AN INVESTIGATIVE STUDY OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DELIVERANCE MINISTRY TO CHURCH GROWTH

Abstract

This study was on an investigative study of the contributions of deliverance ministry to church growth. Three objectives were raised which included: Discuss the concepts of ill-health, healing and deliverance as well as church growth, Examine the belief and practice of healing and deliverance in the GEC and Explore the relationship between healing and deliverance and church growth in the GEC. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from Global Evangelical Church in Lagos state. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).

Chapter one

Introduction

1.1Background of the study

The phenomenon of healing and deliverance has become very common and central to the religious activities of most churches in Nigeria. Kwabena J. Asamoah-Gyadu explains healing and deliverance from a charismatic point of view as ‘the deployment of divine power and authority in the name or blood of Jesus perceived in pneumatological terms as the intervention of the Holy Spirit to provide release for demon-possessed, demon-oppressed, broken, disturbed and troubled persons in order that victims may be restored to proper functioning order, that is, to health and wholeness and being thus freed from demonic influence and curses, they may enjoy God’s fullness of life understood to be available in Christ. From this Charismatic Pentecostal perspective, healing and deliverance, is considered to be an avenue as well as the practice which employs certain Christian religious activities with the purpose of responding to the human existential needs. (Amoah, E 2009)

According to Asamoah-Gyadu, ‘the Pentecostal “healing and deliverance” ministry has become popular in African contexts such as Nigeria because it takes the African worldviews of mystical causality seriously. This Christianity promises Christian alternatives to the search for security that drives people into the courts of other religious functionaries’. Contrasting the African nature of Charismatic Pentecostal churches with the western mission churches, Allan Anderson argued that the Charismatic Pentecostal churches are motivated by a desire to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of Africans, offering solutions to life’s problems and finding ways to cope with the threatening and anxieties of a hostile world. Some scholars have described Nigerian Charismatic Pentecostal Churches as some of the fastest growing churches in the past three decades.  This rapid growth, according to Anderson, is attributed to the churches’ focus on making meaning of the contemporary existential problems that confront Christians through their contextualization approach. For these scholars, the Charismatic Pentecostal churches are experiencing this rapid growth because most of them are able to fashion out programmes that respond to the contextual needs of both members and non-members One common practice in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, which is fast spreading across Nigeria and the continent of Africa, is healing and deliverance. The extensive practice of healing and deliverance by Charismatic and Pentecostal churches is asserted to be one of the major contributing factors to church growth among these kinds of churches. Most of these Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches have been noted for exploring healing and deliverance as an evangelistic tool for the establishment and growth of their church denominations. The Global Evangelical Church (GEC) has also adopted appreciable levels of the Charismatic and Pentecostal features which are evident in the congregation of its religous activities. These activities include revival meetings, all-night prayer meetings, corporate prayer, Bible study, evangelism and mission, healing the sick, and casting out of demons. Most congregations of the GEC have a specific day set aside for the practice of healing and deliverance. (Baeta, C. G. 1990)

A visit to most congregations and programmes of the Global Evangelical Church reveals the extent to which the practice has become part and parcel of the church’s life. National, presbytery, zonal, district and local conventions hardly end without ‘healing and deliverance’ services. Evangelistic crusades, week- long revivals, fasting and prayer and end-of-year presbytery prayer festivals among others are characterized by ‘healing and deliverance’. At the local levels, those congregations which consistently combine the practice with other ministry gifts seem to be growing faster, at least, numerically

Statement of the problem

Healing and deliverance has become very popular in Nigerian Charismatic/Neo-Pentecostal churches in recent times, with large numbers of people attending these activities. Upon observation, one gets the impression that those churches that practice healing and deliverance seems to be growing faster than those that do not practice the phenomenon, thereby suggesting that there might be a link between the practice of healing and deliverance and church growth. Congregations within the Global Evangelical Church (GEC) are not exceptions because this researcher has observed that those congregations within the GEC which combine the practice with other ministry gifts or whose minsters encourage and promote the practice, seems to be growing faster, at least numerically. However, there seems to be the paucity or lack of evidence-based research carried out in Nigeria to draw the link between this practice and church growth. It is against this background that this study seeks to explore the practice of healing and deliverance and its relationship to the growth of the Global Evangelical Church, using selected congregations as cases.

Objective of the study

Specifically, the research addresses the following objectives:

1. Discuss the concepts of ill-health, healing and deliverance as well as church growth
2. Examine the belief and practice of healing and deliverance in the GEC

• Explore the relationship between healing and deliverance and church growth in the GEC.

Research hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated

H0: there are no concepts of ill-health, healing and deliverance as well as church growth

H1: there are concepts of ill-health, healing and deliverance as well as church growth

H0: there is no relationship between healing and deliverance and church growth in the GEC.

H2: there is relationship between healing and deliverance and church growth in the GEC.

Significance of the study

The study will be significant to Christian brethren especially members of Global Evangelical Church. The study will give a clear insight on an investigative study of the contributions of deliverance ministry to church growth. The study will also serve as a reference to another researcher that will embark on the related topic

Scope of the study

The scope of the study covers the an investigative study of the contributions of deliverance ministry to church growth. The study will be limited to Global Evangelical Church

Limitation of the study

Financial constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview)

Time constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

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