YOUNG WOMEN IN THE IMMIGRANT CHURCHES IN THE NETHERLANDS

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Young Women in the Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands 7

Alma Lanser

Young Women in the Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands

Alma Lanser

Introduction

Visiting migrant churches in the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, is quite an experience. I am a white, Western, middle-aged, well-educated woman. Shaking hands, a sober kiss or hug according the peace wishes at the begining of the Communion was the only bodily action in my Dutch grass root communion. In the migrant church services I clapped, sung, prayed, listened, stood up and sat down in a three hour long service. Some habits in these churches confused me. The male dominance gave the impression of being in another place in time. Men were leading and women performed in serving roles as hostesses, translators or reading the Bible. Sometimes women may take the lead in the music part and in singing. But over all, it must be said mostly I left the church services in a better mood than I came in.

Young women in immigrant churches in the Netherlands

Over many centuries people from all over the world have immigrated into the Netherlands. The immigrants bring with them their languages, cultures and religions. These days in the Netherlands, the first meaning of the word “migrant” or “foreigner” is often connected to Muslims, head-dresses and mosques. Meanwhile there are several hundreds of thousands of immigrants living here with another religious background, as there are Jews, Christians, Hindus, Bhuddist, Baha’i and Winti-believers^¹. The Christians among them join the established Dutch churches, visit international churches or found their own immigrant church. In my research I focussed on young members of Christian immigrant churches.

I asked the young women how they experienced their life as an immigrant, as a female, as a young adult and what they hope for their future and I asked them about their beliefs, their plans and faith. This all in the attempt to find an answer on the research question: What do young women in the immigrant churches in the Netherlands tell us about their everyday life and the sacred?

Because migrant churches are a rather new phenomenon in Dutch society and as a reserarch topic, the research method was qualitative and partly even experimental.^² I used the research instruments of participating observation and also interviews. The best way to meet young women was in attending the church services several times and to chat informally before and after the services. And that was what I did, visiting their church services, chatting with all members and trying to gain their confidence.

The interviewed young women and their churches

The eight young women that I interviewed were members from three different churches in Amsterdam.^³ All three churches are Protestant, but they differ with respect to theological tradition and are, respectively, Evangelical, Methodist and Pentecostal, although these categories cannot be divided sharply from one another.^⁴ Next to their theological colours and tastes, and here the church services showed several cultural influences. They stress their distinctive features and show a certain identity but they cannot be pinned down on one characteristic, the country of origin or their name. The MCTC (Maranatha Community Transformation Center) is African and evangelical, but also shows American evangelical and charismatic traits. The Wesley Methodist Church is particularly Ghanaian but in the Methodist character we recognise the English missionary background. El Encuentro con Dios is very South American in atmosphere and music. Before and after the services they serve Chilean meat sandwiches and a Paraguayan dinner. The most important attribute of the music in El Encuentro is the rhythm: undeniable salsa, reggeae and merengue.^⁵

Next, perhaps thanks to their Protestants character and cultural multi colours, the churches show many similarities. The three churches are bilangual. In the MCTC one speaks English and translates as much as possible in Dutch. In the WMC they speak Akan, one of the Ghanaian languages, during 80 percent of the time, alternated with English; in El Encuentro Spanish is the common language and one translates in Dutch from time to time.

The churches, even when their numbers are relatively small, organise so many activities, one can nearly spend all the time beyond work, eating and sleeping in church. The interviewee Lida interpreted this expected high degree of commitment as “very African.” If one wishes one can join the church everyday. Next to the church service on Sunday home groups meet on Monday, Tuesday night Prayer Eve, Wednesday practice for worship, Thursday Bible Study for everyone, Friday Youth Church or worker meeting and once a month All-night, when you can pray during the whole night (from 1.00 till 5.00 a.m.). The Church News announces still more programs: kids Music training, Women’s Retreat and Marriage Seminar. Lida thinks this is too much. She also wants to spend time with her husband, friends and family outside the church. She believes that you do not always need the church for praying and reading the Bible. On the contrary, African people often watch television channels with television ministers during the whole day. That is their relation with God. These people are not used to praying or reading on their own. They like it to be in church and it is constructive too. As Isabel stated

I love to be in the church services. The fact that I am a member of this community, gives me the feeling I am nearer to God. So for me that is very important. As I said, it was not easy for me to be here in the Netherlands and I am still struggling with things … as in my training and my work in the hospital. And the role of my belief in all these things, that is a strong personal experience. It does not matter how difficult things are, as you feel to be near to God you experience life in another way, on another level. You feel quite different in it.^⁶

This leads to a first finding: in the migrant churches people are educated to believe that God can be found easier in the church, than in everyday life. But do the interviewed young women agree with this statement?

Music

The eight young women are between 18 and 28. Their daily life is not so different from the average young women of their age in the Netherlands. They differ from their peers concerning church membership and the meaning of faith in their life. In recent research only 4 percent of the Dutch adolescents appeared as having a Christian life style.^⁷ These young women belong to these 4 % because they all stated that belief plays an important role in their everyday life.

Music is very important in the churches and for all young women it is the vehicle of belief and the mediation of religious experience. Isabel (MCTC) explained: “In all African churches the music is the most important part. Every Wednesday people come to the church to practice the music. Our leading lady is very musical. You saw her playing the drums in the service”.

Music is also very important in the every day life of all young people. They know a lot about music, listen to it during the whole day, they know the names of artists and have a clear statement and good arguments about their preferences. Ruth illustrated her preferences in saying:

I often listen to gospel music but not everything. It is necessary it touches me. The gospel I listen to is not very well known here in the Netherlands. I got it from my uncle. He is rather known in all these churches and has a lot of cs’s Names of my favourite artists are Cissy Winand, Bob Winand and Donny Clarke but I also like soul or christian rap. There are people who rap with gospel and I like that a lot. They show that Rap is not only from the world. Not only for people outside in the world. It matters it is good music with a good message.

Faith, church and music often coincide totally. A question about the one, for example “what is important in your faith?” can be answered with an explanation about music. Gloria told about the role of salsa and merengue in her church in which she experiences the presence of God. The connection is best expressed in Christel’s words: “The music is a part of me, it is in my bones. The way you are, that is the way you are here, that is the way you gonna praise … with all you have…”

Analysis

The current generation of young people in the Netherlands has been called the flex generation.^⁸ Young people have many possibilities from which they choose what they want to construct a personal package. But they also very easily exchange some elements for others^⁹. This diagnosis might not apply to the young women interviewed. Their immigrant identity, probably also their minority position, and their religious conviction make them certain of their faith and convinced of what is important in their lives. In the interviews the words God, church, faith and religion are nearly always used as synonyms. The whole complex of words refers to a desired safety: religion gives the young women a hold where life was or is difficult, God is their comfort and guide and, as was stated several times, the religious community replaces the family in the country of origin.

For these young people religion and church membership were not a matter of choice – they experienced them as fundamental to life. Often in their homeland country everyday life and the sacred is not divided in two sharp limited areas^¹⁰ and they are taught in this conviction. In their churches they hear the message they are saved and sacred people and therefore they have to live their lifes in the right Christian way. Then, the Christian ethic is translated into loving your neighbour and avoiding worldly temptations such as alcohol, extramarital sex and bad entertainment, which in our consciousness also is known as the trias sex, drugs and rock and roll.

The young women are socialized with the message that what is preached in the church service has to be performed in daily action. However, these women claim more freedom compared to the church message for their own way to experience faith^¹¹. They experience faith not only in the church service but also in popular music. As the adult members of the migrant churches are portrayed in the statement that they are not used to praying and reading the Bible for themselves, the eight young women all mentioned music as a way to experience their faith in daily life. The interviewees all pointed out that they highly appreciated “a life led by God” and music is a vehicle for that^¹². Attending a church service is the external, objective part of commitment. The interviews seemed to show that, with respect to content and existence, these young adults were strong believers and by means of music subjectivily experienced God in the church and in their daily lifes. Listening to good music is the fullfilment of the churchly command to live a sacred life.

The interviews showed that Christian pop, i.e. Christian lyrics with different styles of pop music, corresponds seamlessly with the culture and the needs of young adults in the immigrant churches. Their church services show how their religious behaviour is directed by sensations, bodies and music. That is something they brought with them and do not want to lose. They live in a Western culture, and pop music is present everywhere for them too. They embrace Christian pop on the intersection of these two dimensions of existence.

Music is the medium to experience faith. Because they live in between two cultures and everyday life is not always self-evident, music is a comforting bridge to the country of origin. In the same time it is a bridge between the Sacred and the daily life, between the ideal and reality. In music is expressed what is life-important for these young women and their music bridges the gaps in life. Music, the gospel in the churches and a variety of Christan pop music in their daily life encourage these young women to develop their female identity in between cultures. Music brings hope and comfort, gives longing and belonging.

Abstract

This research focussed on young members of Christian immigrant churches in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in an attempt to find an answer on the question

What tell young women in the immigrant churches in the Netherlands us about their everyday life and the sacred?

The first finding is that in the migrant churches people are educated to believe that God easier can be found in the church than in everyday life. The eight interviewed young women between 18 and 28 experienced church membership as fundamental to life but these women also claim more freedom compared to the church message for their own way to experience faith. They experience faith not only in the church service but also in popular music. Listening to good music (Christian pop) is the fullfilment of the churchly command to live a sacred life.

Alma Lanser - bio

Dr. Alma Lanser (1950) is Assistent professor of Religious Education and Supervisor at the Faculty of Theology, VU University Amsterdam. See http://www.godgeleerdheid.vu.nl/nl/organisatie/medewerkers/wetenschappelijk-personeel-g-l/lanser.asp

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1 Hijme Stoffels, “A Coat of Many Colours” in Mechteld Jansen, Hijme Stoffels (eds) A Moving God, Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, (Münster: Lit Verlag 2008) 13 – 29.

2 See for arguments for open research methodology Nicola Slee, Women’s Faith Development, Patterns and Processes (Ashgate Publishing Limited: Aldershot, UK 2004), 166-168 and Gerben Heitink, 1999. Practical Theology, History, Theory, Action Domains: manual for practical theology, (Mi: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co: Grand Rapids, 1999).

3 See for backgrounds and more research Mechteld Jansen, Hijme Stoffels (eds.) A Moving God, Immigrant churches in the Netherlands (Lit Verlag: Münster 2008).

4 Sjaak van’t Kruis “The ‘Multi-Cultural’ Society and the Churches,” in: Irene M. Pluim and Elza Kuyk (eds.), Relations with Migrant Churches, Experiences and Perspectives, Utrecht: Kerkinactie. 2006), 15-16; Cees van der Laan, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Non-Western Pentecostal Migrant Churches in the Netherlands,” in: André Droogers, Cees van der Laan, and Wout van Laar (eds.), Fruitful in this Land: Pluralism, Dialogue and Healing in Migrant Pentecostalism (Boekencentrum: Zoetermeer 2006), here 55.

5 http://www.iasorecords.com/merengue.cfm (visited 6 Febr. 2007)

6 The interviews are recorded and transcribed. They are in the auditive and written form digitally safed by the author.

7 Sjaak Braster and Machiel Zwanenburg, Geloof in levensstijl: Een empirisch onderzoek onder de Nederlandse jeugd (FSW Erasmus Universiteit: Rotterdam 1998).

8 Leo van der Tuin, “Die jeugd van tegenwoordig,” in: Praktische Theologie. Nederlands tijdschrift voor pastorale wetenschappen 3 (2006), Zwolle Waanders, 292.

9 Maarten Prins, The Fragmentization of Youth. 2006, Ph.D. dissertation, Nijmegen: published by the author.

10 Hans-Günter Heimbrock “Religious Identity: Between Home and Transgression”, in International Journal of Education and Religion II (2001), 63-78

11 Gordon Lynch, “The role of Popular Music in the Construction of Alternative Spiritual Identities and Ideologies” in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45 (4) (2006): 481-488.

12 Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (New York: Knopf, 2007).

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Tags: churches in, migrant churches, churches, immigrant, young, women, netherlands