African immigrants and their churches

Abstract

Introduction The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a Pentecostal ministry established in Nigeria in 1952, is one of the fastest growing churches in the world.3 The church has a core mission of having a member in “every family of all the nations” of the world, as well as parishes “within five minutes walking distance in every city and town of developing countries” and “within five minutes driving distance in every city and town of developed countries.”4 The church has pursued this extraordinary goal through fervent evangelism and extensive church planting. As of 2013, the ministry boasted over 2,000 parishes in its home country, Nigeria, and hundreds more in over 150 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and the Americas.5 In the United States, driven by the relentless pursuit of its expansionist vision, the RCCG is easily the fastest growing African immigrant church. By mid-2014, its parishes, which could be found in practically every state of the union, numbered 722.6 The phenomenal growth of the RCCG in the United States and the existence of hundreds of other African-initiated churches, some with large congregations, signify the growing demographic importance of African-born immigrants in contemporary America. In the last thirty years, this community has seen a progressive, but dramatic, population increase. African immigrants, as they face the challenges of integration, have created their own social, cultural, and religious institutions to meet their needs. Of the many civic institutions established by African immigrants, the church appears to be the most vibrant; it is significant for the level at which it is patronized by the community. Recent immigrants from Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Uganda, and otherAfrican countries have established indigenous churches to serve their respective communities. More people in the African-born community are drawn to these churches than to any other social and cultural institutions they have established. Parishioners, whether regular members or occasional attendees, seek benefits that transcend the fulfillment of spiritual needs; the churches also serve as an important avenue to foster social and cultural identity. In short, the African immigrant church has served as a multi-purpose institution for the immigrants. In the United States, the aspiration of the RCCG to “plant churches like Starbucks” in imitation of the proliferation of the popular specialty coffeehouse which, in 2014, boasted “more than 21,000 stores in 65 countries,”7 underscores the expanding power of African Pentecostalism in the United States. In this chapter, the character of the African immigrant church in the United States will be examined, as well as how it intersects with the community it principally serves. Although, a few works have studied the African immigrant church in America, they have preponderantly focused on the institution as an urban, megacity phenomenon.8 This is understandable, because, initially, these churches were predominantly found in major metropolitan areas with large African-born populations such as New York, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago.9 However, a more recent trend is the growing appearance of the churches in mid-size and even smaller Amer ican cities, as African immigrants gravitate to these places. In light of this, Nashville, a mid-size city in the State of Tennessee, with a sizeable African-born population and a growing presence of African-initiated Christianity, provides the frame of reference for the study of the African immigrant church in America. While African-born people live in most parts of Nashville, many live in its suburbs such as Antioch, Franklin, Brentwood, Bellevue, Goodlettsville, Gallatin, Hermitage, Mount Juliet, Smyrna, Murfreesboro, and others. Apart from in the city, a few of the immigrant churches are located in some of these suburbs. Thus, for the purpose of this study, Nashville is defined as the city and its suburbs.