Socio-Historical Study on the Rise and Growth of Pentecostal Churches

Abstract

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.

Ndadhinhiwa (I am fed up): A Missiological Framing of the Gendered Notions of African Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe

“…Scholars studying Pentecostalism in general and African Pentecostalism in particular, generally agreed that this form of Christianity has grown and continues to grow tremendously across continents (Anderson, 2005;2013a, 2013bHackett, 2017; Asamoah-Gyadu, 2007). A number of works have traced the origins of Pentecostalism and its movement from the centre of origin to other parts of the world (Anderson, 2005a;Chua, Mirafuentea & Etcuban, 2017;Togarasei, 2018); others have focused on how Pentecostalism interacted with local cultures to the extent that it has become a contextual religion through the process of adaptation (Mayrargue, 2008;Biri, 2020;Kaunda & Sokfa, 2020); yet some works placed emphasis on the contribution of Pentecostalism to contemporary topical issues such as development, sexuality, politics, gender, among others (Haustein et al, 2015;Burgess, 2015;Kaunda, 2020). While some of these works have focused on the intersections of African Pentecostalism and gender (Mapuranga, 2013;Masenya, 2014;Dube, 2014;Soothill, 2015), it is apparent that those focusing on Zimbabwe have rarely paid attention to gender issues in African Pentecostal missiology.…”