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Social Science and Humanities Journal, Vol. 08, Issue. 12, Page no: 6042-6050
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18535/sshj.v8i12.1514 Page | 6042
Pastoral Care as Volunteerism: A neo-Pentecostal Perspective
Vusimuzi Nkuna *
South African Theological Seminary
Abstract:
This article presents findings from the study that sought to understand pastoral care as volunteerism based on
the study conducted among neo-Pentecostal churches in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. Conducted within the
discipline of practical theology using Osmer’s theory of theological reflection, the study followed a qualitative
approach within the interpretivist paradigm. It used interviews to collect data from research participants that
I selected purposively from the research site. Augmented by autoethnographic data, I interspersed field data
with concepts from academic literature as I analyzed the data thematic. The findings revealed that neo-
Pentecostal caregivers in the research site offer pastoral care voluntarily using three models, viz. in-person,
remote and hybrid volunteerism. Whereas this study reveals that the research participants offer pastoral care
at no cost, this practice is not a commonly held principle throughout the neo-Pentecostal Movement.
Regardless of these complexities and multiplicity of complementary models, pastoral care from the
perspective of neo-Pentecostalism stems from biblical foundations and personal convictions. While these
findings are likely to contribute to existing knowledge, the findings may not be generalized to various contexts
due to limitations of sample size and geographic context. Therefore, it is recommended that researchers should
consider conducting future similar studies other geographical contexts and/or other Christian traditions to
enhance these models for use by the broader Christian community.
Key words: Volunteerism, pastoral care, neo-Pentecostalism, autoethnography, Bushbuckridge
1. Introduction:
This articulates pastoral care as volunteerism based
on findings from a study conducted among neo-
Pentecostals in Bushbuckridge in South Africa.
Neo-Pentecostalism is derived from the experience
of the ancient Christian church that emerged after
the apostles’ encounter with the Holy Spirit as
covered in the book of Act (Ugba, 2006). This
encounter involved the apostle receiving the Holy
Spirit which is also termed baptism in the Holy
Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues
(Stevanus et al., 2023). Subsequent to this event,
believers immediately started to exercise their
spiritual gifts coupled with acts of philanthropy. As
the Pentecostal Movement developed and grew, it
adopted these practices which continue to influence
their act of volunteerism up to this day.
The Pentecostals’ adoption of the ancient
philanthropic activities could be attributed to their
literal reading and application of scriptures. This
propensity tends to contribute to them internalizing
and adopting volunteerism practices of ancient
believers as they find them in the Bible (Cheung &
Kuah, 2019). While they predominantly adopt
practices that are linked to the New Testament
church, their voluntary activities also include
actions that could be linked to the Old Testament.
Everant Journal
ISSN: 2456-2653
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Copyright: ©2024 The Authors. Published by Publisher. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Received 28-10-2024
Revised 29-10-2024
Accepted 12-12-2024
Published 14-12-2024
Vusimuzi Nkuna / Pastoral Care as Volunteerism: A neo-Pentecostal Perspective
Social Science and Humanities Journal, Vol. 08, Issue. 12, Page no: 6042-6050
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18535/sshj.v8i12.1514 Page | 6043
For instance, their mobilization of medical care as
adopted by neo-Pentecostal churches in countries
like Ghana(Benyah, 2021), could be linked to Old
Testament texts such as when Prophet Isaiah used
herbs from the fig tree to heal King Hezekiah
(Isaiah 38, 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 32).
The choice of this topic and Bushbuckridge as a
research site is based on an innate drive to
contribute to scholarly work on pastoral care and
neo-Pentecostalism in Bushbuckridge in South
Africa. Congruently, this drive is influenced by the
fact that there is some scholarship on the
population’s spirituality mainly from the work of
Izak Niehaus who wrote about witchcraft beliefs
and witchcraft accusations from an anthropological
background (Niehaus, 2005, 2012, 2023). this
paper acknowledges and advances that such
spirituality co-exists with other forms of
spirituality like Pentecostal Christianity which
Ngomane, (2013) posits was introduced in the area
around 1910. However, in terms of him little has
been researched and written about it within the
context of Bushbuckridge, a claim that I support
based on literature review that I conducted in my
prior work (Nkuna, 2024). Hence, findings from
this study contribute to literature on Pentecostal
spirituality, pastoral care and volunteering in
Bushbuckridge.
2. Methodology:
The study followed a qualitative approach within
an interpretivist paradigm. These entailed
interviews conducted among members of the neo-
Pentecostal churches in Bushbuckridge to
comprehend this phenomenon from the socio-
cultural context of both caregivers and care seekers
(Pervin & Mokhtar, 2022). Empirical data collected
through this method was augmented by
autoethnographic data that I collected from my
personal experience as both neo-Pentecostal
pastoral caregiver and care seeker from the same
area. Autoethnography enriched the study by
offering my self-experience and participatory
observation of encounters of others that span over
a period of more than three decades in the area.
While interviews entailed gathering of data from
research participants who provided insight on their
recent participation in pastoral care,
autoethnography blended them with retrospective
and concurrent data (Edwards, 2021).
Empirical data from both methods were analyzed
thematically, whereby the themes emerged from
the data themselves not existing theories per se
(Flick, 2018). Document review was used to gain
an understanding of relevant theoretical concepts
and concurrent practices of the same phenomenon
in other parts of the globe, and to interpret
empirical data. The use of these three methods
resulted in the application of triangulation which
reduced potential bias that occasionally emerges
from single source utilization (Bowen, 2009).
Triangulation helped with corroboration and
convergence of findings from these various
sources. As there are various forms of documents
that are used in document analysis in research
(Wood et al., 2020), it is worth specifying that the
study used scholarly articles for this purpose.
Similarly, the interpretation of all findings was
followed by the determination of the biblical
foundations of pastoral care to determine these
practices’ normativity. The entire research
approach was informed by Richard Osmer’s four
tasks of theological interpretation, viz. descriptive-
empirical, interpretive, normative and pragmatic
tasks (Osmer, 2008).
3. Summary of Key Findings:
3.1 Understanding neo-Pentecostalism:
A brief overview of neo-Pentecostalism is essential
to give the context of the study as it was conducted
within the auspices of this Christian tradition.
Numerous studies have been conducted in relation
to neo-Pentecostalism, but this concept does not
bear a generally accepted definition. Nevertheless,
its origin is linked to the Pentecostal movement
which is rooted in its adherents’ drawing of
inspiration from the influence of the Holy Spirit as
recorded in the book of Acts (Ugba, 2006). Just as
classical Pentecostalism is diverse, so is neo-
Pentecostalism (Soothill, 2014). This study was
conducted within the rubric of what could be
termed African neo-Pentecostalism which is also
broad in nature. For this study, it refers to neo-
Pentecostal belief as practiced by indigenous
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African population in South Africa. Just like in
many parts of the world, the Bushbuckridge
Pentecostal population establishes local churches
that multiply and pervade the local community due
to various triggers. Historically, they commonly
started as soul care projects established to drive the
eschatological evangelism motive (Roux, 2019),
but later incorporate caring for and about the
immediate needs of the community of believers.
Despite their diversity, neo-Pentecostalism could
be perceived as Christian movement with leaders
who claim to have similar spiritual capabilities
possessed by biblical believers like prophets and
apostles (Banda, 2020). White (2024) alludes that
in Africa, Pentecostals put emphasis on
experiences such as pneumatologically encounters,
miracles, and healing. Aligned to this
characteristic, findings from this study highlight
that healing forms an integral part of soul care
offered by neo-Pentecostals. Additionally, due to
their literal reading and application of scripture
research participants have internalized the ancient
apostles’ practice of offering pastoral care at no
cost. This is contrary to the tendency among some
famous neo-Pentecostal church leaders who charge
a consultation fee to people in need of pastoral care
(Kgatle, 2024).
3.2 Pastoral care among Pentecostals:
Derived from its history, Pentecostalism was
traditionally concerned with evangelization in
preparation of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Thus, it could be said that whatever Pentecostals
did in the name of ministry, including pastoral care
was meant to enhance the spread of the gospel of
repentance in preparation for the eschatology.
Consequently, Roux (2019) postulates that early
Pentecostals paid little attention to caring for souls
but for salvation of souls. While this disposition is
no longer dominant, evidence from Bushbuckridge
suggests that it still plays a central role in pastoral
care. This is reflected in the resources that are used
by research participants in pastoral care, such as
reading of the word that encourages care seekers to
seek the face of the Lord when facing adversity and
the use of prayer that is meant to reconcile them to
God while addressing their challenges. The use of
prayer is unsurprisingly common as it serves as a
mechanism that care seekers use to do self-
examination while simultaneously fostering divine
and human relations (Pleizier, 2022).
Concomitantly, the use of scriptures does not only
help them to reflect on their relationship with God,
but it also serves as a weapon to fight adversity by
declaring relevant passages during prayer (White,
2022).
The above practice illustrates that many individual
ministers and caregivers integrate salvation of
souls with soul care in their pastoral care
endeavors. Furthermore, findings from the research
site indicate that pastoral care is integrative of
traditional pastoral care models and contemporary
communal approach which include practices which
De Jongh Van Arkel (1995) argues encompass
mutual care, pastoral therapy and pastoral
counseling. The findings further illustrate that
mutual or communal care plays a crucial role in
pastoral care within the movement. Research
participants depicted this approach in their oral
account of how some of them as ordinary members
of the local church visit the sick and the needy to
pray with them and share scriptures with them
(Danbolt et al., 2021).
In addition to the above, field data from
Bushbuckridge allude that pastoral care givers
address issues that fall within the spectrum of local
churches’ public theology that contributes to
attainment of sustainable development goals
(Msebi & Beukes, 2024). These include supporting
vulnerable groups like women and the poor to start
self-help projects that contribute to development of
small-scale entrepreneurs to sustain their
households. Research participants shared about
how they offer material support to care seekers to
develop their small businesses like street vending
without asking for repayment or any form of
external incentives.
3.3 The concept of volunteerism:
Volunteerism is about providing needed support as
an individual or group without expecting any
incentive in return (Burbeck et al., 2014). Similarly,
for such support to be regarded as voluntary, it also
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should be given without external coercion (Kragt
& Holtrop, 2019). Empirical evidence from
Bushbuckridge shows that neo-Pentecostals use
volunteerism to offer both spiritual care and
material provision as part of pastoral care. This
propensity is prevalent among Christians
throughout the globe as Cartledge (2021) perceives
the church as the hospital for the sick whereby
Pentecostals cater for all classes in society. While
some ministers commercialize these services by
making care seekers pay for the pastoral care
services that they offer (Kgatle, 2022), research
participants in this study still believe that there is
no need for them to charge a fee because they
received their salvation for free. The practice that
has been affirmed by this study is contrary to the
commercialization of pastoral care and ministry
which Tagwirei (2023) describes as provocative in
nature as it involves preying on predominantly
poor members of the community.
The concept of volunteerism has developed over
the years to a point where there are various
categories within it. Scholars have conceived the
emergence of formal and informal volunteering.
Formal volunteering refers to volunteering that is
undertaken under the auspices of an organization
whereas informal volunteering is not coordinated
by an organization(Einolf et al., 2016). African
Pentecostal churches tend to adopt these two
models concurrently as activities such as
outreaches are coordinated by the church whereas
members of the church usually carry out caring
activities such as home visits without the
coordination of the church. Data from the research
site indicate that research participants lean towards
informal volunteering as caregivers offer their
services out of an innate drive that is not sanctioned
by their churches. Their link to their local churches
is limited to recognizing that they operate within
the auspices of Pentecostalism as demonstrated in
their way of doing things.
With technological advancement, volunteerism is
also offered remotely resulting in the emergence of
the concept of virtual volunteering (Ahmed, 2021).
This form of volunteering gained much
prominence and escalated during the outbreak of
the coronavirus pandemic (Corpuz, 2021). In the
Bushbuckridge area this entailed offering
counseling remotely, holding virtual prayer
meetings and sharing sermonettes via social media
platform like WhatsApp among other activities.
The sharing of caring content like sermonettes was
also widely practiced in other geographic areas
other than the research site as Christian leaders
wanted to ensure that members of the church get
encouraged during the pandemic (Masoga, 2020).
4. Biblical Foundations of Volunteerism:
As reflected and explained in different words in the
previous section, volunteering entails offering
support to others without expecting any material
incentives either from the beneficiary of the act or
a third party (Whittaker et al., 2015). From a
Pentecostal perspective this could be traced to the
biblical foundations of this Christian tradition as
Perpék (2012) suggests that volunteerism could be
linked to religiosity. Consequently, both the Old
Testament and New Testament tend to offer
numerous examples of volunteerism in the area of
pastoral care. The Old Testament offers numerous
examples of volunteering acts undertaken by
ancient prophets and ordinary citizens who offered
their services to humankind without charging a fee
or anticipating material reward (Burbeck et al.,
2014). For instance, in the Pentateuch Moses led
the Israelites from bondage in Egypt at no fee;
Elisha healed Naaman of Leprosy and refused to
receive gifts of appreciation from him (2 Kings 2);
and King David invited Mephibosheth to dine with
him without claiming any incentives in return as
reflected in 2 Samuel 9, just to cite a few.
Examples of volunteerism are also prevalent in the
New Testament. Jesus Christ offers a supreme
model of volunteerism by generally showing it
through spiritual care and acts of compassion. Of
great significance is that he came to the earth to
offer his life as a sacrifice so that anyone who
believes in him can receive eternal life (John 3:16).
Likewise, during his earthly ministry he showed
compassion by healing the sick, casting out demons
from people and feeding multitudes, among other
services without any material reward as reported in
the four gospels. His exemplary acts of
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volunteering were replicated by the apostles who
emulated him by offering alms to the poor as
reflected in Acts 6, alongside healing the sick and
casting out demons while evangelizing as covered
in the rest of the book of Acts.
The Pentecostals’ direct adoption of the biblical
principles of volunteerism is based on the fact that
they received their salvation for free and use it to
invite others to Christianity. However, as stated in
the previous section Pentecostalism is a diverse and
complex movement (Nel, 2017). Due to its infinite
fragmentation (Wariboko, 2017), it would be
illogical to contemplate that all Pentecostal pastoral
caregivers offer their services voluntarily.
Evidently, its emphasis on pastoral care as a
voluntary phenomenon is compromised by some
prominent ministers within its ranks charging
exorbitant fees for their services, particularly from
the African Pentecostal genre (Kgatle, 2024). This
implies that it cannot be generalized that neo-
Pentecostal churches have adopted a uniform
approach to the biblical foundations of
volunteerism. Moreover, it is further compromised
by the subtle tendencies towards payment of
services that is promoted through manipulative
strategies employed by proponents of prosperity
theology. This genre of Pentecostal theology that
was arguably born in North America introduced the
principles of sowing and reaping. Proponents of
this theology teach congregants to pay offerings,
tithes and pledges bountifully in order attract
abundant blessings from God (Adamo, 2021).
While the Bible has several verses that encourage
believers to give, such as Proverbs 11:25 that
emphasize that a generous person will prosper,
there seems to be some abuse of these biblical texts.
Greedy ministers use them to manipulate members
of the church to give to their ministry whereby
some of these proceeds are used to finance their
lavish lifestyle. Of course, this argument does not
suggest that those who sow do not receive the
desires of their hearts at all after payment of these
offerings to these ministries.
5. Neo-Pentecostal Volunteerism Models:
The findings from Bushbuckridge reveal that
pastoral caregivers in the research site offer
voluntary services predominantly through in-
person, virtual and hybrid models. While voluntary
services are usually directed at others, this study
also revealed that caregivers have also adopted
mechanisms that they use to offer self-care. The co-
existence of these models became prominent
during the era of the coronavirus pandemic as to the
research participants increasingly blended the use
of technology with traditional mechanisms to offer
pastoral care.
In-person volunteering involves offering free
pastoral care in a face-to-face setup between
caregivers and the care seekers. This model is still
practiced even during the digital age after the
introduction of virtual pastoral care since some of
the services require pastoral care in its
conventional physical-presence form (Xu, 2023).
There are various services that research
participants have indicated are offered in-person,
e.g. running funeral services and offering handouts.
Handouts are offered to needy families for
immediate relief of basic needs as well as for the
purpose of helping care seekers to start self-help
initiatives. Both material and spiritual care that are
offered in-person attract financial responsibility on
the part of the caregivers as they have to mobilize
resources and travel to the care seekers’ place of
convenience to offer the required help. Regardless
of this factor, research participants indicated that
they do not expect any material returns from these
actions but give freely to the needy as part of their
appreciation of Jesus Christ’s love to them
(Onyinah, 2020). This practice undoubtedly makes
in-person pastoral care as volunteering if
consistently offered in this fashion.
Virtual pastoral care is also practiced in addition to
in-person volunteering and has gained momentum
in the research site since the outbreak of the
coronavirus pandemic. This is consistent with
global trends on the use of ICT in various sectors
such as tertial education (Nkuna & Nkuna, 2023)
and Christian pastoral care (Da Silva, 2020). In
Christian pastoral care this includes conducting
prayer meetings remotely, online counseling and
sermons, and sharing of digital ministry resources
(Nkuna, 2024). While the use of ICT is praised for
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its cost savings advantage, its preference on
pastoral care means calls for the incurring of
establishment costs by both caregivers and care
seekers. In other words, they should increase their
budget to purchase or upgrade their electronic
devices and also to procure data required for
communication. While in commercial
environments caregivers are able to recoup these
costs from the fees that they charge, research
participants indicated that they do not recover their
costs. This practice makes remote pastoral care a
model that could be termed virtual volunteerism
which is self-funded by the caregivers.
Virtual volunteering also contributed to self-care
whereby care seekers access spiritual resources in
digital form and use them encourage themselves
during trying times. For instance, recorded
sermonettes and prayers become caring resources
as care seekers choose to use them during times that
are convenient to them. While they are generated
by caregivers, they take the image of self-
medication that is administered by the care seekers
themselves in times of need. In this regard, this
electronic pastoral care content shared for free
remotely within the Christian community
facilitates self-care through becoming available to
address the care seekers’ needs.
Hybrid pastoral care involves the combination of
in-person and virtual pastoral care practices (Kulik,
2021). The need for a hybrid model is necessitated
by various contexts. In some instances, a caring
endeavor may integrate both remote and in-person
volunteering based on the circumstance. Using the
example of material support to needy families, in
this study a research participant illustrated the use
of a typical hybrid volunteering. She indicated that
the need for material support was expressed in a
virtual session with the care seeker whereby both
parties discussed the need at length online. This
was followed by the caregiver making an
appointment to go and deliver the supplies to the
family physically. In this regard, the hybrid model
could also be perceived in terms of a continuum
(Cornforth, 2020). This continuum was also
evident even before the coronavirus pandemic as
caregivers would have an in-person session and use
a remote model to follow-up on the progress of the
intervention. This was narrated by a research
participant who explained that she would conduct
home visits to pray for the sick and then conduct
routine check-in online to assess their progress.
6. Conclusion:
The article presented pastoral care as volunteerism
from the perspective of the neo-Pentecostal
caregivers and care seekers as studies in the
Bushbuckridge area of South Africa. The study
employed a triangulation of qualitative methods
within the interpretivism research paradigm. The
project was conceived with the purpose of
ascertaining volunteerism models that are used in
pastoral care. Correspondingly, the study sought to
contribute to existing knowledge in the Pentecostal
spirituality in Bushbuckridge and its influence on
volunteerism and pastoral care.
Research findings revealed that neo-Pentecostal
caregivers in Bushbuckridge are aligned to pastoral
caregiving principles of volunteerism as reflected
in the Bible. The volunteerism principles are
generally based on their adherence to
Pentecostalism. Based on the outcomes of the data
analysis and interpretation, the study discovered
that pastoral caregiving in this research site applies
three models of volunteerism, namely in-person,
remote and hybrid volunteerism. All these models
fall within the scope of volunteerism as caregivers
spend their own resources to render the care but
never charge a fee to the care seekers. This practice
is contrary to the prevalent trend of charging a
consultation fee as used by some leaders of neo-
Pentecostal churches, as observed in Africa.
Concomitantly, volunteerism that was revealed in
this study also contradicts that subtle payment for
service that is widely spread in the prosperity
theology genre of Pentecostalism.
7. Recommendations:
▪ I recommend that researchers consider
conducting similar studies in urban centers for
comparative assessment purpose with these
rural context findings.
▪ Future studies could also replicate similar
research in other Christian traditions to
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develop volunteerism models that could be
adapted to various Christian communities.
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