‘Go deeper papa, prophesy, do something’: The popularity and commercialisation of prophetic deliverance in African Pentecostalism

Abstract

Traditionally, the ministry of deliverance in African Pentecostalism involves the deliverance from generational curses, deliverance as spiritual warfare against witchcraft and other demonic forces and deliverance for healing. Most scholars have already covered the traditional practices of the ministry of deliverance. In this article what is new is the study of deliverance ministry within New Prophetic Churches (NPCs) in South Africa, which the article argues that it is different from the traditional practices. The deliverance ministry among the NPCs is a prophetic dimension that involves the consultation with the prophet to receive freedom from one’s predicaments. This dimension of deliverance raises a challenge of commercialisation within the practice of deliverance in Africa. To deal with the commercialisation of the ministry of deliverance, NPC pastors should heed the call of Jesus in Matthew 10:8 to give freely as they have received freely. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Jesus’ call for his disciples to minister freely to the needs of the people in the New Testament is juxtaposed with the missiological approaches on the commercialisation of religion in the context of the ministry of deliverance within NPCs such as Enlightened Christian Gathering in South Africa.

Keywords

• deliverance
• pentecostalism
• commercialisation
• prophecy
• witchcraft
• healing
• generational curses