Transmitting the Spirit in Missions

The History and Growth of the Church of Pentecost

Amos Jimmy Markin

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781532662447
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Transmitting the Spirit in Missions: The History and Growth of the Church of Pentecost discourses on how Pentecostalism in general has been involved in the current growth, mission, and changing face of global Christianity. It argues that African Pentecostals particularly are an integral part of the global expansion of Christianity in this century. Specifically, this book engages the history and growth of the Church of Pentecost, an African Pentecostal denomination from Ghana, to demonstrate how African Pentecostals have taken their spirituality into their own hands and planted churches in their home country, as well as other parts of the globe. The focus of this book is that African Pentecostals have achieved this feat through the experiential power and reliance of the Holy Spirit and the indigenous factor. The specific highlight is that this book is an updated analysis of the history, growth, and missions of the Church of Pentecost. Although this work is transformed from a PhD thesis, the content is presented accessibly to both the academia and general church populace, both pastors and the laity.

1

Introduction

Christianity, Mission, and Pentecostalism in Ghana

This study forms part of an effort to unravel the innovations, challenges, and achievements of Pentecostalism and its global Christian missions over the last century, particularly from the perspective of African Pentecostalism. It undertakes a historical-theological analysis of a particular African classical Pentecostal denomination: The Church of Pentecost (CoP), headquartered in Ghana. The CoP, though originally part of an African indigenous initiative, locates its historical roots in the British Apostolic Church, in Bradford, England. It was established through the collaborative endeavors between an Irish missionary, James McKeown, and his African counterpart, Peter Newman Anim. Since its inception, the CoP has grown into a vibrant, independent, indigenous classical Pentecostal denomination with a strong missionary orientation. It has emerged as the largest Protestant church in Ghana, and has many recognizable assemblies all over the world, including Britain, the location of its roots.

Pentecostalism and Global Christianity

Pentecostalism has been acknowledged by current studies and research as the most influential and fastest-growing form of Christianity, spearheading global Christian mission outreach and the changing character of Christianity in the 21st century.1 Allan Anderson identifies it as the fastest-growing religious movement in the world today, whose significance and effects on the global Christian mission enterprise, now and in the future, cannot be underestimated.2 He asserts that even apart from its massive growth, a fact accepted by all informed observers, no observer of Christianity can deny the significance of Pentecostalism in today’s religious landscape. He further states that the premise for understanding the primary motivation of Pentecostalism for global church expansion throughout the 20th century is that it is a missionary movement.3 He writes, “The many varieties of Pentecostalism have contributed to the reshaping of the nature of global religion itself, with enormous implications.”4

Harvey Cox has also written on the growth of Pentecostalism worldwide in his publication Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century. In an earlier publication, The Secular City, Cox had tried to work out a theology for the “post-religious” age in which some theologians and sociologists had predicted the waning or extinction of religion and the “death of God” due to the rise of secularism.5 In his later encounter with Pentecostalism, of which he wrote in 1995, the sheer enormity of its numbers made him concede that “it is by far the largest non-Catholic grouping, accounting for one in every four Christians. It is also the fastest-growing Christian movement on earth, increasing more rapidly than either militant Islam or the Christian fundamentalist sects with which it is sometimes confused.”6

Since the beginning of this century, Pentecostalism has attracted massive academic and scholarly attention. Walter J. Hollenweger first drew the world’s attention to the development and potential of modern Pentecostalism. He suggested that the astronomical growth of the Pentecostal movement from its inception to date is unique in church history, and that should warrant academic investigation. Hollenweger, in Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide, stated, “The stupendous growth of Pentecostalism/Charismatism/independentism from zero to almost 500,000,000 in less than a century is a growth which is unique in church history, not excluding the early centuries of the church.”7 One database indicates that the numerical figure of 614,000,000 adherents in 2010 makes this group a quarter of the world’s Christian population.8

In addition to being a global movement, Pentecostalism has emerged as a Third World or non-Western phenomenon.9 Significantly, it has risen concurrently with the massive growth of Christianity in Africa. Theologians and scholars of religion agree that this century has seen a tremendous shift of the center of gravity of Christianity from its previous home in the North to the South.10 This shift had been rightly predicted by Andrew F. Walls, Kwame Bediako, and David Barrett.11 We now see a vibrant Christian church in southern locations such as East Asia, Latin America, and Africa. For instance, since the 1970s, Barrett has predicted the permanent transformation of Christianity into a non-Western religion based on its tremendous numerical surge. The annual statistics in his World Christian Encyclopedia reads as follows:

Since 1900 Christianity has become massively accepted as the religion of the developing countries in the so-called third world, particularly in Africa. In Africa, Christians have mushroomed from nine million nine hundred thousand (9.9 million) in 1900 (0.6% of the world’s population then of 1,619,886,760) to two hundred and three million (203 million) in 1980 (4.7% of 4,373,917,535 world population) and three hundred and ninety-three million (393 million) by 2000 (19.5% of 6,259,642,000 world population). The net increase of Christians on the African continent as of 2000 is six million (6 million) new Christi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Pentecostalism in Ghanaian Christianity
• Chapter 3: A Post-Independence History of the Church of Pentecost
• Chapter 4: Mission and Growth in the Church of Pentecost
• Chapter 5: The Church of Pentecost International Missions
• Chapter 6: “Spirit and Mission”
• Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusions
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Bibliography