Reflections on the Fourth Century Church in North Africa

According to Ray Bakke, during the fourth century AD one-fourth of the world's Christians lived in Northern Africa. Today, Christianity can hardly be found in that region except for a small amount of Coptic Christians in Egypt. How did Christianity lose so much real estate? A surface look into the situation would find that Islam conquered the region and implemented their own religious beliefs. However, looking deeper into the situation one finds that the church actually set the stage for their own demise in several key areas.

1. The church in North Africa never figured out the race issue. They pushed Christianity onto people from a top-down perspective, the rich to the poor and the majority culture to the minority cultures. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Many modern Christian churches are not taking the time to figure out the whole race issue. The homogenous church growth principles are in, and most churches are segregated as a result. As history has shown, this mindset actually weakens the church even though our individual church numbers may grow. As I've said many times before, Christians should be LEADING THE WAY on the issue of race in America, not perpetuating the problem. Are we willing to change? Nobody said it would be easy, but this is a crucial issue for the long term sustainability of the church.

2. The church in North Africa had language issues. They never bothered to interpret the Bible into the languages of many different people groups in the region, forcing them to assimilate to the dominant cultural languages and symbols. The only attempted translation was into Coptic, which happens to still be around today. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? The message from many churches is "We have a corner on the truth. Come to meet us on our turf (church building) on our time schedule (precisely 11am on Sunday morning) in our language and in our denomination and with our style of worship and with our stained glass pictures of what Jesus looks like and with our Bible translation." This type of thinking leads to exculsivity, or what I call the country club mentality. Do you want to belong to our club (our church)? Then you need to assimilate to us. On a broader level in America, this is true of the immigration debate. From a Christian perspective (not necessarily a government policy perspective), Christians should be embracing our neighbors from the south with open arms. What an amazing opportunity to share the gospel message! Many of the folks who cross into America are Christians... our brothers and sisters in Christ! If they are not Christians and we are given the opportunity to introduce the gospel to them here in America, think about how many people they could influence for Christ back in their home countries with their families and friends. What is the point of white Americans sending missionaries to Latin American countries when we could be more effective by reaching out to them when they come here? Instead, many Christians in America dehumanize "illegal aliens" and treat them in their minds as sponges who come here to mooch off of our systems. If white American Christians do not try to figure out the issues of language and culture in spreading the gospel, then our churches will continue their decline and we will have nobody else to blame but ourselves.

3. The lack of indigenous people in the North African church was a problem. The church was always ruled by outsiders, or the power base which was in a different region. The local Christians were never empowered in North Africa. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Poverty is not the absence of money, it is the absence of power. As Christians in America, we need to stop making the people we are trying to reach dependent upon outside resources. Instead, we in the church should be seeking to empower others. We need to disciple people and elevate them into positions of influence. The problem is, influential American Christians often feel most comfortable when we are in positions of power. We are often raised on power, so it is disorienting for us to empower others and humble ourselves. However, the church becomes much weaker when we fail to empower others.

4. The North African church developed an escapist theology when Constantine endorsed Christianity as an imperial religion. They promoted sanctification over justification. Christians fled "messy" environments. Their own invididual souls became more important than their neighbor's souls. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Many Christians have fled the culture in America at an alarming rate. We are, in fact, very close to creating the perfect Christian bubble for ourselves. We have Christian music, Christian schools (or home schools), Christian books, Christian businesses, Christian coffee houses, and even Christian breath mints to get rid of that pesky Christian coffee breath. We think we can escape the messyness of the world if we try hard enough. After all, it is our own souls and our family's souls that matter most, and not those unpleasant neighbors of ours. Right? Well, actually I believe that Christians are called to engage culture. With so many Christians running away from messyness in America, will any remain to share the gospel? Or will we head up to our ivory towers and shout the truth down to masses with our megaphones (or maybe our protest rally signs)?

5. The "truth" churches and "love" churches fought each other in North Africa, and they eventually split. This goes back to the persecution of Christians during that time, where some chose to be martyred and some rejected the faith only to want back in when the persecution had died down. The truth Christians were unaccepting of their weakness and brokenness, while the love Christians embraced brokenness and welcomed those people back into the faith community. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? We still have truth Christians battling love Christians, and truth churches battling love churches. We lob bombs (metaphorically speaking) back and forth at one another. As another example, conservative Christians in America go to battle with liberal Christians, and we somehow lose sight of our mission to reach the lost along the way. The church in America may not be sustainable over the long run if we don't change our ways.

I love the church. I love my church. I desperately want to see the body of Christ grow in America. But, that is not happening right now and it is not only because of influences beyond our own control. In many cases, we are doing it to ourselves. The history of the church in fourth century Northern Africa may repeat itself if we don't learn from them and then change our ways.