Situating the African Ngwa Clan in Acts 17:15-34: An Efficient Missiological Method

Abstract

Paul‟s method of mission and worship in Athens as recorded in Acts 17 brought success to missions in his time. Some missionaries have in one way or the other enforced one style fits all to worship and missions which brought about rejections, hatred and crisis in some cultures against the gospel. This study investigated Paul‟s methods of soul winning in Acts 17:15-34 Vis-a viz African Ngwa Culture with the objective to situate Ngwa culture in the context of the text to make the gospel mission relevant. The chosen text was analyzed using historical grammatical method and interviews analyzed thematically. Hence, the study discovered that Paul made careful observations of existing culture, acknowledged and used the indigenous cultural elements without discarding them, familiarized himself with the people, starting from the known to the unknown which brought success to mission in Athens. The study therefore concludes that situating African Ngwa culture in context of the chosen text by applying Paul‟s method will reduce to minimum crisis, hatred and rejection to the gospel in Ngwa Culture.