Pentecostal Research Articles

Assessing Ghanaian Primal Consciousness: A Key Factor in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity

The article examined the influence of the Ghanaian primal consciousness on Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. Although the primal religion seems to have lost its physical presence in the Ghanaian religious space, its ideologies and tenets continue to be alive in the lives of many Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians. Relying on the researcher’s pastoral experience, personal observations and by paying attention to some sayings and proverbs of some Pentecostals, the study identified the extent to which primal consciousness affects Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana. It discovered that while some elements of the primal religion are closely related to Christianity and may thus positively affect it, others appear to be in opposition to biblical truth and may thus affect it negatively. The study posits that a good knowledge of the reality of the effect of the primal consciousness by Pentecostal-Charismatic churches would advance the Christian mission in Africa. The article adds to existing literature on the impact of the primal religion on Christianity. Keywords: Primal consciousness, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, Ghana, religion.

Pentecostal church and politics: Interdependent instruments of God’s mission in Africa

The debate about the interdependence or the dichotomy between the church and the state or politics is not new. The discourse is neither over nor something that will pass any soon. Both perspectives provide concrete reasons depending on the viewpoint from which an individual is writing and arguing. Both the ecclesia and the state or politics enjoy social capital. Of the two, however, the Church’s social capital is resilient and consistent, unlike the political capital which is seasonal and only rigorous in the pursuit for political position.In recent years, there is an immense emergence of Christianity that blend charismatic practices and African religiosity. An increased pursuit of political leadership is being witnessed by the church leadership and the secular community. One of the motivations has been the derivatives from the positions, which are mainly monetary and honourability. This can be linked to a struggle to meet a status threshold set and determined by a postmodern society which the clergy and the political leader must uphold. Anyone who lives below that ‘standard’ does not fit that position. It is for this reason that both the church and state or politics has been commercialised. The commercialisation aspect resulted in the two competitive entrepreneurial enterprises. Thus justice has been retailed to commercialisation and consumerism.This article therefore firmly holds the possibility that church and state or politics have common elements that, if reworked, can become tools in the mission of God. The assumption is that both institutions are reviewed as organs and not organisations because, as organisms, they are both fit for transformation into suitable instruments for the mission of God. Institutional reforms are dictated by the reformed human resource. This article leans towards the interrelationship between the Pentecostal tradition and the state or politics in viewing their role in doing justice to the mission of God. Thus a comparative framework fits this work.Contribution: The interdependence of the church and political enterprise is exposed to a constructive critique and further writing. It has advanced affirmed the comparative methodology as a ongoing study alternative.

Becoming “business class”: educated youth and Pentecostal change in eastern Uganda

ABSTRACT Our paper looks at the lives of educated young men in a Pentecostal church in eastern Uganda. The way young men conduct themselves, how they dress, how they speak in church, whether or not they are good with technology, help to define their claims to an educated identity. Youth leaders are valued for the liveliness they bring to church, for the ways they innovate in areas of praise and worship. At the same time, they are often criticised for the way they orient schemes and initiatives to their own advantage, for not being transparent and for ‘confusing’ others. We adapt Henrik Vigh’s concept of social navigation to show how educated young men become ‘political navigators’ in church. They mix ambitions for personal growth with their contributions to a modern, lively and dynamic church, and in so doing help to make it more ‘business class’.

The Process of Proving Participation in the Crime of Terrorism in Indonesia

Objective: Terror is different from war; acts of terrorism are not subject to the procedures of warfare because the implementation is always sudden and the target victims are often civilians who are in crowded places. In early 2018, the tragedy of terrorism inmates at the Mobile Brigade Command Detention Center (Mako Brimob) in Kelapa Dua, Santa Maria Tak Bercela Church, GKI Diponegoro, Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church Sawahan Congregation, and Makassar Cathedral Church in March 2021 shook hearts with extraordinary horror. In an instant, there were victims of death, trauma, injuries, and lifelong disabilities. So that this can be categorized as a crime against humanity and a serious threat to the sovereignty of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Purposes of the Research: This research aims to examine and discuss the process of proving participation in the crime of terrorism in Indonesia. Methods: This type of research is normative juridical research, conducted by examining library materials or secondary data using a statutory and conceptual approach. Results and Discussion/Value: Judges play a crucial role in establishing justice during the proof process in the trial of terrorist crimes since the criminal act of terrorism has expanded and taken on multiple interpretations in the law. In order to convict a suspect as a result of an actual act and not just a notion or an ideology that cannot be used as an error, participation must be properly evaluated before labeling the suspect as the culprit in this case.

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF ROBERTH McALISTER

biography of the main events of his life. In addition, a panorama about the Pentecostal Church of New Life, from the foundation to the present moment, the books written by him and the IPNV declaration of faith. Finally, an account of his religious experience based on Eliade and Otto.

Pastors as Mediators of Respect in African American Pentecostal Churches

ABSTRACT This article explores how two African American Pentecostal pastors in Buffalo, New York (USA) promote a phenomenology of respect as they link imperatives to labour for the good of others to the need to discern God’s purposes. In African American communities, church leadership has long elicited respect because pastoring is hard work, important elements of which consist of encouraging other members to labour for the church and seeking insights from God about believers’ lived situations. Respect is likewise key to believers’ relationships with God, in that pastors promote techniques that encourage them not only to recognise spiritual beings but to respect and obey God and their leaders. As a result, acts of respect shape bodily knowledge about relationships with powerful human and spiritual others. Such enactments of respect counter suspicions of exploitation that accompany relations of dependence among the urban poor, so that believers’ idioms of intercorporeal connection provide means for them to reflect on who has worked on behalf or taken advantage of others.

‘When Faith Is Not Enough’: Encounters between African Indigenous Religious Practices and Prophetic Pentecostal Movements in Zimbabwe

African Pentecostalism remains the fastest growing form of Christianity on the African continent. Scholarship on Zimbabwean Pentecostalism has noted how the emergence of New Pentecostal Movements (NPMs), specifically Prophetic Pentecostalism (PP), has increased this growth. Apart from other attracting factors, such as the Holy Spirit, claims of faith healing, deliverance and prophecy, among others, African Pentecostalism is known for its emphasis on faith as a major anchor of any Pentecostal Christian. Hebrews 11, with its emphasis on faith, is, therefore, a central scripture in this Christian tradition. However, the emergence of NPMs at the height of the Zimbabwean crisis from the year 2008 to the present, has challenged Zimbabwean Pentecostal Christians from their sole dependency on faith. The crisis called for much more than faith could stand on its own. Hence, NPMs responded to this need by infusing indigenous religious practices with biblical ones as a way of strengthening believers through the crisis. Prophetic Pentecostal Movements (PPMs) in Zimbabwe introduced touchable objects such as anointed towels, handkerchiefs, wrist bands, stickers, oils and even condoms. While this appears to be sophisticated syncretism, a critical analysis of the practices shows how steeped they are in the African indigenous religious worldview. This article, therefore, seeks to examine the religious encounters between indigenous African religious practices and Pentecostal practices as practiced in the NPMs in Zimbabwe. The focus of this paper is to establish the resilience of indigenous religious practices within a Christian tradition that claims to have totally broken from the past. It further argues that the fast growth of PPMs depends on the ‘Christianization’ of indigenous religious practices, which are presented to believers as ‘purely biblical’. This is largely a desktop research project in which secondary sources were used as sources of data.

Power Relations and Breakaway in Pentecostal/Charismatic Denominations in Africa

Abstract Pentecostal denominations are undoubtedly spreading in Africa. While the proliferation of Pentecostal churches appears to be the resultant effect of church planting strategies and the works of the Holy Spirit, it is rather struggles from the power relations that serve as the underlying force behind the spread of these denominations. This is connected to the fact that Pentecostal churches govern themselves and hold real disciplinary powers that result in the subjectification of their adherents as docile bodies. This study therefore aims to analyze the roles as well as effects of the combination of the Spirit’s power and pastoral power that underlie the power relations, and result in the prevalence of breakaway among Pentecostal believers. Employing a literary criticism approach and using secondary data, the findings show that without careful understanding of power relations and openness of Pentecostal pastors to reason in their exercise of technologies of powers, the rising incidence of breakaway among Pentecostal denominations in Africa will undoubtedly continue.

Problematizing Confession and Forgiveness in Prophetic Pentecostal Christianity: A Case Study of Rabboni Centre Ministries

During COVID lockdown the practice of confession was one of the aspects of the services at Rabboni Centre Ministries, a Prophetic Pentecostal Church, which changed significantly. People had to write their confessions and e-mail them to the church. These were then read out in the middle of various weekday services by a pastor who assured people that the Prophet and God forgave them. The Prophet and founder, Lesego Daniel proclaimed in January 2022 that people can only be set free through this public form of confession, thus making confession far more important in the church than it has ever been. Using discourse analysis this article examines the theological understanding of confessions expressed by followers in early 2023 and finds that they believed that their forgiveness was primarily dependent on the grace of the Prophet. Only some people believed that forgiveness from God was also necessary. Jesus Christ was not mentioned in any of the confessions and was not understood as the one who saves believers from sin and God's judgment. Confession and forgiveness were understood to be the central mechanism that allowed people to be restored to the Rabboni community and the Prophet. Using Bourdieu's notions of habitus, dispositions, and symbolic violence as a theoretical lens, this article argues that the church has established its own habitus in which the symbolic violence of dependence on the Prophet for forgiveness is understood as part of the disposition and power dynamics within the habitus of the church. By using this theoretical lens, the article aims to answer the question why believers conform to the teaching of the Prophet which makes them so dependent on him.

A Pentecostal theological perspective on ecofeminism

ABSTRACT The primary concern of ecofeminism is cultural schismatic dichotomies that position nature and women as subordinate, to the advantage and entrenchment of dominant powers. This article draws on the work of Pentecostal theologian Frank Macchia to propose the underlying issue is improper relations between created and divine, manifested as improper relations within creation. The Spirit of Christ – the overflowing love of God – brings creation into right relation with God and so with each other and non-human creation. Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, is the inauguration of these right relations, dissolving the core dichotomy of creation and Creator. Christ poured out His Spirit, for all of creation to participate in this relation through the self-giving vocation of humanity. Pentecostal churches – communities of graced relations – can expand their missional imagination and be primary witnesses to this vocation through the Spirit-empowered communal practices of contrition and repentance, the Lord's Supper, and prayer.

Religiosity, desired emotions, and well-being – a comparative study of Roman Catholics and Pentecostal Christians in Poland

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to compare interdenominational differences in how religiosity is related to life satisfaction, meaning in life, desired and experienced emotions. The two groups included were Roman Catholics (n1 = 145) and Pentecostals (n2 = 133). The study confirmed the positive relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction as well as meaning in life for the whole sample. Moreover, it was found that Pentecostals reported higher religiosity, meaning in life, social support, and desired emotions strengthening religious beliefs than Catholics. In both groups, a partial mediation of belongingness and identification was observed in the relationship between religiosity and meaning in life. For social support, however, it was established that the mediating effect was stronger in Pentecostals than in Catholics. These results suggest that life satisfaction and meaning in life may be determined both by general factors related to religious involvement as well as by certain specific features of a given denomination.

Complaint as testimony?: Listening to Australian Pentecostal Christian women

ABSTRACT Testimony is significant in Pentecostal liturgical worship and life. Historically, narratives that emphasize God’s role in the life of the believer have been used for spiritual formation. This article adopts feminist scholar Sara Ahmed’s work on complaint in the church context and proposes a constructive rewriting of the theological discourse to include women’s complaints as testimony. Women’s experiences at Hillsong Church as outlined in the media are included here and juxtaposed against the church’s official responses (noted as refutation and suppression). It is argued that, given the importance of women to Pentecostalism, examining and including narratives about women’s experiences in the church is vital; this includes acknowledging their testimonies of violence, sexual harassment and spiritual abuse.

Examining the Impact of Denominationalism on the Unity of the Churches in Nigeria from the Backdrop of Pauline Theology

The need for unity among Christians, particularly the Pentecostal Churches, has been a long-standing issue that has generated a lot of controversies. This arose from the fact that the church has been polarised along denominational lines. Previous studies have examined this issue from the ecumenical point of view with little attention to the theological issues. The study examined the impact of denominationalism on the unity of the Churches in Nigeria from the backdrop of Pauline theology with a view to stimulating cordial relationships between the selected Churches.The study adopted a historical-descriptive research methodology with profound reliance on secondary data. Findings revealed that there exists disunity among Churches based on doctrinal emphasis, mode of worship, denominational rivalry, distrust, and struggle for dominance, which hinder inter-denominational interactions. The study concluded that unity is an essential aspect of human socio-religious polity which enhances stability, particularly in the church. Therefore, the study recommended that Pentecostal Churches should emphasise teachings that promote unity, as outlined in Pauline theology. More so, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) should encourage Churches to shift focus from individual church accomplishments and denominational identities to a collective identity rooted in Christ.

“늦은 비 성령”에 대한 역사신학적 이해

This study is a historical-theological analysis of the understanding of the “Latter Rain” developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The understanding of the Latter Rain stems from the Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States in the 19th century. The Latter Rain in
 the Second Great Awakening and the subsequent Holiness Movement was presented as the concept of Holiness or Holy Spirit Baptism. In this process, Holiness-Pentecostalism expected the Latter Rain. Later, in the early 20th century, the Latter Rain Movement took place in the Pentecostal Movement, which was developed along with the gift of the tongue. The Adventists’ understanding of Latter Rain was influenced by the 19th century Holiness-Pentecostalism. White used the term “Latter Rain” without any specific explanation. She emphasized her understanding of the Latter Rain, which differed from Holiness-Pentecostalism, by linking the Latter Rain to the loud cry of the third angel. In the 1880s, the Adventist Church realized that the experience of the third angel's loud cry and the Latter Rain was imminent, and in 1888, the Minneapolis Session of the General Conference understood the announcement as the beginning of a loud cry and the Latter Rain. Consequently, in 1893, the Revival Movement through the Latter Rain took place at Battle Creek Church. The delay in the loud cry reduced the interest in the Latter Rain, and the Adventists waited for the true Latter Rain, defining the tongues and Pentecostal movements that occurred in the 20th century as false Holy Spirit movements. Delaying the achievement of the Latter Rain is becoming an important task in Adventist eschatology.

KAJIAN TEOLOGIS TENTANG PRINSIP MEMBERI MENURUT 1 RAJA-RAJA 17:7-24

This research talks about the principle of giving in theological studies based on the book of 1 Kings 17:7-24. Giving offerings to God is a sign of gratitude for all the blessings that God has given. Likewise, giving to fellow humans is a form of social concern and generosity that believers have. Don't give because you have more, but because you have compassion so you want to share with others. Data collection techniques were carried out by means of interviews, observation and examination of documents to the extent that could be obtained during the research. The purpose of this research is to explain to members of the East Nabire Classis Pentecostal Church in Papua (GPDP) congregation. As a result of this research, it was found based on 1 Kings 17:7-24 that the principles of giving are as follows; Giving to share, Motivation in giving, Giving from lack, Giving sincerely and honestly, Having generosity, Giving with faith. The conclusion of the research is that giving is evidence of obedience and belief in God's word.

Syncretism Narrative and the Use of Material Objects within Some Neo-Pentecostal Circles in Contemporary South Africa

African Pentecostal Christianity presents interconnectedness with African cultures, spiritualities, and religiosity in many ways. Among many other practices that demonstrate this interconnectedness is the use of material objects common within some African Pentecostal Christian spaces, African cultures, spiritualities, and religions. The advent of neo-Pentecostalism in South Africa has brought some controversies in the use of material objects within the broader African Pentecostalism. This has led to the outright demonization and to the conclusion that this practice was fundamentally syncretistic. This article investigated the syncretism narrative given the use of material objects within some neo-Pentecostal spaces in contemporary South Africa. It scrutinized the syncretism narrative and problematized it as the continuation of the missionary-colonial project that demonized African religious and cultural practices. It was argued that this constitutes coloniality that uses a “cultural bomb” that seeks to eradicate African customs, cultures, religions, and practices including the use of material objects. The study was conducted through the desktop research methodology focusing on secondary literature on African Pentecostalism, African neo-Pentecostalism, and syncretism. The findings indicated that the syncretism narrative is often applied to African Pentecostalism and seldom used with other Christian traditions, especially those of Western descent. Again, when the term is used, non-syncretistic elements are often not acknowledged. Thus, the need to transform the current narrative was highlighted.

The evolution of ideas about pacifism in the global Pentecostal tradition

The article presents opinions in global Pentecostalism about pacifism and nonviolence. In most European countries and the United States, the topic of pacifism became relevant during the World Wars. Over time, pacifism as a dominant was replaced by the possibility of independent choice of believers in accordance with their convictions of conscience. The Global Pentecostal movement has developed different strategies of action in relation to participation in military operations: from categorical refusal to total acceptance of the need for military service. Those strategies were influenced by changes in the views of religious leaders, and the power position on statements from individual churches. In the Soviet Union, Pentecostals already in the 1920s held loyalist views on the military issue. The Soviet state forced Pentecostals to declare the need to fulfill civic obligations, including with arms in hand. Soviet Pentecostals officially proclaimed the principle of personal responsibility for one’s choices and the need to comply with state laws. In the late Soviet period, for most believers, military service was a way to test the "perseverance of faith" and at the same time demonstrate law-abidingness and inclusion in the life of Soviet society.

Духовное просвещение и благочестие в проповеди конца XVII века

<p>The crucial 17<sup>th</sup> century raises the question of the importance of systemic education — churches as a concentration of knowledge become centers of education. The sermon becomes a channel for broadcasting reflections. «Propoved’ v nedeluy 23 po soshestvii Svyatago Duha» [Sermon on Week 23 after the Descent of the Holy Spirit] from the anonymous handwritten collection of sermons «Statir» of the late 17<sup>th</sup> century is published according to all the rules for the transmission of the Church Slavonic text and identifying the sources of the intertext. By spiritual enlightenment the preacher understands attention to the sermons delivered, the study of patristic writings. Along the way, related topics are comprehended — book publishing, respect for people of intellectual labor (writers, preachers). The author deduces the idea of the need for spiritual enlightenment by comparing the Gadarians from the parable of the possessed Gadarin (Luke 8) and modern people who also reject the Word of God, which is embodied in sermons and interpretations, but they do it consciously, unlike the people from the parable. Comparing the flock with the early Christians, the author notes the decline in the ability to think, and in the second part of the sermon he shows the social and spiritual state of people who chose sin instead of diligence in faith. The sin of drunkenness, chosen for illustration, is considered by the author to be one of the most dangerous, because it is he who feels the source of other sins, and is also the most visible in public life. The main conclusion of the author's reflections is that spiritual enlightenment and the ability to reflect are necessary for priests and laity because unrighteous behavior in earthly life and the impossibility of future salvation are due to sins, the harm of which can only be understood if one follows authoritative sources of knowledge. In addition to the author's reflections, the literary talent of the author becomes the subject of research. The complex semantic structure of the sermon, the art of eloquence, the rhetorical strategy of exposing drunkenness associated with the creative processing of patristic and biblical quotations are noted.</p>

Preaching Outside the Temple: On the Literary Witness of James Baldwin as the Word Made Public

It was the late Bishop Ithiel Conrad Clemmons, former minister of the First Church of God in Christ of Brooklyn, New York, who said of the late famed novelist/essayist James Baldwin that “he was America’s inside eye on the Black Holiness and Pentecostal Churches”. Though Baldwin admitted that the culture and ethos of the African-American Pentecostal church were “highly significant and indelibly imprinted upon him”, according to Baldwin, his faith community’s “naiveté about life appalled him and drove him away”. While Baldwin left behind the church of his youth, never to return, for the remainder of his writing career, the “backslidden” minister’s literary musings continued to be informed (in both style and content) by the formative religious tradition that he left behind. Though several studies have been undertaken that examine Baldwin’s significance to various aspects of the study of African-American religion and culture, precious little has been written regarding Baldwin’s continuing engagement of the idiom of African-American preaching, the idiom which cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson has nominated as the “jewel in the crown of Black Sacred Rhetoric”. While many studies of Baldwin include the fact that Baldwin was a preacher’s son and that Baldwin himself preached for a time during his youth, the account is yet to be given of how Baldwin’s writings continued to employ the rhythms, grammar, tones, and textures of the Black sacred rhetorical tradition, especially from beyond the borders of the African-American church. This essay seeks to expose not only how Baldwin self-consciously continued to stand in the rhetorical trajectory of the African-American preaching tradition, but the attempt is also to reveal how the writer secularizes the idiom, providing the Black Holiness preacher a hearing from beyond the church. Through a focus on Baldwin as a Black sacred rhetorician, sermonizing from beyond the church, this essay participates in the nearly 100-year-old conversation instigated by the early African-American literary and cultural critic James Weldon Johnson in God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), regarding the neglected significance of the sermon and the preacher in African-American literature and Black expressive cultures. Baldwin’s sermonic is here examined as a highly distinctive mode of Black public theologizing.

Adaptivity of Church Leadership: A Case of Two Pentecostal Churches in Mwinilunga District of Zambia

Transition in churches has propelled the atmosphere of conflicts which exerts pressure on leadership for years now. This brings about a ball in the court of leaders; each leader catches new dimensions and revelation as the world is dynamic. Christianity as a religion is sub-divide into branches, then into denominations (or schools) and finally congregations; this reflects the multiple ways in which religious ideas and experiences get played out by society with different understandings, temperaments, cultural, historical and personal histories. Adaptive challenges are typically grounded in the complexity of values, beliefs, and loyalties rather than technical complexity and stir up intense emotions rather than dispassionate analysis. Hence, this proves to be impossible for authorities to solve an adaptive challenge by issuing a directive or bringing together a group of experts, because the solutions to adaptive problems lie in the new attitudes, competencies, and coordination of the people with the problem itself. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of adaptive challenge in church Leadership in religious transition in Mwinilunga churches. The objectives were to assess the resilience of church leaders and their capacity to engage in problem-solving in the midst of adaptive pressures; to determine the gap between espoused values and behaviour in church leadership during religious transition. A descriptive survey method was employed in which a structured interview guides and questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 50 respondents. The respondents consisted of 10 Pastors, 10 Church Elders, 10 Deacons, and 20 church members. The findings revealed that leaders lacked resilience and capacity to engage in problem- solving in the midst of adaptive pressures that they faced during the transition – constitution amendment. The relationship between the espoused values and behaviour in church leadership during religious transition was parallel – there existed a wide gap. The study also revealed that leaders did not share the burden of keeping work at the centre of the people’s attention and lacked critical qualities. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made; Leaders need to develop policies and critical qualities to effectively govern their ministries and organisation to reduce on ignorance and as well prevent try and error in leadership. Church organisation or ministries should embrace strategic planning in the running of religious activities. During adaptive challenges leaders should depend on God who manifests his glory through the instrumentality of wisdom and be exemplary and play a vital role as the salt and the light of the world.