The Mission Statement of Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 and its application among the Pentecostal and Charismatic in Churches in Ghana
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Date
2022-04
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Abstract
The application of Luke 4:18-19 is very important for the practice of Christian ministry as it provides a pattern for how Christian ministry should be carried out, its dimensions and focus. However, the application of the passage in the context of
Pentecostal and charismatic churches in Ghana appears to be problematic. Sentiments such as the overemphasis and overreliance on the idea of the anointing as one of the elements in Luke 4:18-19, leaves little space for the church to focus on what the text really means in its entirety. The aim of the study was to examine the meaning of the text in Luke 4:18-19 from biblical scholarship and its application by Pentecostal and charismatic churches in Ghana regarding the practice of
Christian ministry. The study employed the Historical-Critical method, Morphological syntactical and Dialogical qualitative methodologies to arrive at the result. Purposive sampling was used to select seventy (70) interviewees from the selected Pentecostal and charismatic churches and theologians from other Christian backgrounds. The analysis of the field findings revealed that a sizeable number of the selected Pentecostal and charismatic churches gave diverse views to the meaning of each of the components of Jesus’ mission statement which were
contrary to the contextual meaning resulting in their misapplication of the text. It is recommended that to ensure a clearer and better understanding of the application of Jesus’ mission statement in Luke 4:18-19, leaders of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches give sound biblical teachings to their members through sermon series and special seminars on the subject to ensure proper application in contemporary Christian ministry.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY