The Sunday News
IF you have just started reading this column you need to understand that we have been discussing the reality that Africa will be the home of Christianity seeing the west that introduced it is fast becoming untenable. My view is that the Pentecostal form of Christianity in Africa is growing in leaps and bound, far outclassing the mainline churches that were the early evangelisers of the African populace to the Christian faith. The reality, further, is that the shallowness of the theological and governance fibre of the Pentecostal church in Africa is the concern that I refer to as the wineskin that may not be strong enough to carry the effervescent new wine.
The centre of Christianity has moved from the Northern Hemisphere to the Global South and more particularly to Africa. At the forefront of the expansion of the Christian faith are Pentecostals, now globally estimated at 600 million Spirit-filled believers, approximately 26 percent of the entire Christian community, of which over 100 million are Africans. It is predicted that by 2025, the global population will reach 7,8 billion; Christians of all varieties will number 2,6 billion. Of this number, 228 million will be Renewalists from Africa, followed in size by Asians and Latin Americans.
The most vibrant centres of Christian growth are in Africa today, “In our lifetimes, the centuries-long North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end.” This is a reality we cannot afford to ignore. My concern as stated before is, “Is the African Pentecostal church ready for this responsibility?”
The unbridled proliferation of Pentecostal churches in the world and particularly in Africa has steered up concerns among adherents of religious faiths, onlookers and academics alike. One area that has not been critically evaluated is the role of intra-church conflicts in Pentecostal church proliferation. Conflict is endemic in religious institutions and the Pentecostal churches.
Most of these conflicts are linked to religious freedom, poor governance and intra-church altercations. Conflict is a situation of disagreements, arguments, clash of interests, loyalties and emotions. It is evident where there are opposing ideas, opinions, feelings, wishes, and beliefs. It is a situation of incompatible goals. Pentecostal churches involve social human beings and as such not free from conflict.
Pentecostal churches are found in all manner of questionable places like in “cinema halls, and also in night clubs, hotels, and all such places previously demonised as abodes of sin by classical Pentecostals” (Adeboye, 2012). One apparently covert cause of Pentecostal church proliferation, which has not been critically explored and evaluated, is the role of intra-church conflicts in Pentecostal church proliferation.
It has become the norm that most Pentecostal churches are not grown or birthed from pure evangelical fervency and outreach but by breaking away from other classical Pentecostal bodies.
The new Pentecostal church is more often than not a result of conflict and disagreement. Such disagreement is also not based on deep disagreements in theological and doctrinal fronts but rather on the administrative, personality clashes and basically non-biblical differences.
As said earlier it is based on opinionated positions fuelled by deep seated emotions and at times mere diversity of tastes.
While conflict per se is not bad it is when one viewing the Pentecostal church gets perturbed at the rate at which the basis of conflict is not quite positive for growth. Conflict result in the formation of new entities with the supposed similar goal of spreading the gospel of Christ and salvation. The manner in which this conflict is managed creates shallow demagogues of a message that has to outlive time. That is disturbing.
My question is will this be the wineskin that will hold the new wine that God is pouring out for the world, not only Africa, to drink from?
Are we in the new structures that are a result of this not so theologically sound conflict going to have a future for the faith? Are we in the conflict contending for the faith or for our own stomachs? How will we sustain the faith on leadership that is based on unaccountability? Where the gift and the manifestation of the power seems to supersede the submission to theologically and biblically grounded leadership structures.
There is need to create a grounding where the Word and the simplicity of the gospel message within the cradle of theologically sound and accountable leadership structures is promoted. That will be sustainable in my view. There is a better future for us in that.
My understanding is that the future of the Christian in the whole world will have its hermeneutics informed by the African Pentecostal church. The elder leader in Pentecostal administration Tokunboh Adeyemo observed that, “The church in Africa was a mile long in terms of quantity, but only an inch deep in terms of quality.” So true and yet so painful.
Another guru Byang H. Kato adds, “The church is generally unprepared for the challenge because of its theological and biblical ignorance . . . If she is to meet the challenge, theological training must be strengthened.” With the Pentecostal Church leading the way in Africa’s revival, in order for her to conserve the growth and maintain her Pentecostal missional vitality, she must develop a hermeneutic that is thoroughly Pentecostal, biblically based, and culturally relevant. Such a hermeneutic must critically evaluate what is available from Evangelical interpretive perspectives so that what emerges can authentically be labelled, “Made in Africa.”
I would like to join the chorus that proposes a Renewal or Pentecostal hermeneutic committed to apostolic function, modelled after the New Testament church in the Book of Acts.
The process of formulating a Pentecostal hermeneutic is enriched by the theological reflections of Africans equally concerned about the leadership formation of African Pentecostals, the impact of a Pentecostal hermeneutic on the ecclesiological environment, and Africa’s missional commitment. I could go on but suffice to say for today let us put a Selah here and say till next week Shalom!
