Original Research

Understanding power struggles in the Pentecostal church government

Mangaliso Matshobane, Maake J. Masango
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 74, No 1 | a4949 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v74i1.4949 | © 2018 Smangaliso Matshobane, Maake J. Masango | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 26 February 2018 | Published: 22 October 2018

About the author(s)

Mangaliso Matshobane, Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Maake J. Masango, Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

This article highlights the power struggles that the Pentecostal church experiences in its church governance. These power struggles become very contentious to a point where members take each other to legal courts, which ends in multiple schisms that tarnish the image of the Pentecostal movement. Most literature on church conflicts approach power struggles as caused by personality disorders. This article seeks to highlight a different approach where power struggles are more a result of structural factors than personal ones emanating from a hybrid nature of polity in the Pentecostal church and other structural factors of conflict like finances, education and leadership. Finally, an educational pastoral care methodology is proposed for this article.

Keywords

Pentecostal churches; Church Polity; Power struggle; Conflict; Classical Pentecostal

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