1. Introduction
Secularization’s central prognosis that religion has seen a marked recession in the west, and especially in Europe,1 is often paired against the simultaneous vibrancy of Christianity in the non-Western world.2 However, amidst mounting scepticism over the supposed effects of the secularization thesis, religion itself is making a surprising resurgence in Europe. Three factors may help explain this development. First, a sizable number of Europeans are seeking alternative modes of spirituality by embracing yoga and other forms of incantational meditations from the East.3 Second, some commentators have argued that religion has always been present although in invisible forms, constantly changing shape to make it adaptable to present developments within Europe.4 Third, others referring to the immigration of Christians and peoples of other faiths from southern continents which boasts of vibrant religious activities as reasons to celebrate the resurgence of religion in Europe.5 Together these arguments have led observers to reason that religion is making a steady comeback in the public sphere and that such developments mean that Europe is best to be described as a post-secular continent.6 This broad context in which diversified religious activities are reemerging serves as a necessary background upon which to interrogate African-founded, African-led and African-majority churches across specific states in Europe.7
In Whose Religion is Christianity, Sanneh skillfully explores the deltoidal conflation of the secularization of the west, the resurgence of religion in the southern hemisphere and the setting up of immigrant Christian communities in the west. Asking the academy to avoid the pitfalls of theological contextualization which tends to determine what is (and is not) religiously valuable, Sanneh argues that non-Western constituents have not only embraced Christianity, but through their migration to the west, they have striven to establish what he describes “new charismatic healing churches.”8 Framed as a self-interview, Sanneh highlights the indigenous agency and involvement of people across the non-Western world in the Christian story. Sanneh is not however alone in calling for the location of the indigenous agency in the cross-cultural expansion of Christianity. Both Walls and Bevans did call for a reassessment of global Christianity in ways that make use of the local cultural context where Christian resurgence occurs and where the indigenous principle is manifest and points to the universality, wealth of other contexts and cultural experiences towards which the pilgrim principle gravitates world Christianity.9 Though often held in tension with each other, these two principles are necessary in promoting global intercultural Christian dialogue. Walls’ helpful explanation clarifies the reasoning for keeping these tensions together:
Christ’s completion … comes from all humanity, from the translation of the life of Jesus into the lifeways of all the world’s cultures and subcultures through history. None of us can reach Christ’s completeness on our own. We need each other’s vision to correct, enlarge, and focus our own; only together are we complete in Christ.10
Whereas the triangulation of the recession of Christianity in the west, resurgence of the faith in the non-Western world and the emergence of African immigrant Christian churches in the secular west has been contested,11 non-Western Christians especially those from Africa have continued to migrate overseas and set up churches among various diaspora African communities in the west.12 In Belgium for instance, African migration has not only increased, the African diaspora continue to make their presence felt in various ways, including the setting up of African-founded, African-led and African-majority churches in (Flanders) Belgium. Usually constituted at disused city centre shops and/or factory buildings, these African-majority churches provide an oasis of peace to attendees, a place to connect with the divine, relieve oneself of earthly burdens and reimagine familiar forms of spirituality known at countries of origin. Furthermore, these churches are known for their use of loud music, complete with synthesizers and percussions for its worship services. Although these gatherings often attract consternation from distraught neighbours, it nevertheless enjoys significant following especially among the African Christian diaspora whose yearning for an encounter with the divine clearly resonates with such liturgical practices. Through their weekly congregation at those places of worship, African Christian immigrants have opportunities to reconnect with parishioners of likeminded faith and facilitate a change in the use of Europe’s disused urban spaces.
It must be pointed out that Christian developments emerging from the southern hemisphere have wider implications for religious configurations elsewhere. As Christian constituents from those regions migrate abroad, they bring with them new expressions of Christianity and facilitate religious diffusion and reconfiguration at host countries. Because migration has a direct impact on religious dissemination as well as religious composition at destination countries,13 three consequences could be identified that offer a better understanding of Christian mission in a migrating world. First, migrants are known to bring entirely new religions into a country or region where they resettle.14 For these migrating peoples, experiences acquired through migration are understood and processed using a religious compass supplied at countries of origin. Doing this is necessary to support resilience and enhance the spirituality, worldviews and orientation to life embraced by immigrants. Second, immigrants in the west further import new forms of existing religions that are present at destination countries. If that religion is Christianity, immigrants are likely to join primordial Christian churches and contribute to the revitalization of existing forms of the Christian faith in the traditional heartlands of Christianity.15 Other immigrants may choose to set up new churches altogether. Third, the migration of southern Christian counterparts to the west has resulted in a redefinition of the identity and traditional profile of a missionary.16 Accordingly, a missionary is no longer to be considered a white Caucasian who is commissioned by churches in the west to travel to the non-western world to preach the gospel, plant Bible believing churches and disciple new converts toward Christian maturity. Missionaries are Christians who migrate from anywhere to anywhere. Or, as Rebecca Catto has observed, missionaries are persons who “move from the rest to the west.”17 In the Flemish north of Belgium, one could encounter all trigonal characteristics among African immigrants. The African diaspora could be bringing traditional religious beliefs, new expressions of existing religions, or come with the intension of serving as missionaries and church planters among peoples of African descent and eventually Europe.
This chapter discusses African Christian churches in Flanders that relate to the Protestant/Evangelical minority in Belgium through the lenses of three prisms: people, practices and problems. Beginning with a brief overview of the streams of African migration into Flanders, the chapter profiles four African-majority Christian churches to account for the diversity and liturgical practices within the settled African diaspora in Flemish Belgium. Further, the chapter ascertains what prospects and problems are created for African Christians in a religiously liberal Flanders. While highlighting the role of African-led churches in providing parishioners a sense of belonging that reinforce forms of spirituality that are redolent of those acquired at countries of origin, the chapter makes two conclusions: first, the chapter urges African Christian churches to work towards not only designing pastoral ministry programs that serve the needs of its constituents thereby fulfilling the indigenous principle, but to aspire to fulfil the pilgrim principle where the faithful meaningfully engage Flemish Evangelical/Protestant Christianity in particular and society in general. Second, the chapter pleads for a favourable public interpretation that endeavours to perceive African Christian churches as dialogue partners that could assist immigrant communities pursue integration at destination countries.
2. Streams of African Immigration to (Flanders) Belgium
Across Europe, diversified immigrant Christian communities from Sub-Saharan Africa have been established. Studies that seek a missional understanding of these communities have increased since a meeting on this question was convened in Brussels, Belgium. At that meeting, African and European academics as well as church practitioners noted that although churches of African origin have increased in Europe, their contribution to the reappearance of religion in post-secular Europe was not yet fully understood.18 While churches of African origin were objects of various research projects, they were hardly represented at forums were crucial decisions which impacted their operations were taken. After the Brussels meeting, various research projects that inquired into the uses of Christianity and other religions to help African immigrants survive the rigors of transnational migration and eventually attain full integration at destination countries in Europe were initiated. In Belgium, although there is a steady growth of diversified African-founded, African-led and African-majority churches,19 scholarly attention has mainly focussed on the more established Turkish and Moroccan immigrant populations and their uses of Islam to promote (and/or stifle) integration.20 Whereas these efforts are to be commended, they do not address questions about the streams of African migration to Flanders. In this section, I account for the African migration to Flanders through three streams – Belgium’s colonialism, migration from English-speaking West Africa and the internal mobility of migrants from the relatively poor region of Wallonia to the affluent region of Flanders.
First, African migration to Belgium could be explained by recourse to the country’s colonial involvement in Africa. The history of Belgium’s colonial involvement in central African is fraught with perplexing difficulties, not least for its infamous derogation of Africans in their Congo homeland.21 Nevertheless, after King Leopold was pressured to hand over the Congo to the Belgian state, Belgium began a process that was intended to redeem its chequered history and right the barbaric savagery which the repressive regime had inflicted upon native Africans.22 Among others, Belgium began to adopt policies that not only resulted in the Congo attaining independence in 1960 along with other colonies that had come under its jurisdiction after World War II, the former colonial power began to bring some Africans from its former colonies to pursue university education in Belgium. Others were recruited to serve as porters for Belgian sailors whose work was coordinated from the seaport of Antwerp.23 However, the decision to sponsor African students at Belgian universities was not without acrimony. Even the brief historiographical studies that were meant to offer detailed accounts of the immigration status of Africans to Belgium only succeeded in presenting an ambivalent account of both their immigration trajectories, resilient transnational adaptations and integration to life in Belgium.24 To survive the cultural and religious ruptures of migration, African students established Bible study fellowships which were pivotal in the successive establishment of African Christian churches.25 As those developments took root in central Africa, the Belgian state implemented a different strategy in its engagement with Morocco in North Africa and Turkey in the Middle East. Following the collapse of contractual agreements with Italian workers which was due to a terrible industrial accident,26 the Belgian state entered into new contractual agreements with the governments of Morocco and Turkey to bring migrant workers and fill vacant positions left by the unexpected departure of Italian workers. This process which began in the 1960s and continued until the beginning of the 1980s saw a steady stream of migrant workers coming to Belgium on a temporary worker program.27 Thus, this official migratory policy of carefully controlled immigration – both of the one that had attracted African students at universities, African porters for Belgian sailors and migrant workers from Morocco and Turkey to Belgian factories – saw diversified immigrant African populations choosing to settle permanently in Belgium.
The second migration stream that brought English-speaking West Africans to Belgium relates to the socio-political upheavals which stem from poor governance, endemic poverty and economic hardships that was rampant in the region in the 1990s. From rebel wars that made Liberia and Sierra Leone failed states, to the economic hardships in Ghana as well as the civil unrest in oil-rich and poverty-stricken south-eastern and south-western Nigeria, or the secessionist insurrection in the English-speaking provinces of Cameroon, West Africa was infamous.28 Caught in intractable cycles of rebel insurrections and haunted by economic woes with no end in sight out of this quagmire, many university students migrated to Europe in search of either further university education or a generally better standard of life. Given that Belgium had, at that time, a generous immigration and asylum policy that allowed for quicker processing of family reunification visa applications,29 many West Africans whose siblings were already resident in the state were drawn to Belgium. Besides West Africans, many Rwandans who had fled the 1994 genocide also contributed to the swelling African immigration to Belgium. Apart from migration factors related to the genocide, wars and economic hardships, other immigrants from West Africa were more assertive in their migration choices. For instance, religious agents who have experienced Pentecostal and Charismatic revivals from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo30 came to Belgium as missionaries with the intention of planting churches among the African diaspora and eventually reaching secular Belgians with their revivalist version of Christianity. Apart from those specific examples, Ghanaian and Nigerian clerics have also contributed to the formation of African churches in Belgium. The northern Flemish city of Antwerp is not only known for its ethnic diversity, it also boasts of a large concentration of African Christian churches. Nevertheless, whereas immigrant churches have indeed been established among the African diaspora, there is yet enormous work to be done if these churches are to attract a following from native Belgians, as is sometimes suggested by their ambitious reverse missionary program to secular Europe.
This context feeds into the third stream that further assisted African immigrants who were already residing in the French-speaking south of Belgium to move to and resettle in the more affluent Flemish northern region. This pattern of the internal mobility of international migrants to regions with greater wealth and economic activity is not unique to Belgium but is consistent with developments across Europe.31 After Belgium became a federal state, the newly consolidated regions wanted to solidify the economic gains they were set to receive from the federated state. This meant that the Flemish north which was less developed and had limited economic activity during much of the colonial era saw a change in its fortunes. As factories folded their operations and economic activities contracted in the French-speaking south, economic activity accentuated in the Flemish-speaking north. The natural consequence was that it triggered an internal migration of unemployed workers, where most of the settled immigrant communities decided to relocate to the affluent Flemish region in search of employment. Spurred by existing minority ethnic connections they already have in those regions, African immigrants who could afford it began to buy real estate and properties in Flanders, send their children to Flemish schools and founded immigrant Christian churches to meet their spiritual, social and cultural needs. These patterns of internal residential mobility of ethnic minorities have resulted in local population changes and increasing diversity of the Flemish region of Belgium.32 Therefore, the migration of Africans to Flanders could be explained by making a recourse to the African students brought in by the Belgian government, the family reunification applications lodged with the government from the 1990s onwards and the activities of itinerant missionaries from English-speaking West Africa. This steady stream of African immigrants has together contributed to the establishment of African-founded, African-led and African-majority churches in Flanders.
3. Liturgical Practices of African Christians in Flemish and African Churches
Belgium’s immigrant African diaspora is estimated to make up a total of 25.8 % of Belgium’s 16.4 % immigrant population.33 Consistent with the religious developments in the African continent, a sizable chunk of this percentage has retained membership with its many Christian churches or other religious communities. This is not surprising because studies have indicated that among immigrant populations, religious belonging is a necessary survival technique that migrants often deploy to promote a sense of belonging and reinforce ethnic identities at destination countries.34 For this reason, the African diaspora creatively utilizes various forms of Christian spirituality grounded in the African intuitions of the faith to make sense of the complexities which confront the life of immigrants at destination countries. In this section, I profile four Christian churches which are either African-founded, African-majority or African-led churches connected with the Protestant/Evangelical minority to illustrate (i) the diversity within the settled population of African immigrants; (ii) the variety of church traditions to which they patronize; and (iii) the liturgical practices with which they engage life in Flanders.
Nestled at the northern edge of Brussels sits the city of Vilvoorde, which though Flemish has now attracted a growing population of African immigrants. Whereas most members of Vilvoorde’s settled African immigrant community frequently travel to Brussels to attend church services, others from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Ghana, Guinea (Conakry) along with people of African descent from the Dominican Republic have chosen to become members of Filadelfia church. Originally founded by a well-known Flemish Pentecostal, Eduard van Tilt in 1960, the church hardly grew in its formative years. This situation changed when the church opted to change its name so that it would accommodate its ministry to the ongoing schisms it had experienced.35 The mainly youthful, second-generation African Christians who were part of the church but had seceded adopted the name Filadelfia. Nevertheless, the seceding party opted to maintain its white minority leadership and non-governmental status because this gave them a sort of status among Flemish Pentecostals. Members of the church are motivated by its lively forms of African Christian worship, its prayer ministry usually carried out in the languages of home countries, its social programs through its non-governmental organ, or simply because of its proximity to their homes as most of its membership live in or near the city of Vilvoorde. Now led by a Congolese pastor, Filadelfia is home to many African Christians and shares many of the doctrines of African Christianity. Although the church tries to clearly distance itself from the prosperity doctrines that are often generally associated with African Christian churches, it claims to teach what accords with biblical doctrines. The Sunday worship service which could last for hours, is interspersed with singing, dancing, praying and preaching using French and other foreign languages. Other liturgical practices undertaken by Filadelfia include spiritual warfare, where members are prayed for by the pastor so that ancestral curses could be broken, and people set free. For this reason, the African worldview that speaks of the wholeness of life, the involvement of God in the daily affairs of human life the testimonies of believers in response to God’s merciful actions and the obnoxious activities of witchcraft, demons, and evil spirits are a central part of church life.36 While Filadelfia has retained its non-governmental status and affiliation with Flemish Pentecostalism, rarely are any indigenous Flemish or French Pentecostal Christians part of its current membership. This lack of indigenous Flemish Christians is compensated by the occasional welcoming of guest preachers from Flemish Pentecostal churches, African pastors in Belgium and guests from international networks known by the pastor.
The city of Antwerp is widely known for its embrace of multicultural diversity.37 While this is not without problems, the city’s promotion of cultural and religious diversity has expressly allowed many religious groupings to legally operate in the municipality. The Levites World Mission (LWM), an African founded and led church is one such immigrant religious community to have benefitted from Antwerp’s multicultural inclusion. Founded in 2015 by Pastor Chika Nwali Davidson a Nigerian cleric following brief missionary service in Timisoara, Romania, the aim of LWM is to evangelize Belgium so that “the precious gift that was brought to Africa by European missionaries is not forgotten in Europe.”38 An interesting feature of LWM is its mixture of membership who comprise of Romanian and Nigerian immigrants (with their Flemish, African and Romanian spouses and children) who have come to Antwerp in search of jobs. This multi-ethnic diversity gives the impression that LWM desires to be identified as a multi-ethnic church. In terms of theological orientation, LWM embraces conservative doctrines such as personal conversion, focus on the cross, and the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Consequently, Pastor Davis’ sermons often emphasizes that the Bible has a direct message of prosperity applied to life of the believer. That message addresses issues such as health, wealth and general human wellbeing, themes that are central to the faith experiences of immigrants. The fact that such themes are present is not surprising because both its Nigerian and Romanian constituents have histories that are wrought with experiences of the impact of endemic poverty, poor healthcare and economic hardship on life. A church that speaks to these issues will attract sympathies from congregants. For this reason, LWM intends to equip its membership to not only reach out to Flemish neighbours with the gospel, but to be witnesses of the love of Christ in very concrete and practical ways. To make this happen, LWM has both sought membership within the structures of the Federal Synod of Protestant and Evangelical churches and encourages members to serve the less fortunate in and around Antwerp. Its leadership often participate in the training programs organized by the Federal Synod.39
Also situated in the multicultural city of Antwerp is Wesley Methodist Church International Worship (WMCIW). Founded in 2002 by four Ghanaian immigrants who were disappointed about the unavailability of worship services that were reminiscent of Ghanaian Methodism in the Antwerp metropolis, the church quickly grew, attracting to its fold other Ghanaian and Nigerian immigrants who had similar experiences of mainline Protestant missionary Christianity in West Africa. Soon after its formation, WMCIW purchased its own building from which it presently runs its pastoral activities. In 2005, WMCIW applied for and obtained membership with the United Protestant Church, a recognized denomination with the Administrative Council for Protestant and Evangelical Religion in Belgium.40 With a fulltime Ghanaian-born and German trained intercultural theologian as its minister, the very Reverend Bernard Bamfo-Bosompem has led WMCIW to take its place as an important player in the minority Protestant fraternity in Flanders. The Reverend Bamfo-Bosompem is currently pursuing doctoral studies in theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Brussels. Financially supported by the Methodist Church in Ghana, WMCIW understands itself as being involved in God’s global mission in the world. Through what they see as creating good citizens who reflect the love of God in society, WMCIW is working to contribute its bit to human development and the common good in Belgium. To embolden its voice in society, WMCIW regularly invites civil authorities to talk on important social issues affecting African immigrant populations in Antwerp. Furthermore, the pastor is a member of the special board established by Antwerp city authorities and the well-known Institute of Tropical Medicine to respond to the specific impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on immigrant African populations in Antwerp. Though modest, these steps indicate that African Christian churches are committed to improving the general welfare of communities at destination countries. While WMCIW is not oblivious to the continuing challenges it faces as it exercises its church and pastoral ministry, the church feels committed to sharing their faith in Christ to anyone who will be open to listen – whether they are fellow African diaspora Christians seeking spiritual counsel or Flemish Belgians curious about the mission of African Christian churches.
Earlier in this chapter, I cited the 1994 Rwandan genocide as a contributing factor to the swelling population of African immigrants in Belgium. Whereas the horrors of the Rwandan genocide are still fresh, nowhere is this horrendous past preserved in Belgium than among Rwandan Christians who are members of the Evangeliekerk (EK) in the Flemish city of Dendermonde, situated in the province of East Flanders. Even though the events of 1994 did refocus attention on unresolved ethnic tensions and rivalries between Hutus and Tutsis, Rwanda experienced similar circumstances that led to the dispersal of Tutsis to neighbouring countries in 1959.41 Therefore, when the 1994 genocide occurred, it again forced many to flee death at the hands of their own kinsmen. The Rwandan Christians at EK first fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo before eventually arriving in Belgium as refugees. At the EK in Dendermonde, “the Rwandese community form a substantial portion of this church and they bring a lot of color and culture to an otherwise rather traditional Belgium protestant church.”42 Founded in 1926 and still presided over by an indigenous Flemish Protestant leadership, EK has a long history of resisting official attempts to supress minority Protestant Christianity in Belgium. Thus, this history, coupled with a firm adherence to God’s word and God’s help, allowed the EK to welcome many refugees including Rwandans.43 Even though the Rwandan refugees at EK come from both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds, their Christian faith and migratory experiences show three recurring issues that imbibe resilience among the community: “(i) the worthlessness of riches; (ii) the temporality of suffering; and (iii) the recognition of God’s hand in everything.”44 Explaining how most of them were well-off by Rwandan standards prior to the genocide, they bemoan the incapacity of riches in and of themselves to save life. Beyond this sombre reality, they also celebrate the temporary nature of suffering no matter how hineous this was and the surpassing goodness of God who is said to preserve human life throughout the changing scenes of life. This orientation to life meant that while seeking to fully integrate in an indigenous Flemish Protestant church in Dendermonde, they were able to use their persional experiences – of faith, suffering, death, hope and new life – to bring about Christian vitality at EK.
The preceding discussion not only identified the diverse presence of African Christians at two indigenous Flemish Evangelical/Protestant and two African founded and led churches, it also shows what liturgical practices African Christians have adopted to help preserve their faith experiences in a secular Flanders. Whereas African Christians may have been members of local Flemish Evangelical and Protestant churches or have helped to establish independent African Christian churches, the mode by which African Christians express their faith and experience Christian spirituality, is different from those of host communities. For this reason, even if migration does impact how the Christian faith is expressed, it is precisely through those migratory contexts that this form of Christian spirituality takes up nuances that are deemed suited to the secular western contexts where immigrant Africans now live. Liturgical practices such as biblical proclamation, the exercise of spiritual power, the yearnings for prosperity, and the performative effects of prayer and praise bear witness to the quest African Christians aspire to have as they work to mediate Christian revival in Flanders.
4. How African Christian Churches Confront and Negotiate Challenges
African Christian churches have no doubt contributed to an enhanced appreciation of the recent developments emerging from World Christianity that have occurred in the Flemish region of Belgium. Whether they are to be found within the confines of Flemish primordial churches that have attracted majority African Christian membership or among immigrant churches that are established by the African diaspora, African Christian communities are bringing new vitality to the faith expressions of minority Evangelical and Protestant community in the Flemish north of Belgium. Although this development indeed points to the attempts by immigrant faith communities to integrate the indigenous and pilgrim principles in its church praxis, however, the specific pastoral ministry contexts and missionary engagements of African Christian churches in Flanders are challenged by several factors. Four of these factors and how African Christians have responded are explored below.
First, African Christian churches struggle with how to negotiate ecclesiological integration and find a place within the minority Evangelical and Protestant church space in Flanders. Soon after their constitution, African Christian churches are likely to express a desire to apply for membership within the formal structures of the Administrative Council for Protestant and Evangelical Religion in Belgium (which goes with the Dutch acronym ARPEE). Under the auspices of ARPEE, the Federal Synod which represents the Evangelical wing, and the United Protestant Church which represents the Protestant wing, have diversified partner denominations who are open to membership from churches with similar faith and doctrinal beliefs.45 Whereas these denominations are open to new applications for membership, African Christian churches tend to feel that they are either not well represented or integrated in these primordial ecclesiological structures. This means that even after obtaining membership within Flemish ecclesiological organizations, African Christian churches continue to maintain ties with existing pastoral and ecclesial networks at countries of origin or elsewhere to which they were members prior to migration. Further, while African Christian churches largely commence operations as ethnic/cultural churches serving immigrants and ethnic minorities, these churches are soon challenged to progress beyond this mode of ministry and open their church fellowships to international audiences. This process of becoming multicultural churches where pastoral ministry, biblical instruction and worship services are conducted in languages that attract a wider international audience ensures that African Christian churches intentionally want to progress from mainly achieving the indigenous principle to embracing the pilgrim principle.
A second issue that challenges African Christian churches concerns how they administratively organize and align ministry practices within the requisite confines of both Flemish and federal law in Belgium. As churches that are known for conducting vibrant and sound intensive congregational worship services, buying properties at which their ministries are operated and where the peace of neighbours is not disturbed, tends to become a top priority. However, because these churches are relatively new religious actors in Flanders, they will have to provide appropriate government authorisation to either operate as religious non-governmental organizations or as part of the recognized religions in Belgium.46 However, because state recognition is often a long and complicated process that many African Christian churches are unable to attain, their ability to acquire properties and operate as legal entities may be difficult. In addition, other administrative bottlenecks such as the struggle to pay salaries and emoluments to workers; the need to conduct worship services and liturgical practices in ways that do not conflict with the laws on noise nuisance and urbanism; maintaining proper financial records and submitting annual financial reports to appropriate government departments where they have non-governmental status, also hinder the impact that African Christian churches have on constituents and Flemish society. These factors are not because the leaders lack appropriate administrative and organizational skills. Rather, they exist because a good majority of these clerics serve these churches on a part time basis, while having full time employment responsibilities to be fulfilled elsewhere. If these churches were able to properly operate like their local counterparts, collaboration with Flemish ecclesiological organizations, state actors and social service providers would ensure that African Christian churches have access to services which allow for the provision of appropriate pastoral interventions to its clientele.
A third challenge emerging from the African Christian church contexts in Flanders relates to the need to provide intergenerational ministry for all age-related categories of immigrants who depend on its pastoral guidance. As first-generation migrants, retaining membership at the African Christian churches they have set up offers a sense of belonging and promotes participation in known liturgical practices that compensate for the losses incurred due to migration.47 But while this may serve the needs of first-generation migrants, it completely undercuts the need of Christian spirituality by second-generation and mixed-race migrants who were born and are growing up in a religiously secular Flemish society. For this reason, African Christian churches are restrained by their inability to offer church and pastoral ministry that keeps both generation of African migrants connected to the Christian faith and anchored in the church. Further, these churches often struggle to provide meaningful pastoral ministry experiences to the few mixed-race couples who are members of the churches. This is especially important because the understanding of spirituality acquired by one couple from home countries (such as doctrines about the effects of demonic possession on life) is often different from the spirituality experienced by the spouse or second-generation migrants who are raised in diaspora contexts. In such circumstances, the role of science in Flemish society often takes prominence over the faith interpretations offered by first-generation African Christian immigrants.
A final challenge created by the accession of African Christian churches in Flanders borders on the espousal of theological and missional relevance in secular western societies. In the Flemish north, African Christian churches struggle to express African Christian spirituality and forms of the faith in ways that converge with Belgium’s secular policy of liberal neutrality. In such contexts, processes of evangelization and missional practices that are considered a given for many churches at origin countries in Africa are suddenly exposed to implicit restrictions imposed by adherence to the entrenched secularization of the state. Because African Christians, like Christian counterparts elsewhere in the majority world church, often embrace conservative biblical theologies,48 their exposure either to liberal theologies or western values of secularization, threatens their clamour for missionary engagements in Europe. The effects that this development creates certainly impacts upon the models of internal, common or reverse mission work adopted by African Christian churches among host communities.49 African Christians and the churches they have established are passionate about their faith and the need to engage in purposeful international missions, evangelism and church planting in secularized contexts such as Flanders. Because they are accustomed to religious plurality, they are likely to use such contexts for evangelistic purposes. However, in the secular west, the way the church’s mission is constructed has taken different shades of meanings. Consequently, clerics of African-founded, African-majority and African-led churches are challenged to proclaim the message of the gospel in ways that bear witness to God’s grace in Christ for all peoples – whether they are immigrants or indigenes. To ensure effectiveness, African Christian churches will be well served if its pastoral leadership are willing to take advantage of the various theological training programs available in Flanders to design theologies that are intentional and missionally engage with secular Flemish society.
5. Conclusion
African Christian churches in Europe have been interpreted using a variety of perspectives, the most prominent of which connects their rise to the arrival of the descendants of Europe’s missionary Christian engagements overseas. Consequently, Christians coming from Africa, as are those from elsewhere, are now believed to be contributing to a blessed-reflex that brings a spiral of renewal in World Christianity.50 In the Flemish north of Belgium, while African Christian churches are relatively new religious actors, they nevertheless seem to be modestly contributing to the transformation of minority Evangelical and Protestant Christianity. From establishing churches of their own to patronizing indigenous Flemish Evangelical/Protestant churches, African Christians not only reflect the ligneous characteristics of the spiritual vitality for which African Christianity is known today, they also appear to be reviving minority Protestantism in Flanders. Through their celebratory worship services, fervent and persistent prayer vigils, deliverance rituals and proclamation gleaned from their understanding of biblical promises, African Christians are attempting to reintroduce what would be described a revivalist form of Christianity in Flanders. Nevertheless, in their quest to realize this missional calling, African Christian churches are challenged to progress beyond merely attempting to fulfil the indigenous principle to working towards achieving the pilgrim principle, becoming a church where Christ’s completeness encompasses all humanity, whether they be migrating Africans or indigenous Flemish Belgians among whom they have resettled.
José Casanova, Global Religious and Secular Dynamics: The Modern System of Classification, Leiden 2019; Christian Joppke, The Secular State Under Siege: Religion and Politics in Europe and America, Cambridge 2015; Grace Davie, Europe, The Exceptional Case: Parameters of Faith in the Modern World, London 2010; Peter L. Berger (ed.), The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Grand Rapids 1999.
Philip Jenkins, The Next Reformation: The Coming of Global Christianity, New York 2014; Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History, Maryknoll, NY 2002.
Steve Bruce, Secular Beats Spiritual: The Westernization of the Easternization of the West, Oxford 2017; James R. Lewis/Inga Tøllefsen, Handbook of Nordic New Religions, Boston/Leiden 2015; Arthur Zajonic, Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love, Great Barrington, Massachusetts 2009.
Jeremy R. Carrette/Huge Miall, Religion, NGOs and the United Nations: Visible and Invisible Actors in Power, London 2018; Thomas Luckmann, The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society, New York 1974.
Sebastian Kim/Kirsteen Kim, Christianity as a World Religion: An Introduction, London 22016; Timothy C. Tennent, Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church is influencing the way we think about and discuss Theology, Grand Rapids 2009.
Krzysztof Michalski, Religion in the New Europe, Budapest 2006; Johan Leman et al., New Multicultural Identities in Europe. Religion and Ethnicity in Secular Societies, Leuven 2019.
Afe Adogame, The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora: Imagining the Religious ‘Other’, London 2016.
Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West, Grand Rapids 2003, 1–5.
Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, Maryknoll, NY 1996, 7–9; Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process, 78; Stephen B. Bevans, Essays in Contextual Theology, Leiden/Boston 2018.
Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process, 78.
See, Martha Fredericks, Microcosm of the Global South: The Discursive Functionality of Migrant Christianity in World Christianity Discourses, in: Exchange 48/4 (2019), 313–333.
Cf. Judith Casselberry/Elizabeth A. Pritchard, Spirit on the Move: Black Women and Pentecostalism in Africa and the Diaspora, Durham 2019; Afe Adogame et al. (eds.), Migration and Public Discourses in World Christianity, Minneapolis 2019; Lord Elorm Donkor/Clifton R. Clarke (eds.), African Pentecostal Missions Maturing: Essays in Honor of Apostle Opoku Onyinah, Eugene, Oregon 2018.
Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction, Seattle 1997, 26.
Todd M. Johnson/Gina A. Zurlo, Global Christianity and Global Diaspora, 38–56, in: Chandler H. Im/Amos Yong (eds.), Global diasporas and Mission, Oxford 2014, 38.
Kenneth R. Ross, Blessed Reflex: Mission as God’s Spiral of Renewal, in: International Bulletin of Missionary Research 27/4 (2003), 162–168.
Saba Imtiaz, A New Generation Redefines What It Means to Be a Missionary, in: The Atlantic Global (8th March 2018) https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/ 2018/03/young-missionaries/551585/ (19.9.2019).
Rebecca Catto, From the Rest to the West: Exploring Reversal in Christian Mission in Twenty-First Century Britain, Exeter 2008.
Rosewith I. H. Gerloff, The Significance of the african Christian Diaspora in Europe, in: International Review of Mission 89/354 (2000), 498–510.
See for instance: Maité Maskens, Mobility among Pentecostal Pastors and Migratory Miracles, in: Canadian Journal of African Studies 46/3 (2012), 397–409; Sarah Demart, Congolese Migration to Belgium and Postcolonial Studies, in: African Diaspora 6 (2013), 1–20; Jelle Creemers, Evangelical Free Churches and State Support in Belgium: Praxis and Discourse from 1987 to Today, in: Trajecta: Religion, Culture and Society in the Low Countries 24 (2015), 177–204; David Bundy, Pentecostalism in Belgium, in: Pneuma 8/1 (1986), 41–57; Colin Godwin, The Recent Growth of Pentecostalism in Belgium, in: International Bulletin of Missionary Research 37/2 (2013a), 90–95; Colin Godwin, Belgian Protestantism from the Reformation to the Present: A Concise History of its Mission and Unity, in: European Journal of Theology 22/2 (2013b), 154–155.
Mohamerd Berriane et al., Revisiting Moroccan Migrations, London 2018; Karim Ettourki et al. (eds.), Moroccan Migration in Belgium: More Than 50 Years of Settlement, Baltimore, Maryland 2018; June J. H. Lee, Moroccan Migration Dynamics, Lanham 2002; Ron J. Lesthaeghe, Communities and Generations: Turkish and Moroccan Populations in Belgium, Brussels 2000.
Guy Vanthemsche, Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980, Cambridge 2018; Matthew G. Stanard, The Leopard, the Lion and the Cock: Colonial Memories and Monuments in Belgium, Leuven 2015; Lieve Spaas, How Belgium Colonized the Mind of the Congo: Seeking Memory of an African People, Lewiston, NY 2007; Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Boston 1999.
Stanard, The Leopard, the Lion and the Cock; Martin Ewans, European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and its Aftermath, London 2017; David Renton et al., The Congo: Plunder and Resistance, London 2007; Roger Anstey, The Congo Rubber Attrocities: A Case Study, in: African Historical Studies 4/1 (1971), 59–76; Augustine Buisseret, The Policy of Belgium in Her Overseas Territories: Address to the House of Representatives in Brussels on June 26, 1957, Brussels 1957.
Enika Ngongo, The Forgotten: African Soldier and Porters of the Belgian Colonial Forces in the First World War, in: Revue Belge d’Histoire Contemporaine, XLVIII.1–2 (2018), 14–33.
Demart, Congolese Migration to Belgium and Postcolonial Studies.
Dibudi Way-Way, The African Christian Diaspora in Belgium with special reference to the International Church of Brussels, in: International Review of Mission 89/354 (2000), 451–456; Godwin, The Recent Growth of Pentecostalism in Belgium.
Jean-Pier Grimmeau, Vagues dímmigration et localisation des étrangers en Belgique, in: Anne Morelli (ed.), Histoire des étrangers et de l’immigration en Belgique de la préhistoire à nos jours, Bruxelles [1992] 2004, 119.
Stephen Castles/Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, Basingstoke 2009, 27–28; Helga A. G. De Valk/Didier Willaert, Internal Mobility of Migrants: The Case of Belgium, in: Nissa Finney/Gemma Catney (eds.), Minority Internal Migration in Europe, London 2012.
See for instance: John E. Akude, Governance and Crisis of the State in Africa: The Context and Dynamics of the Conflicts in West Africa, London 2009; Marie V. Gibert, Monitoring a Region in Crisis: The European Union in West Africa, Paris 2007; Diery Seck, Regional Economic Integration in West Africa, Wein 2014.
Valentina Mazzucato et al., Transnational Families between Africa and Europe, in: International Migration Review 49/1 (2015), 142–172.
Maskens, Mobility among Pentecostal Pastors and Migratory Miracles, 397–409.
De Valk/ Willaert, Internal Mobility of Migrants: The Case of Belgium.
Cf. De Valk/Willaert, Internal Mobility of Migrants: The Case of Belgium.
Jean-Michel Lafleur/Abdeslam Marfouk, A Common Home: Migration and Development in Belgium, Brussels 2019, 9.
Nancy Foner/Richard Alba, Immigrant Religion in the US and Western Europe: Bridge or Barrier to Integration, in: International Migration Review 42/2 (2008), 360–392.
Ignace Demaerel, Tachtig Jaar Pinksterbeweging in Vlaanderen (1909–1989): Een Historisch Onderzoek Met Korte Theologische En Sociologische Analyse, Brussel 1990.
Jan Florentie, Reflections on immigrant Christian community: An African majority community in Vilvoorde, A Paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course, World Christianities, Global Migration and Intercultural Missiology, Leuven 2020.
Tuna Taşan-Kok/Jan Vranken, From Survival to Competition? The Socio-Spatial Evolution of Turkish Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Antwerp, 151–168, in: Peter Ache et al. (eds.), Cities between Competitiveness and Cohesion, Dordrecht 2008.
Willem Maertens, The Levites World Mission Antwerp: A Research Paper, A Paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course, World Christianities, Global Migration and Intercultural Missiology, Leuven 2020, 5.
Course for Ecclesiastical Administration (Unpublished Course Manual, Brussels 2019).
Jan Witsel, Wesley Methodist Church International Worship: Reflections on a Ghanaian Community in Antwerp, A Paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course, World Christianities, Global Migration and Intercultural Missiology, Leuven 2020.
Phillip A. Cantrell, “We Were a Chosen People”: The East African Revival and Its Return to Post-Genocide Rwanda, in: Church History 83/2 (2014), 422–445.
Thomas E. Schepers, Seeing God through the lens of Genocide: The Rwandese diaspora, faith and the search for a new home, A Paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course, World Christianities, Global Migration and Intercultural Missiology, Leuven 2020.
Peter Smits, Wie zijn we – Historisch overzicht (Evangeliekerk 2020), http://evangelie kerk.be/index.php?id=304 (11.11.2020).
Schepers, Seeing God through the lens of Genocide.
Cf. Jelle Creemers, We Are (Kind of) Protestants Too! Self-Categorization of Free Church Evangelicals in Communications with the Belgian Authorities (1992–1997), in: Journal of Church and State 61/1 (2019), 41–58.
Cf. Leni Franken, State Support for Religion in Belgium: A Critical Evaluation, in: Journal of Church and State 59/1 (2017), 59–80.
Cf. Foner/Alba, Immigrant Religion in the US and Western Europe.
Cf. Timothy C. Tennent, Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think About and Discuss Theology, Grand Rapids 2009, 1–24.
Cf. Jan A. B. Jongeneel, The Mission of Migrant Churches in Europe, in: Missiology: An International Review 31/1 (2003), 29–33; Werner Kahl, A Theological Perspective: The Common Missionary Vocation of Mainline and Migrant Churches, in:International Review of Mission 91/362 (2002), 328–341; Claudia Währisch-Oblau, From Reverse Mission to Common Mission … We Hope: Immigrant Protestant Churches and the ‘Programme for Cooperation between German and Immigrant Congregations’ of the United Evangelical Mission, in: International Review of Mission 89/354 (2000), 467–483.
Cf. Ross, Blessed Reflex: Mission as God’s Spiral of Renewal.