The Africanness of African Pentecostal Christianity in Nigerian Context

Abstract

The ministry of the Church is classified into three categories: The ministry to God, Church and the world. The centre of the church ministry to the world is to evangelise the world. This is the heartbeat of Christ’s recommended mission for the church to the world. The necessity and the urgency of this great mission make the Church to be conscious of evangelizing the world intelligibly and yet remain faithful to the Scripture. However, due to the fact that Africa is made up of diverse cultures, many Pentecostals are finding it difficult to bring the word of God to the Africans without compromising the authentic teaching of the word of God. The study observed that in the quest of bringing the Word of God to the several cultures in Africa in African ways, by using African languages, images, and ideas, many of the Pentecostals are compromising the authentic teaching of Christ as they are using these African elements inappropriately. In addition, the Africanness of some of these Pentecostals does not portray the uniqueness of Christianity as many Africans could not differentiate between Christianity and their former religions. This is making it difficult for some of Africans to understand and accept the gospel of Christ. The effects of the colonization of the Africans by the West are not helping matters either as many Africans are interpreting the Westernization of Christianity as a continuation of African colonization and a means of making the Africans lose their cherished identity. The attempt to recover African religious heritage by relating Christianity to the Africans in their religious context without compromising the authentic gospel of Christ with reference to the Africanness of the Pentecostals informed this study. It is therefore appropriate for the Pentecostals in Africa to insist on authentic teaching of the word of God, organizing educative seminars for the church leaders, and timely correction of the erring members. Doing this will go a long way in helping the Pentecostals to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the Africans in African ways without compromising the gospel of Christ in Africa.