse ethnic mix.¹⁸ Apart from Brem-Wilson, the academic Roswith Gerloff also notes that there were traces of indigenous African Christian faith in Hornsey in the 1930s.¹⁹

The re-emergence of Black Majority Churches in Britain from the Windrush era in the late 1940s was therefore a radical expansion of the Black church movement on a much larger scale and under a different set of circumstances. As previously highlighted, this development was largely the result of Black Christians feeling alienated and marginalised in British society, both secular and religious. It was also in response to the desire to maintain a sense of cultural identity and support in an unfamiliar world. BMCs served and still serve as places of refuge for many new migrants to Britain.

In summary, two main types of Black churches have developed in Britain: those established through purely (largely?) missional imperatives in the 1900s like Brem- Wilson’s church, where issues like racism were not an underlying cause for their foundation, and those born out of social struggle, identity and need, as well as mission, from the 1940s. The latter include those formed through migration from the Caribbean and the many Black African churches that formed from the 1980s onwards. In more recent times, several new, independent and mainly African-led churches have been founded here in Britain with distinctly missional agendas, such as “reverse mission”, in a bid to re-Christianise Britain. However, the main driver of all of these movements has been migration.

The significance of Black Majority Churches in Britain

Having considered the origins of BMCs in Britain and the migratory trends in their formation, it is important to ask to what extent and in what ways they are transforming the landscape of Christianity in Britain.

The earnestness of Black Christianity’s missionary outreach both to Black people and to others is an area of British Christian life not often well acknowledged but one that has been a great success story. The religious associations of minority groups are usually treated as marginal and as having little impact on the religious establishment of the dominant society,²⁰ but this has not been the case with Black Christianity in Britain. Black Caribbean and African Christian migration has brought many dynamic, unique and enduring changes to British Christian life and British Society in general. I will highlight a few of these distinctive qualities and contributions.

Resacralising sacred places

The physicality of churches and chapels play a powerful role in popular perceptions of religion in Britain. As such, empty churches are frequently cited by critics and the media as evidence of large-scale religious decline in the United Kingdom. The conversion of places of worship into places of secular use such as houses, offices and entertainment venues is now a common occurrence in Britain, but some new churches are reversing this trend. One of the most significant but rarely known contributions of Black Majority Churches to Britain’s Christian heritage is the acquisition of historic and closed or out-of-use church buildings. Because they are newcomers, one of the challenges frequently faced by new churches in Britain is obtaining suitable places for worship. Many resort to renting public spaces or sharing church buildings with other existing congregations. Increasingly, however, many BMCs in particular are procuring spaces for themselves on the Christian landscape by buying church buildings from dwindling, historic congregations. Although creating their own worship space is the foremost motivation, another key reason for this is to prevent historic church buildings from being lost or sold for secular uses.

Therefore, in their bid to create spaces for themselves, BMCs are also helping to preserve the heritage of British Christianity. There are numerous examples of this in parts of the country where BMCs have a strong presence. Here in Scotland, almost all the major West African Pentecostal Church denominations, such as the Church of Pentecost, Deeper Christian Life Ministry, the Redeemed Christian Church of God and Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, own and worship in buildings acquired from historic church groups. The Church of Pentecost, a denomination that has its origins in Ghana and over 20,000 members in the UK, raises annual funds (“Project Offerings”) to support the acquisition or refurbishment of such buildings for worship. In this regard, BMCs are resacralising or restoring sacred spaces in Britain as places of divine worship.

Furthermore, by buying historic church buildings, BMCs are establishing themselves as permanent members of the British Christian community. They are sending out the message that they exist for serious mission and are here to stay. They are also integrating and establishing themselves as authentic members of local communities. The designation of “immigrant” churches commonly assigned to BMCs and other ethnic minority churches in Britain can give the erroneous impression that they are merely exclusive cultural groups, not authentically British and do not do authentic mission. An overwhelming majority of the members of these churches are, however, legal British citizens, including their second-generation members, many of whom are British-born. In this vein, the difficulties, harshness and rejections faced by the Windrush Christian generation may not be as acute in this era. Nonetheless, contemporary Black British Christians still struggle for acceptance as authentic members of the British Christian community and, most importantly, as authentic partners in mission. Hence, the Swiss theologian Hollenweger wrote, “Christians in Britain prayed for many years for revival, and when it came they did not recognise it because it was black.”²¹

One of the criticisms often levelled against BMCs in Britain is that they have not been successful in attracting or proselytising white populations. Their congregations are usually Black and may also be mono-national. Admittedly, many BMCs have had little success in this area although it is their ultimate missional goal to “win” white British souls for Christ – and there are many reasons for this deficiency. Nevertheless, it is of equal importance to note that they are still reaching and meeting the spiritual and social needs of a distinct and authentic British Christian community – one that the traditional British churches have also so far been wildly unsuccessful in attracting or catering for. Therefore, a Congolese church discipling and reaching out to other British Congolese Christians and non-Christians alike in their community is still doing mission in Britain. Some critics shun the growth and success of BMCs in Britain with comments such as “they are only reaching their own people” – as if mission in Britain is only valid if it is targeted at white Britons. God’s mission is to everyone, everywhere, and people are of equal worth in terms of salvation, regardless of where they are “fished”. The missional accomplishments of BMCs in Britain therefore deserve equal recognition and celebration.

Sacralising secular spaces

The increasing presence and activity of BMCs is making Christianity more physically visible in contemporary British society. Latest figures from the city of London show that Black Christians attend church more than any other group on a given Sunday.²² Although they make up just 14 per cent of the population, they account for at least 48 per cent of all church attendance in the city. It is not an uncommon sight to see smartly dressed African families or individuals commuting to church on a Sunday in many urban cities in the UK.

In his project Being Built Together, Andrew Rogers of Roehampton University counted a minimum of 240 BMCs in Southwark, South London. These churches were predominantly African majority, especially West African. The area is now believed to have the greatest concentration of African Christianity outside of Africa, not only in Europe but in the world. Signs of this dramatic development are clearly evident walking down the Old Kent Road, a major artery of the borough, where one can locate at least 25 African churches in just a 1.5-mile radius. Black Christianity is therefore not only making Christianity more visible in Britain but also transforming the geographies of local communities.

BMCs in Britain also hold church services in some of the most unlikely locations. Due to space constraints, BMCs will worship anywhere they can find accommodation. This may include public or community halls, schools and even hotels. African churches are particularly adept at adapting unusual spaces for worship purposes. In my research on new churches in Glasgow, I came across several African churches that worshipped in unusual places such as converted warehouses, industrial offices, transformed garages, adapted residential homes and in shops on the high street. The most interesting example I found of this phenomenon was a Nigerian church that worshipped in a converted shop sandwiched between a butcher’s and an off-licence on a busy street. Members of local communities are therefore encountering Christian worship in places where they least expect it. In this way, BMCs are creating a visible Christian presence (sacralising secular spaces) in the community.

The lack of suitable premises to use as places of worship also gives BMCs high mobility. It is not unlikely for an African church to worship on multiple sites before finally settling down in a permanent location. This is also one of the key reasons why they are easily missed and consequently, undercounted in large-scale surveys. Multiple and at times no known addresses can make them hard to locate and verify. Many BMCs, especially less established first-generation ones, may also have minimal official presence on the internet or in other parachurch statistics. Such undercounting is therefore difficult to avoid without researchers taking to the streets on a Sunday and conducting small-scale, grass root-level research. The high mobility of BMCs similarly promotes the visibility of Christianity. However, it may also hinder churches from building strong ties and lasting relationships in local communities because they are not always there for long.

In conclusion, BMCs are not detached groups or “holy huddles” isolated from the rest of society. They are interactive, dynamic and recognisable communities in many societies. Their growing presence and activities in the public arena are also helping to make visible the continued presence and practice of Christianity in post-narrative of regression and the disappearance of faith communities from public life.

Revitalising British Christianity

One unique feature of BMC Christianity is its vibrancy and liveliness. African Christian expression is particularly bold, bright and loud. Church meetings are happy gatherings, the dress code is bold and beautiful, praise and worship is a passionate whole-body exercise, preaching is interactive and dynamic, offering is generous, and prayer is serious and involves all. Almost all the duties performed in African churches are also voluntary including, at times, the ministry of pastors and other key leaders. For example, more than 90 per cent of the African churches investigated in Glasgow during my research had pastors who were also full-time workers, ranging from nurses to professional bankers.

The liveliness of African churches has sometimes earned them the description “happy clappy churches”, although this is at times used in a derogatory sense. Nonetheless, African Christian worship services are gatherings of upliftment, inspiration and joy. Their members do not go to church just to fulfil some burdensome religious duty. They choose to go because they find church fellowship and theology practically useful and enjoyable. This enthusiasm and general excitement about faith brings vibrancy to local communities and also has the potential to invigorate other churches and Christians. For instance, the minister of a neighbouring church used to attend the service at my church (an African Pentecostal church) every Sunday morning particularly during praise and worship time because it made him feel spiritually and physically energised. He then hoped to transmit this energy into his own church service and to his congregation.

The vibrancy and enthusiasm of African churches is further conveyed into evangelism and missional activity. African Christians in particular have a natural missional imperative. For most of them, evangelism is second nature. In fact, many African churches in the diaspora are started by ordinary individuals who feel a sense of duty to share the gospel wherever they are. The evangelistic strategies employed by African churches are therefore bold, confident and people-centred. Traditional styles such as tract distribution, door-to-door, open-air street evangelism and personal interaction are commonly used.

Evangelism is also usually targeted at white British people. This is where a mismatch between methodology and goal may be affecting success. The traditional evangelistic approaches used by most African churches are tried and tested methods that are usually very successful in the African context – but not so much in a postmodern, post-Christian, privacy-cherishing society like contemporary Britain. African churches therefore need to learn, create and adapt appropriate evangelistic approaches for reaching people in the British context.

Diversifying British theology

BMCs have brought not only cultural but also theological diversity to British Christianity. Specifically, they have brought Pentecostal theology to the forefront of contemporary British Christianity. The majority of new African churches in Britain are Pentecostal churches. Consequently, Britain is now home to hundreds more Pentecostal denominations and thousands more Pentecostal churches than it had 50 years ago. The 2016 Scottish Church Census also found that the number of Pentecostals in Scotland has tripled since 1984, growing at a rate of 3.8 per cent per annum.²³

Pentecostal denominations are also leading church planting across the UK. The RCCG, a Pentecostal denomination from Nigeria, is now the fastest-growing church in Britain. Started in Britain in 1988, they have now planted around 760 churches all over the country. The traditional British church denominations are in general planting less.

In Scotland, only 6 per cent of the 110 new churches started in Glasgow in 2000–16 were planted by the established denominations.²⁴ Specifically, seven of the new churches belonged to four established or historic denominations in Scotland. These were the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Union of Scotland. The Church of Scotland established one new congregation in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow in 2000. It was the only new church plant by the denomination in 16 years. Pentecostalism is generally the fastest-growing expression of Christianity globally and particularly in Africa. British Christianity must generally embrace more closely and learn from the attributes that make Pentecostalism such a successful global trend. African Pentecostalism and African Christianity in general have many practical and theological lessons to teach the British church about faith and about living in faith in a post-Christian context. The concept of embodied faith – faith that is tangible, practised and worked out through our lived experiences – will be one such lesson. Many Africans understand faith and religion not as merely abstract but as lived experience. Religion must therefore have real-life implications like meeting real needs – be it rain during a drought or healing when one is sick. Such an outlook breeds constant expectancy, excitement, reverence for God and vibrant faith.

Conclusion

The proliferation of Black Majority Churches, and African churches in particular, is undoubtedly one of the most notable developments in contemporary British Christian history. Whereas all the older and traditional Christian denominations in Britain are in serious decline, there is little evidence that BMCs are slowing in their growth. The concentrations of BMCs in British urban centres may well have an impact beyond their numbers in terms of stimulating the wider church. Their continued growth also points to a rather more nuanced picture of church growth and decline in the UK, where urban religious landscapes have now changed dramatically over recent decades due to rapid BMC expansion. No space is out of bounds for the Black Christianity movement in Britain. Like rivers in a desert, African churches in Britain continue to be key sources of hope for the future of British Christianity, and refreshment for dry and thirsty souls.

About the author

Sheila Akomiah-Conteh is a Ghanaian scholar based in Scotland. Her doctorate thesis explored the changing landscape of the church in Scotland with a specific focus on new and emerging churches in the city of Glasgow. She is a researcher and tutor in religious studies and philosophy.

More from this issue

Notes

1 Steve Bruce, “The Secularisation of Scotland,” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 14, no. 2 (2014): 193, doi.org/10.1080/1474225X.2014.931183.
2 Callum G. Brown, The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800–2000 (London and New York: Routledge, 2001); Steve Bruce, God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
3 Stuart Murray, Church After Christendom (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2012), 7.
4 “Meaning of ethnic minority in English,” Oxford Dictionaries, accessed 6 August 2021, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethnic_minority.
5 “Definitions,” Institute of Race Relations, accessed 6 August 2021, http://www.irr.org.uk/research/statistics/definitions/.
6 Office for National Statistics, “Ethnic group, national identity and religion: Measuring equality: A guide for the collection and classification of ethnic group, national identity and religion data in the UK” (London: Office for National Statistics, 2013): 22.
7 David Goodhew, ed., Church Growth in Britain: 1980 to the Present (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012).
8 Sheila Akomiah-Conteh, “The changing landscape of the church in post-Christendom Britain: new churches in Glasgow, 2000–2016” (PhD diss., University of Aberdeen, 2019).
9 Patrick Kalilombe, “Black Christianity in Britain,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 20, no. 2 (1997): 306–24, doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1997.9993963.
10 Joel Edwards, ed., ‘Let’s Praise Him Again’: An African–Caribbean Perspective on Worship (Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1992), 12–35.
11 Peter Brierley, Capital Growth: What the 2012 London Church Census Reveals (London: ADBC Publishers, 2014).
12 Andrew Rogers, “Being Built Together: A Story of New Black Majority Churches in the London Borough of Southwark” (University of Roehampton, 2013), https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/globalassets/documents/humanities/being20built20togethersb203-7-13.pdf.
13 Harriet Sherwood, ”Pentecostal church looks to white Britons to boost congregations,” The Guardian 30 December 2016, accessed 10 August 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/30/pentecostal-church-looks-to-white-britons-to-boost-congregations.
14 Ibid.
15 Akomiah-Conteh, “The changing landscape of the church in post-Christendom Britain”.
16 Babatunde Adedibu, “Brem-Wilson, Thomas Kawa,” Dictionary of African Christian Biography (2018), accessed 16 August 2021, https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/brem-wilson/.
17 Thomas Ball Barratt, When the Fire Fell: An Outline of My Life (Oslo: Alfons Hansen & Sønner), 1927), 150.
18 Adedibu, “Brem-Wilson”.
19 Roswith I. H. Gerloff, A Plea for British Black Theologies: The Black Church Movement in Britain in its transatlantic cultural and theological Interaction with special reference to the Pentecostal Oneness (Apostolic) and Sabbatarian Movements (Frankfurt: Peter Lang., 1992), 44.
20 Steve Bruce, “Secularization and Church Growth in the United Kingdom,” Journal of Religion in Europe 6, no. 3 (2013): 277.
21 Walter J. Hollenweger, “Foreword” to Gerloff, A Plea for British Black Theologies, ix.
22 Peter Brierley, Capital Growth.
23 Peter Brierley, “The Fourth Scottish Church Census: The Results Unveiled” (Brierley Consultancy: 2017): 20, https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tb7ehkxtt6yjwv/The%20Fourth%20Scottish%20Church%20Census%202016.pdf?dl=0
24 Akomiah-Conteh, “The changing landscape of the church in post-Christendom Britain”.

The post Rivers in the desert appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Medhat is a local partner working across the Middle East. Here he tells how people have come to hear the good news of Jesus both in person and online, even during lockdowns.

“I was afraid I was on my own!” This was the first thing that A, a professional man in Cairo, said when we connected him with another Christian at his workplace.

My ministry is all about connecting those exploring faith with Christians in their local area. I build and maintain a network of trusted volunteers who connect with seekers near them. Our volunteers answer questions about anything related to our faith and connect people with other local Christians, and help source any materials they might need.

A’s faith journey had begun when some Islamic hardliners made references that A wanted to investigate further. As he researched those references, A came across some Christian programmes. He contacted the makers of one programme and subsequently said, “I accepted Christ as my Lord and now I feel like a newborn baby living a new life.”

On meeting A, our volunteer noticed the joy on his face. A expressed a desire to be baptised, though he was also afraid. Our partner encouraged him not to rush into baptism before some discipleship to prepare, and met with him twice a week to learn and study the Bible together. In one of his first discipleship meetings A brought his friend and started sharing about Jesus – A is very eager to reach people around him with the good news.

Network connections

Like A, many others get in touch as a result of TV and radio broadcasts, social media posts and other online material. Some have seen broadcasts from our organisation and contact us directly, others get in touch with media organisations with whom we work closely – we support those organisations by connecting seekers with our volunteers.

Another part of my work is in empowering local churches and home churches to use the internet – so this area of work has become very important in the last year.

Normally, I would travel to encourage our volunteers, as well as speaking to them regularly by phone. Although I have not been able to travel over the last year, I continue to be encouraged as our volunteers share stories of God at work. God is doing great things even in this pandemic – we see people coming to Christ and lives changed.

Finding a family

L is a university student from a Muslim background, studying in a different country to where she grew up. She lived there with her mum, but then her mum died and she was totally alone, far from family. L has been very lonely since her mother’s death, and has gone through trauma in her life.

Several years ago, L and her mother had been introduced to a church, but felt their faith was not taken seriously. A partner organisation connected with L online over several months, and now she is in touch with a female volunteer from our network. She reported that, “L is a wonderful girl and has a strong faith and loves the Lord Jesus a lot,” and L would like to be baptised. L is being linked up to a Zoom discipleship group and our volunteer meets her regularly and takes her to church, and they celebrated Christmas together.

Our volunteer hopes to see her get to know faithful believers in her city who can encourage her faith and make her feel like she has family.

Small beginnings

One of our field partners, a pastor, met with an Iraqi refugee woman who had requested discipleship. As he met with her, he was also put in touch with another woman in the same city, a refugee from a different country who wanted to learn more about Jesus. After several visits, the pastor decided to start a house church meeting in one of their homes and encouraged them to invite others. Now there are over 25 members in that meeting excluding the children!

Developments online

During the pandemic, we have further developed the material we put online, to engage seekers and to support our partners.

Up to now, we have mainly given training and resources to our volunteers on the ground, to help them to answer questions as they meet with seekers. Now we are also giving that support to our media partners who are engaging with such questions online by creating a website bringing together relevant information.

We are also responding to the fact that people are having dreams and seeing Jesus, but not understanding what they are dreaming or why. We’ve created a visions and dreams Facebook page to help them explore this, and to connect them with the good news.

Pray

Please pray for Medhat, and for all of the young Christians and seekers his team meet virtually and in person, that they will find fellowship with local Christians and grow in faith.

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The post Casting a network for spiritual seekers appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Paul Thaxter, until recently director of international mission at Church Mission Society, shares five handy disciplines developed over his 25 years in mission to help each of us to share good news in our contexts.

Start with you – and with Jesus

The first person to be evangelised so often seems to be myself. I keep becoming convinced Jesus is the ultimate significant person. He really is the USP of the Church, without whom we can neither do nor say anything worthwhile as Christians. I am constantly surprised by how people’s lives are transformed when they encounter him. I keep getting converted to the fact that Jesus is good news.

Be playful

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus draws a large crowd as he shares about the vagaries of being a sower – an experience they would have all been aware of, directly or indirectly. Jesus was a terrific storyteller, sowing ideas, thoughts, riddles and mystery within everyday life. He made people think more, rather than telling them what to think. Author Tom Thatcher, in his stimulating work Jesus the Riddler, even refers to Jesus as helping people think less clearly and less certainly – creating space for alternative possibilities.

Playfulness can be a good approach. When I worked in the City, I would return to work on a Monday and occasionally throw out the comment, “You won’t believe what happened to me this weekend…”. In an open plan office there was always someone who took the bait!

Ask questions

We do not have to have the answer to everything – what a relief! We can develop questioning that arouses curiosity, and emotional and intellectual searching, with a keen ear to listen to what people really think and believe. So learn to ask questions: What do you believe in? What do you consider to be true, beautiful or valuable? Do you think religion and atheism are often toxic?

Have you ever genuinely asked someone what would it take for them to consider following the way of Jesus Christ? Or done community research to see what it would take for communities to engage openly and not guardedly with a church initiative? Sharing faith is both a personal and corporate endeavour, but questions may be more important initially than answers.

Tell stories

Telling stories is a favourite pastime of mine. I admit I am boring or completely left field at times, but you have to learn your craft somewhere and with someone! Most people who share their faith find stories convenient vehicles for imparting knowledge and faith. Most world religions advocate engaging in this process.

I was drinking coffee with a colleague one afternoon when he said, “When I hear the word story I think it is something that has just been made up.” Stimulated by the caffeine perhaps, I quipped back, “Story is often the safest vehicle to convey truth.” Eugene Peterson says stories are “verbal acts of hospitality”. I agree: stories allow people to enter on their own terms. I was speaking in a Maori conference in New Zealand and shared what they already knew: “Stories invite you into the room but do not tell you where to sit!” So why not share the message of Christ in story form?

When I have focused discerningly on aspects of the Bible’s big story, people of all faiths and none genuinely seem more receptive. At the centre of each person’s worldview is a mosaic of stories and the only way to dislodge some untrue or life-limiting stories is to replace them with better ones. As Tom Wright suggests, where better to look than in the biblical narratives of Jesus? So rather than using Bible verses like bullets in an evangelistic gun aimed at protecting ourselves and slaying our imagined enemy, why not tell stories?

Be a witness

We are called to be witnesses, to give testimony to God’s ongoing work in our lives. The early church saw and spoke of God at work and their lives being changed, both personally and in how they related to wider society. They did not have all the answers, there were discrepancies and confusion, but there was an effusion of hope. Their faith in Jesus changed how they treated the living, the dead and their enemies. It is hard to make sense of it from an analytical point of view, especially as people made such incredible sacrifices for others and got nothing material in return.

Ultimately, sharing our faith is letting others know that we have each encountered a living God who brings pardon from guilt, freedom from life-dominating appetites, a more selfless perspective, prayers of forgiveness offered for enemies and a life of fullness. The witness has discovered that the secret of life is not grabbing what you can and holding on with clenched fists but opening our hands and losing our life for Jesus’ sake and the gospel. It is as we give ourselves away that we find ourselves and most importantly discover the power and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He ultimately is his own witness. Maranatha.

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What is a Creative Conversation?

Have you ever had a conversation which changed your life? One of those moments where you glimpsed a different way of seeing the world?

In which you connected with someone else or a group of people at a profound level, even if just briefly, and where something new, even unexpected, came out of the connectedness between those people on that day in that place and at that time?

This is a creative conversation.

We designed this guide to help you reflect on and be a part of more creative conversations.

A Guide to Creative Conversations was developed and written by Anna Ruddick (Urban Life), Cathy Ross (Leader of the Oxford centre for CMS Pioneer Mission Training) and Mike Pears (Director of the International Baptist Theological Study Centre).

What’s in A Guide to Creative Conversations?

The guide contains five chapters which consider how to help enable and, conversely, what might hinder creative conversation:

• the physical environment
• shaping stories
• personhood
• the people involved
• conversations online

Each chapter contains:

• a short-but-deep introduction
• big questions (like “How do we handle power in our physical spaces?”)
• a guide for personal reflection
• a discussion guide for groups
• practical challenges to try out in your day to day life and mission
• suggestions for further reading and resources

Who is it for?

• Churches and community groups who want to learn to engage more deeply with their neighbours
• Those who are involved in building relationships between people of different cultures, faith groups and ethnic backgrounds
• Ministry students who are based in placements and ministry settings
• Research students who want to draw on innovative conversational methods

A Guide to Creative Conversations is a free resource – download it here.

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Rev Sameh Metry, a church leader in west London, shares what he has learned about sharing Jesus in interfaith contexts.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news (Isaiah 52:7).

We are called to bring good news. Yet often people find this nerve-wracking, especially with those from a different culture. So here are some tips I have learned in my context:

1. Speak to God before speaking about God

This is the starting point – asking God for a divine appointment. We see this in Scripture when Jesus meets the woman at the well (John 4). I experienced this on a train in Egypt. The Holy Spirit prompted me to talk to a man sitting near me. I was tired and reluctant, but I eventually spoke with him. It turned out that this man had stopped going to church and was in a difficult situation. Out of our conversation he recommitted to faith. In the end he became like my right hand in ministry.

2. Be led by the spirit

You don’t need a plan or a formula. You don’t know someone’s situation – but God does. It is by the Spirit that we know what people need to hear. Every person is unique and every conversation is a different story. I once met a guy from Sudan. The Holy Spirit encouraged me to speak about being born again. To me, this didn’t seem the right place to start, but I obeyed. The man was amazed, as the previous night he had dreamed that he had been reborn. Our conversation therefore confirmed the dream and he accepted Christ.

3. Find common ground

Try to find common ground – where you are from, a shared interest, current events. This breaks the ice, and you can use common ground to introduce faith into the conversation.

We see this as Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman in John 4. They are both seeking water to drink, so Jesus spoke about water. This led to talking about living water, and from there to who Jesus is. Paul too takes this approach in Athens in Acts 17. He found idols and reference to an unknown god, so he takes this as a starting point to talk about the God who can be known.

Think how often conversations turn to subjects like Brexit; what if they naturally turned to God instead, as the only one who knows what is best in the midst of confusion?

4. Build a bridge

Introducing people to Jesus may be a long process, so we need to make sure that at the end of each conversation there is a bridge for the person to follow up, ask questions or respond. Leave your contact details or another way to get in touch.

I was surprised once when a man came into my church. As we talked, he told me that two years earlier I had given him a Bible. Over that time, he had been reading and thinking about it. Because he had my address and phone number, he came back to say “I’m ready.”

5. Be relational

Evangelism is much more successful when it is based on a relationship.

Sometimes we have a choice to win the person or win an argument. For me, the person is more important and to win them, we need to build a relationship. We don’t want to hurt someone by attacking their faith or worldview. There are ways to disagree without being hurtful, perhaps saying “I see that another way…”

We can talk, offer to pray, follow up – people can be moved more by relationship and love than all the theology you know.

Someone coming to know Jesus is a process. It takes patience, but God is so patient with us, so we can be patient too.

6. Be culturally sensitive

We need to know about someone’s culture to avoid causing offence. We need to know what is appropriate in terms of conversations between men and women, and what the implications might be of eye contact, for example. What we wear can also have an impact on how our message is heard.

Many cultures are represented on our doorstep, making it both easy and important to ask questions if you don’t know what is and isn’t okay. Let people explain their culture to you as you build relationship.

7. Share your testimony

People like stories! Jesus used stories all the time. Telling your own story is great because it is authentic.

Try to learn how to tell your story in different ways with different emphases and lengths. Think about what you can cut: sometimes you can spend an hour with someone and take your time – but if you are in the street in the rain, you need to be quick.

Practise this with others in your church or small group so you can be confident when an opportunity comes – it doesn’t come naturally.

8. Share good news

There is depressing news all of the time. People are in a hard world, where it can seem nothing is certain. We need to be good news deliverers in our smile, our body language and our words. We are not about scaring people, but about giving them hope. Try to make them feel there is hope in what they are going through – that God’s arms are always open and they are welcome, even if all feels dark.

9. Fear not

We experience fear when we don’t know someone, or because we have experienced aggression or arguments and difficult questions. But we need to trust the Lord and resist fear, because fear and love don’t go together.

If God is speaking through me, I don’t know what will happen, or how someone will respond, but I do know that God is with me.

You don’t have to know the answer to everything – be honest and don’t be afraid. Don’t fear but be ready to give reasons for your hope.

10. Use the spiritual gifts

We need to use the wisdom of God and the spiritual gifts we have been given (1 Cor. 12) to facilitate sharing the good news.

Praying for healing can be an example of this. I met someone who was sick and sensed it was the right time to pray for healing. This man then came back to the church and explained that he was feeling better.

Romans 10:14 asks: “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” The world needs us to be those who proclaim Jesus with confidence – and have beautiful feet in our communities.

Rev Sameh Metry is founder and pastor of Living Water Arabic Church and minister in charge of St Hugh’s Northolt. He is Egyptian and came to the UK because of the persecution he experienced because of his faith. He contributed to CMS forMission training for short-term people in mission.

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By Dr Harvey Kwiyani, head of Missio Africanus and part of the Church Mission Society Pioneer Mission Leadership Training course faculty

In August of 1861, David Livingstone led the first group of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) to Magomero in the Shire Highlands in what later became southern Malawi. This was the beginning of British mission work in Malawi. It was also the beginning of Christianity in Malawi.

Bishop Charles Mackenzie and his team were sent to Magomero by the Church of England to work in God’s mission in Africa.

Magomero – which happens to be my home – continues to be recognised as the place “where it all started”. Since then, Christianity in Malawi has grown to become the religion of the majority – 13 million out of 15 million Malawians identify as Christian. Yes, the explosion of Christianity in Africa is a direct result of the great sacrificial service done by the mission workers across the continent especially in the years between 1800 and 1970. Church Mission Society is one of the leading mission organisations who made this happen. It is not possible to tell of the history of Christianity in West Africa without acknowledging the important role played by CMS. For this we are extremely grateful.

Christianity continues to grow in Africa with millions of new converts coming to the faith every year. To convert a person to the Christian faith is also to invite – or demand – them to participate in God’s mission.

Nothing less. Thus, the five-fold growth that Christianity has seen in Africa since 1970, from 100 million to 500 million, translates into an African mission movement characterised by: (1) a commitment to the ‘evangelist-hood’ of all believers, which means that most of them live evangelistically, diminishing the gap between the ordained ministers/mission workers and laypeople, (2) a firm belief in God’s direct involvement in human life through the Spirit and (3) migration and other forms of displacement both within the continent and to other continents.

All in all, this means that ‘sentness’ is embedded in the African understanding of Christianity. It is a well accepted fact today that Africa has been converted to Christianity by African evangelists. To be a follower of Christ is to be sent as a bearer of Christ’s good news to a world desperately in need of such news. And this world in need may be within one’s own village or thousands of miles across the seas.

It is fair, I presume, for me to say that this understanding of Christians being sent in mission is central to most of African Christianity. Some are sent to be the good news right in their own communities. Others are sent to countries far away. But all are sent to share the good news with everyone who needs to hear it. I remember one of the popular songs we sang in Malawi in the 1980s, “ndi ndani wantuma kuti nkalalike uthenga wabwino” meaning “who has sent me to preach the good news?” Of course, the answer to the question was “ndi Yesu wantuma” (it is Jesus who has sent me). What I found significant about that song and many others like it was that they were sung by everyone, especially during evangelistic meetings. The people believed that they were sent to preach the good news. For them, ordination and commissioning were only additions to the calling. They believed that they could – and should – preach the good news even without being ordained. The call that they received when they decided to follow Christ was also their ordination to preach the good news to their neighbours.

This concept of being sent, (kutumidwa or kutumizidwa in Chichewa, my mother tongue), is very important for many Africans even outside Christianity. Mtumwi (the one sent with a message) or mthenga (the messenger) can be a servant of the king, the chief, or the government.

But mtumwi also happens to be the vernacular for “apostle” (Ephesians 4:11). The messenger is the bearer of the good news of hope. As such, a hospitable audience is the least they can be given because, of course, if you have been sent with a message to deliver, you must deliver it. And if a message has been sent to you, it must be heard. The honour due the sender is to be given to the messenger. Thus, when we sung “ndi Yesu wantuma,” we claimed it was Jesus, the king of kings, who sent us. We had to deliver the message.

One hundred and fifty years after the arrival of the UMCA in Malawi, God has sent many Malawian Christian sons and daughters to other continents. The same has happened in many countries around Africa. For Malawians, what started at Magomero has eventually brought Malawian Christians to Britain. Thus, African Christians living in the West are a fruit of the labour of the Western mission organisations (whether those organisations recognise this is another issue). But African Christians bring their ‘sent-ness’ with them as they migrate. In most cases, they find neither audience nor support. But when they do, great things happen.

God sends, and where God sends us, we go.

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