Spiritual leadership capital : a theology of poverty in congregational development

Abstract

The title of the study is ‘Spiritual Leadership Capital: A Theology of Poverty in Congregational Development’. It is a study which tried to understand how Ghanaian Pentecostal spirituality informs their leadership paradigms towards addressing poverty in their contexts. The basic assumption of this study is, Pentecostal congregations can be a force to help Ghana address poverty if they are missionally built-up and have cultivated spiritual leadership capital (SLC). The research problem is, do leadership in Ghanaian Pentecostal congregations have spiritual leadership capital (SLC)? (Chapter three outlines SLC). What has been the Pentecostal understanding of poverty, have they a sustainable missional (practical) theology of poverty? (Chapter 4 outlined this). To what extent could their having or the lack of SLC, help or prevent them from developing missional congregations which are able to theologically address the problem of poverty? (Chapter two addressed missional theology). In what ways might the adoption of SLC in congregational development by Pentecostals contribute to the addressing of poverty in Ghana? The study is in the broad disciplinary area of practical theology, and specifically under the subdiscipline of congregational development (ecclesiology). The Researcher advances ‘spiritual leadership capital’ (SLC) theory, which he argues provides inner virtues which spirituality affords people, shaping them with resilient leadership paradigms that contribute to the formation of social capital for the sustainable addressing of social problems such as poverty. It comes to enrich earlier theories on social capital. With the main concern of this project being missional theology as regards leadership in congregational development within the context of Ghanaian Pentecostalism, researcher contests that, SLC can be used to address questions posed to the church and the world by the problem of poverty. The word ‘missional’ has been understood within the missional conversation to have a bigger scope than missionary activity. Leadership’s understanding of mission must determine the structures and systems of a missional congregation. Using Osmer’s (2008) four task practical theology approach to research, SLC comes as a practical theology of poverty in congregational development. Using SLC in view of the backdrop of Nel’s (2015:273-278) congregational analysis, contextual analysis and diagnosis; the empirically the study looked at the Church of Pentecost, Assemblies of God Church, Ghana, and Global Evangelical Church. Its aim was to understand their concept of being missional and how they see poverty within the scope of their ecclesiology and how SLC can improve their praxis in this direction. The researcher draws on historical lessons from the spiritualities of historic pneumatic Christian movements, such as Quakers, Moravians, Huguenots, and Puritans in overcoming poverty. And as part of SLC, argues transformational diaconia, as a missional response to poverty beyond existing social interventions. In view of the scope of this study on the vast Ghanaian Pentecostal landscape, the findings are not conclusive but they indicate that most Pentecostal congregations in Ghana may not yet be comprehensively missional. Researcher concludes that Pentecostals are involved in some forms of social services and are making limited efforts at addressing poverty. However, it seems they do not perceive poverty as a central part of the gospel hence have not approached it in the way proposed by this study. For the respondents interviewed among Ghanaian Pentecostals, there was no missional thinking with the issues of poverty and apart from prayer and occasional mention in sermons, poverty has not been understood by them as an issue that needs to be addressed beyond benevolence or relief services. It is therefore, proposed that in developing congregations, Ghanaian Pentecostal leaders can adopt SLC in congregations to make them missional and that could enable them effectively address poverty and other social problems.