Globalization, Marketization, And The Mission Of Pentecostal Higher Education In Africa

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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 26, No. 2, Fall 2004

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Articles

Globalization, “Marketization,” and the Mission of

Pentecostal Higher Education in Africa

Jeffrey S. Hittenberger

Introduction

Two Vignettes

In 1985, Barnabas Mtokambali launched Bethel Revival Temple in Morogoro, Tanzania. The church has grown to 850 members and has recently completed construction of a new meeting center that seats 2,000. They have launched an elementary school and have acquired 50 acres of property designated for a high school. With a vision to plant 100 new churches, Dr. Mtokambali initiated a training center for church planters, with 14 graduates this year. Graduates are expected to launch new churches and then return for additional training at a local Bible college. Bethel Revival Temple members provide food and care for the students during the four-month training program. “Some people bring maize, others bring rice, others bring soap,” says Mtokambali. “Everyone donates something toward the school.”1 So far, Bethel Revival Temple has launched 26 new churches. Mtokambali serves as an adjunct faculty member at Dodoma Bible College, Arusha Bible School, and also has served as curriculum developer at the Assemblies of God School of Theology in Lilongwe, Malawi. Mtokambali now serves on the African Doctoral Initiative Committee of the Africa Assemblies of God Alliance. Primarily, though,

Cathy Ketcher, “Bethel Revival Temple Fulﬁlls Church Planter’s Early Vision,” Pentecostal Evangel, (November 2, 2003), 9.

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he sees himself as a pastor and a church planter. “The essence of Pentecostalism,” he says, “is the liberation of the laity.”2 The Pentecostal church he serves in Tanzania, like Pentecostal churches throughout Africa, is exploding with growth.

In 1996, Kingsley Larbi returned to Accra, Ghana, after completing his doctoral work at the University of Edinburgh and resumed his duties as Director of Central Christian College, which he had previously directed when it was called Central Bible College. Dr. Larbi, under the authority of Dr. Mensa Otabil, Pastor of International Central Gospel Church, ini- tiated a process of expanding the College, heretofore focused on ministe- rial training, into a liberal arts university college. Having worked in the private sector as an accountant, Larbi envisioned an African Pentecostal university that would train leaders for many sectors of Ghanaian society. In 1999, the Academic Board of the University of Cape Coast, a govern- ment university, approved Central University College as an afﬁliate, pro- viding accreditation for the Schools of Theology and Missions, Business Management and Administration, and all the programs being offered at the College.3 An African Pentecostal university was born. Student enroll- ment that year was 428. In 2000, enrollment increased to 952. For 2003- 04, Central University College has more than 2,000 students enrolled.4

Purpose

Philip Jenkins, in his ground-breaking study The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, writes:

Over the past century… the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward, to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Already today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in Africa and Latin America. If we want to visualize a “typical” contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman living in a village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela. As Kenyan scholar John Mbiti has observed, “The cen- ters of the church’s universality [are] no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa and Manila.5

Barnabas Mtokambali, personal communication, October 23, 2003.

E. Kingley Larbi and K. Addo Sampong, “Central University College: Genesis and Development,” in Pathﬁnder: Central University College, 2 (2000), 29.

E. Kingsley Larbi, personal communication, October 8, 2003.

Philip Jenkins, Philip, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 2.

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This transformation of global Christianity from a primarily Northern and Western faith to a predominantly Southern one is affecting not only religious institutions, but also educational institutions.

Joel Carpenter in his study entitled “New Evangelical Universities: Cogs in a World System or Players in a New Game?” discovered 41 new evangelical Protestant universities that have been founded in Africa, Asia, and Latin America since 1980, with new ones being established at a rapid rate. “Virtually anywhere in the world that a signiﬁcant Pentecostal, charis- matic or other evangelical movement has taken root,” Carpenter writes, “it is now engaged in higher education beyond the training of church workers.”6

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of institutions of higher education by Pentecostal Christians in Africa. What kinds of institutions are they? What is their curriculum? What kinds of links do these institutions have with institutions in the West? Who are the leaders of these institutions and what are their visions for the future? What are the unique opportunities and special challenges facing African Pentecostal higher education? How will globalization and the “marketization” of higher education (selling education as a commodity) impact the mission of Pentecostal higher education in Africa? What contributions might these institutions potentially make to African societies and to global Christianity?

To set a context for this discussion of higher education and the emerg- ing Pentecostal churches of Africa, this study will brieﬂy describe the emergence of African Pentecostalism, comparing and contrasting classi- cal Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movements. The status of African higher education, particularly the trend toward privatization and marketi- zation, is then described. The vignettes above suggest two related trends in higher education in African Pentecostalism that will be elucidated. The study then provides an analysis of the challenges and opportunities African Pentecostal educators encounter in an educational and economic environ- ment increasingly shaped by globalization and marketization. The paper concludes with reﬂections on the potential impact of African Pentecostal higher education.

This study employs a qualitative research method, relying primarily on interviews (in person, via email, or via telephone) with African Pentecostal educators who themselves are engaged in higher education either in Africa

Joel Carpenter, “New Evangelical Universities: Cogs in a World System, or Players in a New Game?” Retrieved August 1 2003 from Council of Christian Colleges and Universities website: cccu.org/resourcecenter/rc?detail.asp?resID=2008&parentCatI=47, 1.

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or in the United States, African scholars of theology and/or education, and missionaries engaged with Pentecostal higher education in Africa. The study also draws on literature related to African higher education, theol- ogy, and globalization issues as well as materials produced by or for African Pentecostal institutions of higher education.

The Emergence of African Pentecostal Churches

One of the leaders most often identiﬁed as the catalyst for the spread of the Pentecostal message in the early years of the 20th century is William Seymour, the African-American pastor who led the Azusa Street mission revival in Los Angeles. Many, including Holleweger, have written of the African/African-American roots of the global Pentecostal movement.7 In the 100 years since the beginning of the Pentecostal revival, according to the World Christian Database, the movement has grown to encompass more than 500 million people worldwide, who have come to identify them- selves as Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians (henceforth, for the sake of simplicity, Pentecostal).8

Following Asamoah-Gyadu, this study deﬁnes Pentecostalism as:

Christian traditions that emphasize salvation in Christ as a transformative experience wrought by the Holy Spirit. Consequently, pneumatic phenom- ena such as “speaking in tongues,” prophecies, visions, healing and mira- cles in general, perceived as standing in historic continuity with the experiences of the early church, are sought, accepted, valued, and consciously encour- aged among members as signifying the presence of God and experiences of his Spirit.9

See, for example, Walter J. Hollenweger, “The Black Roots of Pentecostalism” in Pentecostals After a Century, eds., Allen Anderson and Walter J. Hollenweger, (Shefﬁeld, England: Shefﬁeld Academic Press, 1999), 36–39.

World Christian Database, Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: Retrieved February 8, 2004 from website: http://worldchris- tiandatabase.org/wcd. This number includes classical Pentecostals, Charismatics, and “Neo- Charismatics,” deﬁned as “Third Wave” movement participants. For the purposes of this paper, Charismatics and Neo-Charismatics are together described as Neo-Pentecostals and are compared and contrasted with classical Pentecostals. Further, classical Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals are referred to collectively as Pentecostals.

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Christian Education in the Modern African Church: Maturity, Growth and the Spirituality of Ghanaian Pentecostal/Charismatic Movements,” in Teaching to Make Disciples: Collected Papers of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Theology (Tulsa: Oral Roberts University, 2001), 228.

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Soon after the Azusa Street revival, Pentecostal missionaries traveled to many parts of the world to share this message of salvation in Christ and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism took root in various African regions, ﬁnding resonance within many African societies. Asamoah- Gyadu notes that “Pentecostal movements in Africa regard their emer- gence as inspired by the Holy Spirit. The aim of this inspiration is to recover for the church what indigenous Pentecostals consider to be the missing emphases of spiritual power and fervour in Christian life and worship.”10

While some have accused Pentecostals (and other evangelicals) in the non-Western world of being instruments of cultural imperialism, Larbi states, “African Pentecostals’ reference to themselves as ‘Pentecostals’ has nothing to do with any Western inﬂuence or any association with the West, as some may want to suggest. They refer to themselves as ‘Pentecostals’ because they see themselves standing in historic continuity with the events of the ‘Day of Pentecost,’ and their own experience of the Holy Spirit.”11

Catholic and Protestant missionary efforts had already been underway in Africa for over 400 years when the message of the Pentecostal experi- ence arrived, but earlier waves of Christian missionaries had experienced less receptivity to the Christian message, often, according to Kalu, because the message was being interpreted through the lens of Western rationalis- tic assumptions that denied the power and reality of supernatural phe- nomena. African worldviews, according to Kalu, were essentially religious and supernaturalistic.

Going through life is like a spiritual warfare and religious ardor may appear very materialistic as people strive to preserve their material sustenance in the midst of the machinations of pervasive evil forces. Behind it is a strong sense of the moral and spiritual moorings of life. It is an organic worldview in which the three dimensions of space are bound together; the visible and the invisible worlds interweave. Nothing happens in the visible world that has not been predetermined in the invisible realm. The challenge for Christianity is how to witness the gospel in a highly spiritualized environ- ment in which the recognition of the powers has not been banished in a Cartesian ﬂight to objectivity and enlightenment…. The argument here is that Pentecostalism in Africa derived her coloring from the texture of the African soil and from the interior of her idiom, nurture, and growth; her

Ibid., 228.

E. Kingsley Larbi, “African Pentecostalism in the Context of Global Pentecostal Ecumenical Fraternity: Challenges and Opportunities,” in Pentecostal Theology, 24:2 (2003), 150.

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fruits serve the challenges and problems of the African ecosystem more ade- quately than did the earlier missionary fruits.12

Pentecostal Christianity, then, offered empowerment by God for defeat- ing destructive supernatural forces. Missionaries played a role in intro- ducing this message and experience, but Africans quickly took leadership of Pentecostal movements and generated new and independent churches across the continent. Larbi writes: “The Pentecostal movement in Africa is an indigenous movement, in the sense that it is self-governing, self-theo- logizing, self-propagating, and self ﬁnancing.”13

It is important to distinguish between African Independent Churches (AICs) and African Pentecostal churches. While both of these movements emphasize God’s supernatural intervention, Larbi states, “One sees strik- ing differences between the AICs and the Pentecostal churches in the areas of theology or doctrine and ethos.”14 Among other things, Larbi describes Pentecostals as more Biblio-centric and as opposed to some religious prac- tices of the AICs, such as ancestor veneration and the use of candles and libations. Larbi does not include African Independent Churches in his classiﬁcation of African Pentecostals, though Jenkins does.

Who, then, are the Pentecostals in Africa? Larbi distinguishes between “classical Pentecostal” groups, typically those Pentecostal churches afﬁliated with or historically related to established Western Pentecostal denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, and neo-Pentecostal or Charismatic churches, generally arising since the global Charismatic movement of the 1960s and ’70s and more likely to be related to independent Charismatic movements (such as those led by evangelists like Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin). Both branches of Pentecostalism have grown dramatically across sub- Saharan Africa in the past several decades. Pentecostals make up a large per- centage of the 360 million Christians estimated to live in Africa.15According to Kalu, African Christianity has undergone a pervasive “Charismatization” or “Pentecostalization,” to the extent that most African Christians, regard- less of denomination, should be considered Pentecostals.16 The estimated

Ogbu U. Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview: Pentecostalism in the African Maps of the Universe,” in Pentecostal Theology, 24:2 (2003), 122.

Larbi, “African Pentecostalism,” 160.

Ibid., 147.

Jenkins, Next Christendom, 4.

Ogbu Kalu, personal communication, September 12, 2003.

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number of Christians in Africa in 1900 was only 10 million. If one extrap- olates current trends out another generation, Africa could have as many as 633 million Christians by 2025, most of whom will be Pentecostal.17

“The quest by Pentecostals to root their message into the African maps of the universe,” Kalu writes, “is buttressed by the efforts of African Christians of various hues, scholars, novelists, and political nationalists to interpret the gospel from their meaning systems.”18 What role will African Pentecostal educators play in this process, given that Pentecostals are and will increasingly be a demographic force in African societies across the continent? Will African Pentecostal engagement and inﬂuence extend into African higher education and, by extension, into other domains of lead- ership in their African societies?

African Higher Education and the Rise of

Privatization and Marketization

The challenges facing African higher education are staggering. Teferra and Altbach write:

Africa, a continent with ﬁfty-four countries, has no more than 300 institu- tions that ﬁt the deﬁnition of a university. By international standards, Africa is the least developed region in terms of higher education institutions and enrollments… If Africa is to succeed economically, culturally, and politi- cally, it must have a strong postsecondary sector; academic institutions are central to the future. After being shunted to the side by national govern- ments and international agencies alike for almost two decades, higher edu- cation is again recognized as a key sector in African development.19

Though African governments may be paying renewed attention to their higher education sectors, the challenge of funding these institutions becomes ever more daunting. The population explosion throughout Africa has been matched by rapidly expanding enrollments in primary and secondary edu- cation, resulting in multiplying demand for higher education opportuni- ties in every African nation. The costs of State-subsidized universities are

Jenkins, 3.

Kalu, “Preserving a Worldview,” 116.

Damtew Tefarra and Philip G. Altbach, “Trends and Perspectives in African Higher Education,” in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook , eds. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 3.

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exorbitant, in that governments are often paying not only the tuition of university students, but also their living expenses. With job markets tight for graduates, university students sometimes extend their stay at the uni- versity to six or seven years. Less than three percent of age-eligible Africans have access to higher education.20

Budgets for higher education are a tiny fraction of what is available for higher education in other parts of the world. For example, the African nation with the largest budget for higher education (Egypt) allocates just over $1.2 billion a year for all its institutions of higher education,21 about the same amount that ﬂowed to the University of Southern California, a single American private university, in its most recent fundraising campaign.

Higher education, per se, is not a recent phenomenon in Africa. Higher learning was thriving in Egypt at the time of the Ptolemies (third century B.C.) when the museums and libraries of Alexandria were created. Egypt’s Al-Azhar University is more than a thousand years old, as are three other universities in North Africa.22 Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia developed an elaborate system of advanced education for priests and rulers that endured for generations.23 The University of Sankore thrived in Timbuktu, Mali, beginning in the 12th century.

While Africa can claim an ancient academic tradition, the fact is that tradi- tional centers of higher learning in Africa have all but disappeared or were destroyed by colonialism. Today, the continent is dominated by academic institutions shaped by colonialism and organized according to the European model… The most important of the colonial powers in Africa, Britain and France, have left by far the greatest lasting impact, not only in terms of the organization of academe and the continuing links to the metropole but in the language of instruction and communication.24

Following independence, African governments sought to expand uni- versity education and nationalize faculties and curriculum. However, the

Ibid., 5.

Y.G.M. Lulat, “The Development of Higher Education in Africa: A Historical Survey,” in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, eds. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach, (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 16.

Aklitu Habte and Teshome Wagaw, “Education and Social Change” in General History of Africa (Vol. 8): Africa since 1935 (2nd ed.) ed., Ali A. Mazrui (Oxford: James Currey, Ltd., 1999), 682.

Tefarra and Altbach, “Trends and Perspectives,” 4.

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realities of economic deprivation have kept the universities in a state of tur- moil, lacking basic technologies, textbooks, library resources, and facilities.

The dilemma is vividly illustrated by the case of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Jibril writes:

Nigerian higher education will need to expand to about 10 times its current size in the next ten years to accommodate the envisaged growth in the size of the higher education cohort. However, even at present, quality appears to be declining primarily due to overdependence on the government for funding. The challenge to the system in the ﬁrst decade of the new millen- nium is to expand while improving quality and to diversify the sources of funding without risking social and political explosions.25

It is not surprising that in this environment of expanding demand and diminishing government resources private higher education is a rapidly growing alternative. According to Thaver:

The growth of private higher education in Africa, which has been spurred on by both local and global factors, is a very uneven process. The steady growth of the sector has resulted in myriad institutional types ranging from not-for-proﬁt to for-proﬁt, each providing a speciﬁc social function. While the former tend to be religious in orientation, emphasizing a strong moral discourse, the latter tend to have a business orientation and a strong mar- ket-related discourse.26

The existence of both a moral/mission-related discourse (language and associated philosophy) and a market-related discourse in the private sec- tor has signiﬁcant implications for Pentecostal higher education, which will be elaborated below. The market discourse is especially encouraged by international agencies (such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) that seek to enhance market economies within develop- ing nations in general and Africa in particular. This market discourse is related to the marketization of higher education. While higher education began as a function of the church (or mosque), in its modern incarnation it has become strongly identiﬁed with the state. Now, institutions of higher education, globally, are increasingly connected to and dependent upon corporations and the free market for their survival. As governments (and

Munzali Jibril, “Nigeria,” in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, eds. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 498–99.

Bev Thaver, “Private Higher Education in Africa: Six Country Case Studies,” in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, eds. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 53.

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churches) become less able to fund higher education, market economics comes increasingly to deﬁne the role and function of universities. For example, university presidents, who in ancient times might have been con- sidered holy men, or, later, public servants and social paragons, are now primarily CEOs (Chief Executive Ofﬁcers) whose principal role is to raise money and create market opportunities for the university. Thaver observes:

Private higher education is perceived as a marketable commodity that can be traded. In East Africa, evidence points to the emergence of secular-based private higher institutions with a for-proﬁt motive that are managed by a new group of “education entrepreneurs” deploying market principles in edu- cation… The application of market ideology to higher education is related to a global ideology that deﬁnes education as a private good for economic growth.27

Despite the challenges they face, most notably adequate resources to launch and sustain expensive educational programs and the facilities they require, private universities are proliferating across the continent. For exam- ple, thirteen of the nineteen universities in Kenya are private. In Ghana, eleven post-secondary private institutions have received government approval. In Uganda, ten private universities are either functioning or are in the planning stages.28 In Nigeria, there are now seven private poly- technics, four private teacher training colleges, and three private univer- sities (two of which are Pentecostal and will be discussed below), with many more in the planning stages.29 Vice-chancellors of ﬁve private uni- versities met in Dar es Salaam in November, 2000, to establish the Tanzania Association of Private Universities, to promote their mutual welfare within the Tanzanian higher education system.30

Of particular importance in the rise of private universities is the pri- vate religious sector, rooted in a long history of Christian higher educa- tion in Africa.

One might say that Christian higher education in Africa began in the ﬁrst century, when the apostle Philip taught and baptized an Ethiopian ofﬁcial “in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians”

Ibid., 59.

Tefarra and Altbach, “Trends and Perspectives,” 7.

Jibril, “Nigeria,” 497.

Esther Mwaikambo, “Inﬂuencing the External Environment,” Paper presented at the “Meeting the Challenges of Higher Education in Africa: The Role of Private Universities” Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, September 2003, 9.

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(Acts of the Apostles 8:27). A number of early church fathers, including most famously Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430), lived and taught in Africa. The Orthodox church in Ethiopia established one of the earliest and most enduring forms of higher education on the continent.31

With colonialism and Western Christian missions came new initiatives in Christian education.

The effort of European and American missionaries in the nineteenth cen- tury to spread Christianity in Africa stimulated Western education. It expanded the scope of literacy not only in European languages, but also in several African languages, many of them being written for the ﬁrst time in newly- devised schemes of orthography in Roman letters and thus in many cases superceding earlier attempts to write some of the languages in the Arabic script.32

Primary and then secondary schools were established by many mis- sionaries. The ﬁrst institution of higher education established by mission- aries was Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Indeed, typical of many Christian universities worldwide, Fourah Bay had its origin as a pastoral training school when it was started in 1814 as the Christian Institute.33 It was renamed Fourah Bay College and became a teachers’ college in 1826–27. Almost 190 years after its founding, Fourah Bay College continues to serve students in Sierra Leone, though it is now essentially a government institution.34

Similar Christian institutions of higher education were established by missionaries in other parts of Africa, more often in Anglophone Africa than in Francophone Africa, according to Lulat, because France felt that “the primary purpose of Western education was to universalize French secular culture, not evangelization.”35

In general, colonial governments, often operating on the basis of racist assumptions, limited the development and scope of institutions of higher education in Africa and sought to turn their efforts to supporting Western social and political agendas. Initially, colonial government efforts focused

Habte and Wagaw, “Education and Social Change,” 682.

Ibid., 678.

Joseph B.A. Kandeh, Thomas M. Dugba, and Joseph L. Pessima, “Sierra Leone,” in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, eds. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 527.

R. Shaka, personal communication, October 3, 2003.

Lulat, “The Development of African Higher Education,” 20.

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on industrial and vocational training at the expense of academic educa- tion. Eventually, colonial governments sought to turn higher education toward the development of an African civil service that would be loyal to the European colonizers.

With African independence beginning in the 1950s, African govern- ments sought to expand and nationalize African university education. Throughout this period, Christian ministerial training institutions and Bible schools continued to be established.

Daystar University was one of the earliest new evangelical universi- ties to be established in post-independence Africa, and it is one of the most developed of these institutions. Daystar’s website describes some of the reasons that Christian universities have become so attractive to their sponsors and churches.

At Daystar, ﬁve African students can be educated for the cost of sending one student overseas. By educating committed leaders in an African con- text to address the needs and issues of the continent, Daystar is an impor- tant solution to Africa’s “brain drain,” reversing the loss of its talented young people… Many of our graduates are now serving as members of parlia- ment, business leaders, educators, communications specialists and leaders of Christian relief and development organizations in more than 40 African nations. Daystar graduates are inﬂuencing every area of African society with leadership rooted in Christian values.36

Daystar also illustrates, however, the challenges facing private Christian higher education in Africa. Their website includes a letter from their exec- utive director describing a recent student strike and the layoff of 250 employees due to budget cuts.

It was not until the 1980s that African Christian universities began to multiply. Carpenter mentions eleven such institutions and observes that “it is obvious, strikingly so, that the new evangelical universities are rid- ing this wave of privatization. The evangelical universities are showing up with greatest number and vigor in countries that are liberalizing edu- cational structures.”37

Clearly, the number of Christian institutions of higher education is growing.

Daystar University. Home page. Retrieved November 6, 2003, from: http:// daystarus.org.

Carpenter, “New Evangelical Universities,” 23.

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But what of their quality? Jibril ﬁnds that recently established private uni- versities in Nigeria are subject to considerable suspicion as to their qual- ity, in contrast to popular perceptions of private primary and secondary schools.38

To what degree and in what ways are these institutions, in fact, “Christian?” To what degree are their faculty and their curriculum dis- tinctive? Do these institutions retain a strong moral/mission discourse and focus, or are they taking up the market discourse and focus common in secular private institutions? Carpenter raises serious questions about the mission of these Christian institutions of higher education given the eco- nomic challenges they face. “It is critical for evangelical colleges to con- sider what they will do in the years ahead to distinguish themselves from the common run of entrepreneurial institutions and to articulate what is in fact Christian and Christ-serving about the curricular patterns they are fol- lowing.”39 Thaver observes that, in the six countries she studied, “an emerg- ing theme in the private higher education institutions is a strong emphasis on moral ideas and values. However, this religious discourse is gradually being challenged by the market-economy discourse that undergirds the business studies courses prevalent in the for-proﬁt institutions.”40 The ten- sions between mission and market will be explored in greater depth as we examine the speciﬁcally Pentecostal institutions in the next section.

Pentecostal Higher Education in Africa

While Thaver looked broadly at private higher education and Carpenter explored evangelical Christian higher education, this study focuses more narrowly on Pentecostal higher education in Africa. In a Western context, evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity are related religious movements that can, nevertheless, be distinguished theologically. The two movements share a strong commitment to the authority of the Bible, a belief in salvation

Jibril, in “Nigeria,” writes: “It is generally believed that private, fee-charging pri- mary and secondary schools provide better-quality education than corresponding govern- ment schools. However, the private higher education institutions so far established have yet to establish reputations. The attitude of the public at present can best be described as skep- tical. However, given the crisis of access to universities, private higher education institu- tions could have a bright future in Nigeria, especially if they can replicate the reputation for quality that they have established at the lower levels of the education system.” 497.

Carpenter, 24.

Thaver, 55.

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from sin through Jesus Christ, and a priority concern for evangelism. In the United States, for example, Pentecostalism is typically seen as a sub- set of evangelicalism, and most Pentecostals also consider themselves evangelicals. Pentecostals, though, also emphasize the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit with accompanying signs and wonders, like physical healing, speaking in unknown languages (tongues), and prophecy. While these experiences have become commonplace among a sizeable minority of evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Roman Catholics, most American evangelicals (Baptists and Nazarenes, for example) would not consider themselves Pentecostals.

In Africa, however, this distinction is not as easily made. Pentecostal experience is so widespread among African Christians that a kind of “Charismatization” or “Pentecostalization” affects all segments of the Church. The line between evangelicals and Pentecostals, or between Protestants in general and Pentecostals, is not so clear. However, we are still able to distinguish Pentecostal churches (linked to classical Pentecostal or Charismatic movements) from churches historically linked with evan- gelical, mainline Protestant, and Catholic churches.

This paper focuses on higher education among those African Christians whose links are to distinctively Pentecostal churches. The vignettes above exemplify two kinds of higher education among Pentecostals in Africa. Pentecostals, committed as they are to evangelism and to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, have most often been planters of churches and train- ers of pastors. Barnabas Mtokambali epitomizes this movement’s com- mitment to evangelism, training, and church planting. Training institutes for pastors and church planters do not, typically, have academic require- ments, but admit students of all educational backgrounds who feel “called” to evangelize, plant churches and pastor.

Bible schools and colleges typically have a more structured curriculum than ministerial training institutes and may require two or more years for program completion, with more rigorous academic requirements. Again, the emphasis is not on academic preparation, but on equipping for min- istry. Typically, these Bible schools and colleges draw on Western cur- riculum models and offer a diploma to program completers. Insofar as one deﬁnes institutions of higher education (IHEs) as “post-secondary institu- tions,” these ministerial training institutes, Bible schools, and Bible col- leges might be considered “proto-IHEs.” In time, many Bible schools and colleges come to offer Bachelor’s degrees, and, as such, require candi- dates to have completed secondary education.

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In recent years, some Pentecostal Bible colleges in Africa have, in fact, begun to offer four year Bachelor’s degree programs in theology or min- istry. The largest of the classical Pentecostal fellowships in Africa, the Assemblies of God, sponsors an Africa Theological Training Service that provides curricular and library resources to almost 80 such institutions (and 120 extension centers) in about 30 African nations.41

Likewise, Pentecostal denominations like the Assemblies of God have established schools of theology that now offer Master’s degrees and are considering offering Doctor of Ministry degrees (D.Min). Typically, these institutions do not fall within the scope of government accreditation within their nations, since they only offer degrees in theology or ministry. However, in some cases, such as Evangel Theological Seminary in Jos, Nigeria, lead- ers are seeking afﬁliation with government universities in order to attain recognition of their degrees.42 Still, the focus of these institutions is on practical ministry and leadership of churches.

Given the multiplication of Pentecostal churches, many of which are led by pastors with little or no training, Pentecostal leaders in Africa are inclined to keep the priority where it is. Malawian Assemblies of God leader, Lazarus Chakweru states: “Missions-driven Christian institutions need not evolve into something other than was intended. The challenge would be to intentionally get these institutions to serve in a wider capac- ity. When an institution evolves and ceases to train missionaries/ministers, there is something lost with regard to ministry, zeal and church planting, and we would not want to see some of the trends we see in the United States replicated in Africa.”43

Still, many classical Pentecostal leaders see the need for African-initi- ated institutions of higher education to equip Pentecostals to serve in other domains of society. Both missionaries and African leaders agree that the initiative for these institution cannot and will not come from outside, but from within, especially in nations like Nigeria and South Africa where resources are more readily available. In fact, Nigerian Assemblies of God Superintendent John Ikoni reports that a feasibility study for such an institution is currently underway and Richard Shaka of Sierra Leone, now a professor of theology and missions at North Central University in Minneapolis, calls the development of Pentecostal universities “overdue.”

B. Kirsch, personal communication, October 22, 2003. 42

J. Ikoni, personal communication, October 1, 2003. 43

L. Chakweru, personal communication, October 1, 2003.

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Globalization and marketization pose challenges and offer opportunities for theological education in Africa. Already, Pentecostals have taken advan- tage of the technologies of globalization, such as email and the internet, to facilitate theological education by extension. Pentecostal leaders of theological and ministerial education retain a clear focus on the Great Commission. Pentecostal understanding of that mission has always included ministries of compassion (deﬁned by Jesus’ Great Commandment), such that some of these institutions now include courses regarding ministry to victims of HIV/AIDS, including prevention strategies. To what extent will this mission of compassion come to include, as it has in the American Pentecostal movement, education for leaders in the various sectors of soci- ety, such as medicine, education, and business, which promise even greater penetration of the Gospel into the life of African societies? Or will pro- fessional education be left to institutions whose value systems are shaped by the principles of power and acquisition that animate the global politi- cal and market systems?

Much has been written and is being written about Pentecostal theo- logical education in Africa. Little has been written about the more recent trend, represented by Kingsley Larbi in the second vignette: Pentecostal universities.

Pentecostals in Africa are now beginning to launch universities which, in addition to theological training, offer programs in the arts and sciences, as well as professional studies. I have thus far identiﬁed three such insti- tutions: Central University College in Ghana and Benson Idahosa University and Covenant University, both in Nigeria. Several others are in various stages of planning. Central and Covenant are brieﬂy described below.44

Benson Idahosa University (BIU) was established by Nigerian evangelist Benson Idahosa, who typiﬁed the Charismatic, neo-Pentecostal, leader whose evangelistic inﬂuence empowered him to mobilize people and resources toward the establishment of an institu- tion of higher education. Idahosa maintained a close relationship with American evangelist Oral Roberts. Beginning is 1989, he served on the Board of Regents of Oral Roberts University. His Church of God Mission, International, sponsors approximately 100 ele- mentary and secondary schools in Nigeria, and launched what is now BIU in Benin City, Nigeria, in 1994. BIU maintains a fraternal relationship with Oral Roberts University, includ- ing visits and exchanges between administrators (B. Jernigan, personal communication, October 21, 2003).

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Central University College

The story of Central University College was told in short form at the beginning of this article. A ministerial training institute launched by the International Central Gospel Church in Accra, Ghana, in 1988, became Central Bible College in 1990, then Central Christian College in 1994, and ﬁnally Central University College (CUC) in 1997. Today, this Pentecostal university has an enrollment of over 2,000 students.

The process described here is not unfamiliar to American Pentecostal higher educators. For example, in 1920, Pentecostals in Los Angeles, California, launched a ministerial training institute called Southern California Bible School. In 1939, the institution, now afﬁliated with the Southern California District of the Assemblies of God, sought certiﬁcation of its degrees from the State of California, and took the name Southern California Bible College. In 1959, the institution became Southern California College, a Pentecostal liberal arts college that continued to prepare ministers in its Bible department, but which now offered majors for young Pentecostals who wished to pursue, and felt called by God to, other vocations. In 1964, Southern California College became the ﬁrst Pentecostal college to receive regional (formal) accreditation, such that its programs were given the same standing as those of other accredited State and private universities and colleges. By 1999, the institution had grown to 1,500 students, including a signiﬁcant number in three graduate programs and, as such, took on a new identity as Vanguard University of Southern California.45

This pattern is familiar across denominations and across nations. What is striking about the CUC experience is how quickly it all happened. While Southern California Bible School took 79 years to become Vanguard University, Central Bible College of Accra, Ghana, took only 9 years to become Central University College. Moreover, while Vanguard University reached an enrollment of 2,000 in about 83 years, it took CUC only 15 years to reach 2,000.46 How can one account for such rapid growth and transformation?

Pentecostalism in Ghana, as in most of sub-Saharan Africa, is grow- ing at an extraordinary rate, with over 6 million Pentecostals in a population

Lewis F. Wilson, A Vine of His Own Planting. (Costa Mesa, California: Vanguard University, 1999).

E. Kingsley Larbi, President’s Report to the First Congregation. (Accra, Ghana: Central University College, 2003), 1.

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approaching 20 million.47 The Charismatic, or neo-Pentecostal movement launched in the 1970s, has brought particular energy to the university building process. Each of the Pentecostal universities so far established is a product of a neo-Pentecostal rather than a classical Pentecostal move- ment. Neo-Pentecostals are more closely linked to “prosperity” trends within the global Charismatic movement, which embrace wealth and health as part of the birthright of Christians. As such, they may be more attuned to the market themes of the global economy (which offer some advan- tages and suggest some vulnerabilities, described below). Neo-Pentecostal leaders, like Mensa Otabil, the Chancellor of Central University College and leader of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), are charis- matic personalities who are able to mobilize large numbers of constituents to undertake the challenges associated with institution building. Otabil has gained much of his inﬂuence through his effective use of regular televi- sion and radio programming. Of Otabil, De Witte writes:

Dr. Mensa Otabil ranks high among the nation’s most popular personalities . . . Otabil, and for that matter the ICGC, is strongly committed to the devel- opment of the country, and particularly to education and entrepreneurship. He propagates what he calls practical Christianity and aims at making the Bible an effective “tool for life” for everybody. Core values are indepen- dence, human dignity and excellence.48

Early on, Otabil and Larbi sought a connection with Oral Roberts University, a neo-Pentecostal university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ghanaian neo-Pentecostals have been adept at using the media in ways that paral- lel the media strategies of American Pentecostals.

Carpenter describes the founders of most of the new evangelical uni- versities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as educational entrepreneurs. That description certainly ﬁts the founders of CUC. Rather than depend on Western ﬁnancing to launch and sustain their institution, they initiated evening and weekend courses in business administration and other pro- fessional courses to serve Ghanaian middle class and professional people who could not access the more rigid, full-time, traditional forms of uni- versity education. Using such strategies, CUC was able to tap into a hitherto

World Christian Database, Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary: Retrieved February 8, 2004 from website: http://world- christiandatabase.org/wcd.

De Witte, Marleen, “Altar Media’s Living Word: Televised Charismatic Christianity in Ghana,” in Journal of Religion in Africa (33:2), 173, 180.

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untapped demand for continuing higher education. In 2001–02, CUC brought in more than $8 million in tuition and fees, out of total revenue of about $9 million.49 The demand for higher education coupled with structures designed to serve working professionals resulted in an explosion in enroll- ments and a self-supporting institution.

The CUC President’s Report for 2003 describes Departments of Accounting and Finance, Management Studies, and Social Studies within the School of Business, a School of Theology and Missions, and a Centre for Modern Languages. The document also lists forty faculty and ﬁfteen administrative staff.

What, if anything, is distinctively Pentecostal about CUC vis-à-vis other Christian universities in Africa? Most obviously, CUC is afﬁliated with a Pentecostal church, the ICGC, the leader of which is the University’s Chancellor. In his Chancellor’s address of January 13, 2001, Mensa Otabil stated:

The Central University College has as its motto three words: FAITH, INTEGRITY and EXCELLENCE. In making the choice to be part of this University, you committed yourself to those three cardinal truths on which this University is built. “Except the Lord builds the house they labour in vain that build it,” and the need and the burden of our human efforts, with our faith in God, are translated into responsible actions in our day-to-day choices… The abundant life of Jesus Christ is not a life that is seen only in its longevity, but life that is seen in its quality improvement and quality deliverance. So our faith must produce works, and our faith must demon- strate the God we serve and worship. If the Lord is good, then our works must be good. If the Lord is merciful, our works must be merciful. If the Lord is mighty then our works must also be mighty.50

This is very familiar language within Pentecostalism, with special emphasis on service to the community through higher education.

The Vice–chancellor of CUC is a Pentecostal scholar whose doctoral research was on the origins of Ghanaian Pentecostalism.51 Among the ﬁve areas of emphasis in the Master’s program within the School of Theology and Missions is an emphasis in Pentecostal Theology. The University’s web- site also lists a Center for Pentecostal Theology.

Central University College. (2003). Basic Statistics.Accra, Ghana: Central University College, 20.

Mensah Otabil, Speech by the Chancellor. Retrieved November 6, 2003 from Central University College website: http://centraluniversity.org/messages1.htm.

E. Kingsley Larbi, Pentecostalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity. (Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies: Accra, Ghana, 2001).

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The President’s Report also provides an overview of the Chaplain’s Ofﬁce, which includes a description of a Spiritual Emphasis Week, “which involves fasting by members of the university and church services, which brought in The Chancellor, Bishop Agyin Asare of Word Miracle Church International, and Pastor Yaw Annor of the ICGC as main speakers.”52

The vice–chancellor (equivalent to the president of an American uni- versity) also concludes his introduction to the President’s Report as follows: “By God’s grace, Central University College has become a ‘phenome- non’ whose limit is beyond the skies. I am very pleased the good Lord has brought us thus far. I look forward very much to the challenges and opportunities of the years ahead, as I pray for God’s strength and grace to carry this University forward. To God be the glory for the great things he has done!”53

Overall, though, neither the university website nor the president’s report give strong emphasis to Pentecostal experience or distinctives. In fact, the report emphasizes the multidenominational nature of the student body. The vice–chancellor reports encountering challenges in recruiting evan- gelical, and especially Pentecostal, faculty who have the credentials nec- essary for teaching at the university level. These challenges are familiar to institutions of Pentecostal higher education in the West and elsewhere in the world.

The growth and dynamism of CUC are impressive. As a pioneer Pentecostal university in Africa, however, CUC is already experiencing some of the challenges faced by Pentecostal institutions of higher educa- tion in the West, particularly with regard to a Pentecostal sense of mis- sion and identity in the face of market demands and opportunities. These challenges are described in greater detail in the analysis below. CUC is a fascinating case study of how an emerging African Pentecostal university is navigating these tensions between mission and market.

Recently, Vice–chancellor Larbi left Central University College to launch a new higher education project in Ghana: Regent University College of Science and Technology. This undertaking, currently in planning stages, might well be the ﬁrst effort anywhere in the world by Pentecostals to cre- ate an institution focused on Science and Technology. This project illus- trates the dynamism and vision of African Pentecostal educators.

Larbi, President’s Report, 36. 53

Ibid., 4.

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Covenant University

David Oyedepo, an architect by training, is chancellor of Covenant University, located in Ogun State, Nigeria. The home page of Covenant University states: “We are committed to creating the Total man: Spirit, Soul, and Body.”54 Like Central University College, Covenant University is a ministry of a neo-Pentecostal mega-church and missionary movement. In this case, the church is Living Faith Church and its afﬁliated World Mission Agency. Covenant University’s description of the vision of the institution picks up some of the more explicit Pentecostal supernaturalist themes:

Covenant University is a component of the divine commission given to the Chancellor, Bishop David O. Oyedepo, over twenty-one years ago in a vision encounter about escaping from destruction and experiencing total freedom through knowledge of the truth. At the end of the Liberation vision, this mandate was delivered to Bishop Oyedepo: “The hour has come to liberate man from the oppression of the devil, and I am sending you to undertake this task.” The anointing for the liberation of the world from all forms of demonic oppression led to the founding of the Living Faith Church Worldwide (LFCW) in 1981.55

LFCW claims missionary activities in 35 nations and branches in 272 locations in Nigeria. The central congregation boasts an auditorium that seats 50,000.

Oyedepo reviews the challenges facing Nigerian and African higher education to set a context for the establishment of Covenant University:

• Provision of necessary ﬁnancial resources, equipment and an environ-

ment conducive to academic work

• Few placement opportunities for the burgeoning number of students

turned out yearly

• Low moral standards/social vices prevalent among youths and adoles-

cents in Nigeria today

• Inadequate physical resource provisions and basic infrastructure • Lack of foresight in the provision of reforms in Higher education in

Nigeria/Africa for the promotion of sustainable human development • “Brain drain” and the challenge of redirecting skills of Africans in Diaspora.

Covenant University web site. Retrieved February 15, 2004 at: http://covenan- tuniversity.com/aboutmain.htm.

Ibid.

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It is against the backdrop of these challenges that the vision/goals/objec- tives of Covenant University emerged. This is alongside its part in the lib- eration vision of the World Mission Agency’s mandate to give man a practical orientation for taking up responsibility. A primary objective is the develop- ment of the total man through emphasizing his spiritual, intellectual and physical development.56

Oyedepo and Covenant provide a detailed description of their Total Man Concept, which they seek to infuse into their curriculum:

The Total Man Concept is Covenant University’s custom-built programme, which constitutes the core concept of our academic programmes. This con- cept centres on “developing the man who will develop his world.” It is designed to produce students who are intelligently conscious of their envi- ronment and who know how to maximize their potentials in life. The pro- grammes of the University are ﬁrst directed at “the person” before addressing his profession. In this way, the University will raise a generation of experts that possess a great capacity for facing and managing challenges.57

Though it is called the Total “Man” Concept, the institution serves women as well as men, as do the other Pentecostal Universities and Bible colleges described above. For 2002–03, its ﬁrst year of operation, women were in the majority at Covenant University, with an enrollment of 693, compared with 667 men, for a total enrollment of 1,360.58

Covenant University is located in Ota, Ogun state, with a minicampus in Lagos. Commenting on its relationship with the community, Oyedepo writes:

The growth of the university has led to an inﬂux of high caliber, highly edu- cated and relatively higher earning population. It has turned what was hith- erto a village into a city in its own right, as a centre of learning and excellence with its attendant civilization effect. This is evidenced by the appreciation publicly communicated on various occasions by the traditional ruler of the Ota community, (where the university is situated) of the impact of the uni- versity on the development of the area. This has resulted in a restoration of conﬁdence in the Higher Education sector in being able to deliver its stated objectives and in addition, an acknowledgement of University’s contribu- tion economically, socially, and culturally to national development of Nigeria.59

David Oyedepo, “Inﬂuencing the External Environment,” Paper presented at the “Meeting the Challenges of Higher Education in Africa: The Role of Private Universities” Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 2003, 9–10.

Covenant University web site.

Oyedepo, “Inﬂuencing the External Environment,” 13.

Ibid., 16.

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Covenant University offers degree programs in the Colleges of Arts and Humanities, Business and Management Studies, and Science and Technology.

Analysis: Globalization, Marketization, and the Mission of

Pentecostal Higher Education in Africa

Given the extraordinary challenges facing African higher education, Pentecostalism’s move toward the establishment of multifaceted univer- sities must be considered a noteworthy development. How will global- ization and the marketization of higher education impact the mission and growth of Pentecostal higher education in Africa?

Globalization is an elastic term used to describe many different phe- nomena.60 The American Forum for Global Education deﬁnes globaliza- tion as “the acceleration and intensiﬁcation of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations.”61 Carpenter quotes Guileen, who deﬁnes globalization as “the process lead- ing to greater interdependence and mutual awareness (reﬂexivity) among economic, political, and social units in the world, and among actors in general.”62 Stromquist points out that these intensifying global relation- ships are fraught with “asymmetries of power,” as more powerful actors often seek to impose their intentions on less powerful ones.63 Thurow com- pares globalization to the Tower of Babel. “This economic Tower of Babel,” he writes, “is being built without a set of construction plans.”64 Thurow

Donald M. Lewis provides a useful summary of the many meanings of globaliza- tion within various disciplines, and suggests some areas for future research on the rela- tionship between evangelicalism and globalization in his “Globalization: The Problem of Deﬁnition and Future Areas of Historical Inquiry,” in Mark Hutchinson and Ogbu Kalu, eds., A Global Faith.(Macquarie Center, NSW: Center for the Study of Australian Christianity, 1998), 26–46.

Laurence Rothenberg, “Globalization 101: The Three Tensions of Globalization.” Part of the Occasional Papers Series published by The American Forum for Global Education. Retrieved November 10, 2003 from the American Forum for Global Education website: globaled.org, 1.

Carpenter, 18.

Nelly P. Stromquist, “Globalization and Trends Toward Institutional Isomorphism in Higher Education,” Paper presented at the Comparative and International Education Society Western Regional Meeting. University of Southern California. Los Angeles, November, 2003.

Lester Thurow, Fortune Favors the Bold: What We Must Do to Build a New and Lasting Global Prosperity. (New York: HarperBusiness, 2003), 1.

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attributes the growth of the global economy to “three simultaneous revolutions.”

•

A set of new technologies moving the world from “an industrial era based upon natural resources into a knowledge-based era based upon skills, education, and research and development.”

Globalization of economies such that “businesses located anywhere can manage activities everywhere.”

A decline of communist and socialist alternatives such that capitalism now holds a more dominant place that ever. “A global superstructure is being built on a capitalistic substructure using new technologies.”65

Mok points out that “the impact of globalization has not only been felt in the economic realm but, indeed, has also caused signiﬁcant changes in the ideological-cultural realm,”66 promoting, for example, economic ration- alism and individualistic acquisitiveness. In this environment, according to Mok, “university professors must participate in the education market by selling/marketizing their skills and knowledge, and institutions of higher learning adopt an entrepreneurial approach to making themselves more competitive in the marketplace.”67

According to Newman,

Powerful changes are underway, driven by the entry of new providers of higher education, both for-proﬁt and non-proﬁt; the explosion of virtual edu- cation; rapid advances in technology; demographic shifts; and the globalization of a sector that has typically been open only to indigenous institutions… As market forces grow in importance there is a chance for signiﬁcant gains or for signiﬁcant setbacks. There is, for example, the possibility of greater access to education, new modes of learning, improved productivity, and even lowered cost. But there is also the danger of losing some of the important attributes of higher education, such as the commitment to provide the less advantaged an opportunity for education; or the tradition within higher edu- cation to take a long-term view of both students and societal needs; or the emphasis on learning and scholarship apart from maximizing revenue streams.68

Ibid., 25.

Ka Ho Mok, “Impact of Globalization: A Study of Quality Assurance Systems and Higher Education in Hong Kong and Singapore,” in Comparative Education Review, 44:2, 149.

Ibid., 151.

Frank Newman, “Saving Higher Education’s Soul.” Retrieved November 10, 2003, from the website of The Futures Project: futuresproject.org, 2.

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How will Pentecostals, particularly in Africa, respond to these global- izing and marketizing tendencies? Klaus points out that Pentecostalism has always been characterized by both local/indigenous and global tendencies. “It can be argued that while regional differences are real, Pentecostalism has generated a global culture which shares a common spirituality.”69

Indeed, a kind of Pentecostal globalization is well underway. Jenkins’ description of this phenomenon has been documented above. Note these sample titles of books by and about Pentecostals in the past decade: Poewe’s Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture (1994); Kalu and Hutchinson’s A Global Faith (1998); and Dempster, Klaus and Petersen ’s The Globaliza- tion of Pentecostalism (1999).

What will be the relationship between Pentecostal globalization and free market globalization? How will these interact in the context of Pentecostal higher education?

Universities around the world are grappling with the issue of how to retain their mission focus given the spread of corporate culture and mar- ket through the mechanisms of globalization. Kezar describes this phe- nomenon as a threat to the social charter (which she describes as a covenant relationship) between higher education and society.70 Much discussion and work is now taking place in the United States, for example, at both Christian and secular institutions of higher education to try to address this issue. The Kellogg Forum at the University of Michigan and The Futures Project at Brown University are examples of initiatives meant to address the impact of globalization and the marketization of higher education on the charac- ter and mission of universities. David Kirp, author of the 2003 book Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education, observes, “There is a very important place for market values, but if not kept in check by academic values, the market could also cor- rode the core mission of the institution. The tension between that and the need to survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace is the knife- edge tale of our times.”71

Byron Klaus, “Pentecostalism as a Global Culture: An Introductory Overview,” in Murray W. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus, and Douglas Petersen, eds, The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel. (Irvine, CA: Regnum, 1999), 128.

Adrianna Kezar, “Pursuing Integrity: Examining the Social Charter between Higher Education and Society.” Paper presented at the Comparative and International Education Society Western Regional Meeting. University of Southern California. Los Angeles, California, November 2003.

Tim Goral, “Making Peace with the Marketplace,” in University Business, 7:2 (February 2004), 28.

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Carpenter observes that “In their course offerings, the evangelicals tend to follow the privatizing trends toward providing the skills students want and will most likely need to get entry-level jobs in the new global work- force.”72 Part of the success of the new Pentecostal universities, like their evangelical and private counterparts, has been due to their focus on prepar- ing professionals who are able to take advantage of emerging market sys- tems, in Ghana and Nigeria for example, linked to globalized economies.

Of Covenant University, Oyedepo writes: “A close look at the cur- riculum and programme content of the three colleges in Covenant University will indicate a sensitivity to futuristic markets, industrial, technological and human power/capital needs at both local, national and global levels.”73

The effect of globalization, with market economics as its primary engine, has been, according to Stromquist, to elevate individualism and competi- tion to the level of dominant values. “The priority assigned to the satis- faction of personal wants and desires is occurring to the detriment of discussions of a more transcendental or spiritual nature.”74 In fact, some argue that part of the appeal of neo-Pentecostalism is the emphasis on a theology of prosperity that blesses Christian aspirations for wealth and status.

Carpenter writes that “recently founded evangelical colleges do not fol- low the curricular pattern of the new privates exclusively. Many of them have found ways to respond to local needs that go beyond training for careers as operatives in the global economy. African institutions are attend- ing to agriculture as well as to accounting.”75 On a cautionary note, how- ever, he writes:

It is difﬁcult to see how faculty and students can cultivate a fully orbed Christian perspective within the narrowly focused curricular tracks that most of these universities have developed. Unless students take courses that address social, economic, theological, cultural and ethical issues that form the world in which their professions operate, they will have few resources for under- standing and applying the Bible’s call to work for justice and to love mercy.76

Carpenter, 23.

Oyedepo, 11.

Nelly P. Stromquist, “Globalization, the I, and the Other” in Current Issues in Comparative Education, 4:2 [On-line]. Retrieved October 9, 2003 from: tc.colum- bia.edu/cice/articles/nps142.htm, 1.

Carpenter, 23.

Carpenter, 26.

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Oyedepo and others are seeking to respond to this challenge, by explic- itly framing their curricula and programs with Biblical and Christian pri- orities of spiritual transformation, moral development, and social engagement:

It is also important to add that being a Mission University, the foundational ethos upon which the university is founded is also very relevant here. The foundational pillars and the rubrics are based on biblical principles and truths…. Aweaving in of the spiritual, academic, and life skills is what is prescribed here. So far, this is yielding positive results with regards to the provision of a sound curriculum which has been approved by the National Universities Commission, a sound cultural and moral ethic, managerial and responsibility sensitive skills and self-development training focus and an integrated/holistic life-centred perspective.77

With reference to its entrepreneurial studies program, which would seem to be a classically market-driven program, Oyedepo writes: “These are part of the response people expect of an academic community that has taken up the challenge described as the Nehemiah Complex, i.e., that of rebuilding the fallen walls. Covenant University is seriously committed to this in its bid and actual intent to produce expert thinkers and managers who are responsibly sensitive and contribution driven.”78

The description of Central University College above highlights some of the challenges facing CUC in navigating market and mission priorities, and some of their strategies for addressing these challenges. As Pentecostal institutions of higher education grow and expand their programs and mar- kets, prompted in most cases by both a sense of ﬁnancial necessity and a desire to seize opportunities for greater spiritual and social inﬂuence, they often feel compelled to expand their target audience to include students and qualiﬁed faculty beyond their own Pentecostal churches. While this Christian diversity within a student body and faculty may be enriching, it becomes difﬁcult for the institution to continue to emphasize distinctively Pentecostal themes, which some from other Christian denominations may ﬁnd unappealing or even, in some cases, offensive. While one would expect that this offense would be less likely in Africa, given the “Charismatization” of Christians generally, as described above, one still sees a moderation of Pentecostal language and emphasis in the documents of Central University College.

Oyedepo, 12. 78

Ibid., 15.

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Pentecostal IHEs also experience pressure from accrediting bodies (whether governmental, as in most of the world, or private, as in the United States) to frame their programs in inclusive ways that would tend to down- play not only distinctively Pentecostal themes and experiences, (which are often seen as inappropriate given their supernaturalistic character in the rationalistic world of higher education), but even broader Christian distinctives.

Economic markets, both local and global, exert another kind of pres- sure on Pentecostal universities, to moderate the language of Pentecostal and Christian experience, mission, and vision (which often sound counter- cultural and may include prophetic critiques of the social, political, and economic order), in order to attract participation and support from corpo- rations and from students who aspire to work for those corporations.

For the most part, Pentecostal institutions of higher education will not be able to simply ignore or renounce the market. They must seek to be market aware, but always putting mission priorities ﬁrst and assessing market opportunities as to whether they square with the mission.

With priorities deﬁned in this way, African Pentecostalism may in fact provide a challenge to the strictly individualistic values of global market economics. Thaver writes, “Arguably, the inculcation of religious values at the higher education level could be one way of challenging secular and westernized epistemologies that dominate the production of knowledge in higher education.”79 As evidence of this possibility, note the combination of mission language, market language, social improvement language, and liberation language, set within the context of dynamic Christian spiritual experience, in the mission and vision statements of the Pentecostal uni- versities described above.

How will the traditional tension between mission and market within Christian institutions of higher education in other parts of the world (doc- umented, for example, by Marsden in The Soul of the American University) play out in the context of African higher education? This is a rich area for research and collaboration.

Another facet of this issue has to do with the responses of neo-Pentecostals and classical Pentecostals to phenomena associated with globalization, marketization, and higher education. While classical Pentecostals have used the technological tools of globalization to advance missionary efforts

Thaver, 58.

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in Africa and have been instrumental in creating a “global culture” for Pentecostalism, neo-Pentecostals have been more apt to launch Pentecostal universities that are attuned to market economics.

Referencing Russell Spittler, former Provost of Fuller Seminary and now Provost at Vanguard University, Larbi observes that

otherworldliness is a “fading value” among American Pentecostals and Charismatics because of the upward social mobility of North American Pentecostals and the economic progress of American society. Herein lies the thin line of demarcation between African neo-Pentecostals and the older Pentecostal churches. Otherworldliness does not feature prominently in the preaching and teaching of African neo-Pentecostals because of their con- cern for “Dominion Theology.” There is a growing emphasis on the need for believers to exercise dominion over the earth’s resources. It is strongly advocated that the image of God in humans must be translated into con- structiveness as the believer works in partnership with God in the area of development. The believer must reign on earth through his or her exploita- tion and proper utilization of the earth’s resources for the beneﬁt of human- ity, especially the exploited of the earth. By reason of this emphasis, which undoubtedly has been inﬂuenced by the socioeconomic conditions on the continent, in the realm of eschatology the imminent coming of Christ and the hereafter which are still strong in the older Pentecostal churches in Africa, appear to be completely absent from the expositions of the neo-Pentecostals. The concern of the neo-Pentecostal leadership is to alleviate or at least ameliorate the debilitating effects of poverty, ignorance, and disease on the continent.80

The ﬁrst three Pentecostal universities established in Africa have been established by neo-Pentecostals, relative late-comers to the Pentecostal experience arising from the worldwide Charismatic movement of the 1960s and ’70s, rather than from classical Pentecostals, who have been working in Africa for more than 80 years. More research is necessary to explore why, but initial reﬂections include the idea that the “prosperity” orienta- tion of neo-Pentecostals (based on a theology that God wants to provide material abundance to Christians) is coupled with a this-worldly concern for engagement with and success in the social, economic, and political systems of a nation. Neo-Pentecostals, especially in countries like Ghana and Nigeria, have been effective in using the media to get their message out and to mobilize constituencies who are willing to support large scale projects such as a university. This use of the media is the subject

Larbi, “African Pentecostalism,” 157–58.

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of a number of interesting studies.81 Asamoah-Gyadu writes of this phenomenon:

In modern Ghana with its ever-increasing FM radio and TV stations, charis- matic church pastors reach every home with their teachings. The signiﬁcance of this development that was not evident ﬁve years ago is that ideas from the Charismatic ministries continue to shape Christian ideas and to a large extent public discourse in Ghana. On both TV and radio stations, pastors pay for air time in order to have phone-in programmes in which callers ask questions relating to the Christian faith and public life. In the lives of their members and in the minds of the Ghanaian public, the colonization of pub- lic space through the media has succeeded in re-emphasizing a traditional African notion of life as having a transcendent dimension.82

Classical Pentecostal higher education in Africa continues to be focused on ministerial and theological training, at ever-higher levels of academic degree level. The priority given to ministerial training is rooted in a con- cern that a dynamic expansion of churches must be led by pastors who have training. This allows for the fulﬁllment of the New Testament Great Commission, which gives priority to making disciples of all nations and “teaching them all I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18–20). While preparing Pentecostal teachers, business administrators, and nurses for African nations might be a worthwhile endeavor, it does not meet the Great Commission mandate as directly as does the training of ministers and church planters. Given the limited resources of African churches and their missionary partners, classical Pentecostals reason, the training and education of leaders in other domains can be done by others.

The “opportunity costs” associated with higher education are also signiﬁcant when such great needs exist in the areas of primary education and health care, such as HIV/AIDS programs and other ministries of com- passion in which many Pentecostals are engaged. Which is the better invest- ment: to directly support pastoral training and ministries of compassion, or to invest in the development of complex institutions of higher educa- tion that may or may not, in the long run, successfully form Christian and Pentecostal leaders for the various sectors of society? According to Marsden’s analysis, Christian institutions of higher education do not have a strong record of maintaining Christian commitments when they move to university status.

See, for example, Asonzeh F. K. Ukah, “Advertising God: Nigerian Christian Video- ﬁlms and the Power of Consumer Culture,” in Journal of Religion in Africa 33:2 (2003), 203–31.

Asamoah-Gyadu, “Christian Education in the Modern African Church,” 237.

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The case of Daystar University, described above, illustrates the kinds of challenges that may emerge down the line.

Still, American classical Pentecostals have gradually established liberal arts colleges and universities (see the example of Vanguard University of Southern California, above, and Corey on the establishment of Evangel College)83 and African Pentecostal leaders such as those in the Nigerian Assemblies of God see such a development on the horizon. Classical Pentecostalism in Africa may, in the long run, be able to establish more enduring universities since they tend to be less personality-driven, and perhaps more solidly institutionalized, than the neo-Pentecostal movements.

Asamoah-Gyadu argues that one of the vulnerabilities of the neo- Pentecostal (Charismatic) movement may be overemphasis on prosperity, power, success, and healing, at the expense of other powerful Christian themes (perhaps the very themes of suffering and servanthood that would make Pentecostalism a real alternative to secularized global market culture).

Charismatic Christianity is struggling to deal with some of the excesses that plagued the Spiritual [AIC] churches. Everywhere one goes the issues that seem to be dominating charismatic church teachings centre on power: power to overcome one’s enemies, power to achieve personal prosperity and the power of success as signs of God’s blessing. Variations of the themes “keys to success” and “principles of biblical prosperity” may be found in the agenda of Christian education in most Charismatic ministries. Such a view of life does not permit seeing God’s power as also evident in failure, sickness, calamity and powerlessness. The themes of Christian suffering, the cross as a symbol of shame, coping with trials and temptations in life and the inevitabil- ity of death are clearly absent from education in the new Ghanaian churches. Yet these are the experiences that help the Christian to get rooted in Christ and develop inner strength for living.84

Future research might fruitfully examine the theological foundations (including eschatologies) and the educational and social philosophies of classical Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals with reference to their approaches to higher education in Africa and their responses to the opportunities and challenges inherent in globalization and marketization. While their approaches to higher education have been different, what classical and neo-Pentecostals share is a belief in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to enable the

Barry Corey, Pentecostalism and the Collegiate Institution: A Study in the Decision to Found Evangel College. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Boston, MA: Boston College, 1992.

Asamoah-Gyadu, “Christian Education in the Modern African Church,” 238–39.

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believer to carry out the redemptive mission of Christ. African Pentecostal leaders are beginning to see higher education as a tool for interacting with the global market for the purpose of accomplishing that redemptive Christian mission.

Conclusion

Pentecostal churches in Africa are growing exponentially. With this growth has come the demand, ﬁrst, for ministerial and theological train- ing for evangelists, church planters, pastors, and church leaders. This has resulted in the proliferation of training institutes, Bible schools, and Bible colleges, which seek to meet the needs of churches and gradually expand their offerings of diplomas and degrees. A number of proto-IHEs (those not requiring secondary education) have developed into postsecondary institutions, requiring secondary credentials and offering bachelor’s degrees. Schools of theology and seminaries have followed, offering master’s degrees and considering doctoral degrees. Recently, African Pentecostals have begun to establish universities. Given the demand for higher educa- tion and trends toward privatization, the potential for the growth and mul- tiplication of such institutions seems high. While enjoying fraternal links to Western churches, the institutions are largely led by Africans, who increasingly are using the tools of globalization and the proliferation of market economies as means of expanding their social inﬂuence and fund- ing their institutions.

African Pentecostal universities are faced with many challenges, includ- ing the obvious ﬁnancial and human resource issues, but Pentecostal lead- ers have demonstrated their ability to mobilize their constituencies for great projects of faith. Many envision Africa as a leader of worldwide Christianity in the coming century. African Pentecostal institutions of higher education may be key to that kind of global Pentecostal leadership.

Pentecostal higher education is such a new phenomenon, not only in Africa, but throughout the world, that collaboration is essential to enabling these institutions to reach their full potential. Larbi, for example, encour- ages partnerships in areas such as capacity building, institutional afﬁlia- tions, joint research projects, and publication.85 Some of these efforts are already underway, such as those coordinated through the Africa Theological Training Service.

Larbi, “African Pentecostalism,” 161–63.

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Corey and Carpenter have commented on the formation of universities by Pentecostals as a stage in the process of institutionalization, such as is described in Niebuhr’s The Social Sources of Denominationalism.86 Carpenter writes:

Some scholars would interpret this morphology [toward university build- ing] as the process by which evangelical movements begin to make their compromises with the world and move toward decline. A movement like European pietism or American Pentecostalism starts as a protest against the comfortable and the compromising, but then begins to join them… What could be more middle-class than developing a university? Other observers, however, see the move from the revival tent to the university as a classic evangelical maneuver rather than a betrayal of a spirit-ﬁlled movement’s essential character. Evangelicalism, especially in its present-day Pentecostal varieties, is a faith of the ‘aspiring poor,’ argues sociologist David Martin. For the aspiring poor, a university education and a good job are by no means unworthy aspirations, and around the world, evangelical movements and tra- ditions, freshly entering a post-revival stage, are building institutions to open up such opportunities.87

While these comments are rooted in observations of a historical pat- tern (revival movements using higher education as a means of institu- tionalizing their “charisma”), and are worthy of additional study in the African context, they assume that university-building is part of a post- revival stage. Such is not the case in Africa, where the proliferation of institutions of higher education is occurring while the ﬁres of revival are burning.

Pentecostals have an expanding sense of what their mission is, both to bring people to salvation and Holy Spirit baptism, but also, increasingly, equipping them for productive and prosperous lives, and equipping them to serve and inﬂuence the societies in which they live. As such, Pentecostals, whose “pragmatism” is well documented with regard to using secular tools and systems to accomplish Christian mission, will likely continue to be aggressive about using the tools of globalization and marketization for their ends. However, the use of “media” and markets could eventually change the character of the message if the movement does not remain grounded in its core faith.

Barry Corey, “Pentecostalism and the Collegiate Institution: A History and Analysis of this Strained Alliance.” Paper presented for the Society of Pentecostal Theology annual conference, March, 1994.

Carpenter, 10.

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Mtokambali reﬂects on the nature of the leadership he envisions for African Pentecostals. Quoting Henri Nouwen, he writes:

The most important quality of Christian leadership in the future is not a leadership of power or control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humil- ity in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is calling the Church of Africa in a local and a continental sense to a holistic call of ministry, which ministers to the whole person, meeting both physical and spiritual needs . . . African states need God-fearing and dedicated leaders, leaders who are not selﬁsh, but God- minded—leaders willing to make every segment of society to have a sense of belonging through even distribution of amenities. I have no doubt that, if God gives us such leaders, Africa will become a world power in no dis- tant time. What we need both in religious and secular institutions is God- fearing men and women whose lives of godliness are approved by the people they are leading.88

The “godliness” called for here is not a godliness of power and coercion, such as is associated with various kinds of religious fundamentalism. Instead, this is a godliness that reﬂects the character of Christ, a character of service, integrity, and love. This kind of leadership would challenge the individualistic and materialistic ethic of global “marketization” and per- haps provide an alternative in which economic resources are used not just for personal fulﬁllment, but also for social service. Ultimately, principled leadership of this kind beneﬁts a nation and its people economically and socially, as well as spiritually. Can Pentecostal institutions of higher edu- cation help produce the leaders in multiple sectors of society who will offer new hope to Africa? To participate and thrive “in” the world of glob- alization and marketization without becoming “of” that world will be the challenge of African Pentecostal higher education in the generation to come.

Barnabas Mtokombali, “The Dynamics of Leadership Development in Tanzania.” Unpublished manuscript, 1993, 14, 18.

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