The Missional Church Must Embrace Multi-ethnicity
I have been reading a number of books on the Missional Church recently. At first as I was reading books by Alan Hirsch, Darrell Guder, and Alan Roxburgh, I’d wished I hadn’t waited so long to jump into the missional church discussion. Then, after getting through about three books on the issue, I realized that as a product of both the African-American and Urban Multi-ethnic Church, I was raised up in the truly missional church movement.
The missional church discussion is both about a theological foundation known as missional ecclesiology and the process of the church engaging culture for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. All of the experts on the topic are European-American and European-Canadian. The discussion around the missional church for the most part is a White Church discussion. I appreciate that the authors are willing to admit this. The talk about the missional church is from the perspective of the history of both the European and European-American Church influenced by modernity and modernism. To understand the need for the missional church in the United States for instance, is to understand the church coming out of Europe influenced by Constantine, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. I would not argue against these being important things to know. As a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, I realize the importance of understanding how the Reformation and the Enlightenment shaped the development of the church in the United States. Specifically, it’s important for me to understand the Swedish immigrant roots which shape the development of the Evangelical Covenant Church. I consider my understanding of this heritage as a gift. What I don’t understand is why European-Americans don’t see the gift of the missional roots and current missional activity of African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic churches in America.
As a product of the African-American church, I can speak to a church that historically has engaged its surrounding culture for transformation. The African-American Church has a history of community engagement, development, and transformation. You can look at the missional impact of the Civil Right Movement as an example. Why missional theologians and practitioners ignore and marginalize the African-American Church is hard to understand. At the same time the African-American Church hasn’t always been helpful, because at times it presents itself as only being for African-Americans. But we must remember that the African-American Church is a forced church in a race-based society. If it weren’t for the defense and protection of the White Church, there would be no African-American/Black Church.
In today’s increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural reality, this must change. There is a need for a Post-Black, Post-White Church theology. This theology must include liberation and reconciliation theology. A true missional movement must be Christ-centered and multi-ethnic. If this isn’t the case, all the missional discussion is just a re-hashing and a recycling of the White Church. If the Church in Canada and the United States is truly going to be a missional one it must be multi-ethnic and there must be a diversity of respected voices speaking into its development.
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“There is a need for a Post-Black, Post-White Church theology. This theology must include liberation and reconciliation theology. A true missional movement must be Christ-centered and multi-ethnic. If this isn’t the case, all the missional discussion is just a re-hashing and a recycling of the White Church.”
Yes. Yes. And yes. Thank you so much for sharing this prophetic and incisive critique. I hope you don’t mind if I link to this from my blog.
Pastor-
As someone who has been significantly influenced by missional theology (Lesslie Newbigin has been especially important) I appreciate this critique. I have sometimes felt that some missional authors are attempting to articulate a theology that many folks in non-white churches are already embodying.
Are there authors and theologians who you would recommend reading in place or alongside these missional church folks?
Efrem, we miss you in the Twin Cities! Our prayers are with you in your new position, and we hope to have you back around again someday – Enjoy the sun
Efrem — thank you for articulating this! My frustration with the missional conversations in the United States is that (a) they seem to focus only on White America when they predict the future of the church, and (b) they don’t take into account how historically many of the ethnic churches in the U.S. already display missional qualities they wish would develop in White churches. I wouldn’t mind it as much if the popular missional books acknowledged this somehow, like in a preface. We do need to talk about issues White churches face — that is a good and needed conversation. My frustration lies when authors don’t recognize their ethnic focus in their writings and assume what they write about is for the church as a whole in the United States.
I think one of the best examples of missional theology successfully carried out is the ministry of Jim Cymbala and the Brooklyn Tabernacle. However, it is important to see what they are doing in order to understand why they have succeeded and what we are doing which impedes more than a window dressing image, instead of the real thing. Jim has placed his emphasis on prayer, humility to allow God to work and an effort to focus on scripture in the church and not political doctrine. This is where we have failed in the Evangelical Covenant and specifically, from my first hand observations and experiences, in the PSWC. There is a movement to politicize EVERYTHING and to attack those with whom we do not share a common ethnic heritage. Recently Adam Edgerly, one of the ministers within our denomination, essentially stated that the early members of our denomination were racists. He didn’t focus on the early Swedish immigrants who mortgaged their homes in order to start mission fields around the world, specifically the most successful Christian ministry in Central
Africa in history, etc….. He only focused, and by the way his information was incorrect, on the negative. We are to build the body and “teachers” are held to a higher standard to edify and encourage, not to negligently, or perhaps purposely destroy, for their own benefit. How are his words edifying to the body? Listening to your sermons on the internet, besides numerous other political endorsements, you have disparaged “The Tea Party, The Republican
Party, people who where concerned about the implementation of Obamacare (actually saying they should not refer to themselves as Christians), etc…. Why would you make these pronouncements from the pulpit. I don’t even necessarily disagree with much of your politics, but I do find serious fault with your methods. Unlike your position that “the church should be transformed by the changing culture,” I believe that the “culture” should be “transformed” by God’s word and his obedient people within the “church.” This is how it is supposed to work. Until we have reached the point of spiritual maturity that we understand that there are Christians who may hold different political views than you or I, we will never see the changes to the “church,” which are necessary to change the “culture.” The words and nature of Christ need to be taught from the pulpit, not social activism. If they are properly emphasized, the world won’t need political activism. Let us work on uniting the Body, not dividing it!
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