“For Such a Time as This!”: Public Missiology in Anxious Times
Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven
Sint-Jansbergsesteenweg 97 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Design
Left Lane
Photo cover Shutterstock
Photograph Joseph Bosco Bangura ETF Leuven
ISBN 9789463961233 www.etf.edu
“FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!”:
PUBLIC MISSIOLOGY IN ANXIOUS TIMES
Joseph Bosco Bangura
Presented as the opening lecture at the official opening of the 2025-2026 academic year
Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven September 22, 2025
“For
About the Author
Joseph Bosco Bangura holds a double PhD from the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven (Belgium) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands). He serves as Guest Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Missiology and holder of the Chair ‘Missiology for the Church Today and Tomorrow’ at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit Leuven, Belgium. He is also Assistant Professor of Missiology & Intercultural Theology at the Protestant Theological University, Utrecht, the Netherlands. He is author, most recently, of African Pentecostalism in Catholic Belgium: Interculturality, Plurality, and Dialogue in Flanders (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Abstract
Even though the nascent sub-field of public missiology continues to attract scholarly attention, little research has explored what implications this emerging sub-discipline brings to the nexus of church life for minority Protestant-Evangelicalism in a secular and liberal (Flanders) Belgium. To respond to this impasse, this essay will be structured using a tri-cord analytical argumentation cluster: first , it will examine the background factors, definition and current trajectories of public missiology drawing on the most insightful sources shaping the field. Second , it will discuss Belgium’s policy of liberal neutrality in tandem with the state’s recognition of religions in order to identify the challenges that affect the public missional relevance of the Protestant-Evangelical minority in Flemish Belgium. Third , the essay will assess how, although Afro-Pentecostal Christianity is a recent missionary arrival, it can tap into the state’s recognition to contribute to ProtestantEvangelical minority’s public missiology suited for a secular, liberal and postCatholic Belgium. The paper concludes by reflecting on how the phrase “for such a time as this,” invites western theological institutions to initiate mission practices with collaboration, anticipation and attractiveness.
1. Introduction
Opening salutation : Esteemed Rector, esteemed members of the Governing Board, esteemed dean, respected faculty members, distinguished guests, dear students, ladies and gentlemen,
On the 3rd of September 2013, exactly twelve years ago, I stood on this same podium, with this same gown, and with profuse sweat pouring underneath this great gown, to defend the academic merit and intellectual plausibility of the arguments that I had conceptualized in my doctoral dissertation. Little did I know then that twelve years later, I will again stand right here to deliver a lecture at the opening of the academic year which reflects on the status of the crisis which the academic discipline of missiology I had so carefully studied here at ETF Leuven had been thrown into.
And as I stand on this podium, the crisis of the Christian practice of mission and the academic discipline of missiology has deepened at the same time as global events continue to mutate, with troubling consequences, around us. And despite being premised on justified criticisms against the limitations of older missionary approaches, it is still surprising that the concept of mission has now become a controversial term. This is due in part to both the merger between western enlightenment, colonial expansion and imperialism and the recent calls to replace missiology with intercultural theology that have gained currency in Europe. Even the sense in which the term missionary was once understood could no longer be taken for granted. At the same time, however, the Christian practice of mission that theologically traces its origin in the triune God remains a central concept within Christianity. Christian communities around the world continue to see themselves as part of the missional communities that have been commissioned to bring the Good News to all of creation at this anxious season and time.
A brief look at the society around us will clearly indicate that we have seen much more difficult social changes even if some are constrained to argue that such changes have always existed. Among others, our postmodern society continues to witness tangled chains of complexities and uncertainties which are expressed in the rise of populism and its polarizing political rhetoric. We continue to face geopolitical power shifts that have pulled the rug under the world order as we have known it, worryingly exacerbating conspiracy theories about a world order that is in decline. The personal fortunes of many in the world’s most developed economies continue to be hampered by a protracted cost-of-living crisis that has resulted to global anger from all sections of the citizenry.
Amid such global changes, the mission theologies that once sustained missiology and motivated the missionary movement are now facing severe challenges. Timothy Tennent for instance posits that “contemporary missions and missiological reflection [….] in the west are facing serious crisis […].”1 Such grim assessments have meant that many observers would perceive the Christian practice of mission as a half-empty glass because under such circumstances they believe that the practise of mission will soon run out, if it had not already done so. Nevertheless, while some might wish to pivot away from perceiving mission as a glass that is half full, I take exception from this view because changing times, no matter how anxious and disruptive they are, cannot nullify the necessity of the Christian practice of mission. I say so because while reflecting on the horrors that were visited on humanity by the Second World War, C. S. Lewis writes:
The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun.2
1 Tennent, Invitation to World Missions,17–18.
2 Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” 26–38.
It is with this encouragement that I approach the public task of missiology for such a time as this. The recent development of “Public Missiology” calls on the (global) church to “keep one sharp eye on the always-changing public contexts into which the church is sent in mission. The other is set upon observing how the unchanging light of Jesus Christ penetrates the darkness.”3 While the initial impetus that triggered the term’s conceptual formulation was to respond to a secularizing North American religious and sociocultural context,4 the need to publicly announce the gospel so that its salvific message can boldly speak to the changing socioeconomic and cultural realities of public life has not changed. This is because the gospel is always intended to be shared as Good News. When shared in the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel is able to address the diversified needs of a skeptical, disinterested, or exhausted public whose acquiescing to secularizing worldviews has contributed to marginalizing the Christian religion from the public sphere. 5 In the secular (and some would argue post-Catholic) Flemish Belgium, the Protestant-Evangelical minority understands that there is an urgent need to find new ways of announcing the Christian gospel to audiences that are skeptical of the Christian faith and are seeking alternative forms of (secular) spirituality and meaning making outside traditional religious frameworks.6
To respond to the impasse created by the changes unfolding before our eyes, the core argumentation of this essay will be structured using a tri-cord analytical cluster: first , it will examine the background factors, definition and current trajectories of public missiology drawing on the most insightful sources shaping the field.7 Second , it will discuss Belgium’s policy of liberal neutrality in tandem with the state’s recognition of religions in other to identify the challenges that affect the public missional relevance of the ProtestantEvangelical minority in Flemish Belgium.8 Third , the essay will assess how,
3 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 269.
4 Kim, “Mission’s Public Engagement,” 7–24.
5 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 25.
6 Prins, “When Cold War and State Reform meet the Church,” 253 – 274.
7 Leffel, et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 268–281; Kim, “Mission’s Public Engagement,” 7–24; Heaney, “Public Theology and Public Missiology,”. 201–212.
8 Lorein, “Religion Never Stands Above the Law,” 11–20; Creemers, “We All Share the Same Values, Right?” 137–150; Franken and Loobuyck, “Is Active State Support for Religions and Worldviews Compitable with the Liberal Idea of State Neutrality,” 478–497.
although Afro-Pentecostal Christianity is a recent missionary arrival, it can tap into the state’s recognition to contribute to Protestant-Evangelical minority’s public missiology suited for a secular, liberal and post-Catholic Belgium.9 The paper will conclude by returning to the phrase “for such a time as this,” to argue that western theological institutions that exist to equip the church and society in all times must rise to the occasion to facilitate Christian engagement in forms of public missiology that: (a) are open to purposeful collaboration; (b) can anticipate missional opportunities; (c) and can attract people to the Christian gospel.
9 Dheedene, Moving Heaven and Earth, 30–40; Beeckmans, “Mediating (In)visibility and Publicity,” 180–196; Maskens, “Mobility among Pentecostal Pastors,” 397–409. “For
2. Public Missiology: Origin, Definition and Trajectories
2.1 On the Origin of Public Missiology
Every once and again, new theological developments emerge that offer new insights to a discipline because it is believed that existing paradigms within that discipline have worn thin. When this happens, the new insights contribute to reforming and/or expanding past or current intellectual domains embedded in a failing discipline that is no longer fit for purpose. Public missiology is certainly one of those emerging new insights that both arouse interest and illuminate an academic field that is facing never seen challenges to its very existence. But what are the factors that prompted the development of public missiology? What ongoing prospects does this new sub-field bring to the academic discipline of missiology and Christian practice of mission? How can the North American Christian context in which this subfield originates help other Christian contexts around the world to harness its missiological insights? And lastly, how can non-North American contexts appropriate its insights to initiate new missionary engagements which are helpful as the minority Protestant-Evangelical religion seeks to (re)announce the unchanging gospel in an ever-changing public sphere in Belgium? It is to these questions I now turn the attention of this essay.
Between 2005 and 2013, the American Society of Missiology (ASM) had convened several conferences that discussed the public place of the Christian practice of mission in the always-changing public contexts of our times. While those initial conferences did stir interest in the direction of publicly reframing the missionary calling of the church in a changing context, the idea to reflect on what came to be known as public missiology was to wait a bit longer. Things changed when between 2014 and 2015 special panels of the ASM’s annual conference took it upon themselves to explore further what concerns this nascent field was set to address and how this might help missiology to keep up with the changes taking place in the public sphere of postmodern
societies in the secular west. 10 These panels inspired the ASM to convene its 2016 annual meeting around the theme of “Missiology and Public Life: Mission’s Constructive Engagement with Societies, Change and Conflict.”11 The panel of ASM scholars who instigated and continue to support the development of this new sub-field argue that their “proposal does not seek to diminish the missiological traditions of proclamation of the Gospel, reliance on Scripture, and witness, but rather seeks to add reflection on how these traditions can function in the contemporary public spheres.”12 Public missiology is committed to applying the Christian gospel to the existing circumstances of a changing social context.
The concerns that public missiology seeks to address are not necessarily new. Nevertheless, to draw clear lines of continuity between previous global ecclesial, theological, and missiological developments with current social realities, the convenors of the ASM panels cited three major historical developments that alerted practitioners to how current changing contexts prompt public missiology. Beginning with the 1952 world order to which the International Missionary Council (IMC) meeting was held at Willingen, Germany, they posit that Christian mission as it had been practiced in the heydays of colonial imperialism had to respond to a revolutionary post-war world where China was not only lost, but there were also new postcolonial realities that provided competing cold war ideologies, cultural nationalism, racial discrimination and widespread poverty.13 Certainly, the power that western missionary Christianity had exerted on the rest of the world was waning. In response, IMC proposed the mission theology concept now known as Missio Dei as a new impetus that helps the churches realize that they have been invited to participate with God to fulfil God’s mission in and for the world. Shortly thereafter, the Second Vatican Council nudged the Roman Catholic Church towards embracing a fresh missional engagement with modernity.
10 The group that convened the ASM panels and has spearheaded the development of public missiology are Gregory P. Leffel, Charles J. Fensham, George R. Hunsberger, Robert A. Hunt, William N. Kenney, Gregg A. Okesson, and Hendrik R. Pieterse.
11 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 270.
12 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 271.
13 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 271.
To this they add that between 1968 and 1974, both the World Council of Churches and Lausanne Movement were confronted with young theologies of emerging Christian centers in the Global South and the criticism that missiology and mission practitioners were not taking serious note of the sociocultural issues in places where the gospel continues to spread around the globe. This sociocultural reckoning resulted in an opening within theology to accept new insights such as liberation theologies. In doing so, theology not only “sharpened mission’s ethical vision for peace, justice, and the integrity of creation,” but it also led to a recognition of the fact that people groups are best served if mission practices are seen as an attempt to bring transformation that works to reform the oppressive structures on which human society is founded.14
By 1989, the world was not only confronted with the end of communism when the Berlin wall fell, globalization, neoliberalism and multiculturalism also rose to challenge the colonial domination of mission. Even though none of these historical epochs were Christian in and of themselves, the discipline of missiology and missionary practices of the church were affected by the unsettling social developments they created and the ruptures they brought to the secular public order that has guided human civilization up to that point in history. Missiology responded to this challenge by reframing the unchanging message of the Christian gospel so that this message can better address the fragility of human life ignited by these events. Through this reframing, the interventions of public missiology sought to address the growing human needs which were suddenly caught up in the peevish mesh of the everchanging contexts of the globalized world.
2.2 Defining Public Missiology
If public missiology is to keep one eye on the ever-changing public contexts and another on how the unchanging light of Jesus Christ can penetrate this changing context, how can public missiology be defined? This question is important because missiology’s scholarly respectability is currently challenged in western academia which sees both the academic concept of missiology
14 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 271.
and the Christian practice of mission as representing worn-out words that “no longer adequately describe or cover the reality they denote.” 15 This was not helped by the fact that missiology often responded to such criticisms by arguing that it must be seen as a discipline that cannot be reduced to a single and definable disciplinary characteristic.16 Mindful of those limitations, the architects of public missiology were compelled to offer a definition of the discipline using four identifiable markers. For them, public missiology represents “(i) a novel (alternative) conceptual framework for missiological research; (ii) a framework crafted to address the contemporary emergence of a new world-historical era; (iii) a framework that takes the public […] and by extension emerging public orders as its object of analysis; (iv) the result of which may lead to new and more effective missional practices to engage emerging public orders in a new historical situation.”17
As condensed as it is, Sebastian Kim has suggested that this definition of public missiology is intended to “deal with the changing contexts of secularism, multireligious contexts, globalization and political conflicts.” In exercise of its mandate, Kim adds that public missiology perceives the scope of mission as one that is “not limited to the religious and spiritual realm but deals with all realms of public life, including socioeconomic and cultural life of individuals, communities, and nations.”18 This missiological ability to reengage the changing public sphere with the unchanging message of the gospel particularly in western nations is not without difficulties. This was because it had to address the problem of an enlightenment project that had not only divided reality into public and private realms but had also pushed religion including Christianity out of the public sphere. Gregg Okesson’s assessment captures just how disruptive this binary chasm has been for the church. He writes:
As the secular realm became synonymous with all things public, the sacred diminished in scope and at times retreated into the
15 Blaser, “Should we stop using the term ‘Mission’?”, 68.
16 Cf. Walls, “Mission as Vocation,” 230; Guder, “Theological Formation for Missional Practice,” 311.
17 Leffel et al., “What We Mean by Public Missiology,” 271.
18 Kim, “Mission’s Public Engagement,” 16. “For
safety of private ghettos. Christians of various strips reinforced this divide by interpreting the public realm as synonymous with sin and corruption, and the private realm (erroneously associated with the church) as associated with salvation and purity. This binary cartography continues to haunt us.19
2.3 Trajectories of Public Missiology
From exploring public missiology’s historical context, it became clear to me that the church, at least in the secular and increasingly pluralist west, had embraced enlightenment thinking and retreated into the safety of the private sphere, even though traces of past Christian influence are still visible in society. Here, history indicates that theology was extracted from the public realm. Missiology, which emerged as a discipline that inspired the evangelistic goals of Christianity, was divorced from theology. And while the church made a muted attempt to understand the public realm, the form of witness it used was unable to respond appropriately to the changes in the public sphere. As those inactions took root in the church, individualized problem-solving techniques premised on technological developments within society were given as the answer to the complex social problems Christians were experiencing.20 Such a scenario in which missiology was thrust meant that western society badly needed a new missiology, a ‘public missiology’, that would be competent enough to address three crucial trajectories.
First, public missiology must deal with the diversity, plurality, and secularization constitutive of western society. Public missiology recognizes that western societies have not only secularized, but public society itself has become increasingly diverse as those who share this space have embraced a plurality of traditions, religious and secular beliefs. In this pluralist context, notions of identity, belonging, and common heritage are used to distinguish between insiders and outsiders. And it is to this secular, pluralist and liberal context that the church is sent on mission. Here, Robert Heaney, the Anglican public missiologist warns that while carrying out their mandate, Christian
19 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 25.
20 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 25–37.
missionaries must be aware that “in the public space many truth claims are made and many religions witness to the divine.”21
Second, public missiology must seek to respond to the power configurations that continue to regulate liberal and secular western societies. As societies change, power configurations change along with it. But for too long, the church has seen power as a “dirty, noxious, and somewhat sordid thing.” And it is this perception of power, as Gregg Okesson has noted, that has caused the church to hesitate to witness to the power configurations that control public institutions. However, despite the unintended consequences that such perspectives did create for the church, Gregg Okesson helpfully calls on the church to continue witnessing to public institutions and to do so in ways that challenge how those institutions have related to and used power.22
Third, public missiology must be concerned about bringing transformation to those societies where the church is sent on mission. After proposing that there are clear similarities between public theology, liberation theologies and public missiology, Sebastian Kim argues that public missiology would do well if it continues to work within existing social systems no matter how complex they are to share the Christian message of salvation and bring transformation to individuals and society through word and deed.23 In this way, public missiology differs from public theology in that it emphasizes witnessing in challenging circumstances so that the Gospel can change people and then society, rather than aiming to change society per se. Such a transformation would require that the mission theologies that public missiology has adopted must take steps to free the church from the chasm of public/private and secular/spiritual concerns it has always sought to address. Using the systematic theology concepts of God, salvation, church and eschatology,
21 Heaney, “Public Theology and Public Missiology,” 202.
22 Okesson, “Christian Witness to Institutions,” 142–154.
23 Public Missiology is often erroneously seen as a sub-set of Public Theology. While there are good reasons to make this connection because both tend to address God’s creation or the public sphere, however, there are clear differences between the two. Speaking about those differences, Sebastian Kim notes that they both seek to bring “transformation of society—through advocacy and open debate (public theology) or through words and deeds (missiology); the pursuit of the common good (public theology) or dialogue with openness and respect (missiology); and critical engagement of theology in the public or “public missiology.” See, Kim, “Mission’s Public Engagement,” 12–14.
Gregg Okesson writes that western theology must ask critical questions, among which include, “How does the doctrine of God provide resources for encountering injustices in the world?”24
24 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 25.
3. Protestant-Evangelicals and the Challenge of Public Relevance
When the Kingdom of Belgium was founded in 1830, the new state adopted a liberal constitution which provided many guarantees to citizens, including the right to freedom of religion. While the religious freedoms envisaged by the new state initially had Catholicism as its primary target, yet for political reasons, other religious communities also received de facto recognition along with Roman Catholicism.25 In Article 19, the current Belgian Constitution explicitly guarantees citizens’ choice and freedom to practice religion, providing that the secular state would have no exclusive relation to any one religion. While secular state authorities and their religious counterparts are restrained by Article 21 of the Constitution from interfering in the activities of each other, the state actively supports religious and philosophical communities who meet certain requirements for state recognition (cf. art. 181 Constitution). This relationship between the state and religion makes Belgium one particular example in western Europe where “there is no absolute separation of church and state in Belgium, but rather a more complex relationship between civil authorities and recognized religions.”26 Currently, Belgium has eight officially recognized religions and philosophies of life. 27 Apart from the fact that it normally takes several years for a religion or
25 Temmerman, “The Paradox of Religious Populism: The Curious Case of Belgium,” 2.
26 Lorein, “Religion Never Stands Above the Law,” 11.
27 These include Roman Catholicism (1830), Judaism (1830), Anglicanism (1870), ProtestantEvangelicalism (1830), Islam (1974), Orthodoxy (1985), Liberal-Humanism (2002), and Buddhism (2023). The responsibility to recognize religions and secular humanism lies with Belgium’s federal ministry of justice which has set five formal criteria for recognition: (i) Having enough followers (several tens of thousands); (ii) Being structured (which among others means that there is a representative body that represents the religion to state authorities); (iii) Having existed in the country long enough (several decades); (iv) Being of social interest; (v) Not developing any activity that might go against the social order. However, given that these requirements are not in the constitution, they have been criticized most recently by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in its 2022 ruling on Belgium. See, Creemers, “We all share the same values, right?”, 143; Franken, “State Support for Religion in Belgium,” 67; Franken and Loobuyck, “Is Active State Support for Religions and Worldviews Compatible with the Liberal Idea of State Neutrality?”, 484.
secular philosophy to gain recognition from the federal ministry of justice and to eventually receive financial subventions from the Belgian state, the federal requirement emphasizing that recognized religions must have a singleheaded representative body has come under criticism by legal experts because it appear to depend purely on the discriminatory decisions of the legislature.28 Similarly, the whole basis is further criticized for lacking direct participatory consent or approval of citizens through a popular vote.29 Nevertheless, as a recognized religion in Belgium, the Protestant-Evangelical minority religion currently comprises of “an estimated 2% to 3% of the population.”30 Although comparatively small, the Protestant-Evangelical minority is theologically diverse, encompassing indigenous Protestant and Evangelical Free Churches along with recently arrived Afro-Pentecostal Christian communities. This minority religious constituency faces certain challenges that are impeding its ability to exert a missional influence on the public sphere. Four of these challenging issues are explored below to disentangle the impediments they post to the Protestant-Minority religion.
3.1 Theological and Political Concerns
Theological diversity is a consistent feature of the Protestant–Evangelical minority religion. This incredibly diverse segment comprises a wide variety of Christian confessions including, Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, Evangelical Free Churches, Pentecostals and Mennonites, with each expressly committed to their distinctive doctrines. For instance, Belgian ProtestantsEvangelicals exhibit theological polarization where one section which is said to embrace “Biblical/orthodox” beliefs is pitched against the other part which is said to embrace “ecumenical/liberal” beliefs.31 Further, because Protestantism was almost obliterated in Belgium,32 when Protestants were finally allowed to return, the reconstituted churches bore the theological imprints of missionary
28 Adriaan Overbeeke cited in Creemers, “We all share the same values, right?”, 143–144.
29 Franken, “State Support for Religion in Belgium,” 68–70.
30 Prins, “When Cold War and State Reform meet the Church,” 253.
31 Creemers, “All Together in One Synod?”, 279.
32 Dheedene, Moving Heaven and Earth, 38.
organizations from abroad which founded them. The effect was that while minority Protestants-Evangelicals had to make concessional agreements for a single body to represent their overall ecclesial interests to the secular state authorities, theological differences continue to be held that hamper internal collaboration. This is most visible in the theological differences they hold in relation to contentious issues such as salvation, evangelism, biblical authority and ethical morality standards. For this reason, the social and political philosopher Leni Franken writes that even though:
several Protestant communities united in the Administrative Assembly of the Protestant Evangelical Religion, but as a result of internal differences, this unification did not go smoothly. In addition, some Protestant communities still refuse to belong to this union and are thus not recognized by the Belgian state.33
In relation to the current political difficulties, Geert Lorein who once served as co-president of the Administrative Council of Protestant and Evangelical Religion (ARPEE) in Belgium observes that the representatives of religious groups in Belgium have often been asked to approve statements like “religion never stands above the law.”34 Explaining further, Lorein cites an instance where “according to two members of the Belgian Federal Parliament, it is the task of the government to protect its public services and its citizens against the religious claims to interference in the public space.” 35 Lorein’s assessment expresses a legitimate concern faced by churches connected with the Protestant-Evangelical minority religion. This is because, by specifying religion as a legitimate sight on which the state can exert federal reform, rather than secular humanism which is an equally recognized philosophy of life in Belgium, these efforts by state functionaries’ conflict federal law that restricts interference from both religion and secular state authorities (cf. Art. 21 Constitution). Similarly, Jelle Creemers raises a related concern when he observes that although secular states typically aim to serve their citizens within an axial framework which emphasises values such as democracy,
33 Franken, “State Support for Religion in Belgium,” 68–70.
34 Lorein, “Religion Never Stands Above the Law,” 11.
35 Lorein, “Religion Never Stands Above the Law,” 13–14.
equality and liberty, yet some of the actions of the state may legitimately intrude this fundamental right it seeks to guarantee. Creemers expanded this argument by adding that:
the current Belgian management of religion progressively tends to instrumentalise faith communities, and particularly those of minority religions, with the intent of promoting values dear to the state. Hereby, the proper distance between religion and state so dear to the secular assumption is disrespected, as are the particularities of the respective religions.36
Consequently, while the minority Protestant-Evangelical religion appreciates the recognition it has received from the Belgian state, it still struggles to appropriately respond to the internal theological differences within its own camp as well as the increasing attempts by secular civil authorities to subsume religion under the law. And it is this complexifying context that challenges Belgium’s policy of liberal neutrality.
3.2 Mission and the Colonialism Legacy
The relationship of Christian mission to colonial imperialism has been a vexing question in missiology. The perceived compliancy of western missionary Christianity that allowed colonial domination to thrive in such a way that it profited off the necks of enslaved black African people has remained a damaging arbiter undermining Christian missions. Mission historiography has had to put up with scathing criticisms because western missionary Christianity was either an accomplice to or complacent in the west’s colonial domination of Africa and its peoples. Such is the angst directed against the practice of Christian mission that Klauspeter Blaser writes that the most radical critics would perceive mission as something that conjures up all sorts of atrocities and enormities committed in the name of Christianity. At worst, it stands for destruction: genocide, contempt for and liquidation of cultures, political
36 Creemers, “We all share the same values, right?”, 150.
oppression and economic exploitation, and all this in the name of religion.37
Whereas Belgium is a relatively young west European nation which came into existence in 1830, yet its colonial history in the heart of Africa leaves much to be desired. The 1884–85 Berlin conference which had partitioned Africa among the European powers, had given “The Congo Free State” (CFS) to King Leopold II of Belgium as his personal property. Responding to the offer, Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick write that
Leopold thought that this magnificent land might increase Belgium’s leverage and his prestige. Through this colony, he would unite his tiny nation, divided between Catholics and secularists, haves and have-nots, and speakers of French and Flemish.”38
Leopold’s expressed intention which proposes to use the CFS colony39 to unite his tiny country and through it mediate a modest increase in Belgium’s international leverage, set in motion a process of colonization which was characterized by: (a) barbaric savagery committed against the native Congolese people; (b) promotion of Congo at expositions in Belgium and abroad; (c) the drafting of the Roman Catholic Church to support the colonial project the king had initiated; and (d) the involvement of English and American Protestants in the CFS to increase Leopold’s leverage in Europe.
In relation to the barbaric savagery committed against native Congolese Africans during Belgium’s colonialization, Leopold’s imperial project included a litany of contracts signed with private shareholders and cooperations outside Belgium as well as wealthy entrepreneurs inside Belgium. This essentially commercialized the Congo colony where “Leopold discounted the interests of
37 Blaser, “Should we stop using the term ‘Mission’?”, 68.
38 Gerard and Kuklick, Death in the Congo, 6.
39 “While this coolly was called “The Congo Free State,” the nation took the name the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at independence. While the post-independence period saw a renaming of the country to Zaire, the country has reverted to its independence name, DRC.
the Africans and ran the immense area to guarantee revenue for investors.”40 The king was initially portrayed as a selfless friend of Africans, but because Leopold had conceived the Congo as a colony built on a business model that would yield profit for his tiny Belgian state, “he used his reputation to mastermind a particularly brutal regime in the Congo.”41 To ensure that the system worked, indigenous African dissent was repressed with a heavy handedness never before seen. Vincent Viaene writes that “the wide variety of atrocities perpetrated in this non-system were summed up in the powerful image of severed hands.”42 Although it took long, European governments and the United States finally condemned the atrocities committed in the Congo and called for reform of the colonial project in that huge part of Africa. The combined pressure led to Leopold ceding control of the Congo to the Belgian state.43
But while the atrocities committed in the Congo were ongoing, the Belgian ministry of the colonies was intent on painting a different picture of a progressive and prosperous colony. The ministry of the colonies did this by organizing five carefully choreographed expositions between 1909 to 1960. Those exhibitions were notorious for painting an alternative reality which had provided the Belgian public with depictions that “contrasted Congolese disorder and backwardness with Belgian order and development and denied the value of indigenous culture while exalting European civilization.”44 Those expositions were designed to rally public support behind the colonial project, inspire young Belgians to commit to joining the colonial work force, and to cement the stature of Leopold II as Belgium’s most decorated humanitarian and philanthropic monarch.
This leads to the inclusion of the Catholic church in Belgium’s colonialization of the Congo. Vincent Viaene writes that “as a Catholic King, inviting Belgian Catholic missionaries to work in the Congo was the obvious thing for Leopold,
40 Gerard and Kuklick, Death in the Congo, 6.
41 Pereira, “The Catholic Church and the Early Stages of Leopold II’s Colonial Projects,” 83.
42 Viaene, “Internationalism, Religion and the Congo Question,” 57.
43 Pereira, “The Catholic Church and the Early Stages of Leopold II’s Colonial Projects,” 83.
44 Stanard, Selling the Congo, 50.
and he did so repeatedly after 1876.”45 Once the Catholic Church agreed to carry out missionary work alongside the colonization of Congo, the Belgian state funded all early missionary activities that were coordinated from the Belgian city of Namur. While the activities of the Catholic missionaries were frequently displayed in pavilions set up at state exhibitions,46 the 1905 publication of a devasting report about the atrocities committed in the Congo colony47 finally led to the Catholic Church raising a voice of protest opposing the atrocities that the Leopold colonization regime had committed. However, because “the missionaries defended the Leopoldian regime for such a long time,”48 many believed that this criticism did little to recalibrate the smeared missionary position of the Catholic Church in Belgium.
Finally, Leopold also courted English and American Protestants to establish missionary work in the CFS, such as the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS). This was the result of Leopold’s commissioning of “the famous Welsh American explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904), under the banner of the International Association of the Congo (IAC), to establish treaties with local leaders and commercial outposts in the Congo.”49 Aiming to convince fellow European powers of his desire to open the heart of Africa to civilization and Christianity and thereby facilitate religious freedom, Leopold welcomed Protestant missionaries to the CFS with promises of generous concessions.50 Nevertheless, the reality that Protestant missionaries found at the CFS was very different from what the king had promised. The BMS Missionaries not only had to contend with opposition from Catholic Jesuit missionaries whose work was directly financed by the Belgian state, they also had to unilaterally implement educational and medical programs in the CFS without Belgian colonial financial support. This meant that Protestant missionaries were more vocal in their opposition against the abuses of the Leopold colonial project and the restrictions they experienced in exercising their missionary activities
45 Viaene, “Internationalism, Religion and the Congo Question,” 43.
46 Stanard, Selling the Congo, 60.
47 Viaene, “Internationalism, Religion and the Congo Question,” 60.
48 Pereira, “The Catholic Church and the Early Stages of Leopold II’s Colonial Projects,” 103.
49 Murhula, “Jesuit–Protestant Encounter in Colonial Congo,” 196.
50 Reardon, “Catholics and Protestants in the Congo,” 85; Au, “Medical Orders: Catholic and Protestant Missionary Medicine in the Belgian Congo,” 68.
even though they were there on the official invitation of the king. Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula adds that whereas “the Jesuits preached obedience to the civil authority, the Protestants took it upon themselves to promote freedom of religion and to protect the natives against the abuses of the state in the “Red Rubber” scandal.”51 Thus, a level of ambivalence could be detected in the Catholic reports that were circulated in Belgium through the expositions and those sent by BMS missionaries to their home countries. This was because while the Catholic Jesuit missionaries had submitted glorious reports celebrating the successes of Leopold’s colonialization project, the BMS missionaries had submitted scathing rebuke against both the legal restrictions imposed on the activities of Protestant missionaries and maltreatment of native Congolese they were supposed to serve.52
Consequently, if it took long for the Catholic church to oppose the atrocities committed by the Belgian state in the name of promoting Christian civilization in the CFS, then the church has soiled its reputation and undermined its witness of the gospel. Thus, these legitimate concerns constitute a moral deficit weakening the missionary intuitions of Belgian (Catholic) Christianity and its desire to contribute a Christian missional perspective on public life.
3.3 Emergence of Populism and Polarization 53
Belgium, like the rest of Europe, has seen the rise of populism. Defined as “a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic camps, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite,’ and which argues that politics be an expression of the volonté générale of the people,”54 populism has attracted interest from a wide spectrum of the citizenry. Marcia Pally notes that “populist binaries may propose a ‘them’ of government/elites (often called political populism) or of suspect (civilizational populism). They may draw from the political right (‘we, the real people’ against an outside ‘them’) or from the left (‘we, the real workers’
51 Murhula, “Jesuit–Protestant Encounter in Colonial Congo,” 207.
52 Akilimali, “The Making of the Land Heritage of Religious Missions,” 2.
53 See, Pally, “White Evangelicals and American Right-Wing Populism,” 31–53.
54 Mudde and Kaltwasser, “Populism and (Liberal) Democracy: A Framework for Analysis,” 8.
against the corrupt rich)” (Pally 2020: 393–414). 55 To this Takis Pappas adds that populism conceptualizes “a way of understanding and responding to economic, status loss, and way-of life duresses (present or anticipated) that finds solution in us-them binaries (strong or soft) that draw in mediated ways from specific historico-cultural notions of society (who’s “us,” who’s “them”) and government (its proper size and role) — for instance, a “them” of Mexican migrants in the U.S. and of the Roma in central Europe” (Pappas 2016).56 Efe Peker takes up this binary thinking to argue that in this milieu populism uses “a highly moralizing anti-elite ideational construct resting on a vertical juxtaposition between a virtuous and homogenous ‘people’ on the bottom and a corrupt and self-serving ‘elite’ on the top.”57 Building further on this suffering masses and disinterested political elite context, Emilie van Haute who researched the Belgian case has shown that the popularity of right-wing populism in Flemish Belgium appears to rest on “a younger, more male voter group with lower levels of education and a protest component, and displaying lower levels of trust and satisfaction with the government, but also higher levels of anger.”58 These characteristics indicate that populist parties actively prey on the fears and longings of citizens for alternative forms of governance which are better suited to deal with their felt needs in economically anxious times.
As developments within western Europe indicate, the segment of the population who advocate for (right-wing) populism often do so by deliberately using Christian narratives to define Europe’s Christian identity that is about to be eroded. Because the rhetoric which propels populism often appeals to a moral form of politics and claims that it is only populist parties that truly represent the interests of ordinary citizens, they are easily drawn into using rhetoric that is pitched against what they perceive are threats coming from the aggressive foreign invasion of migrants to Christian Europe, particularly those who embrace beliefs related to the Islamic faith. It is especially
55 Pally, “Why is Populism Persuasive,” 393–414.
56 See: Pappas, “Modern Populism.”
57 Peker, “Finding Religion: Immigration and the Populist (Re)Discovery of Christian Heritage,” 3 of 20.
58 van Haute, “Populist Radical Parties in Belgium,” 60.
noteworthy that Europe’s right-wing populist parties are using Europe’s Christian identity to garner support from distraught citizens who feel that their needs have not been adequately addressed by mainstream and elitist parties. Because of widespread social disaffection, populism is stoking antiimmigrant sentiments using religious language even where religious beliefs, Christian practice and religion’s public influence are particularly low among Europe’s secularized citizens.59 Oliver Roy, referencing Marine Le Pen’s Front National party in France notes that “religion matters first and foremost as a marker of identity, enabling them to distinguish between the good ‘us’ and the ‘bad’ them.”60 When such views are shared with fellow citizens who hold similar anti-immigrant and anti-establishment beliefs, populist tend to focus on amplifying “the competing civilization norms and values, which coalesce around individualistic, liberal values on the one hand, and collective, conservative values, on the other.”61
In Belgium, the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party has clearly positioned itself as the party that seeks to address the most salient issues affecting Flemish voters. The issues the party promotes include radical views on “migration, law and order (including terrorism), but also lifestyle and religion.”62 Harnessing the power of social media, such views have allowed Vlaams Belang to entrench its position on the far-right axis of politics in Flanders. But it must be noted that right-wing populism has found it easier to thrive in “Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking part) than in Wallonia (the southern, Frenchspeaking part).”63 However, even though Flanders was home to one of the strongest and earliest manifestations of far-right parties in post-war Europe,64 it took the 2019 elections to cement the rise and electoral success of populist radical-right parties especially in the Flemish north of Belgium. This pattern was repeated in the 2024 election cycle when Belgium organized three-tire
59 Peker, “Finding Religion: Immigration and the Populist (Re)Discovery of Christian Heritage.”
60 Roy, “The French National Front: from Christian identity to Laïcité,” 79.
61 Haynes, “Right-Wing Populism and Religion in Europe and the USA.”
62 van Haute, “Populist Radical Parties in Belgium,” 82.
63 de Jonge, “The Curious Case of Belgium: Why Is There No Right-Wing Populism in Wallonia?” 598–614.
64 de Jonge, “The Curious Case of Belgium: Why Is There No Right-Wing Populism in Wallonia?” 600.
European, federal and regional elections.65 According to Johan Temmerman, populism gained traction because the people believed that the inequality created by neoliberal capitalism is precisely what is generating the anti-elitist attitude that right-wing populists are capitalizing on.66 Premised on antiestablishment, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islam sentiments, these parties are appealing to a Christian narrative to promote European values that excludes immigrants and ethnic minority communities who hold different religious beliefs. As they do so, they also bemoan the erosion of Belgium’s Christian identity which they believe is threatened by the mass arrival of non-Christian immigrants who are believed to orchestrate a political takeover of Belgium’s European values if they are not stopped in their migratory tracks. These factors have been compounded by a cost-of-living crisis and long economic recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This sudden rise of (right-wing) populism and its easy use of religious narrative to promote its anti-establishment and anti-immigrant posture must prompt a response from the church and all people of faith. I am aware that this will obviously raise a complex moral dilemma for the churches because some of those who promote populist views are part of the recognized religious establishment in Belgium. Some of these would confidently claim to relish their Christian identity, even if they only sparingly participate in the regular religious liturgies organized by the church. But, as Johan Temmerman reminds us,
The notion of sacred people and values makes it possible for populist movements to turn against two enemies at the same time: against the elite and against the other, this is against mainstream politicians and migrants. […] These lines of connection between religion and populism should alert theologians and church leaders not to allow themselves to be taken for a ride.67
65 van Haute, “Populist Radical Parties in Belgium and the 2024 European Elections,” 59.
66 Temmerman, “The Paradox of Religious Populism: The Curious Case of Belgium,” 3.
67 Temmerman, “The Paradox of Religious Populism: The Curious Case of Belgium,” 5.
Temmerman is right because this socio-political context represents the place where the Protestant-Evangelical minority must not allow itself to be held captive by the growing social disaffection that feeds the narrative on which right-wing populism thrives. Rather than cower into the pressures of (right-wing) populism, minority Christian religions such as the ProtestantEvangelical religion, must be concerned more about promoting collective belonging where its theological beliefs about hospitality must trigger a humane response to the stranger because of the common humanity they share. This is what will help the church to unravel the subtle beliefs propagated by both right-wing and left-wing populism. This is because the right-wing populist concept of national identities based on religious traditions are being purposefully deployed to define who can and cannot be part of ‘the people’ of the land. The church must stand up against rhetoric that marginalizes groups such as migrants and reject claims that they are the real enemies of the people. Such a position is divisive at best and discriminatory at worst.
3.4 Secular Liberalism’s Unintended Consequences
Belgium’s policy of secular liberalism,68 which is unique in comparison to other states in western Europe, must be commended for creating an atmosphere where religion and secular philosophies of life can coexist in the public sphere. However, the success of this liberal neutrality policy has produced several unintended consequences which affects the public missiological relevance of the Protestant-Evangelical minority religion. Those issues include pillarization, secularization and apatheism – a general lack of interest in the religious. These are not to be construed as weakening the strength of Belgium’s secular liberalism. In fact, “Belgium, along with Norway and Iceland, is one of the only countries to have a system that recognises philosophies of life, implements separation of church and state and yet actively supports pluralism with a system of funding.”
69 The Belgian state guarantees religious and secular philosophical freedoms to citizens alongside restricting the federal state from interfering in the internal organizational operation of religious and
68 Ireland, Becoming Europe, 179.
69 Walker, ‘Belgium still among the best countries for atheists or freethinkers.’
secular philosophies of life. But while the constitutionally enshrined freedom of assembly benefits all citizens,70 they nevertheless raise critical missiological questions bordering on the public relevance of the minority ProtestantEvangelical religion.
First, in relation to pillarization, Belgium had long struggled with how to frame its identity within a federal context that takes sufficient recognition of its institutional, linguistic and regional differences.71 While this resulted in the federalization of the Belgian state, it basically reflected processes of pillarization that had already been in existence soon after the Belgian state was created 1830s. Thus, the state’s earlier policy of pillarization had organized “societal institutions (schools, hospitals, political parties, media etc.) based on (secular and religious) ideological interests.”72 Reflecting on the profound changes to society, Karel Dobbelaere writes that,
The pillarization integrated Belgians in three separate pillars: the catholic, the socialist and the liberal one. In the Catholic pillar, the catholic credo, values and norms were the collective consciousness that integrated the pillar. The socialist and the liberal ideology integrated their respective pillars. These pillars had their own schools and hospitals, Catholics had their catholic schools and hospitals, the socialist and liberals had the state schools and hospitals. Each had their own youth and adult associations, sport clubs, trade unions, sick funds, mass media, banks, etc. (Dobbelaere 2010: 286).73
While this historical policy has remained a thing of the past, it provided a context where religious authorities are occasionally asked to declare assent to statements formulated by political authorities that “religion never stands above the law.”74
70 Dheedene, Moving Heaven and Earth, 44–45.
71 Ireland, Becoming Europe, 168.
72 Conway, “Social Correlates of Church Attendance,” 63.
73 Dobbelaere, “Religion and Politics in Belgium,” 286.
74 Lorein, “Religion Never Stands Above the Law,” 11. “For
Second, by the 1960s, Belgium came under the influence of secularization that had affected other European nations. Such was the influence of secularization that “Belgian Catholicism weakened in terms of its institutional strength but also in terms of the commitment of devotees.” 75 This was not helped by the fact that the Catholic church faltered in its recruitment efforts of priests because the church had experienced a significant reduction in the organizational recruitment of young men that enter the diocesan priesthood. Besides this, the Catholic church also saw generational indifferences rapidly increase which resulted in many of its younger generation walking away from the faith to become religiously unaffiliated. All these factors meant that adhesion to established Christianity progressively recessed from public view in Belgium.
Third, as adhesion to established Christianity declined, the secular society saw a sudden rise of apatheism among citizens whose lived experiences exclude any reference to God. This was a long process that had begun since the early 19th century onwards when “scientists, philosophers and freethinkers brought various scientific, philosophical and moral arguments to the fore to deny the existence of (the Judeo-Christian) God.”76 While this history had expressed itself in the Catholic and Secularists crisis which resulted in two School Pacts, Belgian society had progressively become so secularized that discussions on God no longer matter in public life. The constitutional provisions that guarantee religious freedom have also been applied to citizens who are unaffiliated as far as religion is concerned.77 Each of these factors had produced consequences that made either talk of God or commitment to religion irrelevant for participating in public life. In this context, established Christianity continues its path of decline as there appears to be no appetite for bringing discussions about God in the public sphere.
75 Conway, “Social Correlates of Church Attendance,” 64.
76 Dartevelle and De Spiegeleer, eds., De geschiedenis van het atheïsme in België.
77 Velaers and Foblets, “Religion and the State in Belgian Law.”
“For
4. Afro-Pentecostal Christianity
A good place to explore public missiology is to examine Afro-Pentecostal Christianity which is part of the Protestant–Evangelical minority religion in Belgium. Given that Afro-Pentecostal Christianity is rarely analysed in relation to its missiological self-understanding, the missional contributions they bring to the Protestant-Evangelical minority is not often known. In this section, I will therefore provide an overview of the accession, missionary intuitions and contributions to public missiology that Afro-Pentecostal Christianity brings to the Protestant-Evangelical minority. To do so, I must begin that endeavour by asking: How did Afro-Pentecostal Christianity begin in Belgium? This question is important because although it is part of the Protestant-Evangelical minority religion, its history is often sidelined in the mission historiography narrative. For instance, Pieter Boersema’s historical exploration divides the spread of the Protestant-Evangelical religion into three periods.78 The first period (1945–1968), saw the return of Belgian Protestants and their Dutch Evangelical counterparts. Motivated by Evangelical Free church ecclesiology, this period saw diverse Protestant-Evangelical missionaries from the United States beginning evangelistic activities in support of the growth and development of Evangelical Free and Pentecostal churches in Belgium. 79 The second phase (1968–1989), saw the newly founded Free Evangelical churches asserting their theological self-identity by formulating theologies that emphasized salvation and faith in Christ, personal conversion, and the inerrancy of the Bible, among others. Important missionary initiatives of this era include the establishment of the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit in Leuven, and the commencement of Youth for Christ (YFC) and Youth with a Mission (YWAM) church-based activities designed to evangelise Belgian youth.80 The third period (1989–2002), brought challenges to Protestant-
78 Boersema, De Evangelische Beweging in de Samenleving, 28–30.
79 Van der Laan, “The Development of Pentecostalism in Dutch Speaking Countries,” 85–112.
80 Creemers, “We All Share the Same Values, Right?” 275–302; Marinello, New Brethren in Flanders.
Evangelicalism because the movement had to deal with the same sociological circumstances that had led to secularization influences infiltrating the Catholic Church. This meant that Evangelical Free churches were challenged to redefine their Evangelical identity in a context of increased secularization and state attempt to label some of these churches as cults who have deviated from orthodox Christian doctrines.81 While helpful, this historiography which details carefully the diverse minority Protestant-Evangelical religious context did not account for how Afro-Pentecostal Christianity arose.
4.1 Overview of the Accession of Afro-Pentecostal Christianity
As part of the minority Protestant-Evangelical religion, the formation of Pentecostal churches has first been explained as the result of increased migration to Belgium.82 Colin Godwin points to the migration hypothesis arguing that most churches with an immigration background have a Pentecostal orientation.83 More recently, Luce Beeckmans expanded on this migration thesis by arguing that “the arrival of sub-Saharan African migrants has resulted in the rise of Afro-Christian churches.”84 But, in so far as AfroPentecostal Christianity is concerned, two additional factors must also be cited to explain their formation. The second then is Belgium’s colonialization of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as well as the statutory control it had received of Burundi and Rwanda after Germany’s defeat in the second world war. This colonial history saw a steady stream of Africans being brought to Belgium to be educated at prestigious Belgian universities and be sent back to build and shape the destiny of the newly independent DRC. This gesture that offered Africans the chance of acquire higher education contributed to bringing African Pentecostalism to Belgium.85 And lastly, the internal mobility of African immigrants from the French-speaking Wallonia in the southern
81 Creemers, “We All Share the Same Values, Right?” 276; Maskens, ‘Migration et Pentecôtisme À Bruxelles.’ 49–68.
82 Van der Laan, “The Development of Pentecostalism in Dutch Speaking Countries,” 85–112; Maskens, “Mobility among Pentecostal Pastors,” 397–409.
83 Godwin, “Belgian Protestantism from the Reformation to the Present,” 92.
84 Beeckmans, “Mediating (In)visibility and Publicity in an African Church in Ghent,” 181.
85 Bangura, “African Christian Churches in Flanders, Belgium,” 93–97.
region where employment opportunities were few to the more affluent Dutch-speaking northern region of Belgium, also led to a significant increase in the number of the African presence and their establishment of churches connected to Afro-Pentecostal Christianity in Flanders.86 These factors meant that by the beginning of the 1990s, there was already an established presence of Afro-Pentecostal Christian communities in Belgium, particularly those who espouse Pentecostal and Charismatic theological beliefs. Some of these churches are members of the Flemish Pentecostal Union (VVP) in Belgium. Others who are part of major transnational Afro-Pentecostal Christian churches have obtained registration to operate as religious non-profit organizations and are independently affiliated with the Federal Synod of Protestant and Evangelical churches in Belgium. Both statuses mean that a sizable number of Afro-Pentecostal Christian churches are recognized within the Federal Synod and the Administrative Council for Protestant and Evangelical Religion in Belgium. Nevertheless, this institutional recognition constitutes neither state recognition nor financial support as this process is separately adjudicated by Belgium’s federal ministry of justice in collaboration with regional authorities.
4.2 Missionary Intuitions of Afro-Pentecostal Christianity
When African Christian communities were founded in western Europe, scholars were quick to use ‘migrant churches’ as an analytical concept to connect the church communities to the migration histories of its non-western membership.87 Even where non-western constituents would not necessarily identify their Christian communities with migration, these terms have persisted in the mission and world Christianity literature. 88 Some of these scholars even went as far as to argue that as soon as emergent migrant churches reach maturity and are passed to the second generation, they will succumb to the same pressures of secularization that have contributed to the waning of interest in the forms of Christianity promoted by indigenous
86 Bangura, “African Christian Churches in Flanders, Belgium,” 93–97.
87 Aronson, “Migration and Global Pentecostalism,” 78–101.
88 Gerloff, “The Significance of the African Christian Diaspora in Europe,” 115–120.
European churches.89 Other observers are more careful in their assessment of Afro-Pentecostal Christian churches, pointing instead to the fact that even though these communities have been constituted to serve the pneumatic, religious and cultural needs of mostly first-generation African Christian immigrants,90 they are open to and have a desire to widen the scope of their ecclesial, pastoral, and missional engagements to include members of the host culture. In doing so, these scholars appear open to perspectives that recognize Africa’s emerging place as an important missionary sending continent whose individual Christian constituents feel commissioned to bring back the gospel to Europe where commitment to the Christian faith seem to have plummeted.91 More recently, scholarly attempts to analyse African Christian communities have examined the extent to which issues such as lived theologies,92 and missiological contributions93 have recalibrated their ecclesiological relevance in a secularized Europe. Apart from missional and theological approaches, social scientists have also offered analysis that focus on illuminating the socioreligious and cultural significance of Afro-Pentecostal Christian communities in Europe. Using the Belgian case, Luce Beeckmans differentiated her approach from existing scholarly literature by renaming African Christian communities as Afro-Christian churches. Nevertheless, despite recognizing their African origins, Beeckmans’ fascinating article still argues that these churches have chosen to remain under the radar for legal reasons, are likely implementing harmful theological practices, and have failed to attract native white Belgians to their fellowships as their primary missionary motif sets out to do.94 The cumulative effects of both theological, missiological and sociological analysis implies that the missionary intuitions of Europe’s African Pentecostal Christian communities are often thought to occur in three ways: internal, reverse, and common mission. Developed by
89 Noort, “Emerging Migrant Churches in the Netherlands,” 4–16.
90 Kahl, “A Theological Perspective,” 328–341.
91 Maguire and Murphy, “Ontological (in)Security and African Pentecostalism in Ireland,” 842–864; Hackett, “The New Virtual (Inter)Face of African Pentecostalism,” 496–503.
93 Olupona, “The Changing Face of African Christianity,” 179–194.
94 Beeckmans, “Mediating (In)Visibility and Publicity in an African Church in Ghent,” 184, 189.
“For
the Dutch missiologist, Jan Jongeneel,95 the model asserts first that African Christian communities have been constituted to conduct internal mission which seeks to meet the spiritual needs of its own first-generation African immigrant communities. Second, as their ecclesial identity continues to evolve in the secular spaces where their ministries are based, these communities hope to attract white Europeans to their rank and file through reverse mission. And third, after these communities would have acquired full integration status in the European societies where they are situated, they will collaborate with indigenous churches to carry out common missions that reaches out to all of Europe. While the insights provided by these studies have helped to push the borders of understanding regarding their missionary self-perception, they still betray certain conceptual limitations. This is because such studies tend to forget that because African Christian communities have arisen in a transnational context profoundly impacted by the violent ruptures of migration, their missionary self-understanding must be expected to address a particular context that intersects with the African Christian spirituality, migration trajectories, and integration strides of its constituents. Their commitment to the Christian faith must therefore be seen in terms of how African Christian communities have chosen to define their identity as African Christians who are aware of where they currently live and passionately seek to witness to the gospel in that secular, liberal, and plural context.
4.3 Afro-Pentecostal Christianity’s Contribution to Public Missiology
It has by now become clear from the preceding argumentation that theological and political concerns, the legacy of mission and colonialism, and the emergence of right-wing populism are challenging the public relevance of the minority Protestant-Evangelical religion of which Afro-Pentecostal Christianity is part. Given that public missiology calls on the churches to reengage afresh the ever-changing public sphere with the unchanging message of the Christian gospel, how might Afro-Pentecostal Christians contribute a fresh perspective that deepens present understanding of public missiology among the minority
95 Jongeneel, “The Mission of Migrant Churches in Europe,” 29–33.
Protestant-Evangelical religion in a secular and liberal (Flanders) Belgium? Although Afro-Pentecostal Christianity espouses theologies that have been questioned,96 yet by being situated in Belgium they too are confronted with the same issues that affect the other Protestant–Evangelicals. Therefore, to answer this question, I will explore three issues that aim to clarify the extent to which Afro-Pentecostal Christianity can contribute insights that may be applicable to the Protestant-Evangelical minority’s espousal of public missiology in (Flanders) Belgium.
First, the accession of Afro-Pentecostal Christianity and the participation of this segment in God’s mission challenges current mission discourses that have not properly understood the scope that concepts such as Missio Dei entail. As a missiological concept, Missio Dei envisions the practice of mission as a reality to which all people have been invited. No matter how instrumental Catholic missionaries from Belgium have been in advancing the cause of Christian mission around the world, the Christian practice of mission is not a human endeavor. The fact that Belgium was first involved in Christian mission does not mean that they are privileged over other Christian groups such as AfroPentecostal Christianity who may have been seen as having no part in God’s mission. Mission is God’s idea by which God has invited the church to partner with God for the redemption of the world. As disruptive as they are, changing world contexts neither mean that mission has been accomplished, nor do they seek to exclude any region of the world from the privilege of participating in God’s mission. The famous Ghanaian theologian, Kwame Bediako, clearly understood this reality of mission when he observed that the entire missionary enterprise which was implemented by our western Christian counterparts must be assessed as a process that occurred through three phases. Mission is (i) the result of the divine invitation of God through which God bore witness to the pre-Christian tradition of a people group; (ii) Mission was put into practice by the historical transmission of the gospel through the witness of the church; and (iii) Mission is the indigenous assimilation of the gospel in the
96 See for instance, Beeckmans, “Mediating (In)Visibility and Publicity in an African Church in Ghent,” 184, 189.
communities of those who received it.97 Having this view of mission implies then, as Gregg Okesson has argued,
If mission is public truth, it requires humans to share that story as public truth, doing so in and through our publics. We cannot privatize it, sacralize it, or relativize it for special places, people or “just for me.” We must believe it, […] with universal intent. Which means that we believe it for all people, in all places, and for all aspects of public life.98
Second, the missional practices of Afro-Pentecostal Christianity further challenges current mission scholarship to reconsider why such scholarship is often inattentive to the emerging conversation partners God is raising from the global south. This attitude of inattention is depriving the global church from benefitting from the gifts available within the church as Body of Christ. In developing a theology of mission based on the New Testament, Dean Flemming writes that “Bible interpreters in the majority world tend [to] be more sensitive to the missional dimensions of Scripture and their implications for the church. Listening to their voices may help expose some of the blind spots of western biblical scholarship regarding mission concerns.”99 However, the current challenges that missiology faces mean that those who continue to defend the practice of Christian mission must either listen or learn from the global south biblical perspectives on mission. It is partly for this reason that Timothy Tennent reminds us that the rise of Global Christianity demands a temporary period of pause for readjustment and reassessment from the part of those who have been the most powerful actors in the mission field. This, as he perceives it, is because [w]e in the west have been accustomed to playing the melody. We directed the orchestra and decided what pieces would be played and where, and the players were mostly from the west. Now, the orchestra is far more diverse, and we are being asked to
97 Bediako, Christianity in Africa, 121.
98 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 67–68. Italics in original.
99 Flemming, Why Mission? xvi–xvii.
play harmony, not melody. This requires a temporary interlude – a time to pause and reassess, a time to think about what we are doing in fresh ways.100
Third, the accession of Afro-Pentecostal Christianity also challenges current mission discourses to stop being fixated with what happens at the traditional heartlands of Christianity. Gregg Okesson warns that the churches in the west may still be concerned about what happens at the “centers of Christian thought and less with what is happening on the margins where the gospel confronts unbelief.”101 What this implies is that theological developments, missionary practices, and processes of secularization that continue to occur in the traditional heartlands of western Christianity cannot be perceived as the sole determinant of what it means to be participating in Christian mission globally. Hardly are missionary actors from the global south who are equally active in mission given the same prominence as their western counterparts. Because Afro-Pentecostal Christianity is seen as the most marginal segment of the minority Protestant-Evangelical religion, the movement’s missionary potential which issues from its assimilation of the Christian gospel has not been properly recognized. Timothy Tennent, drawing insights from Lamin Sanneh, writes that in relation to the missionary process, “we should not equate gospel transmission with gospel reception and assimilation,”102 because while missionaries did set in motion a process of religious change through conversion to Christianity, it was the African Christians themselves who became the key players in the appropriation of the gospel. Having been impacted by the gospel, Afro-Pentecostal Christians are not only on the move through their engagement in transnational migration, but they also see themselves as part of the new missionary contingent that God is raising for a public sphere that is rapidly changing. Listening to their voices and learning from their experiences in the secular west is now inevitable.
100 Tennent, Invitation to World Mission, 51.
101 Okesson, A Public Missiology, 69.
102 Tennent, Invitation to World Mission, 69.
Conclusion:
“For Such a Time as This!”
To conclude I would like to return to the phrase “For such a time as this,” included in my title. When Mordecai spoke these words to Queen Esther who was in the Persian royal court, it was not lost in his mind that he and the Jewish people were living in anxious times. Rather than being forced into submission, Mordecai urges action warning that Queen Esther’s presence in the Persian Royal Court does not constitute immunity if she failed to act in solidarity with her Jewish people. This meant that if Esther choses to remain silent in the face of Haman’s impending extermination plot, help was going to arise from another source. This charge which was frightening had reminded Esther of her inability to hide her Jewish identity. It puts further pressure that complicated the options available to Queen Esther as she contemplated the grim fate of her Jewish people.103 As a Jew, a woman and a refugee, Esther was acutely aware of both her position of marginality and status of vulnerability. Queen Esther knew that there were real dangers in approaching the king without having obtained a priori a royal invitation. And yet, understanding her role as having come to this royal position “for such a time as this,” (Esther 4:14), the queen acted to save her Jewish nation from Haman’s monstrous extermination plan. Hence, through the heroic acts of a Jewish refugee girl, God’s mission for the preservation of Israel was accomplished in times of extreme anxiety.
Taking the cue from Esther’s vulnerable position of marginality and the heroic public witness she undertook in the face of an impending genocide, M. Davila writes that
We find ourselves at a time that reflects the idolatry of our certainties. In many respects Christian leadership in the public square has established more intransigent and ill-informed tests
103 Cartledge, “Can anything good come out of Susa?” 219.
of fidelity, heavily mingled with an obtuse vision of patriotism. How and with whom we read our sacred texts – again, broadly understood – can be the difference that allows us to interrupt this idolatry.104
The truth encapsulated in this claim offers insights that make for a helpful and critical analysis of the events before us. Reflecting upon those insights allows both Afro-Pentecostal Christianity and other minority Protestant Evangelicals to engage in public mission initiatives that exhibit the following characteristics:
First, the public missiological interventions of the church in times of anxiety are invited to be open to collaborate with new conversation partners. For too long, the task of mission has exclusively been conducted by one segment of God’s kingdom. Using its sense of cultural superiority and technological advancement, the task of mission tended to be an activity that belonged to the purview of our sisters and brothers in the western and northern hemisphere. They were the ones who decided which mission theologies, mission strategies, and mission practices were most needed to complete the task of mission. In implementing those strategies, this segment of God’s kingdom exclusively coordinated mission from the west to the rest, sometimes actively collaborating with colonial imperialism. The participation of the global church in the task of mission, if at all it was allowed to happen, was explained using the instrumentalist thesis. Success stories that converged with the dominant western missionary and theological models were universalized because they were believed to best inform the Christian practice of mission to be implemented by all the churches. Nevertheless, as Timothy Tennent reminds us, the rise of Global Christianity demands a temporary period of pause where the most powerful actors in the mission field would reassess what accomplishments and limitations their missionary initiatives had produced.105 This is because new conversation partners have arisen who are bringing new perspectives that not only illuminate our understanding but also contribute to reviving equipping the church to continue the task of mission.
104 Dávila, ““For a Time Such as This”, 41.
105 Cf., Tennent, Invitation to World Mission, 51.
As new conversation partners, Afro-Pentecostal Christians must be willing to move beyond the legacy of mission/colonialism and work with partner churches who may have been complacent in colonial imperialism. As the new contextual Bible interpreters who have assisted the growth of the church in the majority world, Afro-Pentecostal Christians will need to adopt a public missiology that seeks reconciliation with fellow Christians with whom they have a difficult history of oppression. In the new and growing heartlands of Christianity, Deen Flemming reminds us that emerging conversation partners are implementing mission theological practices that are “more sensitive to the missional dimensions of Scripture and their implications for the church.” Therefore, in these anxious times, other minority Protestant-Evangelical missionary agents have opportunity to listen to their voices because this “may help expose some of the blind spots of western biblical scholarship regarding mission,”106 and build the new collaboration and partnership needed to continue the public missionary task entrusted to the church of Christ.
Second, public missiology implemented in times of anxiety must anticipate missional opportunities even in the midst of the globe’s most complicated instabilities. Queen Esther did not wait for an alignment to occur between the Persian royal court and the cry for help that was coming from her distraught Jewish people. Rather, she transformed the missionary topography by going to God in prayer and fasting supported by the intercessory cover of her people. This national intercessory prayer enabled her to approach the king with confidence even though she did not have a royal invitation to do so. The Protestant Evangelical minority has been placed at this time to accompany Christians, the churches and Body of Christ everywhere in the task of fulfilling the missionary mandate that Christ has entrusted to his church. Public missiology argues the task of proclaiming the gospel cannot wait until all the social issues that bring upheaval are addressed before the gospel is shared. Earlier I suggested that mindful of their position of marginality, Afro-Pentecostal Christian communities see themselves as participants in God’s mission. However, their being confined to the margins where they face several challenges including residency status, language competence
106 Flemming, Why Mission? xvi–xvii.
and recognition, Afro-Pentecostal Christian churches may be prevented from participating in public missiology. Nevertheless, they can appropriate their present context to model the kind of Christian community that seeks to apply the missional gospel to the ever-changing public contexts of our times, no matter the transnational circumstances that has made life difficult for them. Having come from the new heartlands of Christianity where the faith must constantly negotiate with people’s complex social issues that are impacting lives, most Afro-Pentecostal Christians are experienced in witnessing to the gospel in circumstances of plurality, or places of extreme lack and need. They understand what Leslie Newbigin noted when he observed that “what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community [...] He committed the entire work of salvation to that community.”107 It is this work of salvation that keeps the pulse of mission ticking even in the times of anxiety that we are currently living through.
Third, the public missiological interventions of the church in times of anxiety are invited to conduct mission in ways that attract both the curious and critic to the faith that was once entrusted to the saints. Earlier in this paper, I argued that populism feeds on popular disenchantment to perpetuate divisions in society. In this chiasm, a segment of the population is blamed for the ills suffered by the masses in society. Christian mission cannot therefore remain insensitive to this polarizing trend but must initiate missional practices that (re)attract people to the gospel. For instance, Christians in the Protestant–Evangelical minority religion can use their theological diversity to call for social tolerance. Because theological diversity can be seen as a core virtue of the Protestant-Evangelical minority religion, it can help those Christians who identify with its theologies to confront populism from a biblically conscientious and sympathetic viewpoint. This can result in the development of a healthy form of nationalism based on the Christian virtues of love for the neighbour and respect for diversity within the human family. Similarly, Afro-Pentecostal Christians can use their passion for God to initiate God-conversations with people for whom such conversations are simply unimportant. These public
107 Newbigin, The Household of God, 34.
missional interventions are possible because of the mission theory of attraction. Stephen Bevans, citing Christopher Wright, observes: “A community that demonstrates, by its ethical integrity and joyful vitality, what it means to live in relationship to the biblical God may well be an irritant and a threat to the authorities of this world. But it can also be – and often is – a community that by its very life is fascinating, that makes people curious, that causes respect and admiration; in short, it is attractive.” 108 Expanding further on the need for the church to do mission in ways that attracts, Bevans observes that, “Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty, and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but by attraction.” 109 Anxious times demand that the church on mission must conduct mission practices that attract people to the gospel of Christ, works to immerse new converts into a living and loving Christian community, and sends them back with a message of hope to an anxious world.
Thank you for your attention!
108 Wright, The Mission of God’s People, 143, cited in, Bevans, “Theology of Mission,” 122.
109 Pope Benedict XVI, cited in Bevans, “Theology of Mission,” 122.
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