For Black History Month, our team wanted to mark this event well. I asked leaders past and present within the three denominations JPIT works on behalf of about their views on leadership, belonging and representation within the Churches. I encouraged each leader to be honest about the obstacles, what is already working and what could come next.
In the first of the two posts, we hear from Karen Campbell, who is the Head of Global and Intercultural Church for the United Reformed Church and Reverend Dr Israel Olofinjana, a Baptist minister who leads Colchester Baptist Church. Their words are lightly edited for length and clarity.
Three times she said no
Both Karen and Israel described their journeys as being far from linear. Israel’s calling began in Nigeria in the 1990s, soon after he became a Christian. ‘It all started with that sense of call’, he stated. He then had the opportunity to go to Bible college and gain a degree at the University of Ibadan. Pastors who kept giving him chances to lead, even in Sunday school (which in Nigeria was for adults as well).
Karen was blunt about her journey, saying, ‘I did not seek anything; where I am is in spite of me.’ When asked about her journey to eldership, then to minister, and on to her current post, she recalled that her first response each time was to say no. However, each time she made the same promise with God that ‘if you want this to happen, make it happen and I will do my best.’ Her friends also provided support: a former colleague read the job description for the role she has today and told her to apply because they couldn’t imagine someone more suited. Her scepticism was rooted in a perception that she was underqualified because her predecessor was an academic but what Karen brought was something entirely different: years of grassroots ministry in a multicultural community and a willingness to learn alongside others. A church that wants to be intercultural needs leaders who understand that from the inside.
A reflection. Leaders in the Bible rarely volunteer. Moses asks, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?’ (Exodus 3:11). God skips the CV and promises presence, ‘I will be with you’. (Exodus 3:12). Karen’s promise to God is a contemporary outworking of the same conversation.
The picture in our heads
Israel described a double edge in Black leadership; it is grounded in a deep heritage, yet is still treated as unfamiliar. Its history dates back to early African church fathers such as Tertullian and Victorian Black Baptist ministers like Peter Thomas Stanford who ‘occupy a significant space’. However, our understanding of what leadership looks like is still white. The gifts we search for are measured against a familiar image of a leader, and so Black leaders can end up being perceived as distinctive, a novelty for a church to have instead of the standard. Israel illustrates how Black leadership is not a new phenomenon; the Church has been slow to recognise a tradition that is already its own
Karen described a similar weight of that same feeling: ‘I don’t either succeed or fail just as Karen, I succeed or fail as Black Karen’. She is conscious of representing more than herself; how she comes across affects how other Black colleagues are examined, which makes her careful about her words. Sometimes she feels as though being invited into a room is a form of box-ticking and she expressed once being invited to a meeting with no introduction and no idea what was actually happening. It emphasises a recurring theme of these conversations
The difference between presence and participation.
Having someone in the room is completely different to working in a way that lets their voice shape the outcomes. This means making sure that everyone knows what participation looks like; for instance, in this case, being consulted before the agenda is set. The encouraging aspect is that this is a change of habit and not a doctrine. Any committee or working group can start tomorrow by asking before the meeting what each person is being invited to shape.
A reflection. Israel’s point about heritage is fascinating as well as biblical. The Church at Antioch was led by prophets and teachers, including Simeon ‘who was called Niger’ and Lucius of Cyrene (Acts 13:1), names many scholars read as African. The Psalmist even imagines it: “Let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God” (Psalm 68:31). The Church did not begin as a white institution. In response to tokenism, Samuel is told that “the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And presence without participation doesn’t fit with how Paul describes the Church as a body: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21).
Assimilation or belonging
I put the question to both Israel and Karen about Black representation within leadership and what it means to lead as a Black person in the Church. Israel recounted his first UK church, which was a multicultural congregation in Lewisham. It gave him a strong sense of belonging and opened the door to his ministry. This is what it looks like when a church gets it right.
However, he shared the sentiment that there have been occasions in his various leadership roles where he felt he needed to assimilate to survive, rather than actually feeling as if he belonged. He wants this year’s Black History Month to make space for Black and minority ethnic people to feel confident to share their experiences and have a healthy dialogue about their thoughts on representation within the church landscape.
A reflection. Paul tells the Ephesians that they are “no longer strangers and aliens, but… members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). Belonging is a status God has already provided for us.
Who decides who is in the room?
Karen shares a searching example of having challenged leaders who defended the lack of diversity in their committee meeting. They had wondered aloud whether anyone could know the [white] people in the room weren’t simply the ones God had called. Her response was that: God may call, but ‘it is human processes which appoint’. Black Christians are called in the same way and should be visible across the Church in ministers, lay leaders and more. So what happens between the calling and the appointing?
She also doubts the ‘level playing field’. If the skills that are being asked for are fashioned on whoever has always held certain roles, the process quietly favours more of the same. Karen is against quotas because she doesn’t want anyone to be appointed for being Black instead of being the right person. What she would like to see from the Church would be deliberate mechanisms, such as noticing when no senior posts are held by Black colleagues and working harder to find qualified candidates, and daring to appoint people with different skills and experiences. This does not lower the standards; in fact, it widens where the church looks for talent and ensures that capable people are not overlooked because they do not fit a conventional profile of leadership.
A reflection. Peter learning that the gospel was for Cornelius too, says ‘God shows no partiality’ (Acts 10:34). If that is true of God, our processes deserve scrutiny.
More than a Headcount
Israel wants to see is an end to Black and minority leadership being remarkable; it is not enough to say “we have 26 nationalities here”. The question is whether that shapes the constitution, the trustees, the worship, and who preaches and how. A church can have a high number of nationalities present and still have every decision being made by a few people. The real test is who sits on the trustee board and who is trusted with the pulpit. Those are all things a church can change by choice.
Karen’s advice to anyone turned down is to keep putting themselves forward, “because somebody’s got to break the mould. Black Christians are not going away,” she says. ‘It is our church too.’
Next steps – What could your church do next
Three questions to take to your next church council or trustees’ meeting
- When our church last wanted to appointed someone, who did we think of first and why?
- Who is in our meetings, and whose voices actually shapes what we decide?
- Do our constitution, worship and preaching show the whole of who we are?
Karen and Israel are asking the Church to become more of what it already claims to be: a household where nobody is a stranger.
To Karen and Israel, thank you.