14 Pentecostalism in Africa

Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

PENTECOSTALISM IN AFRICA
AND THE CHANGING FACE OF CHRISTIAN MISSION:
Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal Movements in Ghana*

Introduction

Today, Christianity is spreading faster in the non-western world

than at any time or place in the last two thousand years. As far as this
expansion and the changing face of the church goes, much of the action is
taking place in Africa south of the Sahara. The nature of Christianity in
Africa has also changed considerably since the end of the modern
missionary era around the mid-1950s when the future of the faith in terms
of leadership and the formulation of missionary policies fell almost entirely
into African hands. African leadership and control of the church has among
other things, heightened the rate of innovation in Christianity with far
reaching implications for Christian mission on the continent. One of my
favorite definitions of mission is found in John V. Taylor's award-winning
The Go Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission. In this
book, Taylor, himself a former missionary in Africa, defines Christian
mission as recognizing what God is doing in the world and trying to do it
with God (Taylor 1972: 37). I have often modified this definition slightly
so as to highlight the fact that it is the Creator-Redeemer God who engages
people in the enterprise of mission. In other words, God has been at work
in the world, already carrying out the divine mission and invites those who
are open to come on board as agents, partners or co-creators in the
missionary task. The question to ask, following my adopted definition of

*Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu holds a Ph.D. from the University of

Birmingham, UK. He teaches New Religious Movements and Pentecostal Theology
at Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana. This article is a first
installment ofa larger research project on "Current Developments within African
Christianity. "Address: Trinity Theological Seminary, P.O. Box 48, Legon, Accra,
Ghana. E-mail: [email protected].
Mission Studies, Vol XIX, No 2-38, 2002
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 1_5

mission is, what is God doing in the world? The missionary agenda remains
the same as the one Jesus outlined in his manifesto at the outset of his
ministry: proclamation of good news to the poor, freedom for the
imprisoned, recovery of sight for the blind, release for the oppressed and the
declaration of the year of the Lord's favor (Lk 4: 18-19). Much of the
information in this article has been obtained not from interpreters but from
indigenous Christian leaders and church members, who looking at the
phenomenal rate of growth of Christianity in their local contexts often refer
to the fact that "God is doing something new through African Christians."
In other words, the "year of the Lord's favour has come upon Africa" and
this brings with it, as one Ghanaian pastor put it, "tremendous hope for the
future."
The shift in the center of gravity of the Christian faith from the
Northern to the Southern continents, especially to Africa, is indicative of the
central role that Africa, in spite of her innumerable woes, may now find
herself playing in pointing the world to what God can do in Christ.
Elsewhere in his book, Taylor acknowledges the significance of what the
Spirit of the Lord is doing through African Christianity represented by the
many, diverse, volatile and not in a few instances controversial indigenous
independent church movements:
In Africa today it seems that the incalculable Spirit has chosen to
use the Independent Church Movement for another spectacular advance.
This does not prove that their teaching is necessarily true, but it shows that
they have the raw materials out of which a missionary church is
made-spontaneity, total commitment, and the primitive responses that arise
from the depths of life (Ibid.: 54).
The title of an April 2001 report in Newsweek, "The Changing Face
of the Church: How the Explosion of Christianity in Developing Nations is
Transforming the World's Largest Religion," aptly captured the thrust of
current trends within Christianity in the non-western world. With specific
reference to the role of Africa within the general growth of Christianity in
the Southern continents, the report observed that "if any continent holds the
future of Christianity, many mission experts believe, it is Africa"
(Woodward 2001: 51). Current developments within African Christianity
indicate that these are not wild claims, for, not only is Christianity growing
rapidly, but in African hands, the faith has also been experiencing seismic
transformations with an impact that is being felt across the western world.
Some of the largest and fastest growing churches in western Europe today
are those set up and run by immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The
current renewal of African Christianity stands in sharp contrast to the state
16 Pentecostalism in Africa

of European Christendom where, as Forrester writes, Christianity has been

marginalized through the forces of "secularism, atheism, and materialism"
(Forrester 1994: 24-45). At a time when chapel buildings in many parts of
western Europe are being painlessly converted into pubs, club houses,
restaurants, warehouses, cinema halls, museum monuments, residential
facilities, and in other instances Buddhist and Hindu temples, these same
secular facilities are being refurbished and transformed for the use of
churches in sub-Saharan Africa.
The task that I have set myself in this article is to examine aspects
of the changing face of Christianity, with specific reference to
transformations that have occurred through the ministries of African
independent church movements-so called on account of their developing
outside of direct western missionary control. I will contend that Christian
innovation in Africa has mostly been Pentecostal in nature. Pentecostalism
in its wide variations has come to represent the changing face of African
Christianity and therefore of Christian mission on the continent. The
expression "Pentecostal" is used in this article to refer to Christian groups
that emphasize salvation in Christ as a transformative experience wrought
by the Holy Spirit and who not only affirm belief in the Spirit, but also,
actively encourage believers to seek an experiential encounter with him as
the dynamic and empowering presence of God. I will discuss how the
renewal of Christianity in an African context, in this instance, Ghana, has
been mediated through three main streams of indigenous Pentecostal
movements, the Spiritual churches, the Church of Pentecost (CoP) and the
Charismatic ministries (CMs).
There has been a general tendency on the part of those writing from
western perspectives to locate the global origins of Pentecostalism in the
North American experiences of Charles F. Parham in 1901 and the famous
William J. Seymour Azusa Street revival of 1906. The Parham-Seymour
position often assumes that Pentecostalism in Africa especially in its
modern form is an American export. The view taken in this article however
is that for Africans themselves, their Pentecostal roots lie in the promise and
fulfilment of Pentecost in Joel and Acts respectively. Pentecostal history in
this study is thus viewed from an intercultural perspective. The intercultural
perspective sees Pentecostalism in each context, as a distinctive member of
a global family. An intercultural theology, therefore advocates a body of
Christ in which the members remain committed to their function whilst
contributing to the whole without any assuming a sense of superiority over
the others. The intercultural view of Pentecostal history rejects conventional
interpretations that consider what happened in the course of western
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 17

Christendom as universally normative for Christian history. Interculturality

therefore values diversity. So writing on the theme "Pentecostal Theology
in the Twenty-first Century," John C. Thomas, one-time president of the
Society for Pentecostal Studies, referred to the fact that despite the cultural,
ethnic, linguistic and theological diversities of those constituting
Pentecostalism, the movement has generated a global culture with shared
features (Thomas 1998: 3). Thomas therefore suggests encouraging the
diverse voices from all parts of the world that make up the Pentecostal
family not only "to find a voice," but also "to speak their own theological
language, making their own contributions to the larger Pentecostal family"
(Ibid.: 10). There has been some American influence on modern forms of
African Pentecostalism represented by the CMs, but by and large, religious
innovation in Africa has always had its foundations in the direct spiritual
experiences of the founders. Foreign influences normally came later. The
focus of the discussion, in keeping with the social location of my
knowledge, experience and research, is on my home country, Ghana.

A History of Religious and Theological Innovation in Africa

The first stream of Christianity to survive in modern Africa may be

traced to the early nineteenth century historic missions. The histories of the
various mission bodies and their activities in Africa are now fairly well
known and there would be no attempt to rehearse them here. The historic
mission churches concerned themselves mainly with the transmission of
Christianity, as it existed in Western Europe. In a world where answers to
existential questions are sought for in religio-theological contexts, many
Africans found the approach of historic mission Christianity to be overly
cerebral, evasive as far as experiences of the Spirit were concerned and too
detached from their worldviews of spiritual causation. This is not to deny
the tremendous sacrifices that western European missionaries made in the
cause of the gospel in Africa. The amount of resources sunk into mother
tongue translations of the Bible-itself a collaborative venture between
missionaries and African Christians-is without doubt, one of the most
enduring legacies of the evangelistic endeavours of the missionary era.
There is an inseparable link between people hearing the word of God in
their own mother tongues and the spread, preservation and survival of the
Christian faith beyond the mission stations, that is, the "Jerusalems" of
modern African Christianity. Much of this earlier missionary effort has
survived, but for our present purposes, attention needs to be drawn to the
reshaping of Christianity once its expression and spread had come under the
18 Pentecostalism in Africa

control of its indigenous agents in Africa.

In a survey of how numerous congregations within one densely
populated area of Nigeria had come into being, Andrew Walls recalls how
in almost all cases, the initial impetus had come from the indigenous, lay
Christians. Missionary resources to support local initiatives often came later
(Walls 1996: 87). The expansion of Christianity in Africa even in our day
is being led by ordinary African Christians. In Ghana today, personalities
like Nicholas Duncan-Williams of the Christian Action Faith Ministries,
Mensa Anamuah Otabil of the International Central Gospel Church, Charles
Agyin Asare of ihe Word Miracle Church International and Dag Heward-
Mills of the Lighthouse Chapel International all preach to congregations of
more than five thousand people every Sunday. Their media ministries
ensure that the messages they carry reach virtually every living room across
the country and beyond. These founders of independent Charismatic
churches or ministries as their churches are called in Ghana, are very often
people who start without theological education and sophistication or the
benefit of formal ordination. Nevertheless, as with the carriers of the gospel
in the early church, they are inspired by their own personal religious
encounters and experiences which generates in them a strong sense of
mission. In African eyes, religious functionaries are expected to be people
of spiritual power who are in touch with the divine realms of existence. In
that way, they are able to facilitate communication and interactions between
the two realms of existence and this is the advantage that independent
Pentecostal leaders are perceived to have over their counterparts in older
denominations. The lay initiatives in mission by African Christians have
been extended into western Europe and North America. The result is that,
as I have noted earlier, some of the largest and fastest growing churches in
western countries today are founded and led by West African Christian
migrants (see IRM 2000).
To return to the situation in Africa during the missionary era, if
African Christians were key in the spread of Christianity and the
establishment and running of churches from the outset, then it means that
popular Christianity was virtually under the control of the faith's indigenous
agents. Outside the mission station in particular, the expression of
Christianity virtually ceased to be replicas of western European models
because the faith and how it was to be lived and expressed were now in
African hands. African initiatives in Christianity, which later came to be
represented by the second stream of Christianity on the continent, the
African Independent Church movement, actually started within existing
mission denominations. This would mean that even before the appearance
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 19

of itinerant African prophets like the charismatic William Wadé Harris,

whose evangelistic campaigns actually spawned significant numbers of
indigenous Christian revival movements at the turn of the twentieth century,
sparks of renewal may already have been present in historic mission
churches. The nature of this Christianity, born out of African initiative and
experience and which sought an alternative spirituality to the "dry
denominationalism" of the historic churches, is what is important for my
purposes here.
The nature of this Christianity may be accessed through the
experience of the former Methodist catechist, William Egyanka Appiah,
founder of one of the largest independent churches in Ghana, the Musama
Disco Christo Church. Catechist Appiah had set up a praying camp in the
bush near his station. From this sacred space, he and his followers started
"waiting" on the Lord. We are told that on the 18th of August, 1919, during
personal prayers at the camp, Appiah received a revelation after which he
realized he had become a new man, that is, a qualitatively different person
from what he was before: "He began to speak in a new tongue, and from
that time onward he performed many miracles" (Baëta 1962: 31). The
pneumatic phenomena accompanying Appiah's religious experience was to
characterize the Christianity of the church he founded and other churches
belonging to that stream of Christian expression. It is important to note that
Appiah and his group remained within the Methodist tradition until their
spiritual activities attracted a hostile reception from their mother church.
In Understanding Religion, Eric Sharpe observed that "if the
supernatural world did not communicate at all, then there would be
absolutely no reason to regard anything as holy, that is, as qualitatively
different from anything else" (Sharpe 1983: 59). But as he points out
elsewhere in the book, "institutional religion" with its set and often rigid
traditions tends to find such "direct communications from the supernatural
order uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous" (Ibid.: 68). The result for
the then catechist Appiah who attempted to allow his supernatural
experiences to reshape his stereotyped Methodist Christianity was that he
was thrown out of the church. The reason for his dismissal was that his
brand of Christian piety belonged to the occult. In the words of Baëta,
Appiah was "firmly ordered to stop all his occult practices completely and
at once, 'as the Methodists were not like that"'(Baëta 1962: 35). Stories like
Appiah's are very familiar in the religious histories of numerous African
independent churches. They were formed and grew largely because of the
failure of Western mission-founded churches to accept or to integrate
"charismatic" experiences, especially in the area of healing and prophecy
20 Pentecostalism in Africa

into their faith and practice. As one leader of an independent church

recounted during an interview with him, "the historic mission churches have
structures but they stand in need of power, power to heal, to deliver and to
prophesy but God has given us, the independent churches, power to reach
out, that is what is essential for mission, and with time, we hope to develop
appropriate structures to sustain the gains."

Pentecostalism: the Driving Force of Religious Innovation in Africa

What came across to the Methodists as "occult" in the days of

catechist Appiah would seem to me to be the dimension in African
Christianity that has not attracted the same level of academic attention as
the general prediction of Christian growth in Africa, and which dimension
I suggest, is the Pentecostal one. Pentecostalism has been the driving force
of Christian religious innovation in Africa and represents the most palpable
and visible evidence of the astronomical growth in African Christianity.
Pentecostalism is not unique to Africa. It is a global movement that shares
a common spirituality. African initiatives in Christianity and the
proliferating autochthonous Pentecostal churches springing up across the
Third World in general represent the primary sources of the current global
Christian expansion. So, if as I have noted, the African initiatives being
referred to here are themselves Pentecostal in nature, then the importance
of Africa in the process of religious globalization, as far as the Christian
impact is concerned, may be considered critical indeed.

Sunsum Sorè

In Ghana the older independent churches we are talking about

appear in the literature as : Spiritual churches" on account of their pneumatic
orientation. The Spiritual churches share phenomenological similarities
with Nigeria's Aladura and South Africa's Zionist churches. There may
exist wide variations in the nature of these movements with some clearly
incorporating occultic elements in their practices, but the ones belonging to
the mainstream possess a Pentecostal ethos similar to those observable
anywhere around the world. The popular Ghanaian vernacular expression
for these independent churches is Sunsum sorè, where "Sunsum" is Spirit
and "sorè" is worship or church. There is no vernacular word for Pentecost
in Africa, so Sunsum sorè appeared to my informants to be the best
approximation that the Ghanaian public reached in the perception of these
movements as re-living the biblical Pentecostal experience in an African
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 21

setting. The phenomena and experiences associated with "Pentecost" are the
result of being possessed by the Holy Spirit and Sunsum sore (churches of
the Spirit) adequately captures the experiences, central beliefs and
theological orientation of these movements. In principle therefore, every
Pentecostal church may be described as a "Spiritual church" of some sort.
The contribution of the independent churches to Christianity in
Africa has been phenomenal and very well documented. As pioneers in
religious innovation in Africa, the independent churches revealed in their
ethos, the liberative might of the gospel of Jesus Christ and awakened the
historic churches to crucial issues that drew attention to what it meant for
a church to be truly Christian and authentically indigenous at the same time.
The approach of the Sunsum sorè to Christian life, worship and mission,
gave Christian expression a certain immediacy that has contributed
immensely to the survival of the faith in sub-Saharan Africa. If Western
missionary agencies, helped to institutionalize Christianity in modern
Africa, the Sunsum sorè provided it with a contextual significance needed
for its stability. With the rise of these independent churches, to quote Lamin
Sanneh's thoughts on them:

A process of internal change was . . . initiated in which

African Christians sought a distinctive way of life through
mediation of the spirit, a process that enhanced the
importance of traditional religions for the deepening of
Christian spirituality Biblical material was submitted
to the regenerative capacity of African perception, and the
result would be Africa's unique contribution to the story of
Christianity (Sanneh 1983: 180).

Having been around for close to a century, these older independent

churches belonging to the Sunsum sorè category are currently in recession.
A thorough discussion of the factors leading to their decline are many and
beyond the scope of our present endeavor. Suffice it to point out that the
religious field in Africa has become competitive with the rise and growth
of classical Pentecostal denominations like the Church of Pentecost and the
Deeper Life Ministries. These have captured a lot of the people that the
older independent churches would have counted on. The over-concentration
of the Sunsum sorè on producing integrated, syncretic rites and rituals of
healing, deliverance from the demonic and traditional curses; potions for
love, success in life's endeavours and so on, also led in time to the neglect
of Christian growth at the deeper levels. This has not helped their cause.
22 Pentecostalism in Africa

Youth and children's ministries did not feature much in Sunsum sorè
Christianity. Charismatic power was also concentrated in the personality of
the prophets. As adult members and founders of the churches became
dysfunctional through ageing and death therefore, natural decline became
inexorable. In spite of the current decline however, two things would
continue to bear testimony to the dominant presence of the older
independent churches in African Christianity during the first half of the
twentieth century.
First, they provided an agenda for research and writing especially
for western scholars in religious anthropology, church history, missiology
and African theology. The evidence for this is the massive bibliography
available on these older independent churches and found on the shelves of
libraries and archives of leading universities in the West. As far as the study
of African Christianity is concerned, the Spiritual churches have been the
most intensely studied. From about the 1960s through the 1970s, the study
of African independent churches became something of a "cash crop
venture" among scholars of Christianity in Africa. As Adrian Hastings
observes:

The scholar... looking for an interesting research topic in

the field of African religion at that time could hardly fail
to be attracted by one of the almost innumerable new
churches springing into vibrant existence in Zaire, Kenya,
Zambia or Ghana in those years . . . . "African
Christianity" was now, suddenly, a popular subject indeed
almost entirely in terms of the independent churches
(Hastings 1990: 204).

Thus, through the Christianity of the independent church

movement, Africa became part of the globalization process as academics
serving in leading western institutions obtained doctoral degrees through
dissertations on these churches. In the area of academic publications, the
late Harold Turner, himself a pioneer researcher on the African independent
church movement has served us well with his excellent collection and
subsequent publication of bibliographical material on these "prophet-
healing" churches as he called them (Turner 1977). Turner's collections on
new religious movements in the non-western world, now put together in the
Centre for the Study of New Religious Movements located at the University
of Birmingham, attracts researchers, including prospective missionaries to
Africa, from all over the world. The section on the African independent
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 23

church movement is one of the largest in the Turner collection. The

Spiritual churches, for many researchers, provided a more innovative,
exciting and stimulating missionary agenda quite unlike the Christianity of
traditional western missions and other so-called African nationalist or
Ethiopianist churches who in every way looked like their missionary
forbears.
The other evidence for the enduring influence and impact of the
Spiritual churches on Christianity in Africa lies in a change that has
occurred not only in the way the faith is expressed but also in the shift in
theological emphases. The religious innovation of the Sunsum sorè at the
turn of the twentieth century set in motion a "pentecostalization" of historic
mission churches that has now become one of the most significant features
of African Christianity. The full force of the extent and extraordinary
impact of these independent churches as far as the "pentecostalisation" of
African Christianity is concerned, may be gathered from the fact that what
was initially adopted as a defense mechanism against the Sunsum sorè
challenge is now regularized as part of historic church Christianity. At the
height of the proliferation of independent churches in the 1950s and 1960s,
concerns began to appear among the historic churches about the drift of
their members into new independent churches. Some members of the
historic mission churches severed their links with their mother churches
completely. Many others went for what has been variously described as
"plural belonging," "wearing braces and belt," or "double insurance," that
is, maintaining membership in the mission church and patronizing the
activities of various Spiritual churches. Conference and Synod proceedings
of historic mission churches especially in the 1960s contain reports of
committees set up to study the "negative" effects of the Spiritual churches
on the activities of their older brethren, the mission churches.
Without waiting for any executive fiats, some members within
mission churches constituted themselves into renewal groups in order to
offer within their own traditional mission churches the Pentecostal
spirituality instigating the drift into and affiliations with Spiritual churches.
Patrick Ryan, a Jesuit priest and former professor of religion at the
University of Cape Coast, Ghana, is candid in his opinion on how renewal
prayer groups have helped Roman Catholicism in Ghana:

In His providence, twenty years ago God provided

Ghanaian Catholicism with a partial answer to the
problems posed by neo-Protestant Pentecostalism. Too few
priests have recognised the importance ofthat answer and
24 Pentecostalism in Africa

have tried to ignore or even relegate that answer to an

insignificant corner. Catholic Charismatic renewal-fully
Catholic and fully Charismatic-can and does offer
Catholics all that might otherwise attract them away from
the humdrum Masses and devotional exercises to the
religiously attractive realm of neo-Protestant
Pentecostalism (Ryan 1992: 6).

By creating space within their own churches for renewal groups to

function, the historic churches managed to bring under control the drift of
their members into independent churches. The parallel pentecostalizing"
process that occurred within historic mission churches meant that the
independents served as pointers to the direction in which African
Christianity as a whole was actually heading. In many senses therefore, the
"pentecostalization" of historic mission churches, adopted as a defensive
mechanism in the face of the independent church challenge, partly ensured
the survival and sustenance of the mission agenda of historic churches into
the twenty-first century.

The Church of Pentecost

The rise of the Church of Pentecost (CoP), an indigenous classical

Pentecostal denomination, constitutes another major success story in
African Pentecostal history and mission. The significant inroad by the CoP
into territories formerly controlled by the Spiritual churches, I would
suggest, is a major factor in the decline of the latter. The CoP is one of three
"Apostolic" churches, all belonging to the classical Pentecostal tradition, to
emerge from the initiative of another African, Apostle Peter N. Anim
(1890-1984) and his subsequent collaboration with the British Apostolic
missionaries James and Sophia McKeown in the early 1930s. The history
and development of this church is now available in significant detail in the
work of Ghanaian Pentecostal historiographer, Kingley Larbi's
Pentecostalism: the Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity (2001). The mission
partners James McKeown and Anim worked together for a while until they
split up into separate Apostolic churches, mainly over the reluctance of
James McKeown to observe a strictly faith healing stance adopted by the
African movement headed by Anim. After a series of intractable conflicts
and court cases, a faction led by the McKeown finally adopted the name,
The Church of Pentecost, in August 1962. The significance of the CoP for
our discussion lies in the fact that, it is currently listed in a Ghana
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 25

Evangelism Committee church-attendance survey as the single largest

Protestant denomination in Ghana. The CoP with its rigorous evangelistic
programs, strong prophetic and healing ministry, an uncompromising
holiness ethic, wide demographic appeal and extensive geographic spread,
a community-oriented approach to church planting, a diversified ministry
including provision for children and youth, with a strong women's
movement is one of the most popular churches in the sub-region of Africa.
Among African churches establishing in western Europe and North
America at the present time, the CoP is also the one with the most well
organised network. With the aforementioned features characterizing its
spirituality, the CoP stands for what is widely perceived in Ghana to be a
more accessible and "more respectable option" in indigenous
Pentecostalism. The CoP in contrast to the multitudinous founder-
administered independent Sunsum sorè has a centralized administrative
structure, so the pastors are also under control and are accountable to an
established authority in a way that other founder-led independent churches
are not.
The Ghanaian public image of the CoP is that of a church which is
making up for some of the excesses, failures and weaknesses associated
with the Sunsum sorè in particular. In traditional Africa, religion functions
as a means of social control, and the maintenance of high moral standards
in response to prescriptions by the gods is well known. After nearly two
centuries of existence in Ghana and with the benefit of the translated
Scriptures, traditional communities are by no means oblivious of standards
required by the God of the Bible. If their own deities, which are discounted
by the Christian church as powerless and inferior, expect such high moral
standards, then converts have good reason to expect the Christian God to
demand even higher standards issuing in a more venerable and passionate
commitment on the part of worshippers. Against this background, and as
compared to what has come to be generally regarded as the dubious ways
of some African prophets and charismatic pastors, and the compromised
and moribund Christianity of traditional mission churches, the CoP's
serious and strict approach to the gospel helps to endear it to potential
members and admirers.
Another major strength of the CoP is its vernacularization policy.
Vernacularization is crucial for the success of mission in primal societies.
In Translating the Message, Sanneh draws attention to a primary affinity
between the vernacular and the gospel and how by carrying the gospel in its
vernacular form into their communities Africans have helped the church to
grow (Sanneh 1989: 188-189). Reference has also been made above to the
26 Pentecostal ism in Africa

crucial role of ordinary lay Christians in the spread of the gospel in Africa.
From the outset, the CoP relied extensively on the evangelistic passion of
its local members. Informants testify that James McKeown consistently paid
glorious tribute to the passion and commitment of the indigenous personnel
he worked with and attributed the growth and expansion of the CoP to the
hard work of the African agents of the church. In his words, "this has been
our aim in allowing the work in Africa to retain its native characteristics and
it has resulted in producing some of the finest Christians I have met"
(Leonard 1989: 64). Vernacularization in the CoP which is given expression
in the use of locally-composed choruses and songs, the narration of personal
testimonies, public Scripture reading, and the preaching of sermons, helps
to give the CoP a certain appealing simplicity found neither in other
classical Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God nor the traditional
mission churches. Much of this vernacularisation may not itself be new,
considering that Sunsum sorè services are also in the vernacular. Its import
as a source of attraction into the CoP is best understood against the
backdrop of the CoP's wider demographic and geographic appeal, and in
the context of the dwindling public image of the Sunsum sorè.
The CoP was the first Pentecostal church in Ghana to create a desk
for an International Missions Director to be in charge of her growing
network of churches across Africa, Western Europe and North America.
The CoP's institutional structures also provide it with an air of permanence
and stability that many African founder-led independent churches do not
have. Accessibility, vernacularization and a decidedly Pentecostal
spirituality make the CoP a preferred alternative to the "discredited"
Sunsum sorè which, geographically, may be located just a few meters away
from a local CoP assembly. Unlike the CoP, however, African Charismatic
ministries (CMs), which we discuss below, have tended to secure more
attention in the literature on account of their more exotic image and high
profile activities. So far, the CMs have remained largely urban and have
established only in areas where historic missions have already worked. The
CoP, however, breaks new missionary ground and is able to establish itself
in un-churched parts of the country.

Africa's Charismatic Ministries

My concern in the rest of the article will lie with the newest wave
of African Christianity, the CMs. The CMs in sub-Saharan Africa have very
deep roots in the conservative evangelical movement that gained much
prominence in the sub-region from the 1950s through the 1970s but in their
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 27

present form, they may be considered as part of a wider neo-Pentecostal

family. The neo-Pentecostals include renewal groups within historic
mission churches and trans-denominational fellowships like the Full Gospel
Business Men's Fellowship International. In the Ghanaian context, the
designation "Charismatic Ministries" carries both historical and theological
significance. Historically, it refers to manifestations of the neo-Pentecostal
movement, which like the Sunsum sore, have institutionalized as
independent churches since the late 1970s. Theologically, the expression
defines the ecclesiology of these new independent churches in which every
believer is considered a potential recipient of a charism(s) or ministry gift(s)
of the Holy Spirit. The charisms or "gifts of grace," as exercised by an
individual or groups of believers, constitute their ministry. The different
ministries are co-ordinated within the local church, to make it
"charismatically functional." Thus in principle, the ecclesiology of the
CMs, de-legitimizes the concentration of charismatic power in the "hands"
of prophets, ministers or pastors.
Within a single local Charismatic church, one may find diverse
team ministries such as praise and worship, healing and deliverance,
counselling, welcome and ushering, video and tape recording, prayer force,
youth and children, publications and other relevant teams and ministries.
The important experience here is what the CMs refer to as "the anointing."
The anointing, often symbolically imparted through the application of oil,
is considered important for a person to be able to function in his or her
ministry. As one of the movements leading authors in Ghana explains:
"With the mâshach anointing Jesus preached and ministered. Ushers need
this anointing to minister. The singer in God's house without the rubbed-on
anointing will end up entertaining the church instead of edifying them"
(Anaba 2000: 42). At the Tabernacle of Witness Church International in
Kumasi, Ghana, for example, the names of their different ministries is most
intriguing: Watchmen" refers to the prayer team, "Life Hunters" the youth
ministries, "Kingdom Kids" is the children's service, "Achievers" the
singles, that is the unmarried, "Sarai" refers to the women's fellowship and
the men's fellowship is the "Eagles." The pastoral strategy of the CMs is
one of enabling people to experience the effective presence and power of
God with minimal recourse to the traditional remedies that the older
independent churches were so keen to integrate into Christianity. The main
features of the CMs include: an emphasis on personal religious experiences
and ecclesiastical function based on a person's charismatic gifting. They
have a special attraction for Ghana's "upwardly mobile youth," a lay-
oriented leadership, innovative use of modern media technologies, a relaxed
28 Pentecostalism in Africa

and fashion-conscious dress code for members, vibrant worship life and the
absence of religious symbolism in places of worship. Unlike the older
independents, CMs are mostly urban-centered and English is the principal
mode of communication. There is an ardent desire to appear successful,
reflect a modern outlook, and portray an international image among
Charismatic churches across Africa.

Theology of Prosperity

The CMs cherish the different streams and networks of trans-

national and international character to which they belong. There is an
undeniable foreign, mainly North American, inspiration behind the
Christianity of the CMs in general. In Ghana this inspiration is particularly
evident in the movement's Bible School culture, mass evangelistic crusades,
media consciousness and the desire to set up institutions of monumental
significance such as Christian universities. The American influence is
particularly strong in the movement's theology of success, possibilities and
prosperity. The theology of prosperity in particular raises serious questions
regarding the approach of the CMs to the gospel message. Bishop Nicholas
Duncan-Williams, founder and leader of the Christian Action Faith
Ministries is one of the main exponents of the prosperity message. He once
generated public controversy when in an attempt to justify his extravagant
life style, he submitted during a TV interview that even Jesus wore designer
clothes. In a moving autobiographical book in which he gives account of his
dramatic conversion to Christ from drugs and truancy, Duncan-Williams
also teaches that prosperity, divine health, peace, joy and fulfilment are not
optional blessings, but "they are responsibilities." Every believer is thus
expected to be an example of these blessings. What is clear throughout the
book and in the message of the CMs generally, is the encouragement to
members that if they play their part by exercising faith especially by giving
money to the ministry, they are bound to succeed in life (Duncan-Williams:
1990). There is much in the prosperity teaching that may resonate with the
practical ends that religion serves in traditional African society.
Unfortunately, there is no attempt in the theology of prosperity to wrestle
with some of the practical questions in life that are relevant particularly in
the harsh economic conditions of African life. In the end, those for whom
such "formulaic theology" does not work end up broken and disappointed
not in the church, but in the God whom they purport to serve.
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 29

A Local Movement with a Global Character

The presence of the prosperity gospel in the teaching of the CMs

forms the basis for recent conclusions by some that the CMs are an
American import. Together, Brouwer, Gifford and Rose deny that the
Christianity evolving through the CMs "is a genuinely African construct,
arising from African experience and meeting African needs" (Brouwer,
Gifford, Rose 1996: 1978). Contrary to this view, one would contend that
on the whole, the CMs reflect modern African ingenuity in the
appropriation of neo-Pentecostal Christianity enamoured with a repertoire
of global, mostly American neo-Pentecostal techniques, style and strategy
in organization and expression. In African eyes, North America, with its
technological superiority and material abundance epitomizes modernity.
For a religion that seeks to be modern and preaches material abundance as
signs of right standing with God as the CMs do, what comes from America
in particular is a great source of enchantment and inspiration.
On the one hand, therefore, the internationalism of the CMs form
part of the prosperity message that they preach because in African
perceptions, opportunities to travel abroad constitute signs of economic
breakthrough from the harsh realities on the continent. Charismatic leaders
are keen to show off their own international significance so in recent
months sponsored TV programs for bishops Duncan-Williams, Charles
Agyin Asare and Dag Heward Mills have consisted of video clips of
crusades held outside Ghana. The images shown here are the same as one
would find in video clips of any American televangelist. The following
observation from Coleman based on the work of Gifford aptly describes the
importance of an international image for Ghana's CMs:

Faith churches are significant not only because they

participate in translocal networks, but also because they
cultivate an ideological context where the virtues and
excitements of internationalism are stressed. . . . Faith
preachers are presented as having "just flown in today" or
as leaving soon for foreign parts. Bible Schools list among
their teachers anyone who has visited them, and
testimonies are cultivated from people who have been
abroad (Coleman 2000: 34).

The internationalism of the CMs is in another sense, an inevitable

consequence of religious globalization. Global technological advancement
30 Pentecostalism in Africa

makes possible the flow of ideas from one culture to another. The affinity
between Africa's new pentecostalist churches and their foreign versions
may thus be explained in terms of the principle of "diffusion of innovation."
Rogers defines diffusion as "the process by which an innovation is
communicated through certain channels over time among the members of
a social system" (Rogers 1995: 6). In an age of unprecedented technological
advancement, the role of the mass media in the diffusion of innovation must
be obvious. As Rogers points out:

Mass media channels are often the most rapid and efficient
means to inform an audience of potential adopters about
the existence of an innovation, that is, to create awareness-
knowledge. Mass media channels are all those means of
transmitting messages that involve a mass medium, such as
radio, television, newspapers, and so on, which enable a
source of one or a few individuals to reach an audience of
many (Ibid.: 18).

The ministries of some of the significant figures associated with

charismatic Christianity, the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa who mentored
many of the leaders, Benny Hinn, Morris Cernilo, and T. L. Osborn have
mostly reached African charismatics not only through personal contacts, but
also through videotapes and satellite TV channels. What has happened
between Africa and other parts of the world where such movements may be
found, is an exchange of personnel, innovative ideas, styles, messages and
so on that has taken place among religious movements proliferating in
different contexts at the same time. Pastors of African charismatic
movements now speak proudly of their worldwide peregrinations during
which they hold mass crusades, just like the foreign counterparts they often
receive in their home countries. In October 1998, for example, Ron Kenoly
the celebrated African-American gospel singer whose ministry was hitherto
available to Ghanaians through video and cassette tapes, held a gospel
concert at the Christ Temple of the International Central Gospel Church,
Accra. The event, dubbed "Make Us One," and sponsored by the local JOY
FM radio station whose executive director is charismatic, attracted scores
of Christians mainly from the charismatic sector. It affirmed the global view
that the CMs take of their movement and the inspiration they receive from
their international leanings. For in Africa's charismatic movements, the use
of the media, Hackett points out, acts as "a tool of expansion" and "a
reflection of globalising aspirations" (Hackett 1998: 258-277). Preaching
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 31

tours have become very important to Ghana's Charismatic church leaders.

The ability to travel abroad and in the process "export spiritual power" or
to "import" foreign preachers has become in Ghana an index of a leader's
charismatic credentials and success as a man or woman of God. It is also a
source of great pride for church members to know that the missionary
influences of the movements they belong to go beyond their immediate
geographical settings.

African Churches in Europe: A Global Prophetic Mandate

In addition to the wide network of international friends and

engagements that the CMs covet, the desire to reflect an international
character has been heightened by efforts to set up branches abroad. These
branches are mostly made up of Ghanaian immigrants living in western
Europe and North America who stand in dire need of a Christianity that
they can identify with. According to Kwame Bediako, the self-definition of
the new Pentecostal churches as "international" organizations, point "to
some specifically Christian dimensions of the African participation in
globalisation that may escape secular-minded observers" (Bediako 2000:
311). Bediako then goes on to quote the words of Gerrie ter Haar on the
interpretation that African churches put on their mission in Europe in
relation to their ethnic identities:
To call them "African" churches implies a limitation of their task
in Europe. They look at themselves as "international" churches, expressing
their aspiration to be part of the international world in which they believe
they have a missionary task (Ibid.: 311).
In the interpretation of the leadership of the CMs, their global
"missionary task," as with those of the biblical prophets, has been inspired
by a prophetic mandate from the Holy Spirit. Pastor Mensa Otabil is the
founder and leader of one of Ghana's leading CMs mentioned earlier, the
International Central Gospel Church. In his book, Beyond the Rivers of
Ethiopia, Otabil gives the following account of the global significance of
his call into ministry: "when I was called into ministry, one of the things the
Lord led me to do was to liberate my people from mental slavery through
the preaching of the Gospel and to lift up the image of the black man so as
to be a channel of blessing to the nations of the world" (Otabil 1992: 18).
The modern charismatic movement in Africa has expanded its missionary
mandate to include an affirmation of the ability and potential of the black
race to contribute to a global economy. In Otabil's understanding, God is
using the black race to expand his kingdom and the theology of black pride
32 Pentecostalism in Africa

has become a major emphasis of his messages. The following is part of a

prophecy that is supposed to have been delivered following a message
preached by Otabil in the Bahamas. It reveals the mind of God about Africa
and her future in Christian globalization:

For says the Spirit of God, "you have been timid for too
long and you have sat in a corner for too long but it is time
to rise with a roar and with a shout." For says the Lord,
"your voice has not been heard in the nations, your voice
has not been heard on the continents. The rivers of life in
you have not been drank by the nations so shake yourself
out of the misery and shake yourself out of that pity and
shake yourself out of that social bondage for I will cause
the lion of Judah to rise with you and you shall roar like a
young lion, and like a young lion you shall move forth and
you shall do great things for me as you turn your face says
the Lord and as you turn round" says the Lord.

"He that has an eye let him see what the Spirit is doing for
I am causing a new wind and that new wind is blowing
from a place you never see a wind blow from. That new
wind is blowing from a place that was despised. For I will
cause my sons and daughters with my anointing and with
my power to move forth in the nations of the world and the
world will be blessed because of them for the time has
come for the nations to be helped."

"For who shall command me concerning my doings,... I

will use whom I will use and I will send whom I send and
I will bless whom I will bless says the Lord and I will
cause my face to shine upon whom I want to shine upon
for I have chosen a people looked down upon, despised
and a people spat upon and I have put my glory upon them
and have anointed them and through the anointing shall
they inherit their inheritance" says the Lord (Ibid.: 64-65).

Pastor Otabil's interpretation of the essence of this prophecy is the

intention of God to use the black race to advance the cause of the Kingdom:
"The purpose of God for blessing any individual is to use that person as a
conduit of his blessing. . . . receive His blessing and visitation so that we
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 33

can contribute our portion to humanity" (Ibid.: 67). The International

Central Gospel Church is thus described as "a model indigenous church" in
the church's constitution. It is an indigenous church with an international
or global agenda. This is an agenda that founders of CMs believe has been
set by the Holy Spirit. African Christian leaders of the charismatic stock
now pride themselves in the fact that the largest and fastest growing
churches in Western Europe are those Pentecostal/charismatic churches led
and pastored by West African nationals. The largest Baptist Church in the
UK is the Calvary Charismatic (Baptist) Church, which is led by the
Ghanaian pastor, Francis Sarpong. Nigerian pastor Matthew Ashimolowo's
Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) for example, is said to
have started with a congregation of two hundred adult members but had
within eight years built up a membership of seven thousand. KICC's vision,
according its founder, Pastor Ashimolowo, is to increase her membership
to 25,000 by the year 2010. For the realization of this vision, KICC has
embarked upon the building of a church with a seating capacity of five
thousand. If this intention becomes a reality, it would mean that the largest
church in active use in terms of church attendance on the entire continent
of Europe would have been built by an African.
The driving force behind the international image CMs so keenly
covet therefore lies in the global mission to which the leaders believe God
has called them. In recent times some have opened Internet websites where
information and glossy pictures of pastors, their wives and major church
events may be accessed. It is therefore not merely accidental that each of the
churches in question has either "global" or "international" in their names:
International Central Gospel Church, Global Revival Ministries, Word
Miracle Church International, Resurrection Power Ministries International,
Victory Bible Church International and Living Praise Ministries
International.

Charismatic Theologies of African Emancipation

The renewal of Christianity in Africa through Pentecostalism

suggest that in the midst of the political turbulence and other socio-
economic problems bedevilling the continent, religion and culture may just
turn out to be the areas in which Africa might make some of its greatest
contributions to the "global village" in the new millennium. In the new
theologies of the CMs, there is great emphasis on capacity building,
empowerment and the realization of potential in order to enhance people's
creative powers. A number of these speakers are now referred to as
34 Pentecostalism in Africa

"motivational" or "inspirational" speakers. Much inspiration for this new

dimension in African Christianity has come from international evangelists
like the Caribbean charismatic evangelist Myles Munroe whose books and
videotapes are available for sale on the premises of CMs in Ghana. The
central theme of Munroe's messages also available in that of Ghana's
charismatic preachers is a popular form of liberation theology that has
awakened within many Africans a new sense of enterprise, social
responsibility, higher aspirations towards a better destiny for an otherwise
marginalized continent.
It is therefore revealing that Pastor Mensa Otabil received an award
for his "practical, challenging and motivational messages" at the last
Annual Awards Dinner of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Marketing,
Ghana held in June 2001. Pastor Otabil, whose messages, like many of his
colleagues, are available to wider audiences through the print and broadcast
media-books, radio, TV and the Internet website of his church-is one of the
most popular motivational and inspirational speakers in Africa today. He is
not a businessman himself, but in his own interpretation, he has been raised
by God to inspire the current generation of Africans to use available
resources, look for, and utilize opportunities through which they could take
their rightful place in the new world order. These new preachers have
located religion squarely within public space and are pursuing the point that
religion has everything to do with modernization, development and the
globalization process. In other words, Christian mission could be very
practical. Modern businesses in Africa today, are competing with each other
to sponsor radio and TV programs hosted by these new charismatic
movements. The reason is that they find the emphasis of Africa's new breed
of "pentecostalist" churches, namely, capacity building, maximization of
potential, investment of resources, technological innovation and human
resource development very attractive, because, they are messages that
affirm and encourage participation in their own aspirations within the
world's globalization process.

Difficulties with Charismatic Worldview

The emphasis of the CMs on prosperity in particular, as we have

noted, raises serious concerns on their understanding of the gospel. Over the
years, this has been developed into a sort of formulaic theology in which
people expect blessings and possibilities in life once they play their part by
giving money to God and preachers. Their grasp of the meaning of suffering
in Christian life is suspect. Proof texts are constantly quoted, mindless of
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 35

the context, to suggest that human beings can expect to prosper and succeed
once they exercise enough faith and give to God. The attempt to instil in
members and listeners an ardent desire for success, material prosperity and
physical health, is a dangerous development in African Christianity that
these modern day charismatics need to evaluate critically. Although we
have lauded attempts to evangelize in the West, in very many cases, the
leadership of CMs just see travelling abroad as a sign of their own success
and favor with God. In modern African Christianity, the request for prayer
to obtain visas for travel to the USA in particular is a sad development that
is not unconnected with the impression created by charismatic pastors that
to travel abroad, irrespective of the prospects, is by itself a sign of God's
prosperity. Other areas of concern include the uncritical demonization of
culture by charismatics, the desire of pastors to be seen in the company of
political authority in order to enhance their social standing and thus give
credence to their message of prosperity and the dependence of members on
what is normally called a "pastor's anointing" for breakthroughs in life.

Conclusion

Writing in the 1960s, Baëta was perceptive in observing that: "The

rise of ever new cults to meet the prevailing spiritual and emotional needs
of the people is a well-established feature of African life, some periods
throwing up more prolific outcrops than others. The 'spiritual churches'
may be seen as standing in this tradition" (Baëta 1962: 6). As we have seen,
new forms of religious innovation have taken place in Africa, since the era
of the older independent churches and there is no reason to believe that the
CMs are the last Africa will see of such movements. In all of these
movements, we have contextual expressions of Pentecostal Christianity but
which historically arise within and therefore are shaped and driven by
different socio-cultural, political and religious circumstances. We encounter
in these indigenous Pentecostal movements the same quest for the
demonstrable presence of the Holy Spirit and an ardent desire to respond to
the problems and frustrations for which Africans seek answers in the
religious context.
Two submissions come to mind as one reflects on the history of
Pentecostalism in Africa. The first is from Taylor, who writes that: "The
Spirit of Life is ever at work in nature, in history and in human living, and
wherever there is a flagging or corruption or self-destruction in God's
handiwork, he is present to renew and energize and create again" (Taylor
1972: 27). The second is from Wilbert Shenk's Write the Vision: the
36 Pentecostalism in Africa

Church Renewed, in which he notes that, "the tension produced by the

discrepancy between churchly reality and official creed has caused
concerned people in every generation to press for renovation of the church
so that it might live wholly under the lordship of Jesus Christ" (Shenk 1995 :
12). The renovation and reshaping of Christianity in Africa may keep
recurring in the years to come as God's Spirit, the Spirit of renewal,
continues to be at work in the life and mission of the church. Current trends
within African Pentecostalism indicate that the history of the movement has
not just been one of continuous growth, expansion and influence, but also
of schism, erosion, and decline. Thus speaking in terms of the future of their
movement, a pastor of one of Ghana's new Pentecostal churches averred
that "no one can predict the future; our movement is like waves which break
on the seashore, if the current ones fade, God will bring 'a new visitation.'"
That indeed is what has been happening in Africa, and the hope is that in
the lifetime of the current visitation, God's purpose will be realized in
God's church.

References Cited

Anaba, Eastwood
2000 The Oil of Influence. Bolgatanga, Ghana: Desert Leaf
Publications.
Baëta, C G .
1962 Prophetism in Ghana: A Study of Some "Spiritual Churches. "
London: SCM.
Bediako, Kwame
2000 "Africa and Christianity on the Threshold of the Third
Millennium: The Religious Dimension." African Affairs. 99:
303-323.
Brouwer, Steve, Paul Gifford and Susan D. Rose
1996 Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian
Fundamentalism. New York / London: Routledge.
Coleman, Simon
2000 The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the
Gospel of Prosperity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Forrester, Duncan B.
1994 "Christianity in Europe." In Sean Gill, Gavin D'Costa, Ursula
King, eds. Religion in Europe: Contemporary Perspectives.
Kampen, The Netherlands: KOK Pharos Publishing House.
Duncan-Williams, Nicholas
1990 You Are Destined to Succeed! Accra: Action Faith Publications.
Ghana National Evangelism Committee
1993 Facing the Unfinished Task of the Church in Ghana: National
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Survey Update 1993. Accra: Ghana Evangelism Committee.

Haar, Gerrie ter
1999 Halfway to Paradise: African Christians in Europe. Cardiff, UK:
Cardiff Academic Press.
Hackett, Rosalind I. J.
1998 "Charismatic/Pentecostal Appropriation of Media Technologies
in Nigeria and Ghana." Journal ofReligion in Africa. 28.3:258-
277.
Turner, Harold W.
1977 Bibliography of New Religious Movements in Primal Societies.
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Hastings, Adrian
1990 "Christianity in Africa." In Ursula King, ed., Turning Points in
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IRM
2000 International Review of Mission. LXXXIX. 354 (July). Issue
entitled: "Open Space: The African Chris7 ji Diaspora in Europe
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Larbi, Emmanuel Kingsley
2001 Pentecostalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity. Accra:
Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies.
Leonard, Christine
1989 A Giant in Ghana. Chichester, UK: New Wine Press.
Otabil, Mensa
1992 Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia: A Biblical Revelation on God's
Purpose for the Black Race. Accra: Altar International.
Rogers, Everett M.
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Ryan, Patrick J.
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38 Pentecostal ism in Africa

Taylor, John V
1972 The Go-Between God The Holy Spirit and Christian Mission
London SCM
Thomas, John C
1998 "Pentecostal Theology m the Twenty-First Century " Pnenma
20 1 3
Walls, Andrew F
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Largest Religion " Newsweek (April 16)

Summary

Third World Christianity has been experiencing exponential growth since

the turn of the twentieth century Nowhere is this renewal in Christianity more
visible than Africa, where religious innovations led by indigenous Christians have
mostly been Pentecostal in character The Pentecostal movements leading the
current renewal of Christianity in African countries like Ghana are autonomous,
independent of both the established historic mission denominations and the older
classical Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God Ghanaian Pentecostahsm
in its various streams has adapted the global Pentecostal culture to suit the needs of
the local context in ways that have changed the nature and direction of Christian
mission The traditional themes of healing, deliverance, prosperity and
empowerment associated with the global Pentecostal movement have been
synthesized with traditional worldviews, giving Pentecostal Christianity an added
relevance in African context This has yielded massive responses In Pentecostal
movements under discussion, therefore, one finds the ingenious ability of
indigenous Christians to appropriate a phenomenon of global significance for local
consumption

Das Christentum der Dritten Welt hat ein exponentiales Wachstum erlebt
seit dem Anfang des 20 Jahrhunderts Nirgendwo ist diese Erneuerung deutlicher
sichtbar als m Afrika, wo die religiösen Erneuerungen, von einheimischen Christen
geleitet, vor allem einen pentekostalen Charakter haben Die pentekostales
Bewegungen, die die aktuelle Erneuerung des Christentums in afrikanischen
Landern wie Ghana anführen, sind autonom, unabhängig sowohl von den
etablierten historischen Missionsdenominationen wie auch von den alteren
klassischen pentekostalen Kirchen wie die Assemblies of God Der
Pentecostalismus von Ghana m seinen verschiedenen Richtungen hat die
allgemeine pentekostale Kultur an die Anforderungen des lokalen Kontexts in einer
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 39

Weise angepasst, die die Natur und die Richtung der christlichen Mission verändert
hat. Die traditionellen Themen von Heilung, Befreiung, Wohlergehens und
empowerment, die zur globalen Erscheinung des Pentekostalismus gehören, sind
mit traditionellen Weltanschauungen verschmolzen und haben so dem
pentekostalen Christentum für den afrikanischen Kontext eine verstärkte Bedeutung
gegeben. Das hat zu massenhaften Antworten geführt. In den zur Diskussion
stehenden pentekostalen Bewegungen findet man daher die einheimische Fähigkeit
der dortigen Christen, eine Erscheinung von globaler Bedeutung der örtlichen
Verwendbarkeit anzupassen.

El Cristianismo del Tercer Mundo ha vivido un crecimiento exponencial

desde el comienzo del siglo 20. En ninguna parte se ve este crecimiento tanto como
en África donde las innovaciones religiosas llevadas adelante por cristianos
indígenas tuvieron generalmente un carácter pentecostal. Los movimientos
pentecostales que guían la renovación actual del Cristianismo en países africanos,
como Ghana, son autónomos, independientes tanto de las denominaciones
establecidas de las misiones históricas como de las Iglesias pentecostales clásicas
más antiguas como las Asambleas de Dios. El pentecostalismo de Ghana en sus
diferentes corrientes ha adaptado la cultura pentecostal global a las necesidades del
contexto local en maneras que han cambiado la naturaleza y la dirección de la
misión cristiana. Los temas tradicionales de la sanación, liberación, prosperidad y
empoderamiento que se asocian con el movimiento pentecostal global han sido
sintetizados con visiones del mundo tradicionales, dando al Cristianismo
pentecostal una relevancia más grande en el contexto africano. Esto ha producido
respuestas masivas. En los movimientos pentecostales que se discuten, se
encuentra, por esta razón, la habilidad ingeniosa de los cristianos indígenas para
apropiarse de un fenómeno de importancia global para el consumo local.

Le christianisme a connu une croissance exponentielle dans le tiers monde

depuis le début du 20e siècle. Ce renouveau du christianisme n'est nulle part aussi
visible qu'en Afrique, où les innovations religieuses conduites par les chrétiens
indigènes ont été surtout de type pentecôtiste. Les mouvements pentecôtistes qui
entraînent le renouveau actuel du christianisme dans les pays africains comme le
Ghana sont autonomes, indépendants à la fois des missions des Églises historiques
et des Églises pentecôtistes classiques. Dans ses divers courants, le pentecôtisme
ghanéen a adapté la culture pentecôtiste générale aux nécessités du contexte local
d'une façon qui a changé la nature et le sens de la mission chrétienne. Il a fait une
synthèse des thèmes traditionnels associés au mouvement pentecôtiste - guérison,
délivrance, prospérité et habilitation - et des conceptions traditionnelles du monde,
donnant ainsi davantage de pertinence au christianisme pentecôtiste dans un
contexte africain. Cela a attiré de grandes foules. Dans les mouvements
pentecôtistes dont il est question, les chrétiens indigènes ont montré leur ingéniosité
à adapter un phénomène global au contexte local.
 ^ s
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