Duncan Forbes

Council estate
Christianity
When Duncan Forbes planted New Life
Church on the Alton Estate in south London,
he was faced with social situations which
demanded fresh theological thinking
My Mum was getting hassled by a gang,

and the police werent doing anything
about it. I went to home group at a
middle class church and asked them
for advice. I was told to forget the
matter and forgive.
I went back to my estate that night
discouraged and thinking, Surely
the Bible says more about this? I
searched through my Bible looking for
and discovering answers. I suddenly
became aware that the Bible was
vitally relevant to estate life, yet at the
same time the church I was going to
didnt know this.
That night I began my quest for
council estate Christianity. Like a
missionary, I began to explore scripture
to see how Christianity works out on a
council estate.
Both my experience and countless
missionary stories showed me that
14 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary
you cant just take a middle class

church culture and plant it on an
estate. Church planting on estates is
not about taking a potted plant from
another culture and then trying to
make it grow in a foreign climate.
Instead, you need to plant the seed
of the gospel in an area and see how it
grows in its natural soil. What does this
look like in practice?
Indigenous preaching
Livingstone realized how important
it was to have indigenous preachers,
because the locals understood the
African preachers so much better.
One of the great challenges for Bible
translators is to be able to translate
in such a way that modern readers
can hear the text in a similar way to
the original audience. Ideally, when
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 15
On more than one occasion I have had to

counsel people on being witnesses in court
cases. When the families of witnesses are
threatened, you find yourself in a tricky
ethical situation protect the family or
stand up for truth?
we hear Isaiah, we should hear it in a
similar way to how the Israelites heard
it back then.
This is a very difficult job in
translation, and is also a difficult
job in preaching. Imagine then how
much more difficult it becomes if
the preachers themselves are from a
different culture to the congregation.
If we do not have indigenous estate
preachers, then the sermons preached
each week are one stage further
removed from the people.
Self-theologizing
Calvin spent time theologizing, looking
at how the Bible played out in his
culture. Spurgeon and the Puritans
did the same, and at our church on the
Alton Estate, we are following suit. We
are not trying to change the doctrine
of the trinity, or substitutionary
atonement, but we are asking fresh
questions about how the Bible plays
out on our estate.
In asking these questions, we have
the following presuppositions: Christ
died for all kinds of people; the Bible
is God-breathed and totally sufficient;
16 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary
Christianity is a missionary religion

that contextualizes; God has been
guiding his church throughout history
through his word by his Spirit.
Based on these principles, we
prayerfully go to Gods word asking
how it applies on our estate, while
considering what others in church
history have said. There are many ways
we are doing this, but here is just one
example: seed theology.
There are very strong family and
friend bonds on council estates. A
young Christian walks down the estate
in the evening to a Bible study. On the
way he bumps into the old friends he
grew up with and treated as family.
They offer him some drugs and he
never makes it to Bible study. What
does the Bible say about this?
There is a Reformed doctrine called
the antithesis. It talks about the sharp
contrast between those of the light and
those of the darkness, and the hostility
between the two. It first appears in
Genesis 3:15, which talks about enmity
between the seed of the woman and
the seed of the Devil.
The doctrine of the antithesis
has been used in presuppositional
apologetics, in terms of how to share

your faith with people. As far as I am
aware, in academic circles it has only
been used in the sphere of apologetics.
I took the doctrine out of apologetics
and applied it instead to estate life.
Because antithesis is an academic
word, I renamed it as seed theology.
People in our church are now
taught that there are two seeds, two
communities on earth: the believing
and the unbelieving community. We
explain why their families sometimes
give them such opposition to their
conversion, and why old friends try to
drag them back into their old lifestyle.
It is all part of the hostility prophesied
in Genesis 3:15.
We then teach them the mission of
the seed, to hold out the gospel to the
unbelieving community. However, we
also teach them to do it in a wise way,
with both feet planted in the believing
community.
Seed theology has been an immensely
helpful doctrine in our church. It has
helped people understand the hostility
and temptations they receive, as well
as giving them a vision for reaching
the lost. It has also helped people see
the importance of being fully stuck
into church.
We have also gone to Gods word for
our ethics. Middle class Christianity
has spent time looking at ethical issues
that are prominent in their culture. On
estates, we need to develop our own
ethics. It may be that we use the same
principles, but how they work out is
different.
For example, on more than one

occasion I have had to counsel people
on being witnesses in court cases.
When the families of witnesses are
threatened, you find yourself in a
tricky ethical situation protect the
family or stand up for truth?
Being practical
Each culture has its own blind spots
and its own strengths. Some people
say the Reformed community tends
to be academic, emphasizing doctrine
over practice. Estate culture tends to be
very practical. We therefore enjoy the
doctrine of the Reformed community,
but at the same time ask, Can we make
it more practical?
One of the ways this has worked out
is in our discipleship program, The
Roehampton Catechism. Like other
catechisms, ours places a big emphasis
on knowledge. However we dont stop
there. We have additional catechism
application questions which apply
doctrine to the nitty-gritty of life,
which we then follow with prayer.
Our catechism is a time of learning
doctrines which lead to godliness, and
confessing, praying and praising God.
Church style
For me, churches reflect middle class
culture. There are many good things
about middle class culture, but I
naturally feel like an outsider. At our
church, we have resisted adopting
middle class values, unless we are
convinced by scripture to adopt them.

We dress informally, and I usually
preach in a hoodie or a tracksuit. This
is not based on some attempt to be
cool, its just my culture. When I did a
biblical theology on clothes, I was not
convinced that I should wear chinos
and a blue blazer.
Our worship songs are also
contextualized. Soft rock electric guitar
music smacks of middle class culture.
Were not middle class at our church
so the music has an RnB/Reggae/Hip
Hop/Soul feel to it. We sometimes
remix old hymns because we really like
the theology of them. At other times

we write our own music.
We try to model our songs on the
psalms. We sing laments and cries
for deliverance something that is
very relevant to estate culture. We
look forward to the day when we
will all be in heaven with our other
brothers and sisters from different
cultures worshipping God in our own
languages.
Duncan Forbes is a former Oak Hill
student and is now Pastor of New Life
Church on the Alton Estate
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 17

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Duncan Forbes

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Council estate

My Mum was getting hassled by a gang,

you cant just take a middle class

On more than one occasion I have had to

Christianity is a missionary religion

apologetics, in terms of how to share

For example, on more than one

convinced by scripture to adopt them.

the theology of them. At other times

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