Several years ago, Johnson Ambrose Afrane-Twum was into consideration to grow to be a black lead pastor of a white-majority church within the United Kingdom, when a white friend approached him.
“Johnson, everybody here knows that you would be able to lead this church,” he said. “There is simply one problem: Some people say they don’t want you as a pastor since you speak with a Ghanaian accent.”
“I believed to myself, what has an accent got to do with this?” said Afrane-Twum. “Is this the best way God wants us to do church?”
Originally from Ghana, Afrane-Twum had planted churches in three West African countries through the Calvary Chapel movement before immigrating to the UK in 2005 to further study theology and leadership. He soon observed many newcomers to Britain starting vibrant congregations—and diverse local churches dying. These realizations, in tandem together with his difficult experiences working cross-culturally, led Afrane-Twum to research how African Christian leaders could higher work with UK locals to revitalize faith across the country.
In Christian Mission in a Diverse British Urban Context, Afrane-Twum explores African identity in UK churches, the cultural barriers Africans face within the UK, and the necessity for more creative ways to achieve out to diverse communities. He recently spoke with CT in regards to the African migrant community within the UK and its potential to bring revival to the body of Christ in that country.
How would you assess the present relationship between the established UK churches and African immigrant congregations?
Some people confer with the black churches within the UK as doing reverse mission. The UK brought the gospel to us in Africa, they are saying, and now we’re bringing the gospel back to them. But this is commonly a misnomer. If you might be an African within the UK today and you might be tending only to your individual kind and never to the broader community, then there isn’t any reverse mission. That issue have to be addressed. How will we partner with the white churches in order that we may be effective in our missionary work to the entire UK and never only to our fellow black Africans?
Many white-majority churches allow migrant churches to make use of their buildings. But for an efficient partnership, we must go a step further. Both the African immigrant church and the UK church agree on winning souls to Christ, but we’re subject to cultural changes which have occurred up to now few many years due to migration. The very first thing we must do is to commit ourselves to constructing a spiritual relationship of mutual love and trust. We must help the white churches know that we’re here on a mission. At the moment, they think we’re here only for our own people.
God has providentially allowed black churches to return over here to sustain the UK churches. If we have now a spiritual relationship of mutual love and trust, then we will work together for kingdom goals. If the white churches come to imagine that they need revival and that we have now been called to assist them, then the following query is, “How we will best help?” How do they see us, and the way will we see them? If there are cultural biases, then we have now to handle them. Achieving the goals of the dominion of God ought to be our highest purpose, although we can have other differences.
You selected 4 distinct churches to review on your research on intercultural ministry within the UK. What did you discover?
Two congregations (All Nations Church in Wolverhampton and Harborne Baptist) are white-majority churches which have worked hard to herald people from multiethnic backgrounds. My study of All Nations revealed that second-generation migrants within the UK cannot only adapt to the life-style and culture of the broader white community but, if nurtured properly by local leaders, can themselves grow to be leaders in multiethnic churches.
At Harborne Baptist, I saw how essential it’s for pastors to coach local youth as cross-cultural ministers and to release them to work cooperatively with Christians from other backgrounds.
The other two congregations were the Ethiopian Church London, which is mono-ethnic, and the Church of Pentecost, a really successful congregation connected to a denomination from Ghana. The Ethiopian church prefers to arrange itself around its own cultural allegiances and values. The congregation feels they will best connect with God at a spot with individuals who share their background, language, history, culture, worship style, and social needs.
The Church of Pentecost, in contrast, is a migrant church that has tried to collaborate with a white-majority church within the UK. They imagine that second-generation migrants’ ability to take part in multiethnic gatherings will increase as they develop confidence in their very own ability to navigate the social spaces of the brand new host culture. They are figuring out a method to achieve out to the broader community, which they imagine can be achieved by their next generation.
In general, migrant churches have enabled their members to find a way of identity and self-respect, which we lacked after we got here into the country. But we want to work harder to partner with the white-majority churches toward making a society that models the values of the dominion of God.
What has been your experience with racism within the UK church?
Some white people within the UK feel that churches should proceed to do business as they’ve at all times done and that you simply shouldn’t need to cross cultural barriers to achieve out to other groups. When I used to be doing my master’s degree, one in every of the lecturers taught us about a few of the models on church planting. He said that black churches ought to be for blacks and white churches for whites. Comments like these are why I’m doing this work.
As for those people in my church who resented me due to my accent, I don’t think they were racist. I believe they were ignorant.
How has the African migrant community within the UK helped give it a way of identity?
What unites us within the UK is that we have now been marginalized by society. When we come together because the African church community, we gain a way of self-respect and identity and feel like we’re with our people.
New arrivals also need assistance from their fellow Africans. If you go to a white-majority church and say, “I don’t have my immigration papers,” the following day the police could also be knocking in your door.
Africans come to church regardless of what their problems are. We pray for them, lift them up, encourage them, and help them integrate. That is what the church does. It’s each a spiritual and a social institution.
But the important thing query is—are we going to be cemented in our own glue? Are we going to search out comfort in what we get from our fellow African Christians, or are we going to share what we will offer with others? That’s where we wish to be, and the broader community can be waiting.
Do you see this collaboration happening?
African churches share the universally accepted doctrines of the Christian faith. I don’t see why we cannot work with our brothers and sisters within the UK if each side practice equality and respect. Differences and commonalities are present amongst any groups. That shouldn’t bring division. Through interaction and dialogue, we will promote understanding of various cultures and foster greater participation and inclusiveness.
As the case of All Nations suggests, second-generation migrants can negotiate effective partnerships between black churches and white churches. The second generation is best placed to do that because they know each cultures. The challenge, nonetheless, is how these next generations can maintain their families’ culture, identity, and Christian faith, while at the identical time adapting to the culture of the host country that has much influence on them.
The influence of the broader community has caused many migrant children to lose faith in God. These young people acknowledge their ethnic heritage but place a greater premium on adapting their lives and values to the culture and values of the broader society, which is an increasingly secular social context. This is concerning since the survival of the African immigrant churches hinges on our success in raising the following generation. The success of any meaningful cross-cultural initiatives will depend upon how well the following generation of immigrants is supplied.
Black liberation theology is mentioned within the book as a way of understanding African contexts. How has this theology shaped African churches within the UK?
Black people coming from Africa aren’t all the identical. Blacks in South Africa developed a theology of liberation, a South African version of what African Americans developed within the United States, within the late Sixties and early Seventies, as a conscious and theological dimension of their struggles against apartheid.
But other sub-Saharan African countries, although in addition they had encounters with colonialism, didn’t experience struggles like those of black South Africans. As a result, the liberation theology expressed in these countries is sort of different.
Africans ascribe spirituality to all the things they do. They imagine that all the things an African does ought to be grounded in Scripture. We imagine that demons are real and that we want the facility of God to beat demonic forces and witchcraft. For most Africans, liberation comes through prayer, fasting, and living a holy life to beat the evil forces.
In this version of liberation theology, the place of the Holy Spirit and his empowerment is incredibly significant to help us in our encounters with the demonic.
