The Committee and the Uncommitted: Material Assistance to Members in Need at a Pentecostal Church in Western Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya today, Christian churches serve as a central pillar of socioeconomic support to people in their hour of need. Drawing on ethnographic research at a small Pentecostal church in Kisumu, western Kenya, we present four modes of such material support. This classification lets us examine the provision of church assistance as a subtle balancing act, in which leaders and so-called supermembers seek to bind lay members into greater commitment by projecting institutional dependability while carefully avoiding excessive demands. Rejecting the caricature of the self-enriching charismatic leader and focusing on the intertwinement of religious commitment and class, we offer a fresh examination of churches' mechanisms of welfare assistance beyond a simple vertical/horizontal (or institutional/congregational) binarism.