Academic literature on the topic 'Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania'

The report discusses neo-Pentecostal gospel, demonology and deliverance in the context of social transformations and economic reforms in Tanzania, via a detailed case-study of a single church in Dar es Salaam—the Glory of Christ Tanzania Church—which displays the conjuncture of a global religion with elements of local ontology such as witchcraft and zombies. It is proposed that the Pentacostal-Charismatic gospel provides the interpretative frame to explain experience of social and economic affliction that is deeply gendered. Further, the deliverance practices are suggested to free the individual believer from the occult forces associated with kinship relations.

Pentecostal ecclesiology, a lived charismatic experience rather than discursive theology, naturally leans toward the charismatic structure of the church and free flow of the Spirit. In dialogue with the Roman Catholic church, Pentecostal ecclesiologv has been challenged to develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the Spirit, institution, and Koinonia. As charismatic fellowship, the church is a communion of participating, empowered believers.

Mary Johnson (1884–1968) and Ida Anderson (1871–1964) are described in pentecostal historiography as the first pentecostal missionaries sent from America. Both of these Swedish-American missionaries experienced baptism of the Spirit, spoke in tongues, and were called as missionaries to Africa by God, whom they expected to speak through them to the native people. They went by faith and completed careers as missionaries to South Africa. But who were these two figures of which relatively little has been written? They were Swedish-American “Free-Free” in the tradition of August Davis and John Thompson of the Scandinavian Mission Society—the first Minnesota district of the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission, known today as the Evangelical Free Church of America. This work examines the lives of these two female missionaries, their work in South Africa, and their relationship with Swedish Evangelical Free churches in America, particularly its pentecostal stream of Free-Free (frifria).

Interpretation is considered to be one of the most challenging professions in the world. This is due to its involvement of several abilities beyond language competence. Church interpretation is done predominantly by the untrained volunteering interpreters who in return, face a number of challenges. This paper examined the stakeholders’ perceptions towards the interpretation challenges facing the church interpreters by drawing examples from Charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the Tanzanian context. The study was conducted in Dar es Salaam, one of the largest commercial cities located in the Eastern Coastal regions of Tanzania in Africa. Data were collected through observation, interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. It was found out that church interpreters encountered numerous challenges due to a lack of linguistic competence, experience, and professional training. Some of these challenges include; lack of enough biblical knowledge, difficulties in pronunciation, the use of difficult vocabulary, and poor preparations. It is recommended that church sermon interpreters should be provided with professional training in Translation and Interpretation Studies.

August Davis (1852–1936) led a group of Swedish Free Mission Friends in America known as the Free-Free, an early branch of what is today the Evangelical Free Church of America. Davis and his followers were known for such phenomena as falling down in the Spirit, having ecstatic visions, uttering unintelligible sounds, communicating the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, and teaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second work of grace. Such activities occurred mostly in Chicago, Illinois, and throughout western Minnesota between 1885 and 1900. Davis and the Free-Free had direct organizational ties in the Scandinavian Mission Society U.S.A. to emerging Swedish-American Pentecostals in Minnesota and South Dakota such as John Thompson, Mary Johnson, and Jacob Bakken. This group known pejoratively as the Free-Free is another of several impulses that birthed a distinctly Pentecostal form of Christianity in America.

AbstractThe responses of Christian religions to HIV/AIDS in Africa have been described either with regard to the stigmatising attitudes of churches, or with reference to the charitable acts of Christian organisations in the context of the epidemic. Drawing on fieldwork in a Neo-Pentecostal church in urban Tanzania, this article shows that the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church in Dar es Salaam is becoming highly attractive to its followers because of the social, spiritual and economic perspectives that it offers, and particularly because of the networks of healing and support that it has established under the circumstances of urbanisation, structural reform programmes and the AIDS epidemic. The author argues for a stronger focus on practices of healing and community building in studies on Pentecostalism, which may shed light on the continuities as well as the ruptures that are produced by the rise of Neo-Pentecostalism in the context of globalisation, modernity and HIV/AIDS.

Christianity is one of the greatest institutions ever founded in the human race. It is a divine institution that was founded by Jesus Christ to carry out His mission in the world laying the foundation of love and salvation as a free gift to everyone. The Christian church history insulated into different periods that are separated by great events. The study focused on the historical beginnings, the rise and growth of Pentecostal Churches and contributing factors which led to its establishments, spread and expansion. It was mainly anchored on Mc Gavran’s theory on Church growth and Christian mission which discussed about the three main varieties of church growth namely: biological, transfer, and conversion growths. It utilized Qualitative and Quantitative procedures using Historical Approach. The study found out that upon the birth of Pentecostal Churches, they hold distinctive teachings yet they have some slight differences in the structure of leadership. Though they have almost the same practices of Christianity, what matters most is they follow the teachings of the Bible in a different dynamic ways.

This article is a descriptive account of early missionary work of the Swedish Free Mission (SFM) in Kenya during the last part of the colonial era after national independence in1964. It attempts to reconstruct a memory of surviving local clerics and missionaries on their collaborative work in birthing a local church, the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya (FPFK). It relies on 20 in-depth interviews conducted by the authors in 2014, as well as missionary records found in FPFK’s head office in Nairobi.

AbstractThe globally mushrooming Pentecostal-charismatic movement is a challenge, not only for the so-called mainline or historic churches, but also for the older traditional Pentecostal churches and also for the Mission Churches in the southern hemisphere who originate in the two former mentioned contributions in mission. Mostly these southern churches are independent in the meanwhile, but struggling for an authentic theological identity which is based in the scripture but is also able to respond to the questions of cultural and post-modern identity in the era of globalization. Focusing these developments in the multi-denominational and culturally diverse country of Tanzania might methodologically be a help as an example in a more and more complex world to avoid simplifying answers. My ecumenical concern is rooted in the insight that open culturally and socially diverse Christians all over the world are challenged to learn from each other in mutuality. What can I as a western German Lutheran learn from North American Pentecostals or from Tanzanian Christian believers? What could be my contribution to both of them especially concerning the question for a worldwide appropriate pneumatology?

The aim of the thesis is to examine how a group’s self-image is created, sustained and if necessary changed during the revolutionary 20th century. The study takes its point of  eparture in the idea that a self-image is essential for an organisation’s cohesion and collective identity. The study object is the Pentecostal Philadelphia church in, Sweden, established in 1910. In concrete terms, the thesis examines the self-image of the church as it is expressed in its narratives and activities from 1910 to 1980. The lf-image is analysed with the aid of the concepts ‘boundaries’ and ‘symbols’ and in relation to social and organisational change processes. In the main the empirical material  onsists of official documents such as jubilee publications, annual reports and the weekly newspaper Evangelii Härold. The main contribution of the thesis is an analysis of the church’s historical narrative. In this narrative the overall theme appears to be the small and faithful group that due to God’s influence and despite opposition became a major  nd significant church -- a success story. The theme also remains the same when the circumstances change. Narrative theory emphasises that the narrative has to be changeable order to be serviceable. However, my study shows that the narration, at least at the level highlighted in the thesis, is inert. The self-image seems to be difficult to change but is not necessarily static. The narrative is shown to include strategies for dealing with internal change processes and changes in society.

Summary and key words in German and English
Every church faces the challenge of procuring capable workers for the multifaceted task of ministry. For several decades now official denominational statements and the discipline of Practical Theology have been calling for a new understanding of giftedness in ecclesial service. As yet little fundamental research has been done in this area. This dissertation seeks to make a contribution both empirically and theologically. It marks the first time in the German–speaking world of Practical Theology that the issue of how one discovers charisms is addressed academically. The specific field of research is located in the Protestant Regional Church of Baden in southwest Germany. Nevertheless the findings can be applied more broadly since the research is based on thorough exegetical and systematic–theological analysis and has been verified empirically. There has been a quest for the charisms of the Spirit since the beginning of the twentieth century and even more so now in the face of the societal challenges of postmodernity. In the discussion of the different theological positionens arise as result that charisms have to be seen with an triune approach. In addtion, besindes the fact that charisms have a habitual meaning, they first of all have a relational dimension. The empirical research involved online–interviewings of pastors, plus interviews of church members. One of the major findings was that the views of pastors on how church members receive gifts is determined by their theological understanding of the charisms. Pastors discover gifts, not according to Pauline criteria, but largely according to emotional aspects, as proved by this research. It became apparent that protestant pastors are of the opinion that New Testament charisms are not first received at baptism, but already at birth. Another interesting finding is that members of both protestant main stream churches and pentacostal-charismatic churches hold the same believes about how to receive charisms. The only difference is their repertoire of gifts. This dissertation focuses on developing guidelines for the discovery of charisms within the congregation as the local body of the Church.
Fähige Mitarbeiter für eine vielgestaltige Gemeindearbeit zu finden, ist in jeder Kirche eine bleibende Aufgabe und Herausforderung. Seit einigen Jahrzehnten wird in kirchlichen Verlautbarungen und in der Praktischen Theologie verstärkt das Konzept einer gabenorientierten Mitarbeit betont. Dieses Feld ist noch wenig grundsätzlich erforscht. Die vorliegende Arbeit greift empirisch und theologisch in die aktuelle Diskussion ein. Innerhalb der Praktischen Theologie im deutschsprachigen Raum liegt mit ihr zum ersten Mal eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung zur Frage vor, wie Charismen im Forschungsfeld der Evangelischen Landeskirche in Baden entdeckt werden. Die Ergebnisse reichen aber weit über diesen Rahmen hinaus und können grundsätzlich gelten, weil sie auf dem Hintergrund exegetischer und systematisch-theologischer Grundlagenarbeit in einer sorgfältigen empirischen Methodik erhoben, reflektiert und ausgewertet wurden. Die Ausführungen zeigen, dass die Suche nach Charismen seit Beginn des 20. Jh. angesichts der gesellschaftlichen Umbrüche im Kontext der Postmoderne zu einem großen Thema geworden ist. Aus den theologischen Positionen erwuchs die wesentliche Einsicht, dass Charismen trinitarisch einzuordnen sind und neben dem habituellen Charismenverständnis vor allem die relationale Dimension vorliegt. Die empirische Forschungsarbeit umfasst eine Online-Befragung von Pfarrern, ergänzend dazu wurden Gemeindeglieder interviewt. Als eines der Hauptergebnisse stellte sich heraus, dass die Meinung der Pfarrer, wie Gemeindeglieder Gaben empfangen, durch ihr theologisches Gabenverständnis bestimmt wird. Wie Pfarrer Gaben entdecken, richtet sich weithin nicht nach den paulinischen Kriterien, sondern nach emotionalen Gesichtspunkten, wie in der vorliegenden Arbeit nachgewiesen werden konnte. Wie sich herausstellte, sind Pfarrer der Überzeugung, dass neutestamentliche Gaben nicht erst bei der Taufe empfangen werden, sondern mit der biologischen Geburt. Ein weiterer interessanter Aspekt belegt, dass Gemeindeglieder der evangelischen Landeskirche im Vergleich zu charismatisch-pentekostalen Gemeindegliedern Gaben nach ihren subjektiven Glaubensüberzeugungen in derselben Weise empfangen, lediglich das Gabenrepertoire unterscheidet sich. Die vorliegende Arbeit zielt darauf ab, Leitlinien zum Entdecken von Charismen im Kontext der lokalen Gemeinde zu entwickeln.
Practical Theology
Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

The term ‘Independents’ differentiates lesser-known congregations and small clusters from the historic Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic denominations. Chennai (Madras) is home to a vast number of Christian denominations and institutions. Groups may range from 20–25 in number to as large as 400–500. Similar new Independent churches and movements are found in many parts of India. Sadhu Sundar Singh was a pioneering figure in the indigenisation of Christianity in India; baptised at Simla, he nevertheless remained free from the imported ecclesiastical institutions that Westernised the Indian church. There is also a more radical transformation of Christianity in hybrid religious groups in the borderlands between Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The faith relation to Jesus of several Isa-Muslim and Christ bhakti-Hindu groups transcends the traditional denominational boundaries of Christianity. Prior to 1950 no Nepali Christians were resident in Nepal, but Nepali people managed to seep out into India, where a number of them became Christians, with most Pentecostal or Charismatic in character but indigenous in origin; more recently as many as 1 million were reported. A tiny underground church exists in Islamic Afghanistan, composed of former refugees who became Christians during the 1970s while in other countries.

The ‘dissenting tradition’ is traceable to Christian groups in Britain—variously labelled ‘Dissent’, ‘Nonconformist’, and ‘Free Church’—that emerged from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The spread of these groups throughout the British Empire intensified with the Protestant foreign missions movement and gained particular impetus in the twentieth century with the extraordinary growth of Pentecostal-Charismatic movements. This chapter advocates the use of ‘globalization’ as a unit of analysis for probing the complex historical processes that produced ‘global Dissent’. It makes the case that rather than being one-directional in transformative impact, processes of globalization are multidirectional, multicentred, and paradoxical; which means that the local and the global intersect and remain mutually dependent in a multitude of ways. Thus, the study of the global spread of Protestant dissenting traditions requires attentiveness to the interplay between global and contextual forces, the complex interface of cultures, and the multicentred networks that shaped expansion.