It is essential to acknowledge that Evangelicalism particularly its Pentecostal expression has over the decades been subtly interwoven into the social, cultural, and spiritual tapestry of East and Central Africa, often tracing its threads back to the lingering patterns of colonial influence. The most effective way to cultivate liberating praxis is to begin with practices already familiar and meaningful to these communities. It is essential to reframe key doctrinal concepts such as spiritual warfare, deliverance, and prosperity in terms that resonate directly with indigenous cosmologies already aligned with the Gospel vision of shalom; a holistic peace, harmony, and flourishing that restores relationships with God, community, ancestors, and the land. This deliberate reframing transforms Evangelical doctrines from colonial impositions into authentic extensions of pre-existing spiritual frameworks that naturally converge with the biblical vision of shalom, ensuring deeper, less disruptive, and truly indigenous integration.
In many African contexts, extended prayer, speaking in tongues, and other so-called Pentecostal “giftings” subtly mirror pre-colonial rituals of African spirituality rituals long centered on well-being and exorcism. Presented as novel, they were unsuspectingly embraced as if entirely new, when in fact they were never truly foreign. This seamless continuity is precisely why challenging Pentecostalism in Africa has proven so difficult. Practices such as worship and exorcism did not originate with Evangelicalism but were adapted from preexisting traditions.
It was Evangelicalism’s failure to proclaim a robust, embodied message of shalom—peace that confronts powers and principalities headon, that left the door wide open for this uncritical carry over. And it is honest, even necessary, to acknowledge that certain elements of our indigenous spiritualities were incompatible with the Gospel’s call to bind strongholds without compromise. Yet in reframing these familiar forms toward the Reign of God, we reclaim what resonates and redeem what distorts.
Furthermore, Pentecostalism rapidly offered Africans external, spiritual alternatives that resonated deeply with communal social lifestyles. Many embraced these frameworks not out of a desire to take responsibility for personal or collective transformation, but to externalize predicaments onto unseen forces. This dynamic, while initially appealing, has carried significant potential for church abuse as we now witness widely.
Yet when the early church in Acts is viewed through the lens of the Gospel of Peace; the very heart of the Gospels, it offers a profoundly liberating pathway. It rallies Evangelicals into peace-building vocations where agency, ownership, and shared contribution emerge naturally. What develops from there becomes shared responsibility: a contextual evolution they must own and lead in their religious club, even if it diverges from the original framework. In every true reformation, recipients must be empowered to run with the change, adapting it to local realities. This is the only way our efforts will avoid being dismissed as suspicious neocolonial impositions.
These Evangelicals are acutely aware of colonial legacies; they are simply too spiritually traumatized to make the leap alone. Starting with familiar praxis is therefore not just strategic, it is essential.
If Pentecostals begin to encounter Jesus as a radical Peace Activist, they will more readily embrace Him as the Prince of Peace. Pentecostal spirituality often prioritizes numerical growth, conversion metrics, and individualized discipleship that subtly extracts believers from the world we are called to love and serve. Though many Evangelicals would deny this drift, the fruit of such isolationist spirituality speaks clearly.
Jesus, the master strategist, intentionally formed concentric circles of relationship:The 12 for intimate covenant, The 72 for shared fellowship, and The 5,000+ for collective witness. When viewed through the lens of peace-building, as illuminated in the Sermon on the Mount, this small-group strategy deliberately deflates the Pentecostal obsession with “strength in numbers.” It exposes the hollowness of mass crusade missions that, despite their spectacle, have delivered little to no lasting impact on host communities. The relentless pursuit of numbers and the mobilization of masses have too often rallied one group against another, entrenching cruel divisions. In doing so, the church has abdicated its calling to be a custodian of peace.
Only the covenantal small group can birth what my Mentor Rev. Daniel Buttry calls the; “University of the Streets”, a living praxis where theology is hammered out in the dust of daily life. Here, prayer in the slums becomes the lecture hall, mapping injustice the fieldwork, and public acts of healing or reconciliation the graduation. The curriculum is the Beatitudes enacted; the Professor, the Holy Spirit; the campus, every marketplace, refugee camp, and corrupt gate where the Reign breaks through.
The fact that Pentecostal fire has refused to fade tells us something profound there is a pulse in African spirituality that refused to die. It is a yearning, a groaning (Rom 8:22), transposed into a different cultural key yet echoing the same ache of creation awaiting resurrection. And yes in hopeless situations, people need a place to start. Not abstract theology, but a foothold in the real: a starting point that honors their lived spiritual heritage and the Gospel’s deep promise. That’s precisely what this vision offers Pentecostal Evangelicalism: a #giftofreorientation.
By reframing spiritual warfare, deliverance, and prosperity through indigenous cosmologies already whispering shalom, we’re not inventing something new, we’re recovering and redeeming what colonial extraction and imported individualism distorted.
This isn’t correction for its own sake. It’s a quiet act of restoration, a work of shalom in motion.
Its radical ramifications ripple outward: churches become sites of cultural resurrection and not erasure, pastors turn into custodians of ancestral memory, entire communities reclaim agency over their spiritual futures, institutional church power shifts from top-down control to shared guardianship, the power relationships embedded in dominating doctrines and propaganda are redeemed into mutual accountability, and doctrine itself evolves from pillars propping up domination, division, or superiority into new, deeper holy ground revelations, as when Moses stood before the burning bush, barefoot on sacred soil, hearing the God who says, “I AM” in the vernacular of liberation.
Indeed, we redeem these distortions not by extinguishing Pentecostal fire, but by grounding it in the soil where it was always meant to burn. That’s the hope. And I’m deeply grateful if you can see it.
We warmly invite churches, ministries, NGOs, academic institutions, and peace-building networks to partner with us in co-creating East Africa 2026: The Holy Spirit and Peace Building. Whether through financial sponsorship, curriculum co-development, regional facilitation, or shared research, your collaboration will amplify a Spirit-led movement that equips covenant small groups to bind strongholds of injustice and release shalom across the continent. Together, we can ensure this gathering becomes a catalyst for lasting, African-owned transformation. Reach out to explore partnership opportunities.
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This piece ventures into terrain many have abandoned out of exhaustion, deemed hopeless, or avoided out of fear. I have dared to go there, believing the Gospel of Peace is worth the risk.
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