#128. Cross-cultural Discipleship in a Segregated Church

Some Issues to Consider

If you are in the London area, you are invited to a Decolonizing Mission conversation on 14 November at St Nicholas Perivale (UB6 7AP), beginning at 6:30pm. Here is the registration link: https://shorturl.at/Ifi9X.

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1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off

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A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of giving the keynote address at the Intercultural Church UK conference, Converge 25, hosted by my dear friend Adam Martin in Harrow, London. The theme, “Discipleship in a Multicultural Church,” set the stage for a rich and timely conversation. I am always a little surprised—and deeply encouraged—when people show up in large numbers for these discussions, and this conference was no exception. Attendance was excellent, and the diversity in the room was truly inspiring: Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Asians, Latin Americans, and white British participants, along with a few Europeans and Americans, all gathered to reflect together on what it means to follow Christ across cultures.

The organisation around the speakers was a real highlight. I was deeply impressed by each and every contributor. It feels increasingly plausible to me that we are reaching a genuine tipping point in this work. Not only are there now several groups engaging it from different angles — such as Israel Olofinjana at the One People Commission of the Evangelical Alliance in London and Osoba Otaigbe with the Intercultural Church and City Transformation in Manchester — but the quality of the arguments (especially their theological depth) and the diversity of those advancing them are profoundly encouraging.

My own twenty-minute talk — admittedly a brief slot given that I wrote an entire book on this theme, Multicultural Kingdom (2020) — rested on three pillars. The first pillar sought to ground the discussion in the realities of current migration trends and the anti-migration sentiments that have shaped our summer. I reminded the audience that in the 1800s alone, nearly twenty million people emigrated from Great Britain to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other parts of the British Empire. In other words, almost a third of all Europeans who left their continent in the nineteenth century came from Britain. It is for this reason that some have rightly said, “we are here because you came to us first.” This is the enduring legacy of empire: as empires expand, they set in motion vast movements of peoples toward their centres. According to the 2021 National Census, at least one in five people in the UK is now Black or Brown — a reality that reflects the historical reach of Britain’s global presence. This growing cultural diversity is not an accident of history but part of the continuing story of a world shaped by imperial movement and encounter. And it wont stop any time soon.

Second, I raised a concern that our prevailing theologies often fail to equip us for genuine engagement with those who are culturally different from us. Most of our ecclesiologies are, understandably, rooted in the cultural soil from which they emerge. Yet this cultural embeddedness, while inevitable and, indeed, desirable, can become a limitation when it prevents us from recognising the theological legitimacy of other cultural expressions of Christian faith. In practice, we have not yet developed a robust theology of intercultural encounter — one that sees the image and, dare I say, fingerprints of God in other peoples and other cultures and enables our diverse ecclesiologies to exist together and enrich one another in worship. The task before us, therefore, is to imagine forms of ecclesial life in which difference is not merely tolerated but embraced as a theological gift, revealing more fully the global nature of the body of Christ.

With regard to the question of discipleship in such churches — the central theme of the conference — we have yet to develop mature cross-cultural models that nurture genuine mutual learning, where Western Christians can truly listen to and learn from non-Western sisters and brothers. Much of what passes for multicultural discipleship still operates within inherited frameworks that privilege Western norms and reinforce the racial hierarchies characterizing the Body of Christ. In many churches that call themselves “multicultural,” what is often visible is not mutual transformation but the subtle assimilation of others into a dominant culture of whiteness. Indeed, some of the “whitest” churches I have encountered have been predominantly Black or Brown — a striking testimony to how deeply such cultural and theological patterns are internalised.

A genuinely intercultural model of discipleship must be grounded in the very life of the Triune God, whose communion is marked by mutual indwelling (perichoresis) rather than hierarchy. It must be incarnational, taking seriously the Word made flesh in diverse human cultures. Such a theology calls us beyond assimilation toward relational reciprocity — a form of discipleship that mirrors the self-giving love of the Trinity and allows the church to become, in truth, a communion of difference.

Third, I had a thing or two to say about the segregated nature of Christian worship in the country. Racism and nationalism continue to poison our sight, distorting both our theology and our witness. We build boundaries of color, culture, and nation, treating them as social realities when they are, in truth, spiritual obstacles—veils that hide the image of God in other human beings. Too often, the church has sanctified cultural dominance as a divine mandate, confusing the Great Commission with a project of assimilation and control. The tragic consequence is a mission that excludes, rather than reconciles.

Let us be clear: we cannot make disciples of the nations while worshipping the idol of nationalism. We cannot preach a love that tears down walls while our own hands are busy rebuilding them. The gospel calls us not only to disciple all peoples, but to unlearn the prejudices that privilege one people over another. There is no discipleship without repentance—without turning from the lie that any culture is closer to God.

True mission begins where superiority dies: at the cross. Here, the walls fall. Here, a new humanity emerges, living in communion, not conquest. In this kingdom, difference is a gift to be celebrated, not a problem to be solved. If we are to be a reconciling people, we must first be a reconciled people—a community where every culture reveals the manifold wisdom of God. Until the church embodies this love across its own divides, our message remains hollow. Our mission must reflect the God who so loved the entire world—without exception.