i have written an opinion piece for fresh expressions that is published today entitled jesus is my bulldozer! which is a reflection on mission and african christianity in the west…

the link to it is now broken so i have added the piece here:

Jesus my Bulldozer!

Ever since I read Christianity Rediscovered I have been fascinated by the challenge of mission across cultures. That book is the story of mission amongst the Massai in Africa and the quest to share Jesus in such a way as to grow a Massai expression of Christianity rather than impose a Western one. A bundle of youthworkers having read that book 30 years ago were inspired to address the same challenge in our own communities with friends and with young people – how could we share Jesus in a way that lead to expressions of church in those cultures, what we now call fresh expressions rather than expecting people to buy into the imposed church culture? I have been on that quest ever since, the latest iteration being the training of pioneers at CMS. It never ceases to amaze me both the inspiring and creative things pioneers are doing and the difficulty the church still seems to have with things that are different!

African Christianity has changed considerably since that book with an explosion of growth – the heartlands of Christianity are most definitely located in Africa (and China and Latin America) rather than Europe. That growth has been accompanied by the developing of African contextual theologies and spiritualities as they have sought to find their own voice and shake off the Western clothes that Jesus was initially wrapped in. There has also been considerable migration in the last twenty years so that in Britain there are now many fast growing and replicating African churches that are part of the blessed reflex – i.e. a mission movement back in the direction of Europe. Last week there was a gathering of African leaders at CMS in Oxford under the umbrella of the innovative Missio Africanus mission movement.

One absolute treat was to sit and hear John Mbiti. He is one of the most respected African theologians alive today who has sought to connect faith with indigenous African spirituality and religion. He is now in his eighties. He shared that lately he has been exploring African answers to the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ i.e. developing an African Christology. This is an exciting process of the naming of Jesus in peoples own languages as related to their lives and communities. They locate Jesus in the African setting – he is at home with them rather than sounding like he belongs elsewhere. Together they exude a deep love for who Jesus is and he is at the heart of their Christianity, present with and in them. Mbiti says “This is not an ecclesiastically formulated Christology of any institutional church. It is a spontaneous Christology, a collective Christology, a mass Christology, a lay persons’ Christology, a Christology in the fields, in the streets, in the villages, in the Christian homes, in the shops and schools… It is a lived and living Christology of African Christianity. It is literally infectious and self propogating!”

Some of the names of Jesus are ones we would recognise – door, king, path, hiding place. But some are really quirky and fun that you are unlikely to know. Such as a name that translates as ‘Put down your load and have something to eat’, Wiper (of sorrows and tears), Leopard whose cubs cannot be caught, and one that Mbiti expanded upon – Jesus the Bulldozer. This came from a group of charismatic catholic christians in a prison in Benin who had an intriguing song that included the lines ‘bulldoze the lawyer, bulldoze the judge, Jesus is my bulldozer!’ (This is written up in Theology Brewed in An African Pot – see below)

Harvey Kwiyani is the man behind Missio Africanus and he is generating a conversation about African Christianity in the West. Unusually in my experience he is at home in the Western missional conversation and in the African diaspora churches. He has taught with me on mission for pioneers training with CMS which has been fun. His recent book Sent Forth explores this challenge of African mission in the West. The questions of culture and translation and migration in mission are huge. Many African churches initially recreate the culture of Ghana or Nigeria in the churches in the UK and attract those like them rapidly but struggle to reach their Western neighbours. Missio Africanus is helping them read British culture and reflect on cross cultural mission from African to Britain. I hope and pray we will be seeing fresh expressions of African churches as they seek to follow the beckoning of the Spirit into the future. I suspect they will also be reading Christianity Rediscovered and letting it spark their imaginations of how to share Jesus in a way that connects with the contexts they are in rather than imposing African cultures.

Having been inspired in my initial ventures into mission by a story of mission and African Christianity I find I am being inspired and challenged in new ways by stories of mission and African Christianity. The thought that our faith is essentially a migrant faith has blown me away and made me reimagine who I am, who God is and what mission is. I think the challlenge to do local theology that expresses questions such as who Jesus is exciting and one that we in the West and in fresh expressions have not engaged with at anything like the depth we could. Our inherited and systematic theologies with the ‘right answers’ weigh us down more than we know. Is it time for some more risky theologising, for a lay persons’ Christology, a Christology in our communities. I also find I am refreshed and inspired by the love for Jesus that is at the heart of African Christianity where he is at home with them and among them. And then there is the call to join in the mission challenge that Missio Africanus is exploring together rather than apart so that we build communities of faith that are missional and multi cultural. The mission challenges of our times never stay still!

Jonny Baker is mission education director for Church Mission Society and heads up the pioneer mission leadership training programme – pioneer.cms-uk.org

Referenced books – Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donavon; Sent Forth by Harvey Kwiyani; Theology Brewed in an African Pot by Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator