Pentecostal Mission Must Cross Cultures Without Exporting One

Pentecostal mission has travelled with unusual energy. Prayer networks, migrant congregations, evangelists, worship music, Bible colleges, television and social platforms now carry African Pentecostal faith across regions and continents. The old picture of a Christian centre sending knowledge to a passive margin no longer explains what the Church has become.

Yet movement is not the same as intercultural mission. A congregation may cross a border while carrying one language, one leadership culture and one way of worship into every new setting. A livestream may reach many nations while asking every viewer to enter the assumptions of its originating platform. A theological programme may speak of global mission while its authors, examples and measures of maturity remain culturally narrow.

The question is therefore not only whether Pentecostalism can travel. It is whether the travelling church can listen, learn, share authority and become accountable to the people among whom it witnesses. The Spirit sends us with a gospel for every people, but not with permission to make one people's culture the measure of everyone else's faithfulness.

Two original-research articles published today in the African Journal of Pentecostal Studies bring this challenge into Pentecostal theological education and digital mission. Kola Aiyedogbon and Marilyn Naidoo examine intercultural education through a case study of the Redeemed Christian Bible College and Seminary in Dallas. Lindah Tsara examines African Pentecostal mission in…