Browsing by Author "Gyasi, Charles"

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    Responses of African Pentecostal churches to African refugees in Düsseldorf between 2015 and 2020 : a case study of mission and migration
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Gyasi, Charles; Simon, David Xolile; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study presents the African Pentecostal Churches’ (APCs’) response to the plight of African refugees in Düsseldorf, Germany, between 2015 and 2020. The APCs’ response reveals their understanding of compassionate mission, appreciation of identity as a context for mission, and integration of African refugees and asylum seekers. Approximately one in seven people migrate daily. An estimated figure of over eighty million people have become displaced globally as of 2020. Migrant churches in Europe have become a context for receiving refugees and immigrants from their continents. APCs in most cases are the greater beneficiaries from the arrival of African refugees and migrants in Düsseldorf. They also share similar cultural and social identities with the refugees and immigrants. Twenty-four (24) research participants (four APC leaders and 20 African refugees/asylum seekers) were selected through non-probability sampling for this case study. Data were collected through semi-structured online interviews and examination of written church documents on social action. The data collected were thematically analysed. This experiential research explores the question: “How have APCs responded to the situation of African refugees in Düsseldorf between 2015 and 2020?” Some key findings are that African refugees and asylum seekers have pressing needs such as language skills, basic legal orientation, emotional therapy/counselling, accommodation, employment/financial, and prayer support. APC leaders see themselves as missionaries sent by God to carry out mission in the research field; however, their response to the refugee crisis lacks proactivity and compassion. APCs serve as a context for reception and integration of African refugees and asylum seekers. There is a lack of written social action policy within the APCs in Düsseldorf. What they have are welfare policies. There is also a lack of public advocacy on behalf of African refugees and asylum seekers. Furthermore, voluntarism is a paradigm for mission in the research context. Additionally, African refugees and asylum seekers confessed to the use of creative survival tactics, many of which are in conflict with their faith as Christians. APCs and African refugees see prayer as fundamental to their survival. Government sponsored welfare schemes, integration programmes, the activities of NGOs, previous negative experiences with African refugees, financial challenges, and non-registration of some APCs weakened their ability to offer a compassionate response. The APCs’ response suggests that the relationship between privileged and vulnerable African minority groups requires compassion and structure. African refugees however see the church not only as a place of prayer and spiritual formation but as a family, and a place that facilitates their integration. Thus, this research makes a case for the importance of identity to mission and the integration of Africans in the research area. Several recommendations are made to provide different perspectives to the issues of mission, migration, and integration. The study provides primary data for discussions in the area of mission and migration; makes a case for a contextual definition of African Pentecostal Christianity; highlights the importance of the prosperity gospel in Africa; and constructs a diagram to depict compassionate mission based on the universal interpretation approach of Matthew 25:31-46 as its original contribution to knowledge.