As you may gather when you read this blog, I am unashamedly Reformed in my theology. I fully affirm the teaching of the Second London Baptist Confession, commonly called the 1689 Baptist Confession and its five main areas of assent with classic Christian theology (you can listen to Greg Nichols’ fine lecture on this subject, What is a Reformed Baptist?). I am also an “umpteenth generation Ghanaian” as I’m fond of saying. In fact, my father is fond of saying that on both sides of my family are as Ghanaian as the cocoa beans that grow in the forest. As annoying as Africans can be, and anyone who has dealt with Africans knows there are a special bunch, I fully embrace my African heritage as a big part of who I am.

Often I get asked how does being black and being Reformed work out. After all, the world I grew up was dominated by the theological superstructure of Pentecostalism. Until I was 18, I knew personally of two types of African Christian – Pentecostal and Catholic. There was a Baptist church behind my house – but they were (and are still) for all intents, Pentecostal. When I came under the teaching of Reformed theology, I knew I’d encountered a worldview shift of epic proportions. I also knew that a lot of reformed teaching clashed not just because of the theology I grew up with, but also because of things considered fundamental to being a ‘black Christian’. In short, I had – or thought I had – to make a choice: either I was going down the Reformed road or going down the ‘black’ road?

Fast forward the next few years to today and I am not so convinced I needed to choose. I am convinced however that there are some issues that need to be addressed. This series isn’t 100% planned out in my mind, but here are some of the issues I want to hit:

• Is there such a thing as the black church?
• Does it need reforming?
• Does being reformed entail an identity change?
• Do I need to be ‘white’ to be reformed?
• Is there a black theology?

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