The Implication of Emotional Intelligence in the Paradigm Shift of Mainline Churches into Pentecostalism Behaviour in Ogbomosho, Nigeria

Abstract

Pentecostal behaviour is an attitude that drives followers of Christ with the fundamental movement of the Holy Spirit based on experience and the expressions of charismatic phenomena. Emotional intelligence is "the ability to allow an individual to deal successfully with other people, to manage oneself, motivate others, understand one's own feelings, and respond appropriately to everyday environment. Emotional intelligence is an approach which was assumed to be missing in the ways and manners of managing/administering the mainstream churches. This paper was designed to investigate the implication of emotional intelligence in the paradigm shift of Pentecostal behaviour into the mainstream churches. The paper adopts an interpretive philosophy within which an in-depth investigation through semi-structured interview was employed to understudy intuitive knowledge based on intuition, faith, beliefs, and many more. It was observed that human feelings play greater role in intuitive knowledge compared to reliance on facts and figures. The study focused on how emotional intelligence can be used to manage the introduction of Pentecostal behaviour in practice within the youth and other members of mainstream or orthodox churches especially the Baptist churches in Ogbomosho. The paper discusses the implication of emotional intelligence in line with the use of Holy Spirit among church pastors and youth pastors in 6 selected churches in Ogbomosho. The selected churches were founded in the last twenty years, at the time churches were not required to do things the same way it was done in the past decades. The findings from the discussions reveal that pastors in mainline churches are structure centered rather than members centered negating the position of evangelism. The study concludes that with the introduction of emotional intelligence in the mainline church ministry and careful understanding of human feelings to spiritualism especially the position of Holy Spirit, pastors in the mainline churches can manage their youths and other members carefully and can create more knowledge of how church members can relate cordially among one another.