Spiritual Leadership Capital Rev Smith Tettey 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Spiritual leadership capital: A theology of poverty in congregational development A thesis in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of PhD, Practical Theology in Congregational Development Presented to The Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria . By Smith Francis Korbla Tettey (Rev) 4/30/2018 Study Leader: Prof. Malan Nel DECLARATION I declare that the thesis which I hereby submit for the degree of PhD in Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria, is my own work and was not previously submitted by me for a degree at this or any other tertiary institution. Signed: Rev Smith Francis Tettey ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION II CONTENTS III SUMMARY VIII KEY TERMS X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XI ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS XII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION OF STUDY 1 1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE 1 2 PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW 2 3 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3 3.1 Hypotheses/research questions 4 4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 5 5 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY APPROACHES TO RESEARCH 6 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6 7 RESEARCH DESIGN 7 7.1 Scope of study 10 7.2 Written sources 10 7.3 Limitations and delimitations 11 8 CONCLUSIONS 14 CHAPTER 2 DEVELOPING MISSIONAL CONGREGATIONS 15 1 INTRODUCTION 15 2 MISSIONAL ECCLESIOLOGY 15 2.1 Developing missional congregations 17 2.2 Missional structures and theology 20 2.3Contextual ecclesial structures 23 2.4 Missional spirituality, pneumatology and ecclesiology 25 2.2.4.1 Orthodoxy and orthopraxis. 27 3 MISSIONALITY AND CULTURE 29 3.1 Missional hermeneutics 30 3.2 God on mission through the Church: an imperative for holistic praxis 32 iii 4 IMPLICATIONS FOR THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 36 5 A THEOLOGY AND SOCIAL THEORY OF POVERTY AS MISSIONAL PRAXIS 37 5.1 Missionality and SLC. 42 6 PENTECOSTALISM AND MISSIONAL CONGREGATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 43 6.1 Implications for Pentecostals in missional congregational development 44 7 CONCLUSIONS 49 CHAPTER 3 SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP CAPITAL THEORY 52 1 INTRODUCTION 52 2 LEADERSHIP IN THE MISSIONAL CONGREGATION 56 2.1. Defining leadership 61 2.2 missional diaconal leadership and social capital 63 3 TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF SLC THEORY 69 3.1 Meaning and value of spirituality in leadership 73 3.1.1 Norms and values as spirituality 75 3.1.2 The impact of authentic spirituality on leadership 79 3.1.3 Spirituality as transformative force. 84 3.2 Meaning and value of SC in leadership 86 3.2.1 Identifying, enhancing and measuring SC 88 3.2.2 Social and leadership structures 91 3.3 Positive or negative SLC 94 Figure 1-Formation of SLC 95 3.3.1 Equilibrium SLC 96 3.3.2 The SLC transformation indicator grid 98 Figure 2-The SLC transformation indicator grid (SLC grid) 99 4 SLC AS A PRACTICAL THEOLOGY UNDERLYING SC FORMATION 100 4.1 SLC compared with spiritual leadership theories 101 4.2 SLC in missional community formation 103 Figure 3: A spiritual leadership capital-rich community. 104 5 SLC ELEMENTS IN SOME HISTORIC PNEUMATIC MOVEMENTS 105 5.1 The puritans, SLC and congregational leadership paradigm 105 5.2 SLC and the Huguenot congregational leadership paradigm 109 iv 5.3 SLC and the Moravian congregational leadership paradigm 110 5.4 SLC in Quaker congregational leadership paradigm 113 6 THE NEED FOR INTENTIONAL SLC BUILDING IN PENTECOSTAL CONGREGATIONS 114 Figure 4. SLC in Pentecostal praxis 120 7 CONCLUSIONS 121 CHAPTER 4 POVERTY: ITS MEANING AND THEOLOGY 123 1 INTRODUCTION 123 2 TOWARDS A WORKING DEFINITION OF POVERTY 123 2.1 The causes of poverty and how can it be curbed 130 3 POVERTY, SPIRITUALITY AND THE MISSION OF GOD 132 3.1 Congregational leadership and poverty 137 4 POVERTY DESPITE MANY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS 143 4.1 Poverty as a system 145 5 A THEOLOGY OF POVERTY 153 5.1 Leadership in spiritual formation for addressing poverty 158 5.1.1 Transformational diaconia 158 5.1.2 The Church and national conscience against poverty 164 6 AN ECCLESIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION 165 6.1 Addressing poverty beyond the immediate need 171 6.2 The Church is real if it responds appropriately to changing social dynamics 171 7 IMPLICATION FOR PENTECOSTAL CONGREGATIONAL LEADERSHIP 172 8 CONCLUSIONS 178 CHAPTER 5 EMIPRICAL, DESCRIPTIVE FRAMEWORK 180 1 INTRODUCTION 180 2. METHODOLOGY AND METHODS 180 2.1 Design of interview 180 2.2 Scope and delimitation of the study 181 2.3 The interview procedure and strategy 182 2.4 The Interviewing process 183 3 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 183 v 3.1 Transcription and coding 185 3.2 Limitations 186 4 DESCRIPTION OF FINDINGS 186 4.1 The Ghanaian context 188 4.2 The Church of Pentecost 190 4.2.1 Core beliefs and Practices 191 4.2.2 Organisation and leadership 192 4.2.3 Semi-structured interview responses 193 4.2.4 An interpretation with non-participant observation 195 4. 3 The Global Evangelical Church 200 4.3.1 Core beliefs and Practices 202 4.3.2 Organisation and leadership 204 4.3.3 Semi-structured interview responses 205 4.3.4 An interpretation with a non-participant observation 210 4.4 The Assemblies of God Ghana 212 4.4.1 Core Beliefs and practices 213 4.4.2 Leadership and leadership 216 4.4.3 Semi-structured interview responses 216 4.4.4 An interpretation with a non-participant observation 221 5 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 224 5.1 Observed twists in Pentecostal ecclesiology 228 6 CONCLUSIONS 228 CHAPTER 6 REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 230 1 INTRODUCTION 230 2 REFLECTIONS ON OUTCOMES WITH RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 230 2.1 Implications for practical theology, ecclesiology and poverty studies 231 2.3 Contributions to Pentecostal Spirituality in congregational development 232 2.4 Missional Pentecostal theological and leadership development 236 3 ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 236 4. CONCLUSIONS 237 7 REFERENCES 241 vi 8 APPENDICES 279 vii SUMMARY 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 sub- discipline 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. viii 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