The Church of Pentecost Edmonton Assembly - Essay Example

?Community Community The Church of Pentecost Edmonton assembly is seen to be an attribute and interest community. According to Brown & Hamis (2012) attribute community as a group or a collection of people have common and important attributes such as religion, race, gender, or socio economic binding. On the other hand, an interest community is one which describes a group of people who gather due to a common interest or a certain concern that needs to be addressed. The Church of Pentecost Edmonton is a church in Ghana hence the community here is largely Ghanian people. The boundaries of joining the community of the church are clearly defined in the church’s website. There are both adult, youth and children members of the church. First and foremost, one must be 13 years and above, then s/he must have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior and finally he should have been baptized by immersion in water in Jesus name. Thus, if all of these requirements are met, the person becomes an Adult Member of the church (Brown & Harris, 2012). To be extended the Right Hand of Fellowship as a full member of the church, certain conditions must be met. These conditions include: Confessing publicly that Jesus Christ is a personal savior, baptism by immersion and undergoing a period of teaching (New Convert's classes) (Brown & Harris, 2012). There are multiple ministries within the community to cater for smaller groups. These are; the children ministry, youth ministry, women’s ministry, men’s ministry and evangelism ministry. Members of the church are part of ministry category they are in. The challenge one can experience after joining this community is the issue of race because this community is predominantly Africans. Even though the church has got clear guidelines that enable one to seek membership of the congregation, some things were left out. This is why the writer found himself conspicuous amongst the community based on his race. We see that the longer the writer stayed in this community, the clearer the boundaries become. Different members of the community had different opinions regarding the writer. Some members ignored his race and welcomed him to the community while some rejected him as they felt he did not belong to their community. From the writer’s encounter in the community, something that comes out clear is that the issue of race is not defined in the written boundaries of the church. Therefore the church needs to revise its boundary conditions. History of the Community The Pentecost Church community, Edmonton, is a section of the larger international community. The origin of Pentecost Church is located in Accra, Ghana. The Church of Pentecost Canada is a branch of The Church of Pentecost International with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana. The Pentecost Church began in 1937 in Accra, Ghana, when Rev. James McKeown, the British missionary began his ministry in Ghana with the intention of helping a group of people who had been a part of the Apostolic Faith lead by Newman Amin. The Pentecost Church began their ministries in Asamankese. They split up in 1939 because of their differences in beliefs on divine healing. As a result, two entities were created; the Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church Gold Coast. Gold Coast Apostolic Church was established in 1953 as a result of a constitutional crisis with Pastor James Mckeown as its leader. When Ghana obtained independence in 1957, the Gold Coast Apostolic Church was renamed to the Ghana Apostolic Church. Due to tensions of 1953 being unsettled, the then President of The Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Dr. Kwame Nkrumah offered solution to the Ghana Apostolic Church to change its name so that peace can prevail (The church of Edmonton Assembly, 2012). Therefore, on August 1, 1962 the church was renamed to The Church of Pentecost. This church is presently in more than 84 countries on earth with more than 2.1 million followers and about 15,805 local churches. According to the Pentecost International, 2013, par. 1-6, the President of the Church is Apostle Dr. OpokuOnyinah. Since the appearance of The Pentecost Church of Canada in Toronto, Ontario in 1990, there have been local churches all over the provinces. The Pentecost Church of Canada has a “total membership of 4162 comprising of 2,364 adults, 884 teens, and 914 children” as of December 2012 (Brown & Harris, 2012). The current church, The Church of Pentecost Edmonton, started in 2003 by a group of university students. It was a group of students until after 2005 when people from outside the students’ fraternity started joining the church community giving it a reasonable population. Therefore, it transformed from a community of students to a community of professionals and young families. As much there are other members are involved in the community, its ministries and other aspects, most of them are still university students mainly taking Masters or PhD level faculties. Demographics of the Community The demography of the Church as we view its International Community is summarized as per chart below. The chart was structured in 2011. Total Membership Worldwide 2,102,543 Membership in Ghana 1,810,056 Number of Congregations Worldwide  15,805 Number of Congregations in Ghana  12,328 Number of Basic Schools 96 Number of Senior Secondary Schools 6 University College 1 Hospitals / Clinics 7 Number of Countries 84 (Brown & Harris, 2012) The Edmonton community is still young with most of its population at the ages of 18-40 years. Through interviews, the writer found out that there many families with children who attend the church and the estimation goes to around 200 members. Every Sunday the children’s ministry gets an average of 20-35 children members. The whole of the community congregate harmoniously without prejudice. The old, the young, men and women, the poor and the rich and other types of people not mentioned are part of this community. Assessment of Social Capital This community is not yet fully developed therefore it is not functioning as a church fully. The members who have stayed long enough are well conversant with the socialization events. As quoted, the socialization function is “met through the process of transmitting to members prevailing knowledge, social values, and behavior patterns” (Brown & Hamis, 2012). New members to the community can have challenges in their first times as they try to incorporate into the social values and other aspects of socialization of the community even those from the International Community, especially those who are not Ghanians. As quoted, social control is “met by communities that ensure conformity to group norms.” (Brown & Hamis 2012).This shows that the predominant members of the community have performed well with regard to social control. They dress in traditional clothing, understand and participate in church activities and they speak in their vernaculars. According to Brown & Hamis (2012) social participation is usually met through providing opportunities for the members to interact amongst themselves and also participate in co-operative activities hence the community encourages social participation. These values of socialization and social control enhance integration and unity of the community and it's an emphasis rooted to every member. There many ways in which members interact with each other, such as during the church service, other church events like weddings, death, birth, graduations, thanksgiving and fund raising. These are all opportunities of engaging with each other physically, emotionally and spiritually. Since The Pentecost Church of Edmonton has an international community as well as a local community, interactions take place with the Calgary and Lath bridge community in holding annual events where the elders and pastors from the local communities in Alberta visit a number of churches all through in a year (The church of Edmonton Assembly, 2012). Different ministries within the Edmonton community usually take turns in hosting services and fellowships on Sundays. In order to also interact with the international community, Edmonton supports mission trips and its members normally attend international events. In addition, the church also contributes to other communities in the vicinity of Edmonton, for example the Hope Mission. Contribution to the larger community of Edmonton is an obligation as termed by the members of the church and the youths are the organizers of these events. Assets and Power Relations within the Community Power relations within this community are well structured. Those who are always involved in the activities of the church and also contribute a lot to the church in general and its functions usually earn more respect and are held in high regard as compared to others. Other powerful members are the financial sponsors of the church. The activities of the church revolve around them. If money is given tax receipt offers are given to the contributors. It is said that old is gold and the older one becomes the wiser they become, therefore, those who are called elders or deacon are also respected members of this community. The social assets of the community include the mutual feeling of togetherness as a community and also the feeling of being part of a larger community. The community is currently building a new church. This building will be a show of their physical development and that they are still in transition and structures are on the way (The church of Edmonton Assembly, 2012). Strengths and Areas of Growth within the Community The writer acknowledges that throughout his stay with the community, he found out from the members that their strengths are within the larger community and fellowships that they normally carry out. Although members have different opinions about their strength, but many agree that it’s the fellowships that keep them stronger. Some attributed their strength to the ability of coming together in times of need hence putting their differences aside and being there for one another keeps them going strong. The writer says that when he came to this community as an outsider, most people welcomed him. He faced challenges in that he did not know anything about the events of the community and therefore he had difficulty in figuring out the protocol of the community. But because practice makes perfect, after attending the church services for about one month, he become conversant with them after explanations and gathering of information from the members. From the youth meeting that he also attended including bible studies, he found out that there is a struggle in the solidarity of the youth ministry because not all the youths who are members attend regularly and also the youth ministry is under new leadership. This shows that the youths don’t concur with the existing leadership. During the service, the youths seemed disengaged. They spent most time during the services operating their cell phones while the leaders spend most time in prayers. So one of the major problems they are trying to overcome is trying to cater for the interests of the youth and hence agree on the flow of the service (Edmonton & Calgary live music concert invitation, 2012). On the writer’s view, he thinks that the youth should be involved in decision making on how the youth ministry should be organized and also solely carry out its functions. In this community, the leadership structure is the top-down type where the church leaders lead the community and others follow. Such leadership is detrimental because all the interests of the community are not well catered for. This is because no ordinary member is involved in decision making on issues affecting the church community. Current Issues within the Community The main issues that The Edmonton Church is currently facing as identified by the community members are the process of constructing and acquiring a new building and also the solidarity of members of the youth ministry. The problem with the youth is the irregularity of their attendance and the new leadership as earlier highlighted. Some of the youth complain about the new leadership and the ways in which it runs the youth meetings. To avert this problem, the writer suggests that the meeting need to be relevant to the youth besides being interactive. On the side of the church, it has assigned a pastor to be attending the youth ministry, who usually meet on Wednesday evenings, to encourage attendance. The problem that is arising on the construction and acquisition of the new building is a financial problem. The community still requires an outstanding $47,000 to complete the new building. They are therefore planning to hold various fund raisings in the next few months to collect the money since the members of the community can only contribute a portion to the new building. After the building is completed, there will also be the issue of maintenance which will also incur some costs (The church of Edmonton Assembly, 2012). As a social worker who came into the community as an outsider, there are many roles to play in order to help solve the problems of this community. The first step to take is, take time understanding the community in the following aspects; population, beliefs, socioeconomic activities and problems facing the community. Then it will be advisable to identify yourself to the community by explaining to them your role in order to avoid the problems that the writer faced when he first entered the community. This will enable the members view you in a manner in which even if you are not one of them but you have an agenda of helping the community. Therefore, you will have minimized the chances of rejection (Brown & Hannis, 2012). From personal observation you will realize that there is no solidarity in the youth ministry, the social worker has to identify the source of the problem and help the community solve it. In a gradual process, the worker will begin by organizing the youth functions in a manner that is interactive and tackling issues that are relevant to the youth rather spend most of time praying. Involving the youth in decision making will be another step forward because they will be able to express their concerns. Since the community is a top-down structure, the social worker will act as negotiator between the youth and leaders of the church. On the issue of finance that is needed to complete the new building, the social worker will convince the community about the need by the communities to engage in economic activities based on their socioeconomic activities, in order to raise more funds besides fundraising. Such activities can be growing cash crops or opening retail shops. In this manner, the social worker will have played a big role in helping the community socially and economically. More so, the church has a well organized choir and praise team which is crucial especially in delivery of services. This has been boosted by incorporation of Canada music in the church services (Edmonton & Calgary live music concert invitation, 2012). Reference Brown, J. & Hannis, D. (2012). Community development in Canada. New York: Yale Publishers. Edmonton & Calgary live music concert invitation. (2012). Kwaku Gyasi, at the church of Pentecostal, Edmonton and Calgary, Canada music. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYvjNqnpS9Y The church of Edmonton Assembly. (2012). Tenets (Statement of faith). Retrieved from http://pentecostedmonton.com/about_us/tenets The church of Edmonton Assembly. (2012). Upcoming activity. Retrieved from http://pentecostedmonton.com/events Read More