Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana
Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is an ordained and accredited Baptist minister and has led two multi-ethnic Baptist churches and an independent charismatic church. He is the founding director of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, a mission network initiative that provides cross-cultural training to reverse missionaries in Britain. Israel is an honorary research fellow at The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham and is on the advisory group on Race and Theology at the Society for the Study of Theology (SST). He is a consultant to the executive team of Lausanne Europe, advising them on matters related to diaspora ministries in Europe. He is on the Christian Aid working group of black majority church leaders exploring the intersection of climate justice and racial justice.
Biblical unity, with diversity at its heart
1 September 2021I believe there are three theological ideas that can help us appreciate the kind of unity God spoke about the Bible. The first starts with creation. One crucial aspect of creation theology is what the biblical accounts of creation tell us about what it means to be human. Creation theology furnishes us with the understanding that we are all created in God’s image, therefore affirming our equality, dignity, value and respect. God created us all, meaning we all, whether male or female, South…
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Talking about racial justice with young adults
10 June 2021Firstly, in order for our churches or church organisations to become places where God’s multi-ethnic kingdom is expressed, we have to be intentional in our thinking, strategies and actions. People often want a multicultural or multi-ethnic church, but are not prepared to do the hard work that it requires. Have your leaders, board of directors or trustees intentionally sought to have people of Asian, African or Latin American backgrounds on the team? Does your five-year strategy plan…
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God's multi-ethnic kingdom
25 August 2020These social inequalities are present on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, in the UK, the disproportionate representation of Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in frontline services reveals that, for far too long, BAME people have been at the bottom of the social-economic scale. Take a look at the US and we see that the police demonisation of and brutality against African Americans, as expressed in the murder of George Floyd, exposes systemic and institutional racism. As these events…
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A dummies guide to reverse mission
26 April 2017If you live in an urban part of the UK, you have probably noticed the many African, Latin American, Caribbean and Asian churches and Christians in Britain. Perhaps you’ve wondered why all these people are coming and starting churches in the UK? One popular phrase used to describe this activity is ‘reverse mission’, but what is reverse mission, and why is it a controversial term? Reverse mission starts with a deep sense of gratitude from those who have benefited from historical European mission…
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