Pneuijm

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Reverse Mission or Migrant Sanctuaries? Migration,

Symbolic Mapping, and Missionary Challenges
of Britain's Black Majority Churches

Babatunde Aderemi Adedibu*

Springdale College, Birmingham, B301HH, United Kingdom
babatundeadebibu@btinternet.com

Abstract
The spread of African Christianity to Europe (including Britain) and North America over the last
six decades has heralded a distinctive phase in global church history. Religion, which had been
hitherto ignored as one of the motivations for migration, is gradually becoming a major mover
in the global proliferation of African Christianity to the point that it is now a transatlantic phe­
nomenon. Britain’s Black Majority Churches (BMCs) make use of self-representation and symbolic
mapping in their discourses. The image of Britain as a post-Christian nation is projected with
such epithets as “dead continent,” “prodigal nation,” and “secularized Britain.” It is apt to note
that Britain’s BMCs are but one case of reverse mission that, in reality, more resembles migrant
sanctuaries all across the Western world. The lack of understanding of the British culture, flawed
church-planting strategies, and the operational methods employed by these churches have
severely hampered the BMCs’ missionary endeavors in Britain.

Keywords
African Christianity, Black Majority Churches, Britain, migrants, migration, reverse mission

Introduction
The growth and proliferation of migrant churches in Europe and North Amer­
ica from Africa, Asia, and Latin America has heralded a new phase in the global
Christian landscape. The conspicuous changes in Europe and North America
further re-echo the shift in the center of gravity of Christianity from the Global
North to the Global South with countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa as
major missionary-sending nations to Europe and North America. The emergence

* Two Pneuma anonymous reviewers provided helpful feedback during the course of revision;
the final version remains my own responsibility.

< Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 1)01:10.1163/15700747-12341347

406 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

of these churches has brought about the use of various nomenclatures: “when
dealing with the phenomenon in continental Europe, the term migrant
churches is used, in Netherlands immigrant churches,” while in Britain they
are referred to as black-led or Black Majority Churches (BMCs).1
African Christianity in the twenty-first century is not geographically defined
but is now globalized with a visible presence in the West and in North America.
The Embassy of God’s Church, Ukraine led by Pastor Sunday Adelaja is an
exceptional success story of crosscultural ministry by missionaries from the
Global South. In Britain and in North America, however, most of the African-
led churches are diasporic congregations2 attesting to the “word made global”3
through African Christianity.
The proliferation of BMCs in Britain has been greatly facilitated in the last
ten decades through migration, globalization, colonial antecedents, and eco­
nomic and social push and pull factors. The various histories of the BMCs4
highlight the role of migration in the growth and proliferation of these churches.
In the last seven decades changes in the missiological agenda of these churches
in Britain have been observed as many have evolved to meet the contextual,
social, and religious aspirations of Africans and Caribbeans.

1 Claudia Wahrisch-Oblau in her seminal work identified the various theological and socio­
logical polemics associated with the terms applied to these churches. Positing that the term
migrant churches is a sociological description, she identifies the theological drawbacks of such a
phrase but points out its appropriateness, since the “congregations have been founded by people
with recent migration background, are led by them, and have a majority of members from such a
background.” C. Wahrisch-Oblau, The Missionary Seif-Perceptions of Pentecostal/Charismatic
Church Leaders from the Global South in Europe: Bringing Back the Gospel (Leiden and Boston:
Brill, 2009), 35-36.
2 Despite claims of success among some BMCs, such as the 12,000-strong membership of King-
sway International Christian Centre (KICC) and the 5,000-member Ruach ministries led by
Bishop John Francis, memberships are widely dispersed. The transnational network of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America is made up of over six hundred parishes. For
further study, see E. Adeboye, Address at the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the Ordained Min­
isters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, United Kingdom, held at Jesus House, London,
on October 21,2011.
3 M. Gornick, Word Made Global: Stories ofAfrican Christianity in New York City (Grand Rapids,
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2011).
4 For further reading on the history of BMCs, see C. Hill, Black Churches, West Indian and Afri­
can Sects in Britain (London: Community and Race Relations Unit of the British Council of
Churches, 1971); N. Toulis, Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation ofJamaican Ethnic­
ity and Gender in England (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1997); I. MacRobert, The Black Roots and White
Racism ofEarly Pentecostalism in the USA (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1988); M. Sturge, Look
What the Lord Has Done! An Exploration of Black Christian Faith in Britain (Bletchley: Scripture
Union, 2005); J. Aldred, Respect: Understanding Caribbean British Christianity (Peterborough:
Epworth, 2006).
 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 407

With organized missionary initiatives from Africa and the Caribbean to Brit­
ain beginning in 1948, however, the emphasis is often characterized by a man­
date to re-evangelize Britain. Claudia Wahrisch-Oblau observed that migrant
churches in Germany engaged in reversal in the orientation of missionary talk
of Western missions by African missionaries. She further asserts that the basis
of the African missionary claims in the West “usually took the form of contrast­
ing the ‘dark heathen’ realities with the light’ of the Christian Gospel and
faith.... The imagination of the host country is always bound up with the
imagination of the home the missionary has left, and with the role that he or
she ascribes to him- or herself.”5 6
A common theme that seems to be a transatlantic phenomenon among
migrant churches is that the host countries in which the migrants are situated
are usually classified as amoral, deficient, and in need of restoration to their
former Christian ethos. It has been observed that there exists a general percep­
tion of decline in the fortunes of European Christianity among indigenous
European Christians and migrant Christians alike.
Reverse mission ideals have been catalyzed by the rise in Christian activities
among the immigrant population in urban cities in North America and Europe.
A typical example is a study on church growth in London, which observed that
the future of churches and historic denominations outside the southeast of
England is challenging, because the fastest growing churches are black pente-
costal churches, which are projected to grow “from 11% in 1990 to 23% by
2020. ”()
This article examines the connections between migration and the prolifera­
tion of BMCs. I argue that BMCs’ claims that they are engaged in reverse mis­
sion in Britain are increasingly contestable, because they are gradually assuming
the identity of migrant sanctuaries. The limited impact these BMCs have made
in effecting mass conversions among their host communities in Britain, it could
be argued, is due to insufficient understanding of British culture, flawed
church-planting strategies, and the missiological inadequacies of these
churches. As an African and missiologist, I write from a missiological perspec­
tive but with normative theological underpinnings with a more descriptive
and analytical perspective on Britain’s BMCs.

5 Wahrisch-Oblau, Missionary Self-Perceptions, 254.

6 P. Brierley, 21 Concernsfor 21st Century Christians (Kent: ADBC Publishers, 2011), 3; see also
P. Brierley, ed., UK Christian Handbook: Religious Trends, vol. 5 (Worcester: Christian Research,
2005), and P. Brierley, ed., Religious Trends in the UK (Worcester: Christian Research, 2006).
408 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

Migration and the Black Church Movement in Britain

The historic successes and challenges associated with the Christian missionary
endeavors from the West to the rest of the world in the prime of Western mis­
sionary enterprise have been ingrained in the Western consciousness. The
directional shift of missions from Africa and Asia to the West and the Ameri­
can continent, therefore, came as a surprise to many Westerners, with growing
evidence of the proliferation of BMCs in Britain, as non-Western Christians are
attempting to be agents of re-evangelization of the West.
According to Andrew F. Walls, the “great new fact of our time — and it has
momentous consequences for mission — is that the great migration has gone
into reverse. There has been a massive movement, which all indications sug­
gest will continue, from the non-Western to the Western world.”7 It is impor­
tant to note, however, that in as much as mission-informed migration might
continue as asserted, changes in the immigration policies in the West have
occurred that are driven by the social and economic considerations of the host
communities.
Migration has inevitably contributed to the role of the diaspora in the shap­
ing of Christianity in the West: “since the 1960s in the post-colonial era, migrant
movement has been predominantly from areas with weak economic and polit­
ical systems to the centres of global dominance and advanced industrial
growth.”8 The migratory pattern is often from underdeveloped or developing
economies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to developed economies in West­
ern Europe and North America in the quest for economic and social leverage;
but an observable trend is that economic migrants traveled not only with their
skills but also with their religious “backpacks.”
In view of the pluralistic religious landscape of Britain in the twenty-first
century, the diversity and distinctiveness of BMCs has been the focus of vari­
ous studies on the interconnectedness of religion, diaspora, and migration in
relation to religious creativity. All of these have contributed to the shaping of
the spiritual landscape of these contexts.9

7 A. F. Walls, “Mission and Migration: The Diaspora Factor in Christian History,” Journal of
African Christian Thought 5, no. 2 (December 2002): 10.
8 J. Hanciles, “Migration and Mission: The Religious Significance of the North-South Divide,” in
A. F. Walls and C. Ross, eds., Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks ofGlobal Mission
(London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2008), 123.
9 For detailed study see H. Ebaugh and J. Chafetz, Religion and the New Immigrants: Continui­
ties and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2000);
Y. Haddad, J. Smith and J. Esposito, eds., Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
Experiences in the United States (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2003); M. Vasquez and
 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 409

That migrants have explored opportunities in the Western world for eco­
nomic and social benefits has been caused by a moral economy of corruption
on the part of the leadership of African and Caribbean nations. The loss of
skilled labor from Africa and the Caribbean to developed economies is poten­
tially a serious barrier to economic growth, development, and poverty reduc­
tion in the developing nations. Migration from the West Indies during the
Windrush era of 1948 to 1952 and African migration to Britain in the 1980s were
motivated by economic, educational, and social factors or for family reunions,
but migrants also migrated with their religious idiosyncrasies. If one sets this
within global migration, one can posit that religion, hitherto not a “motor or
driving force,” is vital in the formation of the African diaspora.10
The proliferation of West Indian churches beginning in the 1950s and of Afri­
can neo-pentecostal churches in the 1980s and '90s in Britain has highlighted
the interrelatedness of religious practices in the homelands of migrants and in
Britain. The circumstances that contributed to the emergence of BMCs in the
1950s in Britain were twofold: primarily the effects of racism and the culture
shock associated with the English church culture and the wider British society
experienced by the Windrush migrants. Significant changes in social and
cultural customs in Britain during the post-war era led to the renunciation of
the accepted norms of British life. Codes of practice connected with family and
marriage were abandoned by sections of the population. The effects of secular­
ization and the attendant challenges of the industrial revolution contributed
significantly to the missionizing of Britain by African and Caribbean Christians.
The role of religion in migration has been further corroborated by Burgess
and his colleagues in their research on the Redeemed Christian Church of God
(RCCG) in Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain. They contend that “religion
is to some extent a driving factor in the migration process, albeit a small one.”11
Seven percent of the RCCG pastors surveyed in the United Kingdom are pri­
marily in the country for Christian ministry, while 55 percent of the sampled

M. Marquardt, Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2003); H. Harris, Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London (New York:
Macmillan, 2006).
10 For a detailed study see A. Adogame and C. Weisskoppel, eds., Religion in the Context
of African Migration, Bayreuth African Studies Series 75 (Bayreuth, Germany: Breitinger, 2005),
quotation from 5.
11 Burgess, Knibbe, and Quaas examined the operational methodologies of transnational pen-
tecostal churches, networks, and believers that operate in public space in Britain, Germany, and
the Netherlands. R. Burgess, K. Knibbe, and A. Quaas, “Nigeria-Initiated Pentecostal Churches as
a Social Force in Europe: The Case of The Redeemed Christian Church of God,” PentecoStudies 9,
no. 1 (2010): 117.
4io B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

pastors indicated that Christian ministry in Britain was one of the motivating
factors for choosing to stay in the United Kingdom.12
Migration has brought about the emergence of multicultural communities,
especially in Western Europe and America, and has significantly changed the
social and economic landscape of these continents. But it has also brought
about the emergence of religious diversity in these contexts. The dynamics and
direction of global mobility and the various immigration restrictions have
checked the flow of legal migration but also served as catalysts for illegal
migrants, among whom are Christians.
The role of religious communities among the diaspora does constitute a
major feature of the Africans and Caribbeans because of the intrinsically reli­
gious nature of Africans. The dynamics at play within the Western mind are
succinctly summarized by Gerrie Ter Haar, who noted that:

The reversal of roles implied by the notion of an African mission to Europe stands
many conventional ideas on their head. Europeans traditionally see Africans as being
on the receiving end, and themselves on the giving end, of a relationship which is often
equated with black-white relations. Moreover Europeans are inclined to believe that
the proper place for Africans is in Africa. The idea of an African mission to Europe thus
appears inappropriate to the marginal status of black immigrants in their society. To
many native Europeans the recent foundation of African Christian congregations is an
anomaly. In fact, the rise of African and other non-Westem Christian congregations is
nothing less than a new phase in the religious history of Europe.13

However, the initial pharisaic attitude of historic denominations and some

Western religious commentators toward the emergence, growth, and prolifera­
tion of BMCs is gradually changing in the West and America, including Britain.
The change in perception of such religious commentators might be attributed
to the gradual understanding of the theology, distinctiveness, and contribu­
tions of these churches to British Christianity and to meeting the sociocultural
and religious aspirations of their members.14

12 Ibid., 118.
13 G. Ter Haar, HaLJway to Paradise: African Christians in Europe (Cardiff: Cardiff Academic
Press, 1998), 3.
14 In his speech delivered at Jesus House, Brent Cross, London, during his fifty-ninth birthday
celebration, His Royal Highness Prince Charles said, “I want you to remember, that you are highly
appreciated by me and more and more by other people. Too often, it seems that the media are
interested in the negative and stereotypical but you [Jesus House] if I may say so are a wonderful
and shining example.” See “Prince Charles marks 59th birthday with tribute to black churches in
the UK”: http://www.assistnews.net/St0ries/2007/s07110095.htm (last accessed 5 May 2011).
 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 411

A major feature of the migratory pattern of Africans and Caribbeans is

the positive correlation between migration and religious affirmation. Often,
however, living in a different cultural context has facilitated a diversity of reli­
gious views and commitments, which has led to the modification of religious
practices in order to reflect spiritual thirst and to gain more converts. The com­
mitment of the migrants to proselytization is often viewed as a messianic zeal for
the faith of the migrants. Britain’s BMCs represent a mosaic of religious diversity
in Europe that is currently being investigated by religious historians, anthropolo­
gists, sociologists, and theologians who seek to define the emerging transnational
phenomenon and sociological mechanism of diasporic religiosity.15 The emerg­
ing religious landscape in Britain has a definitive imprint of Africa, as “for the
next few decades, the face of religious practice across Europe [Britain particu­
larly due to imperialistic colonial antecedents, burgeoning economy, and global­
ization] should be painted in Brown and Black.”16
Moreover, the impact of BMCs on church attendance is observable in
research findings that note that the overall church attendance in England has
recently increased. The findings of the Tear Fund indicate that 48 percent of
black people attend church regularly, three times the rate of the white com­
munity.17 Statistics have indicated that there may be about four different
denominations and independent churches, four thousand focal congregations,
and a following of almost half a million, mostly in homogenous churches made
up of Africans and Caribbeans, of which very few are multicultural.18
The current growth experienced by BMCs in Britain is mostly in neo-pente-
costal churches pioneered by Africans, with the exception of Ruach Ministries
and Christian Life City, which are led by Bishops John Francis and Malcolm
Wayne, who, although British, are Caribbean. Jesus House, a parish of the
RCCG led by Pastor Agu Irukwu, a former investment banker and a law gradu­
ate of Warwick University, has a membership of about three thousand, while

,r> Some of the recent publications include A. Ukah, “Reverse Mission or Asylum Christianity?
A Nigerian Church in Europe,” in T. Falola and A. Agwuele, eds., Africans and Politics ofPopular
Cultures (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2009), 104-32; and A. Adogame, R. Gerloff,
and K. Hock eds., Christianity in Africa and the African Diaspora (London: Continuum, 2009).
16 P. Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming ofGlobal Christianity (New York: Oxford Uni­
versity Press, 2002), 125.
17 J. Ashworth and I. Farthing, “Churchgoing: A Research Report on Church Attendance in
UK,” http://www.worldcat.org/title/churchgoing-in-the-uk-a-research-report-from-tearfund-on-
church-attendance-in-the-uk/oclc/145387241.
18 J. Aldred, “The Experience of Black Churches in the United Kingdom: Change and
Diversity — Impact of Migration in Church and Society,” EEA3 Conference Forum — Migration,
Sibiu, Romania, September 4-9,2007.
412 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

House of Praise, Trinity Chapel, Royal Connections, and Victory House — all
within the RCCG network — have memberships in the region of more than
one thousand each.
BMCs are noted for their ability to transcend numerous cultures with an
alternative view, one associated with a belief system characterized by miracles
and esotericism. This is further precipitated by the ability of the new pentecos-
tal churches in Britain in the 1980s and ’90s to acculturate themselves to local­
ized traditions across Britain. Such “pliability” is often experiential and appeals
to a sense of community during periods of rapid social and economic change,
since most of the proponents of Pentecostalism in Britain are Africans or Carib-
beans of the diaspora.
The religious identity created by the proliferation of BMCs in Britain in the
light of reverse mission has enabled the migrants in the diaspora to access
social support networks to cope with the challenges of assimilation into the
host communities. The churches function as a hub, restructuring and trans­
forming their members’ self-worth and financial status by disseminating infor­
mation about job opportunities, immigration, and social skills.

The Rhetoric of Reverse Mission of the BMCs

The shift in the direction of missions from the West and North America to
Africa, Asia, and Latin America thus raises fundamental questions with respect
to the effectiveness of the claims of missionaries from the Global South to
Europe, including Britain. As early as 1880, however, Edward Blyden envisaged
that Africa might be an example to the Europeans in the preservation of Chris­
tianity: “Africa may yet prove to be the spiritual conservatory of the world...
when the civilized nations... shall have had their spiritual perceptions dark­
ened ... [through] a captivating and absorbing materialism, it may be, that
they have to resort to Africa to recover some of the simple elements of faith.”19
The nineteenth century witnessed the commencement of missionary initia­
tives to America and Britain from Africa. The first modern black pentecostal
church, Sumner Chapel, was established in 1906 through Pastor Brem Wilson,
a Ghanaian businessman, in Peckham, London, who migrated to England in
1901.20 A similar phenomenon has been observed in American history: “After

19 Edward Blyden, cited in J. Hanciles, Beyond Christendom (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
2008), 350.
20 For detailed study on the origin of BMCs, see B. Adedibu, “The Urban Explosion of Black
Majority Churches: Origin, Growth, Distinctiveness and Contributions to British Christianity”
(PhD diss., North West University, South Africa, 2010).
 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 403-423 413

the international missionary conference in Tambaram in 1938... Mina Soga,

the only African woman there [at Tambaram], toured the US for six months.”21
In 1936 Kenneth Scott Latourette wrote that “members of the younger churches
are beginning to come as missionaries to the West”; he mentions a mission sent
to the churches of Britain by the Indian churches “at their own expense.”22
The concept of reverse mission in the last six decades has received impetus,
however, due to the effects of globalization on African Christianity. The reso­
nance of the global growth of African Christianity has not been limited by
geographical delineation; rather, it has been enhanced by migration from
developing economies to the West and the North American continent and the
declining fortunes of European Christianity due to religious pluralism, the
intellectual influence of the Enlightenment, and the privatization of faith.
Adogame claims that “the conscious missionary strategy by mother churches
in Africa of evangelizing the Diaspora is a relatively recent one. Diaspora has
been a key aspect to their [BMCs’] response to European mission.”23 Adog-
ame’s perspective stems from the fact that the pioneers of reverse missions in
the mould of Rev. Brem Wilson, Daniel Ekarte, and Philip Mohabir were not
church-based missionaries but independent zealous missionaries to Britain.
The narratives of ministers of Britain’s BMCs are similar to those of other
European migrants that do not fit into migration narrative. “They are not nar­
ratives of search for better life, and of a struggle for integration. When describ­
ing themselves, the interlocutors tend to use the term ‘missionaries’, and their
narratives are suffused with a sense of calling to a country [Britain] to which
they have moved.”24 Many of the narratives of missionaries from the Global
South to the Global North use the images of heroic strangerhood; such narra­
tives are distinctively not migratory, that is, the migrants are not trying to
negotiate cultural terrain in the host country; rather the migrants are propelled
by the mandate of world evangelization.

21 P. Freston, “Reverse Mission: A Discourse in Search of Reality,” PentecoStudies 9, no. 2 (2010):

158.
22 Ibid.
2S A. Adogame, “Reverse Missions: Europe — a Prodigal Continent?” presented at the Edin­
burgh 2010 Centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, available at http://ebookbrowse.
com/the-rhetoric-of-reverse-mission-afe-adogame-pdf-di288ooio; see also A. Ukah, “Mobilities,
Migration and Multiplication: The Expansion of the Religious Field of the Redeemed Christian
Church of God (RCCG), Nigeria,” in A. Adogame and C. Weisskoppel, eds., Religion in the Context
ofAfrican Migration (Bayreuth, Germany: Thielmann & Breitinger, 2005), 338.
24 J. Swanson, Echoes ofthe Call: Identity and Ideology Among American Missionaries in Ecua­
dor (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 139.
414 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

Sunday Adelaja, the pastor of the single largest congregation in Europe

(with a membership of over twenty thousand, 99.9 percent of whom are
whites), subscribes to the theory of “heroic strangerhood”; he asserts that his
success is astonishing because “[God] plucked me from my small village in
Africa; then brought me by divine call to Ukraine and told me to start a church
in Kiev.”25
A major feature of the reverse mission that is almost transnational is the
sacralization of the initiative by Africans and Caribbeans. It is “an interesting
dynamic of how migration narratives are often sacralized and weaved as occur­
rences and mobility anchored on divine design rather than by any mundane
accident Testimony genres of several African migrants are rife with accounts
of how they saw the mysterious ‘hand of God' in shaping their life trajectories
and migration histories.”26 The reinterpretation of the economic and social
migration of Africans and Caribbean Christians has led to the creation of new
identities as agents of re-evangelization of Britain that are alien to migration
narratives of moving from a poor Global South to a rich Global North.
The proliferation of BMCs is reflected in the domination of various parts of
Britain, especially the cities, by the pentecostal movements. For example, Old
Kent Road in London might be renamed Church Road due to the African
pentecostal forms of Christianity that have an overwhelming presence in the
neighborhood. The proliferation of these churches has been referred to as
the “third response” to white cultural domination and power in the church, the
first and second responses having been Ethiopianism and African Independent
Churches or the Aladura movement.27
BMCs in Britain, especially the African Independent Pentecostal Churches,
are characterized by self-representation and symbolic mapping. The image of
Britain is variously projected as a post-Christian nation through terms such as
“dead continent,” “prodigal nation,” and “secularized Britain.” These assertions
tend to reinforce the legitimacy of global southerners to engage in reverse
mission.

25 S. Adelaja, Church Shift: Revolutionizing Your Faith, Church, and Life for the 21st Century
(Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2008), xxvi.
26 A. Adogame, “Up, Up Jesus! Down, Down Satan! African Religiosity in the Former Soviet
Bloc — the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for all Nations,” ExchangeJournal ofMissio-
logical and Ecumenical Research 37 (2008): 317; see also A. Dobrovolsky, ed., Olorunwa: There is
God — Portrait ofSunday Adelaja (Kiev: Fares Publishing, 2007).
27 O. Kalu, “The Third Response: Pentecostalism and the Reconstruction of Christian Experi­
ence in Africa, 1970-1995 "Journal ofAfrican Christian Thought 1, no. 2 (1998): 3-16.
 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 415

The rapidity with which missionaries are exported to the Western world
makes a statement about Africa’s role in the heart of contemporary Western
Christian history. Most BMC leaders generally affirm that the law of “sowing
and reaping” is pivotal to reverse mission in Europe by African missionaries.
Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the RCCG, elucidates further in
an interview with “Evangelical Now”:

I believe the Almighty God is saying there is revival at the door, that a great revival is
coming, that one day not too long from now the streets of London will be practically
empty on Sunday morning because people have gone to church to worship the Almighty
Ciod. I believe that the glory that was lost will be restored. And I believe it to be very
soon. 1 believe that all the prayers that these thousands are sending to the Almighty
God saying, “Revive our soul, Lord! Revive our soul, Lord!" will receive an answer sooner
than we expected.28

The restorationist agenda espoused by Adeboye is generally embraced by most

BMC leaders in Britain. But it should be noted that Adeboye was more inter­
ested in the restorationist agenda than in engaging in criticism of colonial mis­
sionary endeavors with their imperialistic tendencies. It is in the light of past
missionary endeavors by the West to Africa that most countries from the
Global South claim that reverse mission is undertaken with a sense of gratitude
from these countries to Britain, with a desire to assuage the declining fortunes
of Christianity.29
Wahrisch-Oblau suggests that in return for this noncritical stance to colo­
nial missionary history, the migrant churches expect, in return, a noncritical
response to their missionary engagement. She observes: “the unspoken impli­
cation is: If we do not criticise your missionaries and their message, we expect
you to accept our missionaries and their message, too. After all, we are bringing
you nothing else than the message your people brought to us before.”30
BMCs “see the ‘world’ as a place to move into and ‘possess’ for Christ. Trans­
nationalism and migration do not affect their essential character, even though
their adherents may have to steer a precarious course between contradictory

28 E. Adeboye, “We Can’t Find a Place Large Enough,” available at http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-

37i3-‘We-can't-find-a-place-large-enough’.htm (last accessed April 23,2011).
29 C. Wahrisch-Oblau, “From Reverse Mission to Common Mission... We Hope: Immigrant
Protestant Churches and the Programme for Cooperation between German and Immigrant Con­
gregations of the United Evangelical Mission,” International Review of Mission 89, no. 354 (July
2000): 260.
30 Wahrisch-Oblau, The Missionary SelfPerceptions, 260.
416 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

forms of identity resulting from the migratory experience.”31 The occupational

and transformational agenda of Britain’s BMCs is quite obvious in the assertive
manner in which they are re-evangelizing Britain. Such claims in the last two
decades seem, however, to be exaggerated.
Thus BMCs seem to have an “invading army” agenda in terms of re-evange­
lizing Britain, but the success of these churches might be described at best as a
repository of large ethnic churches. Asamoah-Gyadu observed, however, that
there are practical lessons to be learned from the BMCs in Britain in the light of
“the attention it draws to the fact that Christianity is about experience and that
the power of God is able to transform circumstances that Western rationalist
theologieswillconsiderthepreserveofpsychologyandscientificdevelopment.”32
Although this existential appeal has served as one of the attractions of BMCs to
its followers, this has come under much scholarly scrutiny on account of per­
ceived hermeneutical flaws.
In the light of the proliferation of African Christianity globally, various schol­
ars have observed the lack of impact of these churches among the indigenous
peoples. In the Netherlands, Van der Laan states, “the native Dutch... do not
respond to their evangelistic efforts,”33 while Adogame in his assessment of
Europe opines that “white converts” form a “negligible percentage.”34 Wahrisch-
Oblau gives a relative overview of the Christian scene in Germany and posits
that Christianity is probably fading off the radar of most Germans as “even
large very international churches have relatively few German members.”35
Similar resonance has been observed in Britain, where, with a few exceptions,
most BMCs are distinctively made up of Africans and Caribbeans after the pat­
tern of Lighthouse Church, Liverpool, which is led by Pastor Tami Omideyi, a
Nigerian.

31 A. Anderson, “African Europeans in Global Pentecostalism,” paper presented at the annual

academic lecture of Christ Redeemer Christian College and Redeemed Christian Church of God
held at Jesus House, London, October 6,2009, 2.
32 J. K. Asamoah-Gyadu, "African Pentecostal on Mission in Eastern Europe: The Church of the
‘Embassy of God’ in the Ukraine,” Pneuma: TheJournal ofthe Societyfor Pentecostal Studies 27, no.
2 (Fall 2005): 314.
33 C. Van der Laan, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” in A. Droogers, C. Van der Laan, and W. Van
Laar, eds., Fruitful in this Land: Pluralism, Dialogue and Healing in Migrant Pentecostalism (Zoeter-
meer, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Boekencentrum, 2006), 55.
34 A. Adogame, “Mapping Globalization with the Lens of Religion: African Migrant Churches
in Germany,” in A. W. Geertz and M. Warburg, eds., New Religions and Globalization (Aarhus,
Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2008), 210.
35 C. Wahrisch-Oblau, “‘Getting Ready to Receive?’ German Churches and the ‘New Mission’
from the South,” Lausanne World Pulse (July 2008), available at http://www.lausanneworldpulse.
com/themedarticles.php/97i/o7-20o8?pg=all (last accessed October 23,2011).
 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 417

Ukah provides a sarcastic and metaphoric allusion to the rhetoric of reverse

mission as explored through the history, growth, and structure of the RCCG,
United Kingdom.36 In a rhetorical manner, Ukah titled his article: “Reverse
Mission or Asylum Christianity?” Highlighting some of the features of African
Christianity in Europe in the light of the emergence and proliferation of these
churches, he gives a critical appraisal of RCCG growth in the United Kingdom
(one of the fastest-growing churches in Britain with over five hundred par­
ishes) as a farce. He opines that “part of the theology of re-missioning Europe is
the (re)production of God and preservation of community identity (Yoruba/
Nigerian/African/Christian/Pentecostal/Global),”37 thereby implying that RCCG
churches in the United Kingdom are “believing but not belonging” to the larger
British culture. This has resulted in the re-creation of Yoruba/Nigerian/African
dialectics, which, in turn, have militated against the impact of the RCCG in the
British context.
In other words, despite the varying efforts of rebranding and contextualiza-
tion by some of the leading parishes, such as Jesus House, House of Praise,
Royal Connections, and Trinity Chapel, the majority of churches within the
RCCG network in Britain have not experienced missional gains but have suc­
ceeded only in reinterpreting the RCCG pentecostal ideals in consumer- and
market-oriented structures in hopes of attracting upwardly mobile Nigerians
and Africans. The attractional model of church, which resembles the American
megachurches of the 1980s and ’90s, seems to be prevalent among BMCs in
Britain. It is expedient that Britain’s BMCs should appropriate the lessons of
American church history on megachurches in the wake of emerging trends in
Britain.
Ukah asserts that the basis of the “asylum branding” of the RCCG network of
churches in the United Kingdom is potentially rooted in the carry-over syn­
drome of “Nigerianization" of its church-planting initiatives. The transplanting
is fraught with contextual and missional flaws, such that these churches will
continually attract adherents from the Nigerian and other African diasporas. I
am of the opinion, however, that the RCCG is a global missionary brand, but its
potential for global appeal is predicated on a paradigm shift in its missional
initiatives and a high degree of contextualization of its ideals. Although Ukah
conducted his research in 2004, he noted that the success of the RCCG in re­
evangelizing Europe might be predicated on engagement with other networks

36 Ukah, “Reverse Mission or Asylum Christianity?”

37 Ibid., 123.
4i8 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

of pentecostal churches, which was indeed a signpost for reflective engage­

ment for the future of the church.
As Ukah suggests, there have been significant changes in the strategic rela­
tionship and networking tactics of the RCCG leadership in the United King­
dom. A tripartite relationship exists among the leadership of the RCCG, the
New Testament Church of God, and the Church of God of Prophecy. Similar
cross-fraternization is observable with Holy Trinity Church, Brompton (a par­
ish of the Church of England) and Jesus House, the flagship parish of the RCCG,
UK. Due to the multiple transnational and local transformations of BMCs in
Britain engaged in reverse mission, it is imperative to ask, following Ukah,
whether these missionally minded churches are engaging in “reverse mission
or Diaspora mission,” as the gains of re-evangelizing Britain are yet to be trans­
lated to missional gains in the host communities in terms of conversion.

Missionary Challenges of Britain's BMCs

Britain’s BMCs have thus far not risen to the missionary challenge of the British
community. It is apparent that the modus operandi through the purported
claims of power evangelism has not translated to attracting the host communi­
ties into these churches. This reality contrasts with claims of reverse mission to
the West. Although the proliferation of these churches has succeeded to some
extent in putting God back on the public radar, these churches have continued
to be cultural ghettos. There has been a lack of pragmatic missionary initiative
or missional engagement with the host culture. The “dark and prodigal conti­
nent” of Britain is yet to be reached, despite the huge transnational networks
that these churches have developed in the last fifty years. Moreover, the prolif­
eration and growth of BMCs have created a “triumph mentality” among some
segments of these churches, which could ultimately militate against evangelis­
tic engagement with the nation.
Britain’s BMCs are replicating the mistakes of the missionary enterprise to
Africa, according to V.Y. Mudimbe, who asserts that “the missionary does not
enter into dialogue with pagans and 'savages' but imposes the law of God that
he incarnates.”38 The failure to engage the British worldview is a factor militat­
ing against any missional engagement with the British people. A rethinking of
missions and evangelism by BMCs would involve changes in ecclesiology and

38 V. Y. Mudimbe, cited in R. Marshall, Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in

Nigeria (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 54.
 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 419

new patterns of evangelism. But “[i]f African churches persist in perpetuating

Africa on British soil, their missionary potential will [might] never be
realised.”39
BMCs are faced with the challenges of connecting with the realities of post­
modern Britain and constructing an engaging, mission-oriented paradigm that
challenges social injustice. This will invariably entail a move toward establish­
ment of missional churches. The missional church concept is rather fluid due
to its multifaceted usage. But Frost and Hirsch described a missional church as
“Incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By Incarnational we mean
it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to
encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church dissembles itself and seeps
into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don’t
yet know Him.”40
This entails the deconstruction of the BMCs’ attitude toward church and
missions. Frost and Hirsch further argue that “as people of a missionary God,
we ought to engage the world the same way he does by going out rather than
just reaching out.”41 This may be countercultural to a typical BMC ethos, which
is often averse to risk-taking and tends toward maintenance mode. Gibbs and
Coffey, expanding Hirsch’s ideals of missional churches, affirm that “churches
living out the apostolic paradigm define themselves in missional terms and are
prepared to embark on risk-taking initiatives. This bold willingness to take new
missionary risks is their distinctive feature and gifting that challenges the great
majority of churches stuck in a survival mode.”42
The Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization in 2004 averred that
missional churches are “those communities of Christ-followers who see the
church as the people of God who are sent on a mission.”43 The concept of the
priesthood of believers indeed might seem to support this within BMCs’ theol­
ogy, but unfortunately in practice there exists a deviation from this assertion,
because missions are often constructed as the responsibility of a few of the
members in the Missions Department of these churches. The church is supposed

39 A. Brandon, cited in D. Akhazemea, “Missional Implications of Growth of Black Majority

Led Churches in London: A Critical Assessment” (MA Thesis, University of Wales, 2010), 117.
40 M. Frost and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publish­
ers, 2003), 12.
41 Ibid.
4- E. Gibbs and I. Coffey, Church Next: Quantum Changes in Christian Ministry (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 226.
43 Brother Maynard, “Missional Definitions: A Brief Survey,” available at http://subversiveinfl.u-
ence.c0m/2007/08/missi0naL-definiti0ns-a-brief-survey/ (last accessed August 25,2011).
420 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

to be missional, but the general misconception of mission by the members of

these churches in the public space is a major constraint, as a veritable pool of
mission opportunities are not understood and appropriated Few BMCs have
allocated substantial resources to missions. A church that is missionally com­
mitted will see high levels of capital and human resources invested in missions.
The concepts of church planting and church growth may be extended to
imply mission. For example, Daniel Akhazemea, citing Cindi John, suggested
that the increase in church attendance on Sunday in London was due to the
mission efforts of these churches. He bases this suggestion on the assertion
that people of African and Caribbean origin make up 2 percent of the UK’s
population but account for more than two-thirds of Sunday churchgoers in
London and 7 percent of worshipers nationwide.44 Yet, the number of black
ethnic minorities within the historic churches has increased significantly as a
result of migration, not necessarily as a result of gains from conversion.
BMC churches have often been effectively transplanted straight from their
home cultures with little adaptation to British culture. In their early life within
Britain, these transplanted churches provided a safe haven for socially ostra­
cized migrants during the process of acculturation. If these churches are to be
missionally effective within their host culture, however, they will now need to
take cognizance of the prevailing worldview in the British context
According to the Church of England report “Mission Shaped Church,”
“a missionary church seeks to shape itself in relation to the culture in which it
is located or to which it is called. Whenever it is called to be crosscultural then
its long-term members or initial team lay aside their cultural preferences about
church to allow the emergence of a form of church to be shaped by those it is
seeking to reach.”45
BMCs need to be incarnational and responsive to the cultural nuances of the
host communities in order consciously to engage in crosscultural missions,
because acculturation is pivotal to the future of these churches. Jesus presents
a unique model for this approach, as he adjusted to the cultural realities of his
day but was quite emphatic on kingdom principles and denounced any culture
that was antagonistic to the kingdom worldview.
Paul also presented a similar paradigm in his sermon at Athens in Acts 17.
His knowledge of the sociocultural and political dynamics of the Athenians

44 Akhazemea misinterpreted the increase in the average church attendance in London as an

indication of effective missions of BMCs. For further details, see C. John, cited in Akhazemea,
“Missional Implications,” 114.
45 Church of England, “Mission Shaped Church” (2004), available at www.cofe.anglican.org/
info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf (last accessed October 25,2011).
 B. A. Adedibu / Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 421

contributed to his missional effectiveness as he engaged with their worldview

in order to preach the kingdom to his audience. He found common ground in
Stoic teachings with which the Athenians were conversant, but N.T. Wright has
noted that it is “travelling on the slippery slope towards syncretism.”46 Contex-
tualization is expedient, but skillful delineation of boundaries is essential,
because overcontextualization leads to syncretism. It is overcontextualization
that, to a great extent, has caused some of these churches to lose their distinc­
tiveness as Christian churches and become more or less "social clubs.”
The New Testament model of church and missions was not built around
mono-ethnic presuppositions. The New Testament illustrates the concept of
building congregations based on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to bring
about reconciliation to God irrespective of racial or other forms of diversity.
The current trend within most BMCs is in itself not deliberate, but building
congregations around a homogenous grouping is a sociological principle based
on what is cosy and marketable. This seems ironic in view of the pneumacen-
tric theology of empowerment embraced by the BMCs. In as much as I agree
with Akhazemea that some BMCs in the mould of the RCCG have a genuine
missional drive, it is apparent that such an ideal is yet to translate to well-artic­
ulated missional churches that are willing to step out of the homogenous trap­
pings and engage the dynamic British culture.
The missiological deficiencies of some leaders of BMCs in Britain have been
noted. “Research denotes that pastors of BMCs generally derive their sense of
self worth and status from the size of their churches. The pastor of a large and
growing church often becomes a ‘religious celebrity’ with power and influence
in Britain’s shrinking religious sub-culture.”47 There is no doubt about the
celebrity culture that surrounds successful black pastors. This has so much
African cultural resonance that it tends to go unchallenged within the African
culture. This cult-like attitude is likely to militate against an emphasis on
mission:

the senior executives of these churches are not prepared to implement the radical
changes that will facilitate the evangelism of Britain’s diverse ethnic population.
Admittedly, they want the kudos associated with a multi-ethnic congregation but on
their own cultural terms. I can empathise with their predicament. Why risk the security
and status of being a pastor of a large African [and Caribbean] congregation for the
more dangerous and uncertain vocation of pioneering a multi-cultural church? Why
sacrifice success and a very generous wage agreement, for the precarious life of a

46 N.T. Wright, The Radical Evangelical: Seeking a Place to Stand (London: SPCK, 1997), 8.
47 Brandon, cited in Akhazemea, “Missional Implications,” 117.
422 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423

missionary to post-Christian Britain? Christ renounced “success,” “power,” “glory” and

“status” in order to redeem a world.48

BMCs in the last two decades have begun to attract affluent and educated peo­
ple, a departure from the global and British historical antecedents during the
emergence of Pentecostalism. The elimination of clericalism in most BMCs
places a strong emphasis on a universal priesthood of believers, which leads to
mentoring and discipleship as the laity is effectively mobilized into the church’s
life. The subscription of Pentecostals globally to the doctrine of a priesthood of
believers, which eliminates the distinction between the clergy and laity, has
contributed significantly to the growth of black churches in the United King­
dom. It has had a negative impact on their missional agenda, however, and has
contributed significantly to their anti-intellectualism, due to the fact that the
emphasis (until recently) on pneumacentrism has resulted in the avoidance,
by most of these churches, of formal pastoral and missiological training. Dr.
Robert Beckford identifies this as a major factor in the enabling of what he calls
the continued “bewitchment” of blacks through the colonial mission agenda,
and he issues a clarion call for this situation to be rectified.49

Conclusion
African Christianity has its imprint on the global Christian landscape, includ­
ing Britain, as BMCs assert their presence in meeting the social, religious, and
community needs of their members. The sociological distinctiveness of migrant
churches globally seems to be similar as many of the churches in North Amer­
ica and Europe are observed to be meeting the existential needs of the diasporic
populations of Africans. The global missionary trends from the Global South to
the Global North are often influenced by colonial antecedents that have
brought large repositories of African-led churches, with their religious back­
packs, to New York, London, Bonn, and Amsterdam, as expatriates who have a
sense of advocacy for world evangelization.

48 Ibid.
49 R. Beckford, “Challenges of Black Pentecostal Leadership in the 21st Century from Mission
to Maintenance: Resisting the Bewitchment of Colonial Christianity,” paper presented at the
Oliver Lyseight Annual Lecture organized by the Education Department of the New Testament
Church of God, Northampton, UK, March 2009, available at www.ntcg.0rg.uk/educati0n/2009
annuallecture-beckford.stm (last accessed May 6,2011).
 B. A. Adedibu /Pneuma 35 (2013) 405-423 423

The prophetic witness of black or migrant churches has contributed to the

resurgence of Christianity in public discourse in almost all urban cities in
Europe and America. Yet, it is pertinent to surmise that BMCs are but one case
of “reverse mission” — in reality more like “migrant sanctuaries” — all across
the Western world. Although these churches are becoming visible in their edu­
cational and civic responsibilities to their communities, their good deeds have
not translated into multicultural churches.
Britain’s BMCs have not risen to the missionary challenge of the British com­
munity. In order for the churches to live up to their claims to re-evangelize
Britain, there has to be the development of contextual missiological praxis,
definite commitment to raising multicultural churches, leadership develop­
ment, and emphasis on training missionaries in crosscultural ministry.
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