
Multitudes and Solitude: The Idiosyncratic Response of the Qodesh Family Church (QFC)
Issue: Vol.10 No. 5 May 2024 Issue Article 3 pp.147-157
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241053| Published online 3rd May, 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Social media is inundated with grievances lodged by some members of Ghanaian megachurches who express feelings of neglect. In numerous instances, however, an analysis of the issues indicates that the complainants were either entirely oblivious to the internal mechanisms the church employs to prevent such incidents or did not utilise them. Therefore, using both empirical and secondary data, the research investigated how the Qodesh (QFC), a microcosm of Ghanaian megachurches, addresses the issue. The findings revealed that the megachurch is aware of this problem and uses its membership process and subgroups, such as the various ministries in the church and the cell system, to address it. Consequently, the study recommended that members must cooperate with the church when going through the membership process, choose active participation in the various subgroups in the church over self-isolation, and educate themselves on the QFC’s megachurch concept by reading books published by their leaders on the topic. The study contributes to the discourse on how Ghanaian megachurches address depersonalisation.
Keywords: Ghanaian Megachurches, Home Cell System, The Qodesh, Multitudes and Solitude
Heward-Mills, Dag. “Apostle, Prophet, Healing Evangelist, Pastor, and Author,” 2024. https://www.daghewardmills.org/about-dag-heward-mills/.
Gharbin, Godibert K., and Ernest van Eck. “Solitude in the Multitude: A Christological Response to Loneliness in the Akan Community of God.” Verbum et Ecclesia 44, no. 1 (May 25, 2023). https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v44i1.2771.
Gifford, Paul. Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy. London: C. Hurst and Co. Ltd., 2004.
Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “Megachurches,” 2024. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches.html.
Heward-Mills, Dag. Transform Your Pastoral Ministry. Accra: Parchment House, 2001.
_______.“Apostle, Prophet, Healing Evangelist, Pastor, and Author,” 2024. https://www.daghewardmills.org/about-dag-heward-mills/.
———. Catch the Anointing. Accra: Parchment House, 2000.
———. Church Growth…It Is Possible. Accra: Parchment House, 2010.
———. “First Love Church ,” 2024. https://www.firstlovecenter.com/.
———. The Mega Church: How to Make Your Church Grow. 2nd ed. Accra: Parchment House Publishers, 2011.
Kalu, Ogbu. African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. “The Pentecostal Understanding of Mission .” In Pentecostalism and World Mission, edited by Wonsuk Ma, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, and J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, 26–44. Oxford: Regnum, 2014.
King, Kendra. African American Politics. Cambridge-Malden: Polity Press, 2010.
Koch, Richard. The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less. Doubleday, New York: Currency, 2011.
Larbi, Emmanuel Kingsley. Pentecostalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity. Vol. 1. CPCS, 2001.
Nterful, Emmanuel Louis. “Church Expansion through Church Planting in Ghana: A Case Study of the Lighthouse Chapel International Model.” North-West University and Greenwich School of Theology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/11924.
______. “ Early History of Dag Heward-Mills, Founder of Lighthouse Chapel International, a Charismatic Denomination in Ghana.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 4, no. 1 (2018): 173–82.
———. “The Lighthouse Chapel International, Its Growth from 1988-2013.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 5, no. 1 (2019): 44.
______. The Cell System: Following God’s Pattern to Grow Loving, Caring, Healthy and Growing Churches which Keep on Growing. Accra: Parchment House Publishers, 2020.
Rakestraw, Charity. “Seeking Souls, Selling Salvation: A History of the Modern Megachurch.” In Handbook of Megachurches, edited by Stephen Hunt, 23–42. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2020.
Thumma, Scott. “Exploring the Megachurch Phenomena: Their Characteristics and Cultural Context.” Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Accessed February 16, 2024. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article2.html.
UDACI. “United Denominations of Action Chapel International.” Accessed February 10, 2024. https://actionchapel.net/.
Yonggi Cho, David and Harold Hostetler. Successful Home Cell Groups. South Plainfield, New Jersey: Bridge Publishing Inc., 1981.
Isaac Boaheng holds a PhD in Theology from the University of the Free State, South Africa. He is a Senior Lecturer in Theology and Christian Ethics at the Christian Service University College, Ghana, and a Research Fellow at the Department of Biblical and Religion Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa.
Ebenezer Asibu-Dadzie Jnr. is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church Ghana who is currently pursuing his doctoral studies. His research interest lies in Biblical Studies, Translation Studies, African Christianity and Practical Theology with emphasis on the African context.
Gharbin, Godibert Kelly. “Multitudes and Solitude: The Idiosyncratic Response of the Qodesh Family Church (QFC),” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 10 no.5 (2024): 147-157. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241053
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Featured
The Hidden Bones Apocalypse: The Marker, Its Message, and their Hiddenness
The Groaning of Creation (Romans 8:19-22) and the Ecological Devastation of the Niger Delta, Nigeria
Evangelisation of all Creation: An Analysis of the Neglected Target Group of Mark 16:15
The Hidden Bones Apocalypse: The Marker, Its Message, and their Hiddenness
Others