Mentoring as an Effective Strategy for Leadership Development in Contemporary African Pentecostalism

The formation and advancement of indigenous Pentecostal movements was a significant reason for Africa’s impact on global Christianity. Notwithstanding, a critical concern is the sustenance of such a feat for future global missions. Since leadership development is key to both organizational growth and continual relevance, the African Pentecostal movement that will continue to serve the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission mandate must ensure adequate leadership succession to keep the vision. This paper examined mentoring as an effective approach for leadership development in contemporary African Pentecostalism. Drawing heavily from the Nigerian examples, it argued that mentoring is suitable for preserving and enhancing African Pentecostal theological heritage, core values and practices for effective global missions. By the use of various pieces of literature and observation methods, the article explains the impact of mentoring on the sustenance of the African Pentecostal phenomenon. The author identified three dynamics that had sustained African Pentecostalism and made it impactful: aggressive incorporation programmes, continuous contextualized Christian education, and extensive use of media tools. Consequently, the article argues that these dynamics, amongst other factors, must be intentionally pursued, sustained, and strengthened to form future African Pentecostal leaders who will sustain and enhance the missionary impact of the African Church on the rest of the world.


INTRODUCTION
Ezekiel O. Ajani's assertion that one of the factors responsible for Africa's leading role in world Christianity is "the formation and advancement of indigenous Pentecostal movements" 1 is noteworthy and assuring. Notwithstanding, a critical concern is the sustenance of such a feat for future global missions. Leadership development is key to both organizational growth and continual relevance. 2 For any organization to experience a continued growing relevance in its domain of operation, it must take leadership development seriously to that most other Christians have considered to be highly unusual." 8 Thus, central to Pentecostal theology is the idea of four-fold "full Gospel" by which Christ is seen as Saviour, Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and Fire, Healer, and as the soon coming King. 9 One of the essential motifs of Pentecostalism is the prophethood of all believers. 10 As the priesthood of all believers extends to people of all races, colours and gender, so is prophethood for every Pentecostal Christian. Thus, any legitimate member of the church can be involved in its leadership development structure.
Due to emphasis on the operations of the Holy Spirit, encounter and kinaesthetic dimensions play a significant role in Pentecostalism. 11 Barrett affirms that the characteristics of Pentecostalism include the powerful and energizing ministry of the Holy Spirit and several other manifestations that individuals better transfer through experience than classroom qualification processes. 12 In this regard, the features of the Pentecostal faith help it fit in perfectly with the thinking system of African society. 13 Ogbu Kalu asserts that African Pentecostalism within and outside Pentecostal churches reflects the African quest for power and identity in religion, and despite the different strands noticeable, the society has many manifestations of their presence. 14 Structurally, the rapid growth experienced in Pentecostalism affected church polity and ecclesiology. Initially, the manifestation of charisma in all categories of members led to an egalitarian emphasis and "Pentecostal preference for charismatic-driven ecclesiology contests the hierarchical structures of the mission-founded churches." 15 Thus, Pentecostalism initially favours equality among members until around the 2000s, when there was a shift to a full-blown episcopacy that fosters authoritarian personality types. 16 This change implies that the evolvement of Pentecostalism as an organization affected its leadership culture. The culture evolved in response to "problems of external adaptation and internal integration," 17 which all must imbibe. So, leadership development ethos is also affected based on the way leadership is perceived.
While leadership structure varies with different churches concerning deviation from the initial egalitarian form, there are still common manifestations that have enhanced the formation of formidable advancement of missions by the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria. The apocalyptic pre-millennialist theology forms a strong foundation for this advancement. 18 It creates a passion for mission urgency toward the imminent return of Christ. To this end, the dynamic of the holistic gospel is channelled 19 along with spiritual manifestation through power evangelism. 20 Through these, Pentecostalism responds to the problem of spiritual warfare, which is a practical reality in Africa. They also make use of every available tool to get the message across, including the aggressive use of media to reach their remote audience. 21 This has made the Nigerian Pentecostal phenomenon a 'glocal' phenomenon, globalizing the local at the same time localizing 8 David B. Barrett, "The Twentieth-Century Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit, with Its Goal of World Evangelisation" International Bulletin of Missionary Research, vol. 12, No. 3 (July 1988): 124. 9 the global. For these dynamics to be preserved and the sustainability of global missions achieved, they must continuously be reproduced in the succeeding generations through appropriate leadership development.

MENTORING IN AFRICAN PENTECOSTALISM
Pentecostalism in Africa has employed mentoring to preserve its dynamics. This section discusses mentoring as an approach to leadership development and how the Pentecostal churches in Nigeria practise it. It begins with how mentoring serves the purpose of leadership development.

Mentoring in Leadership Development
Mentoring involves instructing or training an individual by example and assuming that the trainee has the leadership potential to take the organization to the next level. It develops in the potential leader the new skills they need for a broader outlook in the organization. 22 Through it, they have the opportunity of understanding and getting acquainted with the cultural environment of their organization and can cultivate their peculiar ways of handling issues toward the fulfilment of the organizational vision. 23 It is a tool for aiding individuals in transitioning to new roles to learn to fit in and experience higher job satisfaction and self-esteem. 24 This is possible because the mentee often does not see beyond their boundaries of life and work experience as the mentor who assists them "in the process of reflection to lead them to venture outside their normal patterns of choices and action." 25 Thus, the mentee is motivated to think proactively beyond their usual experience of life and work. Brewer further elucidates that, it is the first step required in an organizational leadership succession plan to maintain a leading position and move to the next level, stating that such a model is critical for achieving the highest possible result from the organizational human and other resources." 26 Effective leadership will put all available resources into efficient use.
On the efficient use of resources, Hasler's definition of leadership development points to three essential tasks. The first is to identify potential leadership talents, skills and characters in the individual. The second task is to subject such virtues to sharpening or developing according to organizational goals and patterns. In the third task, they provide an appropriate platform for the individual to operate the sharpened qualities. In mentoring, the second and third tasks run concurrently and in an interwoven manner: the mentor provides a challenging outlet for the mentee to practise the new skills. These two tasks are located in Holliday's three-phase mentoring process of observation, participation and conduct. 27 The mentee observes the mentor practise a task leading to possible questions for which the mentor provides answers or guides to widen the mentee's organizational and functional horizons. In the participation phase, they join the mentor to carry out specific tasks, first, serving as assistants to the mentor and later, playing a significant role while the mentor assists. In the third phase, they leave the competent mentee to practise alone.
The goal in mentoring is growth-oriented, 28 and the mentor focuses the attention of the mentee on the organizational culture to make them proactive in approaches to organizational tasks as they move towards expert status. 29 To this end, the mentor gives the mentee the authority and ownership over certain parts of the work, giving them freedom without overlooking their shoulders. 30 This is what Jesus practised with the disciples, and it makes the mentor feel like being on the mentee's side and making them willing to do the same for others. 31 For Pentecostalism, this means assigning specific ministerial tasks to the mentee.
Brewer declares that a successful mentoring process requires mutual attention, approval, acceptance, admiration and affirmation. 32 This implies that the duo must commit time and that neither can force the relationship on the other. There is a need for mutual trust and commitment, patient leadership, and emotional maturity. 33 Trust and commitment result from their spending time together to gain confidence. According to Hans Finzel, raising effective leaders requires "sustained and prolonged human contact between leader and follower. This is the kind of contact the apostle Paul practised." 34 Such togetherness goes beyond official time into their private moments of practical discussions, which may cover the fears of the upcoming leader. Patient leadership is necessary because mentoring is a long-time result-getting process for which the mentor needs to exercise caution when the desired expectation seems slow.
To reach the goal of mentoring, namely, competent leadership formation, Holliday proposes seven critical steps for the mentor. 35 These are: 1. They must understand their tasks within the organization. For the Pentecostal movements, this means understanding their roles as God's stewards and the custodians of the Pentecostal heritage in its pure form to equip the upcoming generation adequately. 2. They must know their organization so well that they can motivate their followers and the would-be successor to keep the organizational heritage and focus. 3. They must have adequate knowledge of their mentees. This includes knowing their talents and gifts, personal traits, family and experiential backgrounds. For effective mentoring, it is critical to understand the traits of the incoming generation and how they fit well into the future leadership of the church. 36 4. They must learn the required skills in teaching adult learners. 5. They must give themselves to other areas of learning to become special blessings to the one they are mentoring. 6. They must learn patience in dealing with the upcoming potential leader who may be of the stock of the coming generation whose worldviews are different from theirs, and for which they may even adjudge the mentor to be below their standard. Mentoring involves risk-taking as the mentor would need to assign demanding tasks to the mentee for his growth. Also, the mentor must learn to celebrate the successes of their mentee by letting them know that they are proud of their progress. 7. They must encourage the mentee also to mentor others to make the cycle a complete one. These have made organizational virtues of being preserved across generations. Aderounmu's description of the Jewish training system in the Old Testament with Shema (Deut. 6:4-9) as a form of indigenous education has the element of mentoring. She asserts that instruction is given in a small unit so that the trainer may have an opportunity for a one-on-one relationship. 39 In the history of Pentecostalism, the relationship between Charles F. Parham and W. F. Carothers is like the mentor-mentee relationship. Carothers, a local minister in Houston, Texas, opened his school for Parham, who had come with Pentecostalism from Topeka, Kansas. The outcome was the mentoring of their black convert and mentee, William J. Seymour. They became instrumental in the historic Azusa revival in Los Angeles, which continued until it became an international phenomenon, spreading to Germany, India, Latin America, Chile, Brazil, and Africa. 40 In Nigeria, mentoring is noticeable among contemporary Pentecostals. Israel Olofinjana reveals that Benson Idahosa, a foremost Pentecostal minister and first African Pentecostal Bishop, had this mentoring experience. According to him, apart from first serving under Pastor Okpo of the Assemblies of God church, where he became a Christian, he was further mentored by S. G. Elton, who also introduced him to the famous healing evangelists Gordon and Freda Lindsay. 41 Further, the lives of David Oyedepo, Ayo Oritsejafor, Nicolas Duncan-Williams, Wale Oke and Mike Okonkwo, amongst others, reflect his mentoring impact. 42 How this mentoring network has continued is the focus of the next section.

Mentoring Practices in African Pentecostalism
For historical reasons, three strands of contemporary African Pentecostalism are present in Nigeria. Practically, they blend across one another. The first type includes churches like Four Square Gospel Church, Faith Tabernacle, the Apostolic Church and the Assemblies of God that resulted from the direct efforts of the Western Pentecostal missions. 43 The second category includes Church of God Missions, the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Gospel Faith Mission. They were not direct results of the Western Pentecostal missions but had resemblance with them through contacts with Western Pentecostal persons, literature and activities. 44 The African Initiated Churches (AICs) are in the third category, including the Christ Apostolic Church, Cherubim and Seraphim Movement and the Celestial Church of Christ. They have no link with Western Pentecostalism. 45 Irrespective of classifications, these churches have preserved the seed of Pentecostalism. This section discusses three of the ways they have achieved this.

Aggressive Incorporation Programme
The sense of urgency that results from the apocalyptic pre-millennialist theology did not only lead to their passion for missions. They sensed the same urgency in their pursuit of follow-up practices. For instance, the Deeper Life Bible Church is known for its immediate and persistent actions. As a church, "the follow-up/ visitation team is the arm of the church dedicated to seeing to the spiritual and physical welfare of church members, converts and our guests. They base this ministry on Isaiah 50:4; Acts 2:46-47, 2 Timothy 2:2 and Matthew 28:20." 46 They set up the ministry to ensure effective retention through adequate care and support. Observably, they often visit new believers or guests within forty-eight hours of their worship attendance. This passionate pursuit to incorporate members is the preliminary step that leads to mentoring. One of the factors responsible for the rapid growth of Deeper Life Church is what they call leadership training that results in reproduction such that "after three months new converts begin training to become leaders. All cell group leaders receive weekly training. There is also specialized training for top leadership". 47 Thus, an intensive mentoring programme starts almost immediately, and they expect the new member to start mentoring others soon.
One sign of an aggressive incorporation programme in Living Faith Church that leads to a mentoring relationship is immediate baptism. This writer observes that the church does not delay the baptism of the new believers; believers are to be baptized the same Sunday, after the worship service. The new believers undergo a series of other teachings that takes them through different roles in the church. The Living Faith Church, Warri, further states that those who desire Water baptism must pass through what they call Winning Foundation School based on the ministry book, Walking in the Newness of Life, authored by presiding bishop of the church, David Oyedepo. 48 In addition to serving the retention purpose, these exercises build every member on a firm foundation upon which Pentecostal faith stands. Thom Rainer's church research asserts that membership retention is critical to church growth. He identified four principles of membership assimilation and retention: a sense of expectation of prospective members; early ministry involvement; strong relationship; and small-group involvement. 49 This is what most Pentecostals achieve through their aggressive assimilation programmes. The effect is a commensurate growth that supersedes other churches that do not embark on such programmes.
A serious concern with the Pentecostal approach to incorporation is the fear that the new believers may not be grounded in the faith. For instance, the non-Pentecostals want to ensure that the new converts are "truly saved" before they baptize and regard them as members. The Pentecostals hold to the order in the Great Commission verse (Matthew 28: [19][20] and biblical examples in the book of Acts, where new believers are baptized immediately for the practice. Further, a sound Christian education programme is usually practised by some to deal with such a challenge.

Continuous Contextualized Christian Education
Inculturation, modelled after enculturation, is the "incarnation of Christian life and of the Christian message in a particular cultural context." 50 This means integrating the values, ideals and teachings of the faith into the root of the culture. In this case, Pentecostalism's values, heritage, ideals, and teachings are core in the training or leadership development of the African Pentecostal church. It is about the indigenous ways of passing the core values of the society or group from one generation to the next because it is "the path and process whereby individuals gain knowledge and meaning from their indigenous heritages." 51 The effective transference of the phenomenon of Pentecostalism is not limited to the impartation of any of the core values, assumptions, beliefs, and practices; it must be all these. This agrees with Hasler's emphasis on both internal, which corresponds to the organizational values, and external, specific practices. They do this in the form of apprenticeships.
Apprenticeship is a common practice among Nigerian Pentecostals. Through the follow-up and basic training of the Pentecostal church, individual members can move from one role to the other as they identify their respective potentials. Identification of new potentials usually leads to exposure of such members to a higher challenge. It is commonplace to see Pentecostal ministers with some of their members as bodyguards and assistants during their ministrations. For instance, they begin to learn how to conduct deliverance as they participate with the leading minister in such a process. They usually discover their mentee's level of competence by exposing them to Pentecostal ministry opportunities like preaching, counselling and exorcism, as they move from one stage to another. Churches like the Redeemed Christian Church of God usually operate leadership by promotion from one stage to another such as from minister to Parish pastor to Area pastor, to Zonal pastor before getting to the provincial level. A critical challenge of apprenticeship in African Pentecostalism is the tendency to engage in certain traditions without adequate knowledge of their biblical basis. For instance, some Pentecostals have misconstrued the use of the bell in calling attention during prayer as a tool that must be present for prayer to be effective. This portends a great danger to Christianity in Africa because the leader may have done such out of ignorance, weakness or other personal reasons that may be different from the trainee's situation. Thus, the trainees exposure to practical situations requires a balance with commensurate biblical knowledge that supports such modes of operations.
Today, some Pentecostals have a contextualized form of Bible schools and schools of ministry. Observations in Nigeria show that such schools usually combine the regular curriculum of seminary education with a practical apprenticeship. Thus, they always have times in their schedules when seasoned Pentecostal ministers will minister while the upcoming leaders may watch. An excellent example of this is the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Seminary, a merger of the Bible Training College, School of Prophets and the Pastors' Institutes. 52 The idea is to harmonize both the doctrines and the training practice and include each minister's mentoring from a senior pastor.
As effective and efficient contextualized mentoring may be in sustaining the seed and impacts of Nigerian Pentecostalism, it has the challenges of nepotism and unhealthy rivalry among members with potential for specific new roles. Recently, two pastors of one of the renowned Pentecostal churches in Nigeria were lamenting on separate occasions for being denied their rights to the next level in the pastorate of their church due to favouritism which may be due to biases of ethnicity, relationship or ministry styles. Some churches have also witnessed division for this reason. It is one factor that leads to unhealthy competition and rivalry among mentees of the same mentor. Such practices hinder the spirit and mission of Pentecostalism. Also, John F. Carter declares that power is a household name in Pentecostalism: this refers to both the Holy Spirit's power and the leader's power. According to him, human power may be wrongly used or held unnecessarily, 53 especially since polity in Pentecostalism has shifted from egalitarianism to Episcopalianism. This dangerous trend makes the leader with the "sit tight" syndrome or nepotic mindset to misuse power.
Emphasizing the concept of servant leadership from the incorporation stage is an excellent strategy to ameliorate the challenges of competition and nepotism proactively. Every member knows that "spiritual authority is that characteristic of a God-anointed leader developed upon an experiential power base which enables a leader to influence followers through persuasion force of modelling, and moral expertise." 54 The mindset of servant leadership will enhance the proper exercise of authority. More so, Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby suggest the need to intensify teachings on the understanding of leadership in terms of character and service and the sovereignty of God in appointing leaders to positions of authority. 55 This would make them pursue service rather than position. 52 "Christ Apostolic Church." Accessed May 31, 2019. https://www.cacworldwideonline.org/cac_seminary.html 53 John F. Carter, "Power and Authority in Pentecostal Leadership" Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, vol. 12, No. 2 (2009): 185-186. 54 Carter, "Power and Authority in Pentecostal Leadership," 202. 55 Blackaby and Blackaby,Spiritual Leadership,[53][54][55][56][57][58]

Extensive Use of Media
Media has become a potent tool for remote mentoring in the contemporary Nigerian Pentecostal experience. Observation shows that the Nigerian Pentecostals have put various media platforms to appropriate use, like their counterparts globally. Four prominent media categories among the Nigerian Pentecostals include print media, satellite, audio-visual, and social media.
Deeper Life Church is a proper example of the Nigerian Pentecostal church that uses print, satellite and audio-visual media. The use of audio cassettes between the 1980s and 1990s has an excellent impact in mentoring the church members to the extent that the majority of Deeper Life Church members speak like the General Superintendent, Pastor William F. Kumuyi. In the use of satellite technology, most of their assemblies, including those in rural areas, have satellite dishes installed for them to be able to connect to the headquarters for Pastor Kumuyi's Bible studies, evangelistic campaigns and other messages. On the print media, Deeper Life is reputable for Life Press Limited, formerly known as Zoe Publishing and Printing Limited, established in 1979. 56 Apart from the popular Christian Women Mirror, they have several publications on salvation, evangelism, marriage, holiness, healing and deliverance.
Social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, are other versatile tools for mentoring in the Nigerian Pentecostal environment. These platforms are youth-focused; they help in building the next generation through virtual communities. 57 Most Nigerian youths find it easy to follow their personal and remote pastors on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Enoch Adeboye, Tunde Bakare, David Oyedepo, Poju Oyemade, Bolaji Idowu, Paul Adefarasin and Sam Adeyemi are prominent on the list of Pentecostal ministers that have followers on these social media platforms. 58 They are remote means of mentoring their followers and impacting their admirers.
These media tools have a way of getting both the message and the spirit of Pentecostalism directly to the grassroots in such a way that they are preserved by those close to the top and those beyond their geographical reach. The implication is that they minimize physical barriers to gospel dissemination to reach more people with the gospel simultaneously, irrespective of their location, as long as they have connections with the media source. This is a boost to the Great Commission.
As boosting as media can be to the Great Commission task, there are also associated challenges. Two of these challenges include the possible distraction and hero worship. The internet has lots of materials that can lure young believers away into things that contradict the message and the spirit of Pentecostalism. Sometimes, many youths browse the internet and watch Facebook or YouTube during the worship experience. Thus, the tendency of switching to other pages while following their mentor on social media is a great possibility. Hero worship may result from listening to the same person across these media platforms, such that younger pastors from the same church are considered inferior to the senior pastor. A way out of such a dilemma is the continuous consciousness that leadership moves people to God's agenda. 59 This will make them ensure a continual dependence on the Spirit of God, with the awareness that both the mentor and mentee know the importance of working for God's agenda rather than man's. 60 This may also involve a constant prayerful revisit of the Biblical foundations and Pentecostal dynamics upon which the church or agency is established through the church's educational ministry.