Foursquare Gospel Church

Introduction

Growing up from a multicultural ethnic and social background has defined the way the author looks at religion. “The service and worship of God or the supernatural” or” commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance” (retrieved October 3, 2007 from http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/netdict?Religion) the definition of religion in itself is a controversy according to http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_defn.htm,

"It is apparent that religion can be seen as a theological, philosophical, anthropological, sociological, and psychological phenomenon of human kind. To limit religion to only one of these categories is to miss its multifaceted nature and lose out on the complete definition." (K.Jones)

A deep look into the ethnic and cultural background of Nigeria where fourteen years of the author’s life was spent studying, introduced him to a number of religious facets or faiths or observance which primarily molded his outlook on religion. The foundation of the western Nigerian people other wise known as Yoruba people is there culture and digging deep into their culture reveals their sacred and indigenous practices, another practice witnessed in this region is Islam there is a strong following of Islam embedded within this region so much so, it can not be ignored.

Then there is Christianity, this religion would have been a real strong one if it were unified it’s diverse practice and teaching implies that it cannot be represented as one true religious group however it is recognized as a religious sect but broken into denominations. One of these sects that seem to be acquiring followers at an alarming rate in Western Africa and all English speaking countries for that matter is the Gospel denomination. For some reason the past two decades prior to the dawn of the millennium the new gospel revolution began its takeover winning converts and gaining followers for its new appeal and susceptibility to change.

Ever since Nigeria’s big capital move from Lagos to the federal capital territory Abuja it became apparent that the gospel denomination does have a huge following and that even the territories once dominated by Hausa, Fulani nomads and tauregs who are known to be Islam followers are being outnumbered by the influx of the Gospel followers population. Notable Gospel leaders have all made their stop here from the likes of Kirk Franklin to T.D Jakes just to name a few have all staged revivals in almost everywhere in West Africa if not Africa as a whole.

There are many variations of the Gospel denomination based on their believes and how they interpret the word of God as well as divine directions received from the Lord himself according to some leaders. The most notable of all for their well documented efforts and their ever reaching ability through evangelism has to be the foursquare gospel church, it has been over ten years since I last visited this church and my father had just been appointed as one of the pastors to this church, fortunately for me he happened to be in town so it would be nice to really hear from a devoted follower what the foursquare gospel church is about and compare it to other religions present and practiced within the western African region as well as visit a local branch of the church here in the united states and compare its practices to what I witnessed from the church in the past.

The Tacoma South Foursquare Church was full of life on a more than usual cold Sunday morning, headed by Sr. Pastor Kramer my dad was asked to sit in the front with the elders as he was almost instantly recognized upon arrival, this has been a common tradition since I the last visit I made to the church . The music was different as matter of fact the music was completely different compared to that of the African churches. The setting was all the same as well as the message all the messages revolved around their “core values” as well as their “doctrines” shortly after the Sunday service and the exchange of pleasantries amongst members. My Dad and I headed in to the city for the Sunday brunch. He tried to compare the church here in Tacoma to that in Africa but then he explained that the reason for the difference in the way they worship compared to the way they worship in Africa is the culture. “Each approach depends on the culture mainly” he said, “You want to work a familiar territory for a proper understanding” (A. Atinsola-Moronto, personal communication, September 8, 2007)

"Foursquare" is a Biblical term used of the tabernacle in the Book of Exodus, of the Temple of the Lord in Ezekiel 40:47, and of Heaven, as described in the book of the Revelation The term "Foursquare Gospel" was given in the inspiration of revival to the denomination's founder, Aimee Semple McPherson,