Church But Not as We Know It
I have been saturated in the European church scene my whole life. Surrounded in funny little rituals like bowing my head when someone prays, dressing nicely on a Sunday and holding hands when saying grace. There are so many more that I wouldn't be able to name because I don't see them as cultural rituals but Christian rituals. The things that Christians do.
I wonder what our church would look like if we stopped trying to make "European" Christians. What does a church for "Maraenui" Christians look like? I have a feeling if we were serious about providing a comfortable environment for the locals then the process is that we change and then then come, because if it were the other way around I think we'd be waiting a while. Like, forever.
What are some other cultural rituals that we as European Christians perform? What things could we do in our churches to make certain minorities (in the church attendance sense) feel more comfortable?
1:15 AM
There were some mint quotes about the culture thing in the sermon, Andy. I was going to use them in the post but I didn't want to misquote you. You should crank them out.
2:45 PM
Hey bo, tell which quotes you mean and I'll try and crank them out...
4:26 PM
Hmm, if I knew what they were I would have just done it myself, haha. It was something specific to the culture aspects of the church. The statistics about the Maori peoples flocking to the church and then all leaving again pretty soon after. What was it, like, 95% or something nuts?
3:13 PM
Ok. The best books by far on this is Allan Davidson and Peter Lineham's "Transplanted Christianity" and Allan's "Christianity in Aotearoa" (I have them both if you want to borrow them). Allan was my lecturer at Uni and he was awesome!
T. S. Grace, a Eurpopean missionary, said this in reflection on the Maori view of the missionaries and Christianity following the lands wars: "They have yet another charge against us common as household words with them, one hears it at all times and in all places and from every section of the people. They say "that we came to this country and taught them to lift their eyes to heaven while we ourselves kept our own turned down to the land." A very important chief said to me on my journey "The people will never come back to you because you obtained lands for the use of the Church and have given them to the Europeans." I could mention scores of remarks to the same effect."
Some Methodist church stats before and after the land wars to show what a devastating effect it had on mission:
Maori Church Members in 1855: 3070
Maori Church Members in 1874: 375
Euro Church Members in 1855: 508
Euro Church Members in 1874: 2726
Maori Worship Attndce 1855: 7590
Maori Worship Attndce 1874: 2434
Euro Worship Attndce 1855: 2514
Euro Worship Attndce 1874: 22589
The comparison is frightening. The Methodists decided to side with the European settlers and turned on the Maori people who had supported them with protection, land and food - very ugly!