By Eric Rafferty
[This is part of the series “Multi-Ethnicity in the Missional Church”. Read the other posts here]
In 1972 an intentionally multiethnic community of college students made a choice to prophetically reveal the Kingdom of God in their love for one another.
They crossed ethnic lines, broke rules, and cared for each other so sacrificially that the Kingdom of God was undeniably on display for their whole country to see. Just like the great prophets of scripture, their counter-cultural and prophetic example pointed many back to the heart of God, but it cost most of them their lives.
The country was Burundi, the community of college students was the Burundian movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and the context was the 1972 massacre of over 100,000 Hutus at the hands of the Tutsi army.
When the Tutsi president responded to the violent rebellion of a group of Hutu policemen by declaring martial law, the Tutsi army began killing educated Hutus who were viewed as a threat, including college students.
The national IFES movement in Burundi had planted missional communities on college campuses where Hutu and Tutsi college students worshipped, studied the Bible, and lived life together. When the wave of violence against educated Hutus crashed onto the college campuses, Hutu students ran for their lives and hid in the forested hills for protection.
When the Tutsi IFES students saw their Hutu friends hungry, alone and scared for their lives, their commitment to multiethnic community was put to the test. These were the same students they prayed with, shared the gospel with, and served alongside on leadership teams. They loved their friends! And they decided that they couldn’t leave them out to die.
The Tutsi students began taking food and provisions up into the hills to care for their Hutu friends. This was no easy act. When their parents saw them risking their own lives and giving their own resources to serve the “enemy”, many were immediately disowned by their families. But that didn’t stop them. They knew that loving their friends across ethnic lines and in spite of the cost was close to the heart of God and essential to their faith. The depth of unity and love in this community of college students stood in stark contrast to the deep division and outright violence throughout the rest of the country. They shined like light in darkness and revealed the Kingdom of God in a prophetic way.
Follow the Christians
And it couldn’t be missed. The president of one university saw their commitment to one another and went as far as to say,
“There are three groups of people in our country: Hutus, Tutsis, and then there are Christians. And if we want to survive as a people we need to follow the Christians!”
Their prophetic picture of God’s heart for reconciliation and redeemed relationships was so clear that outsiders looked at it and said, “That’s where we need to go!” But as is always the case with prophets, those who were threatened by the alternate reality that this community pointed to did everything they could to crush it. The Tutsi army not only killed 45% of the teachers across the country, and large numbers of Hutu students, but also the Tutsi students in IFES who stood in the way of their genocide. Out of the entire IFES staff team in Burundi, only one survived.
If you’re trying to start a genocide you can’t have prophets pointing to a Kingdom of reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing. They had to go. Prophetic leaders reveal the heart of God. They stand as road signs pointing to another world. And they stand as a dangerous threat to the status quo.
Jesus First Sermon
Take a look at Jesus’ first sermon in chapter four of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ friends and neighbors were hanging on his every word and eating it up until he started talking about God’s love for Sidon and Syria, sworn enemies of Israel. After that they tried to throw him off a cliff! They’d rather kill him than listen to him reveal a Kingdom where the furthest out are brought near and sworn enemies become one people.
Multiethnic communities are prophetic pictures of the Kingdom of God in a deeply wounded and divided world. In our previous post we highlighted the apostolic nature of multiethnic ministry. A vision for multiethnicity that is rooted in our sentness is a vision to cross cultures and plant the gospel among every people group in a city or on a campus. Multiethnic ministry is also prophetic. Multiethnic Christian communities point our cities to another way. The Kingdom way.
What would it be like if university presidents, CEOs and mayors in our cities looked at our Churches and ministries and saw a depth of community and a commitment to reconciliation like they’d never seen before? What would it be like to hear them say, “If we want to survive as a people and thrive as a country, then we must follow the Christians.”?
Who is revealing God’s Kingdom of reconciliation, forgiveness, and unity in your city or on your campus? How could your church or ministry play a prophetic role in your city?
Click here to see what IFES students in Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are doing today to pursue reconciliation and healing between ethnic groups.
[This is part of the series “Multi-Ethnicity in the Missional Church”. Read the other posts here]
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What a challenge you have set us all. Thank you Eric and Stacy.
Most of us, most of the time, think there are no divides to be crossed in our comfy, western societies. But there are! There are so many. From different ethnic groups, to a range of religions, across wealth differences between poor and rich, the sick and the healthy, the young and old who fail to understand one another, the educated and those who had no opportunity to learn, those with homes and families and those sleeping under bridges and in shop doorways, the people at work and those needing a job – society is full of polarisation.
Are we the body of Christ in our world? Are we? Those students were.
Thanks for you thoughtful words Chris. Really being the body of Christ in a divided world might be the most revolutionary thing we can do!