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December 23, 2004

Church in a multicultural society 1.

The first time I took Ibrahim to church, I realised it was a mistake.

Ibrahim is Fulani, and a Muslim. He is a tailor at the local market, and was one of my first friends in Gorom. As I began to learn the language, I would go and sit with him to drink tea and try out my new phrases. As his friends came and started chatting, I would sit precariously on the wobbly wooden bench by his old foot-powered sewing machine, frowning with concentration as I tried to make out something of the banter.

“Aan ka, a doomuru” suddenly exclaimed one guy, who had been watching me. I understood enough to know he was calling me a mouse, but didn’t know why. He imitated me sitting there silently, head switching side to side, as I followed the different speakers, and everyone cracked up laughing.

As my Fulfulde began to improve, they started to ask me about the way of Jesus, and I struggled to find words to express my faith. They would then reply with Fulfulde proverbs, at which everyone but me nodded with understanding. Or with local Muslim wisdom, which assumed so much cultural background that I had no idea where to begin to respond. The good-humoured discussions rambled on over several months.

So one day, I invited Ibrahim to church. Since there were no Fulani Christians, we went to the Mossi church. The Mossi are the main people group in Burkina, and the church has grown quite dramatically among them. They are a cheerful, colourful and friendly people, and they worship God exhuberantly, with drums, loud praying and singing, and sometimes even dancing. I don’t think they had ever seen a Fulani in church before. Ibrahim walked self-consciously into church in his long Muslim robe, and his turban, with every eye following us as we headed towards the only free spaces, right near the front.

As the service got under way, I began to realise that this was going to be a challenge. Ibrahim didn’t understand either French or Mossi, and no-one was available to translate into Fulfulde. The singing, shouting, and dancing were all so alien to Ibrahim, for whom worship is a solemn affair. Drums for the Fulani are for either worldly celebrations, or “spirit festivals.” It must have been all quite bewildering – nothing he could recognise as worship or prayer, nothing he could hear as good news, nothing he could relate to culturally, but rather an emotional and noisy Mossi jamboree. They were worshipping God well enough, but for a Fulani, it was just confusing.

I did my best to explain what was going on, and Ibrahim looked around, without judging, but without illumination. He spotted the guy from the post-office, a guy who Ibrahim respects as honest and upright. But after the service no-one came to talk to him. The Mossi Christians felt uncomfortable. They didn’t speak Ibrahim’s language, and wouldn’t know what to say to him anyway.

During the following weeks, Ibrahim’s friends criticised him, and made fun of him for going to church – did he want to become a Mossi? And for a while, he backed off. But he has remained a good friend. We have continued to talk about faith and the way of God. But I haven’t taken him back to the church. We have continued to chat at his sewing machine, or at one of our homes. But I realise that taking him to church was not going to help him spiritually, even if God was in the house. Other ways of introducing him and his friends to Jesus and his family would have to be considered.

Coming back to Britain, I see the situation is not so different. We also live in a multi-cultural society. And the culture of our church meetings is often completely foreign to those living around where we live. Britain today seems a much more spiritually open place than 15 years ago. But our church meetings are maybe not always the place where street youth, clubbers, refugees, or post-modern intellectuals will meet Jesus in a way they can relate to. Maybe they are not always places where everyone finds the expression of spirituality and community that their own hearts respond to. We may be worshipping God well enough, but it can leave others feeling like an outsider at someone else’s party.

We too need to think about how we should be church in a way that focuses not only on our own worship, but also on mission so that others can meet and celebrate God, find the blessing of his kingdom, and become part of his family, without necessarily having to become exactly like us.

Part two is here

Tags: burkina faso africa emerging church burkina church fulani mission church and culture

Posted by Keith at December 23, 2004 09:04 AM