The Committee and the Uncommitted : Material Assistance to Members in Need at a Pentecostal Church in Western Kenya

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Kroeker, Lena ; Gez, Yonatan N.:
The Committee and the Uncommitted : Material Assistance to Members in Need at a Pentecostal Church in Western Kenya.
Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies
Bayreuth, Germany , 2022 . - VIII, 20 S. - (University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers ; 28 ) (Academy reflects; 5)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15495/EPub_UBT_00006019

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Abstract

In Kenya today, churches serve as a central pillar of socio-economic 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 allows us to examine the provision of church assistance as a subtle balancing act in which leaders and so-called ‘super-members’ 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 focused 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.