Conversational Discourse Strategies of Selected Nigerian Pentecostal Church Sermons

This research examines the conversational strategies that two Nigerian Pentecostal church preachers employ in order to engage their congregation while delivering sermons. The sermons of Archbishop Benson Idahosa and Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo were selected as a representation of Nigerian Pentecostal churches with a view to identifying and examining the conversational discourse features prominent in Pentecostal church sermons and the role they play in influencing audience participation as well as achieving the preachers’ goal. Schegloff’s conversational analysis framework was adopted in the study. The theory provides a comprehensive and organised framework which allows for identification of the fundamental structure, dynamics and rhetorical devices used in this religious discourse. Audio-visual versions of sermons were downloaded from the internet and transcribed manually by the researcher, highlighting the conversational discourse strategies in the sermons. The findings reveal that Pentecostal church sermons are replete with conversation features such as turn-taking, adjacency pairs, opening and closing, repair mechanism, verbal and non-verbal features. It was also observed that Pentecostal preachers present their sermons using discourse strategies such as elicitation, summons, declaration, songs, storytelling, etc. to engage their congregation. Contrary to the traditional belief that sermons are monologues, the study showed that Pentecostal church sermons display some high level of conversational features which preachers carefully employ to elicit desired responses from their congregation thereby engaging them in the process of sermonising.