Old Wine and New Wine Skins
West Indian and the new West African Pentecostal churches in Britain
and the Challenge of Renewal
Paper presented at the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism conference in Birmingham, February 6th-7th 2009
Clifton R. Clarke (PhD, Birm)
(Associate Professor of Global Missions and World Christianity Regent universityVirginia Beach USA) cclarke@regent.edu
Introduction
Immigration, transnationalism, and globalization have fanned the flames of Pentecostalism into a worldwide movement. The global spread of Pentecostalism bears the hallmarks of a ‘bottoms up’ movement and not one that emanated out of a unified global strategy, as was the case for Catholic and Protestant missionary movements precipitated by the Berlin conference of 1884. Research has often emphasized the particularities of the movement (ethnographic, sociological, religious and otherwise) and not the overarching and more holistic features that bear the hallmark of a global movement. Thus, one of the challenges for Pentecostal scholars is to recognize the global theological synergies and emerging historiographical features that are distinctive to the movement as a whole as it unfolds on a global stage.
In Britain, the growth and development of black Pentecostalism over the last fifty years has been an important part of the global Pentecostal kaleidoscope. The background to the emergence of black Pentecostalism in Britain is linked to migration patterns and economic push and pulls factors. Migration and transnationalism in Europe is inextricably linked to centuries of European trade advancement and colonial conquest.[1] The globalizing tendencies of colonialism and vicissitude of international division of labour, labour policies, trade relations, and the formation of political alliances have contributed to mass migration. The growth and development of black Pentecostalism in Britain is a corollary of this historical development. Migrants to Britain have therefore contributed to a new religious reality, which is no longer a monochrome but as Akindunde Akinade states in referring to the American context ‘a rainbow of many religions and congregations from all over the world.[2]
In this paper I would like to juxtapose and bring into critical dialogue two streams of black Pentecostalism in Britain, that have exploded onto the British religious landscape: the 1950s and 1960s wave of black Pentecostals from the Caribbean and the proliferation of the new African migrant churches from Nigeria. My contention is that while research on black British Pentecostalism in Britain has a tendency to emphasize the local identities and historiographies researchers must also recognize the need for a more holistic, unified, and global Pentecostal historiographical contribution. In examining black Pentecostalism in Britain I will proceed by briefly noting the global appeal to Pentecostalism, and then go on to examine what lessons may be learnt from the old and new waves within black Pentecostalism as experienced by the African Caribbean and the more recent proliferation of new African churches. I am particularly interested in the missiological question of contextualization and the theological challenges of renewal for future generations.
The Global Pentecostal Canopy
Walter Hollenweger divides the global Pentecostal movement into three streams: the classical Pentecostal denominations (including their mission churches), the Charismatic movement within all traditional churches (including their mission churches) and a new type of emerging non-white Christian church.[3] Hollenweger associates the appeal of Pentecostalism’s phenomenal growth to the moorings of it black roots. These include orality of liturgy, narrativity of theology and witness, maximum participation at the levels of reflection, prayer and decision-making, thereby becoming a community that is reconciliatory; inclusion of dreams and visions into personal and public forms of worship; an understanding of the body/mind relationship that is informed by experience of correspondence between body and mind; the most striking application of this insight is the ministry of healing.[4] Robert Beckford defines the hallmarks of black Pentecostalism in Britain in three distinctive theological categories: the experience of God, a dynamic spirituality and empowering worship.[5] Steve Land has described the emotional heart of Pentecostalism as ‘a passion for the kingdom’. He adds that it was the confluence of African-American and Wesleyan spiritualities, which give rise to this movement of participation in the Spirit.[6] Allan Anderson notes that the central theme in Pentecostal and Charismatic theology is the work of the Holy Spirit.[7] Russell Spittler has noted the other worldliness, orality and biblical authority as among the key values of the movement.[8] The appeal of black Pentecostalism in Britain is, in part due, to these endearing Pentecostal distinctives as well as its appeal to other aspects of western postmodern culture.
Old Wine and New Wine Skins
As researchers shift their empirical attention to the new predominantly Nigerian churches in Britain, the opportunity for a generational analysis afforded by over fifty years of African Caribbean Christianity in Britain is vital. What are the lessons that the African Caribbean churches such as the New Testament Church of God (NTCG)’s experience could teach the new African churches in Britain, and indeed for the global Pentecostal community? What can they teach us about the challenges of holding together transnational and national identities with regard to renewal beyond the first pioneering generation and the initial move of the Spirit? What about the ongoing struggle of creating appropriate space for the white indigenous population within their church and community? What of the challenges of adjusting to new ways of communication and the use of technology in ministry? These and other pertinent questions must form part of a broader discussion and dialogue with the emerging proliferation of new African churches in Britain. Interpreters of black Pentecostalism in Britain must resist the ethnographic, sociological, and anthropological attempts to fragment its historiography and begin to conceive the movement as a whole.
Roswith Gerloff who is among the scholars who has undertaken extensive research on African Caribbean churches in Britain makes an important observation when she noted that ‘research into the relationship between black Pentecostalism on the one hand and the African initiated churches on the other still remains to be undertaken.’[9] Although the more recent developments of the new African Pentecostal churches in Britain has overshadowed the earlier African initiated churches, research into African Caribbean streams of Pentecostalism and the new African streams still remain an important area. Migration, diaspora and globalization studies have detracted from the broader missiological (contextual) implications and theological questions raised by the advent of the new black Pentecostal churches in Britain. The survival and renewal of black Pentecostal churches in Britain, in part, lies in its ability to recognize this broader canopy described by Leslie Newbigin, following Van Dusen, as the ‘Third Force of Christendom’.[10] Philip Jenkins goes even further by describing it as the next Christendom and the coming of global Christianity.[11] It is in this broader framework, or what Ogbu Kalu calls in another context, ‘global Pentecostal historiography’,[12] that black Pentecostalism in Britain must be located. I want to therefore proceed by assessing the African Caribbean Pentecostal wave and then look at the new African Pentecostal churches.
African Caribbean Church in Britain and the Challenges of Renewal
In 2003, the New Testament Church of God (NTCG), the largest African Caribbean denomination in Britain celebrated fifty years of ministry. On Tuesday 28th February 2006 the Rev. Dr. Oliver Lyseight, the founder and first National Overseer of the New Testament Church of God in England and Wales (NTCG), passed away. These milestones provided a rare opportunity for serious national reflection of the church’s mission and purpose for the 21st century.[13]
The 1960s and 1970s saw major church planting and evangelistic efforts to reachout to the African Caribbeans who flocked to the UK as economic migrants. The heyday of African Caribbean church in Britain was undoubtedly the 1980s during which the churches peaked in growth. The acquisition of church buildings and establishments of Bible schools and social initiatives for their members were signs of an increasing confidence in effective Christian outreach missions. In 1982, the NTCG, for example, purchased a large property in Northampton to house its new Bible school and church national headquarters. The failure however, to read the writing on the wall as British immigration policies tightened and as a new black British generation emerged would become a significant loss of opportunity for renewal a decade ahead. William Kay observes that congregational splits, doctrinal differences, a widening generation gap between young and old, the allure of high profile technologically savvy ministries have created discontentment for many members who felt these leaders seem closer to God then their own pastors and dissention over moral norms have all contributed to Pentecostal woes.[14] Beckford notes that context of the African Caribbean diaspora in Britain has produced a distinctive expression of Pentecostalism.[15] The challenge for African Caribbean churches such as the NTCG, particularly over the past twenty-five years, has been negotiating between continuity and change in the search for new relevant identity. Nicole Toulis’ research which maintains that the black church enabled the first generation of Caribbean immigrants to carve out their transnational identity as African-Caribbean-British highlights the difficulty of living between two cultures.[16] How Pentecostal churches renew the message and spirituality for subsequent generations is an important area of research for the future of the movement. Robert Beckford’s ‘Dread Pentecostalism’ is a creative and innovative attempt to fuse both old and new identities to bring about renewal within African Caribbean Christianity in Britain.[17] Although Beckford’s ‘Dread Pentecostalism’ represents a far too radical attempt for many conservative black churches—to whom Rastafarian ideology represents the very antithesis of their beliefs and practices—any attempt at serious renewal will not come without critical points of departures from well established norms. Factors surrounding the rise of the African Caribbean church particularly have been a matter of much scholarly research over the past forty years and need not be reiterated in detail here.[18]
West Indian and the new West African Pentecostal churches in Britain
and the Challenge of Renewal
Paper presented at the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism conference in Birmingham, February 6th-7th 2009
Clifton R. Clarke (PhD, Birm)
(Associate Professor of Global Missions and World Christianity Regent universityVirginia Beach USA) cclarke@regent.edu
Introduction
Immigration, transnationalism, and globalization have fanned the flames of Pentecostalism into a worldwide movement. The global spread of Pentecostalism bears the hallmarks of a ‘bottoms up’ movement and not one that emanated out of a unified global strategy, as was the case for Catholic and Protestant missionary movements precipitated by the Berlin conference of 1884. Research has often emphasized the particularities of the movement (ethnographic, sociological, religious and otherwise) and not the overarching and more holistic features that bear the hallmark of a global movement. Thus, one of the challenges for Pentecostal scholars is to recognize the global theological synergies and emerging historiographical features that are distinctive to the movement as a whole as it unfolds on a global stage.
In Britain, the growth and development of black Pentecostalism over the last fifty years has been an important part of the global Pentecostal kaleidoscope. The background to the emergence of black Pentecostalism in Britain is linked to migration patterns and economic push and pulls factors. Migration and transnationalism in Europe is inextricably linked to centuries of European trade advancement and colonial conquest.[1] The globalizing tendencies of colonialism and vicissitude of international division of labour, labour policies, trade relations, and the formation of political alliances have contributed to mass migration. The growth and development of black Pentecostalism in Britain is a corollary of this historical development. Migrants to Britain have therefore contributed to a new religious reality, which is no longer a monochrome but as Akindunde Akinade states in referring to the American context ‘a rainbow of many religions and congregations from all over the world.[2]
In this paper I would like to juxtapose and bring into critical dialogue two streams of black Pentecostalism in Britain, that have exploded onto the British religious landscape: the 1950s and 1960s wave of black Pentecostals from the Caribbean and the proliferation of the new African migrant churches from Nigeria. My contention is that while research on black British Pentecostalism in Britain has a tendency to emphasize the local identities and historiographies researchers must also recognize the need for a more holistic, unified, and global Pentecostal historiographical contribution. In examining black Pentecostalism in Britain I will proceed by briefly noting the global appeal to Pentecostalism, and then go on to examine what lessons may be learnt from the old and new waves within black Pentecostalism as experienced by the African Caribbean and the more recent proliferation of new African churches. I am particularly interested in the missiological question of contextualization and the theological challenges of renewal for future generations.
The Global Pentecostal Canopy
Walter Hollenweger divides the global Pentecostal movement into three streams: the classical Pentecostal denominations (including their mission churches), the Charismatic movement within all traditional churches (including their mission churches) and a new type of emerging non-white Christian church.[3] Hollenweger associates the appeal of Pentecostalism’s phenomenal growth to the moorings of it black roots. These include orality of liturgy, narrativity of theology and witness, maximum participation at the levels of reflection, prayer and decision-making, thereby becoming a community that is reconciliatory; inclusion of dreams and visions into personal and public forms of worship; an understanding of the body/mind relationship that is informed by experience of correspondence between body and mind; the most striking application of this insight is the ministry of healing.[4] Robert Beckford defines the hallmarks of black Pentecostalism in Britain in three distinctive theological categories: the experience of God, a dynamic spirituality and empowering worship.[5] Steve Land has described the emotional heart of Pentecostalism as ‘a passion for the kingdom’. He adds that it was the confluence of African-American and Wesleyan spiritualities, which give rise to this movement of participation in the Spirit.[6] Allan Anderson notes that the central theme in Pentecostal and Charismatic theology is the work of the Holy Spirit.[7] Russell Spittler has noted the other worldliness, orality and biblical authority as among the key values of the movement.[8] The appeal of black Pentecostalism in Britain is, in part due, to these endearing Pentecostal distinctives as well as its appeal to other aspects of western postmodern culture.
Old Wine and New Wine Skins
As researchers shift their empirical attention to the new predominantly Nigerian churches in Britain, the opportunity for a generational analysis afforded by over fifty years of African Caribbean Christianity in Britain is vital. What are the lessons that the African Caribbean churches such as the New Testament Church of God (NTCG)’s experience could teach the new African churches in Britain, and indeed for the global Pentecostal community? What can they teach us about the challenges of holding together transnational and national identities with regard to renewal beyond the first pioneering generation and the initial move of the Spirit? What about the ongoing struggle of creating appropriate space for the white indigenous population within their church and community? What of the challenges of adjusting to new ways of communication and the use of technology in ministry? These and other pertinent questions must form part of a broader discussion and dialogue with the emerging proliferation of new African churches in Britain. Interpreters of black Pentecostalism in Britain must resist the ethnographic, sociological, and anthropological attempts to fragment its historiography and begin to conceive the movement as a whole.
Roswith Gerloff who is among the scholars who has undertaken extensive research on African Caribbean churches in Britain makes an important observation when she noted that ‘research into the relationship between black Pentecostalism on the one hand and the African initiated churches on the other still remains to be undertaken.’[9] Although the more recent developments of the new African Pentecostal churches in Britain has overshadowed the earlier African initiated churches, research into African Caribbean streams of Pentecostalism and the new African streams still remain an important area. Migration, diaspora and globalization studies have detracted from the broader missiological (contextual) implications and theological questions raised by the advent of the new black Pentecostal churches in Britain. The survival and renewal of black Pentecostal churches in Britain, in part, lies in its ability to recognize this broader canopy described by Leslie Newbigin, following Van Dusen, as the ‘Third Force of Christendom’.[10] Philip Jenkins goes even further by describing it as the next Christendom and the coming of global Christianity.[11] It is in this broader framework, or what Ogbu Kalu calls in another context, ‘global Pentecostal historiography’,[12] that black Pentecostalism in Britain must be located. I want to therefore proceed by assessing the African Caribbean Pentecostal wave and then look at the new African Pentecostal churches.
African Caribbean Church in Britain and the Challenges of Renewal
In 2003, the New Testament Church of God (NTCG), the largest African Caribbean denomination in Britain celebrated fifty years of ministry. On Tuesday 28th February 2006 the Rev. Dr. Oliver Lyseight, the founder and first National Overseer of the New Testament Church of God in England and Wales (NTCG), passed away. These milestones provided a rare opportunity for serious national reflection of the church’s mission and purpose for the 21st century.[13]
The 1960s and 1970s saw major church planting and evangelistic efforts to reachout to the African Caribbeans who flocked to the UK as economic migrants. The heyday of African Caribbean church in Britain was undoubtedly the 1980s during which the churches peaked in growth. The acquisition of church buildings and establishments of Bible schools and social initiatives for their members were signs of an increasing confidence in effective Christian outreach missions. In 1982, the NTCG, for example, purchased a large property in Northampton to house its new Bible school and church national headquarters. The failure however, to read the writing on the wall as British immigration policies tightened and as a new black British generation emerged would become a significant loss of opportunity for renewal a decade ahead. William Kay observes that congregational splits, doctrinal differences, a widening generation gap between young and old, the allure of high profile technologically savvy ministries have created discontentment for many members who felt these leaders seem closer to God then their own pastors and dissention over moral norms have all contributed to Pentecostal woes.[14] Beckford notes that context of the African Caribbean diaspora in Britain has produced a distinctive expression of Pentecostalism.[15] The challenge for African Caribbean churches such as the NTCG, particularly over the past twenty-five years, has been negotiating between continuity and change in the search for new relevant identity. Nicole Toulis’ research which maintains that the black church enabled the first generation of Caribbean immigrants to carve out their transnational identity as African-Caribbean-British highlights the difficulty of living between two cultures.[16] How Pentecostal churches renew the message and spirituality for subsequent generations is an important area of research for the future of the movement. Robert Beckford’s ‘Dread Pentecostalism’ is a creative and innovative attempt to fuse both old and new identities to bring about renewal within African Caribbean Christianity in Britain.[17] Although Beckford’s ‘Dread Pentecostalism’ represents a far too radical attempt for many conservative black churches—to whom Rastafarian ideology represents the very antithesis of their beliefs and practices—any attempt at serious renewal will not come without critical points of departures from well established norms. Factors surrounding the rise of the African Caribbean church particularly have been a matter of much scholarly research over the past forty years and need not be reiterated in detail here.[18]
Within the African Caribbean Pentecostal churches in Britain, I have however identified five critical areas wherein renewal is desperately needed. The first of these is within the area of leadership. The absence of a denominational ‘personal retirement scheme’ and financial planning on the part of first generation leaders forced many leaders to remain in the pastorate long after their prime. In 1999, 75% of the pastors in the NTCG were over fifty-five year old. This created a disincentive for younger leaders to ascend the ecclesiastical ranks and created a ‘back home’ orientation which had little meaning for British born blacks. Secondly, the neglect to plant new vibrant churches which reflected the black British experience. Ninety-five percent of the NTCG churches in Britain today were planted more than thirty years ago.[19] Thirdly, the church has not responded effectively to the challenges of black urban youth subcultures and deviance. The high profile racial killings, such as the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence have not evoked public outcry from the rank and file of black churches. Fourthly, the neglect to redefine the place and importance female leadership in the life of the church cannot be underestimated. Fifthly, the lack of socio-political involvement; what Robert Beckford calls ‘political quietism,’ has reinforced the notion of the church being too heavenly minded to be of any earthy good. Re-This list is by no means definitive but highlights the need for black Pentecostals to re-contextual and re-appropriation their initial appeal. The issue of contextualization is given very little attention within Pentecostalism and is an area in need of further research. The challenge for the older African Caribbean classical black Pentecostal churches (as with white Pentecostal churches) according to William Kay, is how to retain existing members while continuing to attract new members and subsequently to integrate the two.[20] These and other issues are important ones not just for the African Caribbean church but also to the new migrant African churches to which I now turn.
New African Churches in Britain
At a time when the black Pentecostal churches (and the predominately white middle class independent and denominational charismatic churches) have genuinely stagnated or declined, Stephen Hunt notes the emerging new African Pentecostal churches in Britain offer a measure of optimism for the future of the wider Pentecostal movement’.[21] It is my contention that the emergence of this new black Pentecostal movement in Britain must be tied into the broader black Pentecostal movement in Britain. Ogbu Kalu underscores the importance of weaving the African story into the global and Western historiography.[22] The African Caribbean and the new African migrant churches are distinct, and yet they are an important part of the black Pentecostal historiography in Britain. Stephen Hunt who has conducted extensive research on the RCCG points out this distinction, he notes:
By way of belief, practices and cultural orientation, these West African churches are in many regards, a very different ilk from the black Pentecostal congregation that has been present in Britain for well over fifty years. Indeed, this stark contrast, not only in terms of theological preferences, but in social composition, mark them out in such away as to challenge long accepted sociological framework regarding the origin and functions of these churches. [23]
Although as Hunt attests, the new African migrant churches are of a different genre from the older African Caribbean churches, they do nonetheless share much in common. Hunt’s sociological observation is useful in its delineation of the socio-economic difference of the constituents of these churches; it however pays little attention to the interconnections between African and Caribbean Pentecostalism and the broader framework of Global Pentecostalism. In order for black Pentecostal denominations to develop beyond the life span of its initial revival there is a need for interchange and mutual learning. David Daniels in addressing the impact of the immigrant churches in the North American context maintains that it requires a reconceptualization of what constitutes the black church in America. He states
…a reconceptualization of the Black Church is required, and this reconceptualization entails a critical dialogue between the historiography of African Christianity and the historiography of African American Christianity in order for the incorporation of African immigrant religion to be performed with intellectual integrity.[24]
This idea of reconceptualization is a useful one when considering the black church scene in the UK. There is a need to continually reconceptualize black Pentecostalism in Britain as a whole as it unfolds in various waves through global processes and local identities.
The novelty surrounding the emergence of the new African migrant church in Britain is in many ways reminiscent of the African Caribbean churches in the 1970s. In the same way it has captured the attention of researches and the popular media alike. According to a report conducted in 1999 by the Council of African Christians Living in Europe, there are over 3 Millions African Christians living in Europe.[25] In recent years, these figures have increased significantly. In a recent News Week article entitled ‘A Pentecostal preacher from Nigeria has made big plans to save your souls,’ Bishop Adebayo—the leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God—boasts of having 14,000 churches in Nigeria (4,000,000 members) and 350 churches in Britain and American respectively as well as churches in other European countries. He also reiterated his vision to plant churches ‘like Starbucks’: fifteen minutes walk for the developing world and fifteen minutes drive for the developed world. In spite of one’s opinion on these new migrant churches their impact cannot be ignored.
In relation to the African Caribbean churches in the UK the new African churches have valuable lessons of renewal and rebirth. The leadership is often youthful, professional and globally aware. There is a strong appeal for young adults, Hunt’s research into Jesus House in London, a branch of RCCG, noted that 93% of its membership was under forty and 79% worked in higher and lower professional employment. Unlike the earlier West Indian churches who came over expecting to stay for five years and then return home, these new migrants possess a more permanent mindset which fosters social political involvement. The aggressive church planting programme exemplified by Bishop Adebayo also attests to the importance of church planting as part of a continuing renewal process. Their global approach which blends worship and preaching styles, songs and theology with western Pentecostal churches has added to their wider appeal.
In spite of these and many other successes however, research show that these new African churches have failed to integrate the indigenous population into their membership and still only appeal mainly to Nigerian migrants to Britain.[26] The lack of indigenous white members within the New Testament Church of God has been an ongoing concern and discussion. After over fifty years of ministry the church is still 95% African Caribbean. It is an example of such issues related to white integration and the overall issue of inclusivity, in which both African and Caribbean Pentecostal churches in Britain could have fruitful exchange.
Pentecostal Renewal
The issue of renewal is a pertinent one for Pentecostals. Pentecostal revivalism is strongly experiential based and it is often linked to key personalities and cultural change. This has been the case for the African Caribbean churches, and it will soon become a challenge for the new African migrant churches, as a new generation of adherents emerges with changing needs and expectations. As in the case of the NTCG, the form in which the original revival took shape concretized into a sacred tradition imperious to change. There is no doubt something within the black Pentecostal experience has a much broader appeal beyond the particularity of black expression. Capturing this theological heart of black Pentecostalism and being able to contextualize it through the vicissitudes of cultural change and global shifts will determine whether Pentecostalism black or otherwise has longevity. Amos Yong’s Pentecostal distinctives for a world Christian theology is perhaps helpful here towards our understanding of the unifying elements of black Pentecostalism in Britain. He argues that a distinctive Pentecostal theology should be biblically grounded with an approach to Scripture through a hermeneutical and exegetical perspective informed explicitly by Luke-Acts. Secondly, he notes that the heartbeat of Pentecostal spirituality is the dynamic experience of the Holy Spirit; and thirdly he maintains that a distinctive Pentecostal theology would also be confessionaly located, in the sense of emerging from the matrix of the Pentecostal experience of the Spirit of God.[27] In addition to Yong’s key distinctives, I would suggest a further five areas that a black British Pentecostal theology should have as its core distinctives:
Ecumenical co-operations
In spite of past efforts to forge co-operation between the various strands of black Pentecostalism in Britain, they still remain essentially fragmented. There is a need for African Caribbean, and the new migrant African Pentecostal churches in Britain to discover their commonality and shared Pentecostal experience and theology. A distinctive black Pentecostal theology for a British context will only be born through ecumenical co-operation among the various strands of black Pentecostalism.
Pastoral Care
The pastoral care of black Pentecostals should go beyond its adherent and extend across to the poor and down trodden in society of all races, colour and creed. Robert Beckford describes the Black Church as a ‘shelter’ or ‘rescue’, a place of radical transformation, driven by the Spirit and family. The idea of shelter, according to Beckford, should also express concern for what happens outside the church in Black communities as well as being concerned with the ‘saved’ inside the church.[28]
Prophetic Leadership
The pneumatological emphasis should also inspire leaders to confront oppressive structures and systems which bear down upon their constituents drawn from minority communities. The black British experience is often one of racial prejudice and exploitation and social injustice and black Pentecostal leadership needs to speak to this existential reality of black life.
Experiential
The emphasis on experience against purely dogma has broad appeal within a postmodern context. This feature is pertinent for both Caribbean and new African Pentecostalism. These experiences include Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the speaking with other tongues, healing and deliverance, corporate worship and prayer. Allan Anderson observes that ‘the emphasis on ‘freedom in the spirit’ has rendered the Pentecostal movement inherently flexible in different cultural and social context worldwide. This flexibility has made the transplanting of it central tenants more easily assimilated.[29]
Biblical Hermeneutics
Significant changes in the social context of black British experience will influence the reading of Scripture. Negotiating these changes effectively represent s a great challenge to the future of Black Pentecostalism in Britain. Postmodernism is one area in which black British Pentecostal hermeneutics must contend. Postmodern Britain requires of Black churches a new hermeneutics that will speak to a multicultural environment.
Wonsuk Ma points out the strange irony that exists between Pentecostalism and postmodern contexts. He notes: ‘Postmodernism is particularly appealing to Pentecostals because it provides legitimacy for their intuitive reading of the Scriptures.’ He further states
‘Developing a spirituality rooted in God’s word found in Scripture and nurtured by the Holy Spirit is greatly needed if Pentecostals are going to successfully negotiate effective ministry in [the] Post Modern world. Such biblically-based spirituality will empower Pentecostals to address the issues of the institutionalization for Pentecostalism, the engagement of [with] Pentecostals social concern, inclusion of women in Pentecostal ministry, the continued vibrancy of the church’s global mission, the necessity of racial reconciliation, and the renewal of the vision held by early Pentecostal pioneers for a healthy ecumenical relationship with other Christians.[30]
Conclusion
In this essay, I have sought to explore a black Pentecostal historiography in Britain as a global move of the Spirit which is manifesting itself through different historical waves or revivals. I have contended that although there are crucial differences within the new African Pentecostal churches and the older African Caribbean churches there is the need for ecumenical co-operation and mutual learning. The challenge of renewing black Pentecostal traditions within a British context is one that will face all immigrant churches at one time or another. Discovering the essence of black Pentecostalism through interaction and integration will help define the essential theological distinctives that will be able to contextualize the black Pentecostal experience from one generation to the next. The congruence of black Pentecostalism’s prevailing distinctiveness and black British culture will involve many challenges of contextualization, requiring Pentecostals to reassess their worship forms, social—political attitude, hermeneutic stance, attitudes to women in leadership, theological training and prophetic leadership.
References
[1] An important book that discusses the link between migration and colonialism is P. C. Emer (ed.) Colonialism and Migration: Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery (New York: Springer, 1986).
[2] Akintunde E. Akinade, “Non-Western Christianity in the Western World: African Immigrant Churches in the Diaspora,” in Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani (eds), African Immigrant Religions in America (New York, London: New York University Press, 2007), 89.
[3] Walter J. Hollenweger “After Twenty Years’ research on Pentecostalism” International Review of Mission 75. 297 (January 1986), 3
[4] Hollenweger, Twenty Years, p. 7
[5] Robert Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal: Political Theology for Black Churches in Britain (London: SPCK, 2000), 171.
[6] Steven Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997), 52
[7] Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 187.
[8] Russell P. Spittler, “Implicit Values in Pentecostal Mission,” Missiology: An International Review. 16 no.4 (1988): 409.
[9] Roswith Gerloff ‘Pentecostalism in African Diaspora’ in Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff and Klaus Hock (eds.) Christianity in Africa and the Africa Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage (London and New York: Continum, 2008), p 67.
[10] Paul A. Pomerville, The Third Force in Missions (Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1985), 20.
[11] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). The term ‘next Christendom’ as one describing global Pentecostalism has been challenged by Ogbu Kalu on account of its colonial overtones and expansionist motif. See Ogbu Kalu (ed), Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities (Michigan, Cambridge: William B. Eermans Publishing Company, 2008), 5.
[12] Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3.
[13] The BIGMOVE initiative and the Gideon Project are two examples of efforts to modernize the NTCG in recent years. See http://www.ntcg.org.uk/bigmove.html
[14] William Kay, Pentecostals in Britain (Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Paternoster Press, 2000), 37-38.
[15] Robert Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal: A Political Theology for the Black Church in Britain (London: SPCK, 2000), 171
[16] Nicole Toulis, Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England (Oxford; New York: Berg, 1997), pp 170ff.
[17] See Robert Beckford Dread and Pentecostal (London: SPCK, 2000).
[18] A good summary on the major works along with bibliographical references is presented by Robert Beckford, Jesus is Dread: Black Theology and Black Culture in Britain (London:Darton, Longman & Todd, 1998). See also Calley, M.J 1962 'Pentecostal sects among West Indian migrants', Race, 1962. 3 (2): pp.55-64 and 1965 God's People: West Indian Sects in England, London: Oxford University Press; GERLOFF, R 1992 A Plea for British Black Theologies (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1962), pp.23-48; HILL, C Black Churches: West Indian and African Sects in Britain (Community Race Relations Unit of the British Council of Churches, 197a) “From church to sect. West Indian sect development in Britain”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1971,10, pp.114-123; TOULIS, N Beliefs and Identity: Pentecostalism Among First Generation Jamaican Women in England, unpublished PhD, University of Cambridge, 1993
[19] In a dialogue conducted between Grant McClung and Donal McGavran in Grant McClung’s book Global Believer.Com, McGavran was asked what would be his admonition to denominational groups and ministries today. His answer is very pertinent to the black church movement. He said ‘I would urgently stress that they fear—even as they fear death—getting ‘sealed off’ into respectable churches that grow only biologically and through transfer growth. This is the kiss of death.’ Secondly he said he would advise them to ‘spend 2% of their annual income to research church planting and development.’ See Grant McClung’s book Globalbeliever.Com: Connecting to God’s Work in Your World (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2000).
[20] William Kay, Pentecostals in Britain, 52
[21] Stephen Hunt, “The ‘new’ Black Pentecostal Churches in Britain” A paper presented at CESNUR 14th International Conference, Riga, Latvia, August 29-31, 2000, p.1
[22] Kalu, African Pentecostalism, p. vii
[23] Hunt, The New Black Pentecostal Churches, p. 1
[24] David D. Daniels, “African Immigrant Churches in the United States and the Study of Black Church History,” in Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani (eds) African Immigrant Religion in America (New York: New York University Press, 2007).
[25] Report of the Council of African Christian Communities in Europe (CACCE) at the 1999 meeting in Belgium, quoted in Roswith Gerloff “Religion, Culture and Resistance: The Significance of African Christian Community in Europe,” Exchange 3, no. 3 (2001): 276-89.
[26] Hunt, The new Black Pentecostal Churches, p.16.
[27] Amos Yong, The Spirit Poured out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 27-29.
[28] R. Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal, p. 5.
[29] Allan Anderson, “The Gospel and African Religion” International Review of Mission Vol. LXXXIX no. 354, p.73
[30] Wansuk Ma, ‘Biblical Studies in the Pentecostal Tradition’, in The Globalization of Pentecostalism (Oxford: Regnum, 1999), 64.
Significant changes in the social context of black British experience will influence the reading of Scripture. Negotiating these changes effectively represent s a great challenge to the future of Black Pentecostalism in Britain. Postmodernism is one area in which black British Pentecostal hermeneutics must contend. Postmodern Britain requires of Black churches a new hermeneutics that will speak to a multicultural environment.
Wonsuk Ma points out the strange irony that exists between Pentecostalism and postmodern contexts. He notes: ‘Postmodernism is particularly appealing to Pentecostals because it provides legitimacy for their intuitive reading of the Scriptures.’ He further states
‘Developing a spirituality rooted in God’s word found in Scripture and nurtured by the Holy Spirit is greatly needed if Pentecostals are going to successfully negotiate effective ministry in [the] Post Modern world. Such biblically-based spirituality will empower Pentecostals to address the issues of the institutionalization for Pentecostalism, the engagement of [with] Pentecostals social concern, inclusion of women in Pentecostal ministry, the continued vibrancy of the church’s global mission, the necessity of racial reconciliation, and the renewal of the vision held by early Pentecostal pioneers for a healthy ecumenical relationship with other Christians.[30]
Conclusion
In this essay, I have sought to explore a black Pentecostal historiography in Britain as a global move of the Spirit which is manifesting itself through different historical waves or revivals. I have contended that although there are crucial differences within the new African Pentecostal churches and the older African Caribbean churches there is the need for ecumenical co-operation and mutual learning. The challenge of renewing black Pentecostal traditions within a British context is one that will face all immigrant churches at one time or another. Discovering the essence of black Pentecostalism through interaction and integration will help define the essential theological distinctives that will be able to contextualize the black Pentecostal experience from one generation to the next. The congruence of black Pentecostalism’s prevailing distinctiveness and black British culture will involve many challenges of contextualization, requiring Pentecostals to reassess their worship forms, social—political attitude, hermeneutic stance, attitudes to women in leadership, theological training and prophetic leadership.
References
[1] An important book that discusses the link between migration and colonialism is P. C. Emer (ed.) Colonialism and Migration: Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery (New York: Springer, 1986).
[2] Akintunde E. Akinade, “Non-Western Christianity in the Western World: African Immigrant Churches in the Diaspora,” in Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani (eds), African Immigrant Religions in America (New York, London: New York University Press, 2007), 89.
[3] Walter J. Hollenweger “After Twenty Years’ research on Pentecostalism” International Review of Mission 75. 297 (January 1986), 3
[4] Hollenweger, Twenty Years, p. 7
[5] Robert Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal: Political Theology for Black Churches in Britain (London: SPCK, 2000), 171.
[6] Steven Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997), 52
[7] Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 187.
[8] Russell P. Spittler, “Implicit Values in Pentecostal Mission,” Missiology: An International Review. 16 no.4 (1988): 409.
[9] Roswith Gerloff ‘Pentecostalism in African Diaspora’ in Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff and Klaus Hock (eds.) Christianity in Africa and the Africa Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage (London and New York: Continum, 2008), p 67.
[10] Paul A. Pomerville, The Third Force in Missions (Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1985), 20.
[11] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). The term ‘next Christendom’ as one describing global Pentecostalism has been challenged by Ogbu Kalu on account of its colonial overtones and expansionist motif. See Ogbu Kalu (ed), Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities (Michigan, Cambridge: William B. Eermans Publishing Company, 2008), 5.
[12] Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3.
[13] The BIGMOVE initiative and the Gideon Project are two examples of efforts to modernize the NTCG in recent years. See http://www.ntcg.org.uk/bigmove.html
[14] William Kay, Pentecostals in Britain (Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Paternoster Press, 2000), 37-38.
[15] Robert Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal: A Political Theology for the Black Church in Britain (London: SPCK, 2000), 171
[16] Nicole Toulis, Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England (Oxford; New York: Berg, 1997), pp 170ff.
[17] See Robert Beckford Dread and Pentecostal (London: SPCK, 2000).
[18] A good summary on the major works along with bibliographical references is presented by Robert Beckford, Jesus is Dread: Black Theology and Black Culture in Britain (London:Darton, Longman & Todd, 1998). See also Calley, M.J 1962 'Pentecostal sects among West Indian migrants', Race, 1962. 3 (2): pp.55-64 and 1965 God's People: West Indian Sects in England, London: Oxford University Press; GERLOFF, R 1992 A Plea for British Black Theologies (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1962), pp.23-48; HILL, C Black Churches: West Indian and African Sects in Britain (Community Race Relations Unit of the British Council of Churches, 197a) “From church to sect. West Indian sect development in Britain”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1971,10, pp.114-123; TOULIS, N Beliefs and Identity: Pentecostalism Among First Generation Jamaican Women in England, unpublished PhD, University of Cambridge, 1993
[19] In a dialogue conducted between Grant McClung and Donal McGavran in Grant McClung’s book Global Believer.Com, McGavran was asked what would be his admonition to denominational groups and ministries today. His answer is very pertinent to the black church movement. He said ‘I would urgently stress that they fear—even as they fear death—getting ‘sealed off’ into respectable churches that grow only biologically and through transfer growth. This is the kiss of death.’ Secondly he said he would advise them to ‘spend 2% of their annual income to research church planting and development.’ See Grant McClung’s book Globalbeliever.Com: Connecting to God’s Work in Your World (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2000).
[20] William Kay, Pentecostals in Britain, 52
[21] Stephen Hunt, “The ‘new’ Black Pentecostal Churches in Britain” A paper presented at CESNUR 14th International Conference, Riga, Latvia, August 29-31, 2000, p.1
[22] Kalu, African Pentecostalism, p. vii
[23] Hunt, The New Black Pentecostal Churches, p. 1
[24] David D. Daniels, “African Immigrant Churches in the United States and the Study of Black Church History,” in Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani (eds) African Immigrant Religion in America (New York: New York University Press, 2007).
[25] Report of the Council of African Christian Communities in Europe (CACCE) at the 1999 meeting in Belgium, quoted in Roswith Gerloff “Religion, Culture and Resistance: The Significance of African Christian Community in Europe,” Exchange 3, no. 3 (2001): 276-89.
[26] Hunt, The new Black Pentecostal Churches, p.16.
[27] Amos Yong, The Spirit Poured out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 27-29.
[28] R. Beckford, Dread and Pentecostal, p. 5.
[29] Allan Anderson, “The Gospel and African Religion” International Review of Mission Vol. LXXXIX no. 354, p.73
[30] Wansuk Ma, ‘Biblical Studies in the Pentecostal Tradition’, in The Globalization of Pentecostalism (Oxford: Regnum, 1999), 64.
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