Paper short abstract:

This presentation approaches the call to pastorship in Ghana through a theo-economic angle, seeking a non-reductionist understanding of the relation between neoliberal immanence and Christian transcendence in contemporary Africa.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation approaches the ministerial call in Ghana through a theo-economic angle, seeking a non-reductionist understanding of the relation between neoliberal immanence and Christian transcendence in contemporary Africa. Expanding upon Max Weber's classic analysis of Beruf in early Protestant Capitalism and contemporary theories about affective labor, I approach Lighthouse Chapel International's (LCI) theology of the calling against the background of its "church labor ethics". I argue that, rather than reacting to the neoliberal economy as an exogenous material force, LCI's organizational structures absorb aspects of neoliberal rationality for distinctively Christian ends. Such synthesis allows the overlapping of a zealous ethics of conviction with managerial professionalism. The tensions between these value systems are both animated and balanced by a minimalist theology of the calling, in which the call to ministry is rendered coeval with desire.