Abstract
This argument put forward here, is that the current practice of selling sacred products and consulting prophets in Neo-Pentecostal churches benefits only pastors and their families. The practice makes some prophets or leaders super-rich, whereas many of their congregants continue to live in poverty. This chapter explores the possibility of making Neo-Pentecostal churches places of community empowerment. Here, community empowerment is theorised as a concept that can assist congregants to discover their agency, so that they can stand up for their rights and demand a change in their conditions, without relying on prophets who tell them to give more money before God can intervene. Community empowerment is a concept that allows individuals to be self-sustaining through the use of their own talents and gifts. Furthermore, such empowerment can assist congregants through knowledge of business-related and other basic skills. Using a literature review, the aim is to demonstrate that community empowerment has the ability to raise up others, rather than merely allowing the self-enrichment of prophets. To that end, secondary data was mined to try to understand the extent of community empowerment in Neo-Pentecostal churches.
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Boshielo, M. (2023). Community Empowerment Versus Individual Success among Neo-Pentecostal Pastors in South Africa. In: Kgatle, M.S., Thinane, J.S., Kaunda, C.J. (eds) Commercialisation of Religion in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41837-2_11
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