at Google ScholarTitle data
Gez, Yonatan N. ; Kroeker, Lena:
The Committee and the Uncommitted : Material Assistance to Members in Need at a Pentecostal Church in Western Kenya.
In: Africa Today.
Vol. 69
(21 September 2022)
Issue 1/2
.
- pp. 214-237.
ISSN 1527-1978
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.69.1_2.10
Project information
| Project title: |
Project's official title Project's id Middle Classes on the Rise No information |
|---|---|
| Project financing: |
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung |
Abstract in another language
In Kenya today, Christian churches serve as a central pillar of socioeconomic support to people in their hour of need. Drawing on ethnographic research at a small Pentecostal church in Kisumu, western Kenya, we present four modes of such material support. This classification lets us examine the provision of church assistance as a subtle balancing act, in which leaders and so-called supermembers seek to bind lay members into greater commitment by projecting institutional dependability while carefully avoiding excessive demands. Rejecting the caricature of the self-enriching charismatic leader and focusing on the intertwinement of religious commitment and class, we offer a fresh examination of churches' mechanisms of welfare assistance beyond a simple vertical/horizontal (or institutional/congregational) binarism.