Distinctives of African Urban Ministry

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by John J. Shane

Forty-five percent of the population of Africa will be living in an urban area by the year 2000. (1) This is the same continent where the church has been growing so fast that some have predicted the shift of the center of Christianity from the West to Africa. In a context of a growing church and growing urbanization we might ask, "What is distinctive about urban ministry in tropical Africa? How does it differ from ministry in rural settings?"

With these thoughts in mind I have talked to pastors, lay leaders, and parachurch workers in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire, among others, about the distinctives of urban ministry in their settings. I have also noted insights from their sermons, lectures, and informal talks. This article reflects some of what I've learned so far.

It is the fruit of qualitative research - a convenience sample, if you will - not of a rigorous, quantitative process. My role has primarily been to synthesize the observations and life experiences of African brothers and sisters. (2) (In fact, Nairobi pastor Ronald Munyithya has made an excellent presentation on the subject that I hope will find its way into print. (3) These thoughts represent a composite picture. There is much variety between individual congregations, depending on what part of a city they are in.

Furthermore, the geographic scope of these observations is tropical Africa - that swath across the continent between the Islamic countries of North Africa and the Republic of South Africa. From this point on, the use of the terms Africa or African refers to tropical Africa. The regional differences within tropical Africa would ordinarily suggest separate treatment. However, the striking similarity of experiences and observations shared by West and East Africans has caused me to report them together.

Anthony O'Connor has argued that it is a mistake to lump all Third World urbanization into a single category to be given equal treatment (O'Connor 1983, 19). African urbanization differs from that in Latin America and Asia and differs within the continent as well. However, African urban centers tend to hold some characteristics' in common, such as dire poverty, ethnic diversity, urban-rural relationships, and the experience of European colonial rule (with the notable exceptions of Liberia and Ethiopia). Of particular importance is the strong rural tie maintained by urban dwellers. As O'Connor notes, the African urban population is much less clearly defined than in other parts of the world because the people frequently move between city and countryside. "In speaking of the urban population, therefore, we refer not to a highly discrete set of people, but rather to those living within the cities and towns at a particular point in time (O'Connor 1983, 19).

O'Connor's list of common characteristics is a summary one. So is this list of urban ministry distinctives. Others could no doubt be added, and other ways of categorizing the material could be followed. This is, however, a starting place. The seven distinctives or categories of issues I have heard pastors and others identify are: parishioner mobility, finances, counseling/family problems, audience sophistication, complex social and religious structure of the city, time orientation/pace of life, and the magnitude of social/physical needs.

Mobility

The tie that African urban dwellers have to the rural areas and the resulting transient urban population point to the first distinctive to be considered - ministry in a fluid context. The urban dweller is constantly moving, within the city and between the city and the countryside. Even the church members counted on most are sometimes "lost" in the shifting patterns of population movement. This seems to be particularly so in the lower-income areas. Pastors commonly remark about the high rate of turn-over in their congregations. In the country, observes Ronald Munyithya, you know where the people are. They are either at church or some known place, of ten the city, and may well have left family members "at home." You expect them to show up periodically. When someone "goes missing" in a city church, their whereabouts are less likely to be known. (4)

People shifting around the city also contribute to scattered congregations. Although this varies some with the type of church (city-wide, neighborhood, etc.), urban pastors are often faced with members spread over a vast area. The greater number of health care facilities in the city as compared to the countryside also exacerbates this, as church members receiving medical care can be dispersed all over the city. The average African pastor does not own a car and public transportation is often slow and unreliable, as it strains under the large numbers moving around the city. This makes the task of visiting parishioners more difficult.

Finances

Another difference between ministry in the city and ministry in the country is that the city operates on a currency-based economy. At least it can be fairly said that city life is much more currency-oriented than rural life (Little 1974, 1), Most things have to be bought with cash in the city, whereas in the village, people are more apt to be self-reliant through farming or bartering hand-made goods. Also,the cost of living is lower in the village. Yet that very currency-based economy also draws many to the city. "It's the place people run to for money," notes Pastor Munyithya. A city job is often the solution for a cash-strapped rural family facing a capital project.

This generally accepted view of the city as a source of cash raises expectations on the part of the country cousins that the city dwellers have money. Some results are that the extended family will turn up when they have financial needs, city families experience money-related stresses, and city dwellers experience the stress of trying to maintain an affluent image. Within denominations, city congregations are viewed as extremely wealthy and are expected to provide financial assistance to rural church leaders.

Also, city churches tend to have larger congregations with accompanying larger offerings. There is more money to handle with the concomitant need for greater accounting and administrative skills. Partly for this reason, government inspectors have called for at least one Nairobi seminary to incorporate more management training into their curriculum.

Finances also become a point of contention within some urban churches where people from different parts of the country are brought together. They may well have different ideas about how money should be handled. The northern and southern regions of Nigeria are reportedly areas that would have such differences. (That may be a difficult issue to detect by outsiders.) A similar money-related disagreement occurs when rising young leaders with Western educations want to apply commercial accounting practices in a church governed by older leaders with less stringent accounting standards. That can be an urban-rural, modern-traditional difference.

Because city life is currency-oriented and expensive as well, African urban ministers are susceptible to the frustration of feeling that spiritual considerations in ministry decisions are subsumed under the demands of Mammon. Land and building prices are high, pastor's housing, transportation, and children's school fees are expensive. "In the country we could throw up a simple thatch building," observed a missionary in Ghana, "and the pastor could cultivate a small plot. It's more difficult here in the city."

Counseling/ Family Problems

Financial pressures and other stresses have given urban pastors more and varied counseling problems. A Nigerian friend observed that ministry in the city puts greater pressure on a pastor's counseling skills as a result of the greater number and variety of counseling problems.

A common counseling issue I have heard pastors mention is family-related problems. Some have even said that this is the predominant counseling problem an urban pastor faces. Financial pressures strain relationships. New stresses come when the wife takes a job to alleviate their money problems. Her role changes from the traditional one that focused largely on farm labor. Sometimes the wife is the only one bringing in a salary, or she earns a higher salary than the husband. The salaried wife also enjoys a greater degree of independence. All of these situations can strain the relationship.

Another pastor, Samuel Tugba, pointed out that there is more freedom in the city setting. Women can have a wider circle of associates than in the village. This is indicated by the fact that most city churches have abandoned the traditional, sexually segregated seating in the worship services. These social changes can also cause stress and adjustment in the family. Furthermore, all of this is going on with diminished support from traditional institutions, particularly the extended family.

Grace Kimathi, an expert on contemporary African family life, points to the history of labor migration as a factor in the current urban family situation (Kimathi 1987). During the days of European colonial administration, the focus was on casual labor of a temporal nature. Family housing was discouraged. All of this reinforced the pattern of men leaving their families. The advent of uhuru (Swahili for "freedom") has not necessarily changed the pattern. Contemporary realities, such as the need to maintain contact in the traditional home area, continue to foster a situation in which families are split between the country and the city. (5)

Today's African urban Christian, notes Mrs. Kimathi, is a child of three worlds - the rural/ traditional, the urban/Western, and the Judeo/Christian. The urban Christian and his family are sometimes hard pressed by conflicts between these worlds. The pastor's counseling load reflects that conflict.

For example, the generation of parents who experienced the colonial administration of their country developed a "Karani mentality" (Karani is the Swahili word for clerk) which placed a high value on white-collar office jobs. Those were the prestige jobs under the colonial administration. The parents wanted the best for their children and naturally thought that, under the circumstances, a European education and European lifestyle in the city would be the best. Children were seen as their parents' bank (Lappe 1977). For their children to drive a big car, live in a big house, and educate others in the family attributed status and significance to the parents.

Those children now have the education and European lifestyle in the city. (6) They are parents themselves. They also struggle with what values to teach their children and what traditional ceremonies to participate in or make provision for. They face many unresolved conflicts. Ministry in today's urban context means helping families resolve the conflicts. It calls for creative, biblical, and meaningful substitutes for important aspects of traditional life that have not carried over into the modern city.

This discussion cannot adequately address the matter of youth in the African urban context, which is closely tied to the family struggles just mentioned. It must be enough at present to say that the church in Africa's cities faces a generation of young people increasingly cut off from traditional cultural institutions. Many more are turning to alcohol and other drugs and indulging in premarital sex (teenage pregnancies and abortions are growing problems) than in traditional society (Ochieng 1987, 12).

Audience Sophistication

The sophisticated audience an urban pastor works with is another distinctive. Urban dwellers are generally more highly educated and experienced in diverse fields such as law, business, architecture, and politics than country dwellers. (Remember the caveat about this being a composite picture.) A Nigerian pastor remarked that when one moves from the village to the city his worldview changes. This is exhibited even in his dress. In the village people dress more simply and are quick to notice expensive clothes. Rural Christians are likely to consider expensive clothes as indicators of a "worldly attitude." Village churches may even have dress rules which they strictly enforce. Such rules cannot be enforced in the city. Urban ministry demands more flexibility. Conversely, several pastors commented that urban congregations expect their pastors to dress well, whereas rural congregations would not find dress to be an issue.

Another consequence of the urban congregation being relatively more sophisticated is that they expect more carefully reasoned and better presented sermons. This is not to say that they expect "three points and a poem." Nevertheless, they are not as accepting of unprepared ramblings as rural congregations might be. The urban church member wants "meat," observes Nairobi pastor Bonni Adoyo. For that reason he puts significant preparation into his messages. Others have related the need to reflect awareness of current affairs and something about the varied occupations of parishioners. Samuel Tugba pointed out the need for urban pastors to discern the problems of urban dwellers and address those problems from the Scriptures. This implies a need for pastors to know how their parishioners live.

Yet another consequence of the sophistication of urban dwellers is that city pastors are often not accorded the respect that their rural counterparts are. The urban pastor's word is not accepted the way the rural pastor's word is. The urbanite is more likely to ask "why?" Another Nigerian pastor, Kefas Kulani, feels that rural pastors are more likely to be involved in important community decisions than urban pastors. This issue is possibly related in part to the matter of population mobility addressed above. The city congregation is often not considered one's "home church" anyway. Therefore, a possible consequence is that the leadership is not given as much importance.

Read part 2 of 2 of Distinctives of African Urban Ministry

Notes
1. This broad continent-wide statistic hides a great deal of regional diversity. Renaud (Betrand Renaud, National Urbanization Policy in Developing Countries, The World Bank/Oxford University Press, 1981, pp. 18-19) adds that "the northern and southern regions were already close to or past the SO percent mark in 1978, when the other regions were not past the 25 percent mark and will barely pas, that level by the year 2000:' A dated but still helpful treatment of regional diversity is found in "Size and Growth of Urban Population in Africa" by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in The City in Newly Developing Countries: Reading on Urbanism and Urbanization, ed. Gerald Breese, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1968, pp. 128-145.

Furthermore, some African brethren hold that discussions of African urbanization and implications for ministry must adequately distinguish between the realities of life in a large primate city (usually the capitol) or core area (to use Vining's terminology) and that in a secondary city or periphery area. A market center of over 2,000 would officially qualify as an urban area in some countries and thus be lumped together with world-class cities. Life and ministry are not uniform across the size continuum, it is argued. That is no doubt true. A careful distinction along those lines has not been made in this article. An intuitive response is that the material presented here reflects the distinctives of ministry in the larger urban centers.

2. I have been privileged to learn about these things from the Reverends Kantiok Tukura, Samuel Togba, Zaure Maigida, and others of the Evangelical Missionary Society, Evangelical Church of West Africa, Nigeria; Mrs. Grace Kimathi, Kenya representative of Family Life Ministries; the Reverend Ronald Munyithya, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary, USA, and pastor of Community Presbyterian Church, Nairobi; and the Reverend Bonifes Acloyo, a graduate of the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, and one of the pastors of the Nairobi Pentecostal Church. Others, such as Mr. Nick Wanyoike and Mr. Dennis Tongoi, Kenya Navigator staff, have also contributed.

3. Pastor Munyithya delivered an address entitled "Complexities and Challenges in the Urban Situation" to the student body of Moffat College of the Bible, Kijabe, Kenya. It is available on audio tape from SIM/Urban Ministries Support Group, P.O. Box 60875, Nairobi, Kenya for the cost of the tape and postage.

4. The other side of the coin is the frustration felt by rural pastors when their parishioners go to the city and lose themselves, not continuing in Christian fellowship. Nairobi Church Survey by Daystar indicates low percentage attending church while Barrett's figures show high numbers of Christians in the country.

5. The Daystar Nairobi Church Survey indicates that the majority of new migrants into the city continues to be men (65 percent). Some question is raised on this point by Olenjas study (C. K. Olenja, "Patterns and Trends of Migration in Nairobi up to 1978:'Institute of African Studies [Universi-ty of Nairobi], Paper No. 141, 1978) which indicates that a majority of new immigrants to the city were women. The Daystar study is more recent and there may have been a shift to a higher percentage of men since 1978.

6. That education came at significant cost to the parents, adds Mrs. Kimathi. The children were not available to work on the shamba or farm nor to herd livestock.

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