Evaluation of the Understanding of the Holy Spirit BY “The Kuhama” Group of the East African Revival Fellowship in Weithaga

Abstract

This research centers on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the ‘‘controlling theme of everything that Christianity believes and must confess’’ (Barth, 1956:645). The Holy Spirit is God Himself and as Barth says, “Eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son” (Barth, 1956:646). The research was done mainly from the library resource and with an eye on the membership of the East African Revival Fellowship. It was interactive with the leaders of the EARF through the use of direct interviews. It has shown that the members of the EARF are deeply religious and jealously biased towards God the Father and the Son as against God the Holy Spirit. The research proposes three items as a way forward in addressing the problem earlier stated. The objectives were: to interrogate the understanding of the Holy Spirit by the kuhama group of the EARF, to explore the theological understanding of the Person and roles of the Holy Spirit by the theologians, and to bring out the gaps that may be filled by further study. The conceptual framework was the conversational model which suggests an engagement with different disciplines in the interpretation of scripture to advance the knowledge of God as advanced by Prof. Joseph Galgalo. The researcher proposed that the people’s cultural experiences, theology and the scripture talk together harmoniously. Conversational method has been employed in this research and proposed amongst the EARF members. Theology and application has been proposed for harmonization by the scripture, which is supreme in all matters of faith. The research design proposed was descriptive because it is a qualitative research. The study used snowball sampling procedure with a few members of the top leadership of the Movement representing the view of the larger majority. The researcher hypothesized that from the Biblical stand point, a section of the EARF “Kuhama”(to leave), seemed to misunderstand, misinterpret and misapply the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in their daily conversations, and that should they understand and appropriately apply this teachings in their interactions, they can become more effective in their evangelization. The Recommendations fronted were that Pneumatology should be offered in the Institutions of Higher Learning. Another recommendation was to have the EARF members understanding, properly interpreting and applying the Doctrine appropriately in order to grow in the knowledge of God and properly influencing others successively. The Conversational Model was recommended for restructuring and adoption as a methodology of studying Systematic Theology. Finally the acknowledgement of Martyrdom of the believers who sacrificed their lives for the course of Christ in Weithaga was recommended.