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Church: UK Church: World

The Other Side of the Coin

When I look at the spiritual needs of the UK, I see a need for the spiritually vibrant, expectant Christianity that is more typical of Africa than the UK.

A few days ago, I reviewed the book, The Kingdom of God in Africa. In the final chapter, you can read this quote:

So dominant is the charismatic witness across African Christianity “it would not be wrong to say that although Christian evangelization took place under the auspices of historic mission denominations, Pentecostalism in both its older classical and newer charismatic forms has now taken over as the representative face of Christianity in Africa.”

This rise in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity has had a mixed response amongst conservative Evangelicals in the UK. It seems that some writers and speakers can’t mention African Christianity without immediately decrying the rise of the “prosperity gospel”.

I think that we can all agree that church leaders who extort money from their congregations in return for promises of prosperity or health are a stain on the church – wherever they come from. The Africa church suffers from more than its fair share of these headbangers (to use a formal theological term).

On the other side of the coin, I remember talking to a respected Christian leader in the UK and discussing an outcome that we both thought desirable. “Let’s agree to pray about it, regularly”, I suggested. His response staggered me, “Just because we pray, it doesn’t mean it will happen.”

OK, I know that. I know that God doesn’t answer all of our prayers in an obvious fashion, but I still think we should pray, believing that he can intervene. This is not an isolated example. I have met plenty of leaders in the UK who are doctrinally sound and eminently respected who seem to have no expectation that a supernatural God can break into real-life situations and change them.

From where I’m sitting this is every bit as pernicious as the excesses of the prosperity Gospel preachers.

“Wait a minute”, I hear you say, “attitudes like that are not typical of conservative evangelicalism”. Maybe not. Equally, we should not be so quick to dismiss Christianity across a whole continent with sweeping generalisations about the prosperity Gospel.

Ignoring my own advice and indulging in a little bit of generalising myself, I think the two extremes that I have mentioned above are, to some extent, inevitable outcomes from the cultural milieu that we find ourselves in.

Western Christianity exists in a culture where the notion of the supernatural has been broadly rejected in favour of scientific rationalism. If you can’t see it or count it, it doesn’t exist. In this atmosphere, Christian belief in a supernatural, interventionist God has been eroded. Even if we don’t go to the extremes, our prayers can be tentative and we are often genuinely shocked when God does answer them.

For the most part, Africans don’t live in this post-enlightenment spiritual vacuum. Their world is rich with spirits and angels who have an impact on the lives of men and women. In this environment, it is perfectly reasonable and normal to pray expecting God to intervene on a regular basis. Yes, it can lead to excesses, but it engenders and expectant and trusting faith. In some places, this faith is tested by poverty, corruption and instability; it isn’t just about “good times”.

OK, I’ve simplified things and generalised, you could write a long book on this subject. That being said, I think my observations are fair (as long as you admit that there are exceptions to everything I’ve said).

The thing is, when I look at the spiritual needs of the UK, I see a need for the spiritually vibrant, expectant Christianity that is more typical of Africa than the UK. We all have our weaknesses, but we in the West are more needy than we are willing to admit. If our posture towards the world church is continually one of giving; passing on to them our theological traditions and culture, we will never be in a position to learn. And if we don’t learn, the spiritual future of our nation looks bleak.

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