Succession Practices in the Contemporary African Pentecostal Churches. A Case Study

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, course: Biblical Studies, language: English, abstract: This project work, Succession Practices in the Contemporary African Pentecostal churches: A Case Study of the Bethel Prayer Ministry International, Headquarter Branch Ghana , sought to study how succession is done. Through the effort of Bethel Prayer Ministry International, Christianity in Africa, especially Ghana, has been recognized by some scholars like Kingsley Larbi from the perspective of Pentecostalism. Within the first ten years of its establishment, the church has opened branches in fifteen countries worldwide, including Ghana. And it has influenced the style of praying in the Pentecostal arena in the country. However, one could hardly get the comprehensive history of the church after the sudden death of the founder, Bishop Dr. Paul Owusu Tabiri. There is a lot of literature on leadership succession practices and planning, as well as relevant theoretical reviews. Primary data collection on the field, extensive questionnaires and observations were done. The descriptive, narrative, analytical and interpretative methods were applied in describing, analyzing, and interpreting the data collected. The research findings outlined the loopholes in their succession practices and planning. The study also established the fact that there were challenges but they were able to sustain the church. Recommendations were given basically to enhance the maintenance and entrenchment of succession, and possible mechanisms of resolution to be applied in the succession practices and succession planning in the Pentecostal Churches under consideration.