Pentecostal Formation Must Protect the Vulnerable, Not Only Inspire the Faithful

Pentecostalism has always announced that the Holy Spirit changes lives. That confession cannot remain only at the level of a powerful service, a moving testimony or a growing congregation. It must also shape how we form children and young people, how we lead institutions, how we exercise influence and how we respond when evidence reveals that people have been harmed or excluded.

For a growing African Pentecostal movement, this is not an imported demand from outside the faith. It belongs to our own theology. The Spirit of truth does not ask the Church to avoid difficult facts. The Spirit who gives gifts also forms self-control, justice, compassion and the courage to correct what is wrong.

A 2026 preprint by Marcela Mello and João Garcia examines close mayoral elections in Brazil. Using a regression-discontinuity design, the authors report that municipalities led by mayors from parties institutionally tied to Pentecostal denominations were associated with reduced provision of sexual-education programmes in municipal middle schools and adverse adolescent outcomes in that setting. The study is context-specific, remains a preprint and cannot be generalised carelessly to every Pentecostal church, leader or African context.

Yet the paper asks a necessary question: when Pentecostals influence public institutions, are we prepared to examine the effects on the young, the poor and the vulnerable? Faithful leadership does not dismiss an inconvenient finding simply because…