Delivering Church leadership from charlatanry and controversy in African Pentecostalism

African Journal of Pentecostal Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Delivering Church leadership from charlatanry and controversy in African Pentecostalism
 
Creator Tagwirei, Kimion
 
Subject Ecclesiology; Leadership; Community; Development church; leadership; charlatanry; controversy; deliverance; mission; reformation; transformation
Description Background: By compounding the sacred and the profane and by talking while walking concurrently as God-men and conmen, many Pentecostal leaders are entangled in a heterogeneity of charlatanry and controversy. African ecclesial leadership is mired in bizarre stories of duplicity, impersonation, blasphemy, sexual innuendo and use of a variety of names and titles, which, in short, is controversial and represents charlatanry. Because Christian leadership is expected to be Christ-like and above reproach, escalating tales of charlatanry and controversy compromise Christian leadership.Objectives: Although much has been researched and published about the excesses of Pentecostal leadership, such as the commercialisation of the gospel, an analysis of their charlatanry and solutions for the controversies are presently lacking.Methods: This article employed a literature review and an ethnographic study of selected Pentecostal leaders from Zimbabwe.Results: African Pentecostal Church leadership is flawed by charlatanry and controversy. Drawing from ethical Christian leadership, it considers that fallen leaders can be restored, reformed and transformed through intellectual conversion, affective conversion, volitional conversion, relational conversion and moral action.Conclusion: Charlatanry and controversy can deface Christian leadership and tarnish the image of the Church. The remnant of godly denominational and ecumenical ecclesial leaders should correct and help those who have fallen into charlatanry and controversies, so to repent, be reformed, restored, transformed and realigned to God’s will through ethical Christian leadership.Contribution: This article contributes to Church leadership reformation, restoration and transformation.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The Unit for Reformational Theology and the Development of the South African Society, Faculty of Theology, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Date 2026-05-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literature Review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajops.v3i1.149
 
Source African Journal of Pentecostal Studies; Vol 3, No 1 (2026); 8 pages 3005-6136 3105-434X
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajops.org/index.php/ajops/article/view/149/417 https://ajops.org/index.php/ajops/article/view/149/418 https://ajops.org/index.php/ajops/article/view/149/419 https://ajops.org/index.php/ajops/article/view/149/420
 
Coverage Africa Mixed Mixed
Rights Copyright (c) 2026 Kimion Tagwirei https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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