The article considers the transformative potential of integrating intercultural education as a foundational aspect of Pentecostal theological training. Considering the reality of ‘reverse mission’, theological students need to be prepared to relate interculturally for effective ministry in an irreversibly pluralist world.
The objectives of the study focused on the curricula, pedagogical methodologies and institutional structures within Western Pentecostal theological institutions, examining their potential to either support or hinder effective preparation for intercultural ministry.
Utilising qualitative methodology, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then analysed with a thematic approach and ATLAS-Ti qualitative software to identify the main themes to be addressed.
The findings highlighted the central role of curriculum design in fostering intercultural education, the significance of educators’ competence and capacity building and the need for cultural understanding to adapt ministry practices to diverse contexts.
It emphasised the value of cultural diversity and encouraged educators and students to develop intercultural propositions for theological education interaction in competencies for a harmonious multicultural world.
The study highlights the importance of intercultural awareness and education since pluralist societies demand a new learning set to prepare Pentecostal theological students adequately for ministry.
The article considers the transformative potential of integrating intercultural education into Pentecostal theological training. It highlights the significance of cultivating intercultural competencies as an essential component of ministerial preparation, ensuring that graduates are well equipped to navigate and minister effectively within the pluralistic realities of our modern world. Intercultural education is defined as an intentional and faith-based engagement, where theory and praxis combine to create a new learning culture that transcends their limited ethnic boundaries (Gittins
The case for intercultural education in theological colleges is not merely strategic. It is not simply that future ministers will encounter culturally diverse congregations and must be pragmatically equipped to serve them. It is theologically grounded – intercultural competence is a dimension of Christian virtue. It is an expression of the love of neighbour that crosses cultural boundaries, of the humility that refuses to identify one’s own cultural perspective with the mind of God (Day
We need to acknowledge that migration globally has created new expressions of Christianity (Kwiyani
The migration factor has changed the dynamics of ministry all over the world, making it imperative to rethink the relevance of theological education (Arbuckle 2015). Over two decades ago, Chris Thomas’ presidential address to the Society for Pentecostal Studies, as observed by Anderson (
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Yong too aptly captures the significance of diaspora;
‘The diaspora now no longer remains the frontier when Christianity is expanding. Instead, diaspora captures the very heart of God’s saving work, no matter when, where, or among whom.’ (Yong
Several other scholars attest to a review of theological education for students engaged in crossing culture for ministry, including Adogame (
Intercultural engagement is a challenge in Pentecostal education in culturally diverse societies.
Central to the theological endeavour in the Pentecostal tradition is the imperative to establish and sustain the prophetic and teaching ministry of Christ within both the Church and broader society (Barron
Pentecostalism in the West can be traced to Azusa Street in California in 1906 when the church witnessed another outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Foster
Pentecostalism had challenges of acceptance by the evangelical churches at the early stages of the church; hence, the growth was limited. Later, issues of Apostolic Faith magazine reported beginnings in Africa, Canada, Hawaii, China, Denmark, Australia and even in Jerusalem. Synan (
Up to the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, missionary movements were from the North to the rest of the world (Synan
In Nigeria, a significant Pentecostal church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), was founded in 1952 in Lagos by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi (The Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America
This study aimed to investigate the education provided to theological graduates in the RCCG Bible College and Theological Seminary in the US. It explored the foci of intercultural adjustment for theological graduates from Africa to be effective in the Americas. The exploration focused on the curricula, pedagogical methodologies and institutional structures within Western Pentecostal theological institutions, examining their potential to either support or hinder effective preparation for intercultural ministry. According to Naidoo (
The research was conducted at the Redeemed Christian Bible College and Seminary, Dallas, Texas, US (Redeemer’s University North America
This Seminary was established in the 1990s to train theological graduates to be deployed for mission work in the US and Canada. The institution is being repositioned to take on the challenges of providing theological graduates for three subcontinents of the Americas, which require a paradigm shift from the learning orientation that has been practiced for several decades, that is, educating theological graduates for mission work in North America only.
The mission of the Seminary is to
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Their mission is pursued with godly excellence in teaching, mobilising resources and the provision of quality reading materials physically and by digital connections to reputable theological libraries globally. The Seminary was fully accredited in 2024 to award degrees for programmes from undergraduate to doctoral level, even certificate programmes. The institution has 60 management personnel and educators and averages more than 300 students annually. The class size is between 20 and 30 consisting of males and females with a ratio of 3:1 and an average age of about 30, on-site and online. Students are from multiple cultures but mainly from Africa, especially Nigerian American nationals.
This was a practical theological study that is dedicated to the faithful performance of the gospel and the execution of the human encounter with God (Swinton & Mowat
This study followed a qualitative approach to understanding how people interpreted their contexts and experiences using the interpretive research paradigm. The study used a descriptive-interpretative approach (Osmer
Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the University of South Africa, College of Human Sciences Research Ethics Committee (No 14023830_CREC_CHS_2022).
From the study, eight overall themes emerged that explained participants’ insights into intercultural education, namely: (1) vision, (2) the learning culture of the school and the competence of the faculty to facilitate intercultural education, (3) faculty competency, (4) the need for intercultural competence development, (5) challenging stereotypes of the other, (6) challenges for implementing intercultural education in Pentecostal theological Education, (7) challenges for new learning and engagement and (8) cultural integration. ATLAS-Ti version 26 was used in coding the transcribed interviews, categorisation and generation of themes. These themes were further grouped into three categories, which will be briefly described here, namely: (1) the learning culture of the school, (2) how students value intercultural education and (3) the challenges identified with implementing intercultural education.
Some educators described the vision of the Seminary based on the vision of the church (RCCG) to fulfil the great commission. They believe that the vision of intercultural studies reflects the praxis of theology. The data revealed the purpose of the school offering a specialised programme that cuts across ethnic cultures:
‘The mission of RCCG is all about evangelism and missions all around the world. So why would the school have a programme on Intercultural Studies and global missions? First, if you’re trying to raise men or women of God who are going to be involved in missions or involved in taking the gospel throughout the ends of the earth, then you want to of course, have a programme where you are teaching them on tolerance of different cultures, hence the Intercultural Studies.’ (P13 L23, Educator, Male)
Educators seemed clear on the goals of the Intercultural Studies programme and emphasised the calling of ‘desiring each other which promotes intercultural living’. An educator participant made an explicit statement of the intentionality of intercultural education,
‘Well, it is intentional. And it is also a result of what binds us together. So, we know that by that even if you don’t want to do it, you must be intentional about it. It’s not going to work, you must be intentional, everybody is intentional. And it is also God’s given ability to be able to tie us, all of us together like that.’ (P9 L72–73, Educator, Male)
The emphasis of the participant on the intentionality of the educators is part of a foundational philosophy of intercultural ministry. Day described it as it happened in Pentecostal practice, ‘it’s only through the joining together of bodies in desiring, living with, and loving each other that Christian community is possible’ (Day
To educate students for a global Pentecostal movement calls for specialised knowledge and skills, the design of courses was seen as important to facilitate change. According to an educator,
‘So, the way this course is designed is to ensure that pastors can recognise differences as important things. So, the kinds of music you play in the church will tell people the church is for them, or the church is for the people from the diaspora.’ (P1 L15, Educator, Male)
Capacity building of educators was seen as critical in this mandate. The data revealed that there was a need for a change of paradigm, and it begins first with the training of the educators so that they can offer a well-designed intercultural studies programme as explained by a graduate participant,
‘I think it behoves us to start with the people that are going to be teaching the course, for them firstly to be infused in ministry, in a church setting, or a mission setting, go through a six-week programme, or a three-month programme, whatever it will be, in partnership with established missions and then they can as educators and pass on some of that knowledge in a curriculum to the students.’ (G4 L24, Graduate, Male)
Some participants, mostly graduates from the institution, preferred the collaboration of the school with similar theological institutions in considering a new learning culture that will be meaningful to prepare theological graduates for intercultural ministry.
Some student participants commented on the need to improve their own learning skills to catch up with the reality of the new context and close the gap in intercultural ministry. It calls for teamwork that involves openness to see cultural differences as shaping the gospel message from the academy, the congregation and the community. A student noted:
‘Like I said before, are we there yet? No, we’re not. But I think that even as leaders, and as individuals when we begin to apply correctly, not based on emotions, but based on the fundamental truth of the Scripture, that we applied correctly. The congregants begin to come to that acceptance and to that level, but I think the world is moving towards that. But now that the congregation, you know, the people, the individual, they’re moving towards that pattern, that lifestyle that the world is changing.’ (S6 L66, Student, Female)
Students felt that working as a team-in-learning will facilitate sharing knowledge and building trust across cultures and confidence to apply the learning in a ministry-based context. The building blocks of a Christian team identified include study and prayer, training in the basics of leadership such as group dynamics and conflict resolution and assessment, ‘knowing the components and context (vision) for team building encourages prayerful assessment’ (Elrod
A student also commented about the gap in learning that intercultural education should address,
‘I believe that in our current world, we, within an intercultural and pluralist society, having theological education should include social media, the cultures that are prevalent in such that content, social media and technology, especially in such areas because when we are looking at a pluralist society, we’re not only talking about the rural areas or the areas that don’t have access to these things, we’re also talking about areas, urban centres.’ (S7 L51, Student, Male)
The reality of the pluralist society demands a new learning culture that connects with the new generation and reflects the context of ministry. For example, the integration of social media into intercultural education reflects the growing importance of digital platforms in modern learning environments and also the challenge of adapting to the broader social context. This shift towards digital education requires students to be able to navigate global social contexts and contribute to a diverse, interconnected society.
The responses of both educators and students focused on the challenges of cultivating intercultural ministry skills, intercultural learning and engagement and inclusivity of a multicultural learning environment.
Many educators interviewed addressed the challenges of institutional culture, as aligned to the Constitution of the Seminary. An educator identified cultural challenges as a challenge for intercultural education:
‘Yes, the culture, of the Redeemed seminary, but the church itself, lends itself heavily to the Yoruba culture from West Africa, Nigeria. And so, that still is a predominant culture that dictates a lot of the nuances in interaction, not just at the seminary, but at the church. So that is a challenge that we must deal with when it comes to having the church minister in Main Street America.’ (P1L41, Educator, Male)
The prevalent Yoruba culture in the institution creates a challenge. As a graduate mentioned that succinctly describes the role of culture in conceiving a new paradigm of intercultural education, ‘Culture will eat vision for lunch’, (G4L72, Male, Student). The graduate raises an important issue that highlights that cultural ways of doing things are more powerful than any vision, as it is ingrained in the psyche of the person and difficult to change quickly, whereas visions come and go. The culture of the organisation determines success no matter how successful the strategy may be. Naidoo (
Another educator noted the challenge understanding cultural competencies in intercultural education posed to the college, he states:
‘Being able to accommodate different ways of thinking makes a big difference in preparing the students for what I like to call global work because we might not physically be working on several continents, but with the advent of virtual learning, virtual work, we have students who may live in North America but might be working for a company based in India or Australia. So, the world is getting more connected than ever before, so I think the challenge right now is to understand cultural competencies and how to integrate that into teaching practices, and also as more of an expectation for the students.’ (P10 L52–53, Educator, Male)
Building intercultural competence requires intentional efforts and faith to engage multiple cultural narratives and recognise the value of diverse traditions in shaping ministry. Faculty competence requires the ability to engage with students from diverse cultural backgrounds and to communicate in ways that promote respect, empathy and collaboration. Educators must be equipped to handle the complexities of intercultural dynamics, ensuring that the classroom serves as a space where students can appreciate cultural differences in a meaningful way. The institution will need to provide ongoing professional development opportunities for faculty, invest in intercultural resources and create policies that promote diversity and inclusion within the educational system.
Students also spoke of changing mindsets of congregants that attracted the attention of the faith community to act on a new way of taking the gospel to the people.
‘And I want to say that the mindset of the congregation is changing, you know, the younger generation people are learning, even the older generation beginning to learn from their kids, they are beginning to learn from, maybe their workers and like people that they work with.’ (S6 L66, Student, Female)
The changing world dynamics highlights that cultural integration goes beyond simple tolerance; it necessitates the active engagement of educators and learners in cultivating environments that embrace diversity.
This study highlighted the concept of ‘reverse mission’, which has been in circulation in missiological literature since at least the 1990s, but it received its most sustained and analytically treatment in Adedibu’s (
These churches see Britain not as a place of refuge or economic opportunity, but as a mission field – a secularised Western nation in need of the spiritual vitality that African Christianity can supply. This inversion of the classic missionary trajectory is not incidental; it is theologically intentional. (Adedibu
Adedibu’s analysis is important for several reasons. Firstly, it demonstrates that reverse mission is not a fringe phenomenon; from this study, we learn that the RCCG alone has over 700 churches in the UK, and its annual Festival of Life at the ExCeL Centre in London attracts tens of thousands of worshippers. Secondly, it shows that reverse mission is theologically motivated: These churches understand themselves as participating in the
Coming to this study, a Pentecostal theological college that is faithful to its own deepest convictions is a college that has placed intercultural education at the centre of its mission, not at its margins. Even though this need is central, through this study in the US, it was revealed that a notable gap exists in the understanding and implementation of intercultural education within the RCCG tradition. The findings indicate that while the vision of the RCCG seminary includes a commitment to intercultural ministry, there was a disconnect between this vision and the actual pedagogical practices employed.
The challenge that reverses mission poses to Western Pentecostal theological education is not primarily sociological but epistemological: It calls into question the assumption that theological authority flows from the West to the rest of the world. If African Pentecostal missionaries regard themselves as bringing the gospel to the US, then they implicitly claim a theological standing: A maturity of faith, a depth of pneumatological experience and a clarity of evangelical conviction that challenges the paternalistic self-understanding of much Western theological education.
This challenge is sharpest in the context of theological training itself.
It is important, however, not to simply invert the directional assumption of classical missionary theology. The point is not that theological enrichment now flows from Africa to the West rather than from the West to Africa. The point is that it flows in both directions simultaneously and that a healthy Pentecostal theological ecology requires both flows to be active, acknowledged and welcomed. This bidirectional model has been theorised by Kalu (
What this study reveals is that the most immediate practical implication is curriculum design. A Pentecostal theological college that takes the theological gifts of the Global South seriously will not design its curriculum with Western systematic theology and Western biblical scholarship as the normative centre, supplemented by occasional references to ‘contextual theology’ or ‘world Christianity’. It will redesign the curriculum from the ground up, asking at every point: (1)
Thus, Pentecostal institutions like the RCCG seminary need to develop a more holistic approach to theological education. From the voices of educators and students alike, developing intercultural competencies into the curriculum, while also maintaining the spiritual emphasis, is central to Pentecostal identity. The learning model to be designed will synchronise with a transformative learning model developed by Mezirow (
In addition, a well-designed curriculum alone will not be adequate without competent educators capable of delivering intercultural education effectively. Recruiting faculty from the Global South and genuinely supporting them once they arrive requires addressing systemic issues of institutional culture, salary, housing and the particular challenges faced by scholars working in a second language and a foreign cultural context; this is a non-negotiable dimension of intercultural theological education. But recruitment alone is insufficient. Existing faculty, however well intentioned, needs formation in intercultural competence: (1) exposure to Global South theological scholarship, (2) supervised cross-cultural ministry placements and (3) ongoing dialogue with theological colleagues from different cultural contexts.
Educators need to provide not only theoretical knowledge but also practical experience in intercultural ministry contexts. Bedard notes the gap in ministry training of students needing to learn the practical things they need to function on the mission field (Bedard
To better prepare students for Christian ministry in a diverse pluralist society, RCCG North America should focus on three major issues to support intercultural adaptation in Pentecostal theological education. These include addressing the lack of understanding in intercultural education, the need for a comprehensive intercultural curriculum and the integration of theoretical frameworks that emphasise cultural understanding within theological training.
A review of the RCCG Intercultural Studies programme is needed to understand step-by-step learning, adoption and application of principles of cultural adjustments, and the bonding that is needed to infuse cultures when students live together and learn from each other. Learning beyond cognitive learning involves modelling within the learning community and practical, meaningful exposures into the community. Thus, the shift of mission enterprise that has evolved from crossing cultures to living interculturally demands a new theological orientation to prepare students for ministry.
This article has argued that Pentecostal theological training colleges have both theological and practical reasons to embrace intercultural education as a foundational commitment. The theological reasons are grounded in Pentecostal pneumatology, in the
This article is based on research originally conducted as part of Kola Aiyedogbon doctoral thesis titled ‘Intercultural ministry training of a Pentecostal theological institution in the United States of America’, submitted to the Department of Philosophy, Systematic and Practical Theology, College of Human Science, University of South Africa in 2025. The thesis was supervised by Marilyn Naidoo. The thesis was reworked, revised, and adapted into a journal article for publication. The original thesis is available at:
The authors, Kola Aiyedogbon and Marilyn Naidoo, declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Kola Aiyedogbon: Conceptualisation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Marilyn Naidoo: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. All authors reviewed the article, contributed to the discussion of results, approved the final version for submission and publication and take responsibility for the integrity of its findings.
The data that support the findings of this study are not openly available and are available from the corresponding author, Marilyn Naidoo, upon reasonable request.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are the product of professional research. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The authors are responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.