The global spread of Pentecostalism is a striking example of the dynamism of the Christian faith, with millions converted to a Pentecostal denomination around the world. This was the thrust of a study by a postgraduate doctoral student of University of Chicago, United States of America, Daniel Sonnenstuhl. He is being hosted by Prof Evans Osabuohien, Founding Chair of DIaDeRC (DePECOS Institutions and Development Research Centre) and the Coordinator of the African Scholars Mentorship Network (ASMN) where he has been featured as a facilitator in one of the Series.
Laying the framework of his study on the ‘Determinants and Implications of Pentecostal Movement in Africa: Evidence from Nigeria, Sonnenstuhl said the proprietor-base of Covenant University has consistently attracted worshippers for reasons not limited to religious activities and agency, mental health and as avenue for labour supply and income, but with the greater probability being for other concrete reasons.
Daniel Sonnenstuhl, who is a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Development Research (CEPDeR) of Covenant University, said the study has helped in studying religion in a real-life setting, exploiting quasi-random invitations to join LFCWW, where baseline religious engagement is high. According to him, the study focuses on the effectiveness of invitation to worship with the Church, thereafter converting same to the denomination and proofs of joining for tangible reasons.
He delved into consequences of religious activities, reasons and motivations for religious engagement, and religious conversion. According to him, one cannot compare people who are religious from people who are not. His study used the outreach model as a quasi-random element that makes people more likely to join Living Faith Church Worldwide. This he executed by creating a treatment and control group towards measuring the causal effect of joining the Church and that of being invited to the Church.
He noted that the engagement of Living Faith Church worldwide to providing fulltime work, going out on evangelism to invite new members to join and follow-up with same have played a significant role.
In generating the data-set, the treatment group approached people, invited them to the Church with their contact harvested, and enumerators following up on them over the phone, while the control group comprising of former members of the outreach team approach people in the street, people are offered bible lottery and contact information collection and enumerator can follow-up with individuals over phone.
According to him, the survey data comprised of two rounds of data collection carried out via phone surveys of the treatment group (n = 964) and control group (n = 226) with an attrition rate of 10.3%. A deep dive into the data revealed that Living Faith Church Worldwide recorded a success of her outreach endeavours with 32,938 attending service for the first time.
The ingenuity in treating the study with an appropriate balance created in measuring outcomes between the treatment and control group taken into consideration. This balance cuts across the various metrics like demographic characteristics, labour supply and income, religious activities and mental health, all these he said are consequent to extending invitation to people with the conversion rate going up from 3% to 5.8%
Sonnenstuhl noted that the motivation to join the LFCWW is largely dependent on the specialized services of each Sunday that the outreach teams use to approach prospective converts and responses is commensurate to the importance of each topic e.g., wealth, health, family and intervention, tailored to address the need of each invited prospect.
At an interactive session Professor Phillip Alege of the Department of Economics, Covenant University, while commending the efforts of the presenter, said there was need for the presenter to expand the parameters of the work to include more variables so as to conform to best practices in the world of research.
Earlier in his welcome remark, the Chair, DePECOS Institutions and Development Research Centre (DIaDeRC), Professor Evans Osabuohien, welcome the audience to the seminar, and highlighted the importance of undertaking such a study. Professor Osabuohien espoused the mission and objective of DIaDeRC as an institute out to shape the narrative of Africa as a giving continent and build a critical mass of the next generation of researchers from the continent that would be at the forefront of advancing knowledge.
The hybrid seminar had in attendance Covenant University’s Head, Department of Economics & Development Studies, Prof Oluwatoyin Matthew, other eggheads in the Department and postgraduate students in the College of Management and Social Sciences (CMSS) of the University.
Note:
The video of the seminar presentation is recorded on YouTube via the DIaDeRC Channel. It is also embedded herein for convenient access.
