About the Journal
The Dictionary of African Pentecostal-Charismatic Biographies (DAPCB) is an annual Open Access publication devoted to telling the inspiring stories of pastors, missionaries, evangelists, lay leaders, and other remarkable Pentecostal practitioners who have shaped the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement across Africa and the diaspora. This journal exists to honour these pioneers, capture their mission, achievements, struggles, and personal journeys and make their legacies accessible to everyone: researchers, students, church communities, and the wider public.
After a century of Pentecostal-Charismatic mission in Africa and the African diaspora, a significant number of the pioneering and founding leaders who made remarkable contributions to the movement's emergence, growth, and dissemination, and who have left a lasting impact on its history, have passed away. The subsequent generation, who had the privilege of working along with these influential figures, is also gradually departing. The profound contributions and mission practices of these individuals across the Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition in Africa and the African diaspora have not been comprehensively documented for the benefit of future generations. While a limited number of scholarly works have been dedicated to some of these individuals, these are regrettably inadequate given the extensive number of pastors, missionaries, apostles, evangelists, teachers, lay leaders, and others who have dedicated themselves to the cause and yet remain unnoticed.
The Dictionary of African Pentecostal-Charismatic Biographies aims to function as a central repository where the missionary activities, accomplishments, and noteworthy contributions of such distinguished individuals can be critically evaluated and recorded for future generations within Pentecost University’s Open Access research portal.
Annually, a call for papers will be issued to invite scholars capable of producing concise biographical profiles of prominent pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders from the Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition in Africa and the African diaspora.
All submissions will undergo a rigorous blind peer-review process, ensuring the highest standards of academic integrity and quality. We believe in sharing these important stories without barriers, so there are no publication fees, and every article is freely available through Pentecost University’s Open Access research portal.
We hope that this Dictionary of African Pentecostal-Charismatic Biographies will achieve the following:
- Enrich existing knowledge about some of these trailblazers and inspire people to follow in their footsteps.
- Make knowledge of such valuable contributions accessible to posterity and future researchers.
- Resolve the confusion about some of the facts that are shared about certain people differently within the church.
- Give insight into how they lived their lives and how they felt about the world around them.
- Help us to appreciate the conditions under which they worked and whilst achieving significant accomplishments
- Learn from their successes and failures, their strengths and weaknesses.
- Discern models and develop praxis from their mission to guide the current generation and the generations unborn.
- Inspire faith transmission from their contributions to encourage contemporary ministers and missionaries to press on towards the goal.
