Regent University College of Science & Technology

The Centre seeks to study, document, and publicise the life, faith and history of the Pentecostalism-charismatic movement in Africa in relation to its past and immediate setting and to the historic Christian faith. It also seeks to serve as a resource and advisory centre for high level leadership training, primarily for those within the Pentecostal-charismatic tradition.

The need for a research centre which will study and document the life, faith and history of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement in Ghana in relation to its past and immediate setting and to the historic Christian faith was conceived by Dr. E. Kingsley Larbi when he was doing his doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh between 1991 and 1995. Before he concluded his research in 1995 it had become abundantly clear that the activities of such a centre will be incomplete without addressing the training needs of the leaders of the movement. Thus, the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies was conceived, from its inception, as a research, documentation and educational resource centre. It was subsequently registered as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179) on 20th September, 2000, with registration no. G.6, 741.
With this move and the burgeoning of Charismatic-Pentecostal Studies, the vision of the center has broadened as a research center that will mobilize scholars and encourage research on the various manifestations of the movement all over Africa. The Center will continue to serve as a research, documentation, and educational resource centre for pastors, Church leaders, and scholars within Ghana and around the globe. To fulfill its aims and objectives, it will work in collaboration with other research centers and scholars globally. It will mobilize African scholars working at home and abroad to engage in in-depth research, data storage and retrieval and publications. As a hub, the Center will achieve this by providing space for scholars to interact with others, to write during sabbatical leave, and to facilitate dialogue and collaborative and interdisciplinary research. The Center shall hold conferences, postgraduate seminars, book presentations and public lectures. It will function as an integral unit within the Regent University College of Science and Technology (RUCST). It will work in close collaboration with the University College in the fulfillment of its aims and objectives.
The Center has in the past published some few editions of a Newsletter/Bulletin. It intends to revive this publication and also publish its own journal in the not-too-distant future. It is also initiating steps that will lead to the establishment of African Society for Pentecostal Studies which will work in collaboration with other regional and global bodies.

Activities of the Centre
The activities or Objects of the Centre may thus be summarized as follows:

Evangelical Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana in particular and Africa in general is under-researched. Whereas the movement emerged in Ghana around 1920, as of 1993 only two articles and one book had been written on certain aspects of the movement in Ghana. This is a real deficiency since lack of available data on the movement often means they are misrepresented, or they are not accorded their proper significance. Since these initial findings about two decades ago, the trend appears to be changing gradually.

Ground-breaking doctoral research on the Origins and development of Ghanaian Pentecostalism, done at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World. New College, Edinburgh.

The Establishment of Studies in African Pentecostal Christianity Series (SAPC) for publication of scholarly work relating to the movement. The series are designed to study the Pentecostal-charismatic strand of Christianity in Africa in relation to historic Christianity. The ultimate aim of the series is to “Know the history, theology and impact of the Pentecostal movement better and to make it better known.”

The publication of my doctoral dissertation revised and reworked under the title: Pentecostalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity, as SAPC series no.1.

The Publication of the maiden editions of the quarterly magazine of CPCS.

Only a handful of the first generation Pentecostals in Ghana are alive. There are some valuable information and documents on the movement in the hands of certain individuals and churches. Unless serious efforts are made to retrieve and document them, they will forever be lost. The Centre’s research interests are meant to rectify this situation. The Centre will thus maintain, state-of-the-art library to contain the holdings and archival materials on the movement to aid the study of the movement in Ghana in particular, and Africa in general.

The Centre’s educational activities will help in the training of well-grounded and devout theologians, researchers, writers and seasoned pastors who will meet the challenges of our time and serve as positive influence in our society. In the past, scholarship grants from the West have gone almost exclusively to the training of the leadership of the historic Protestant churches. The Centre will use its information bank to help the leadership of the Pentecostal denominations to locate the agencies who will help train highly qualified leaders for these churches. The centre will arrange with the appropriate institutions to offer to high-level training programmes in the country. It will also provide information on high-level training institutions where relevant theological and other studies can be pursued. In addition, it will advise on curriculum establishment of the Bible-based tertiary institutions. To this end, the Centre, will:

In conjunction with Regent University College of Science and Technology, Ghana, and any other institutions to organize and or facilitate the pursuit of undergraduate, and postgraduate degree programmes in the area of Pentecostal studies.
Organize conferences, lectureships, seminars, and round-tables that will focus on Pentecostal-charismatic scholarship and contemporary issues facing the movement on the continent.
Facilitate research and teaching activities relating to the movement in contemporary African society.

As the first Ghanaian Pentecostal minister to earn an academic doctorate in theological studies, the Director has made a personal commitment to champion Pentecostal scholarship among classic and neo-Pentecostals on the continent in order to enhance the academic dimension of the movement in Africa. He is committed to do this through:

The raising of other Pentecostal scholars to engage in teaching at the tertiary level, documentation research, writing and publication;
The publication of books and other materials which will further the cause of the Pentecostal movement in particular and evangelical Christianity in general.
The Provision of advisory services on curriculum development, accreditation procedures, and the establishment of Pentecostal-related tertiary institutions.
Working in partnership with like-minded agencies in the sharing of resources, expertise, and experience in the fulfillment of the above.