Piety and profit : accounting for money in West African Pentecostalism (Part 1)

Abstract

The study of mobilisation and organisation of money in churches is not new : it is actually a staple of Western Christianity where documentation is a routine practice and openness is accepted as a norm of existence for most religious bodies. The issue of resource mobilisation within Pentecostalism in Africa is however a blind spot. This article is a new empirical investigation of pentecostal mobilisation and the organisation of money in West African Pentecostalism. It also focuses on selected churches in Cameroon and Nigeria in order to have a comparative perspective on the issue. It is concluded that the two focused churches in this article demonstrate different attitudes and behaviour towards money, its mobilisation and organisation. The need for deeper research on the dynamics and dialectics of faith and finance in African Pentecostalism is strongly emphasised. "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things", (Ecclesiastes 10:19; KJV). "The heads thereof judge for rewards, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the Lord among us?" (Micah 3:11; KJV). [M]oney is a concretised energy that burns hotter than even fire. The way it is understood and handled (used) has serious effects on the economy and life of the people. The level of the consciousness of the operators and participants in the [money] system determines the type of system that evolves and the performance of the system (Ekpenyong 2005:4).