More Stuff…

The church in Kenya seems to be taking a more active role in the society than before, especially in the political scene. There was a time when only a few mainstream churches would dare to get involved in the murky business of politics and governance. I recall, it was during the early 1990's when Kenya was about to become a multiparty system from a one-party regime, that some of the church leaders came out fighting strongly and helped the country change one of the clauses on our constitution that would usher in democracy. In recent times, 2010 to be exact, the church came out again and showed her stand on the political scene. This time it was the constitution, something that Kenyans have desired to have in the last two decades. The church (at least mainstream denominations) made it clear that they would have nothing to do with it, because of two contentious issues which seemed to contradict or rather go against the church's teaching. The clause on human rights- specifically on abortion, and another on marriage. Now, I do not wish to go into details about the contents of the constitution and whether the church was right or wrong. But I do think it is important for us to consider what is the right response for the church to issues such as these. I know we all have different views when it comes to the church and the world and how or to what extent, the church should be involved in matters pertaining to politics, education, sports etc. I think this is something the church in Kenya, and especially those in leadership need to learn.

Also

A couple of weeks I read an article by one of the daily's journalists. Kenya just had a census and it was such a shock to me to find out that the 'so called' largest slum in Africa or even the world, is not the largest slum after all. What is true however, is that Kibera does have the highest number of non-governmental organizations, Christian and secular, in the world. The article raised a lot of questions as to why the government would allow for such a lie to be spread all over the world. The author also noted that most Kenyans, if not all, believe the 'lies' about Kibera as well... The church, is of course heavily involved in providing relief and rehabilitation to the people in Kibera and other slums around the country. This raises questions a lot of questions of course and I do not want to get into that either, but I think this does demonstrate in some way, the power of information. It is because of this information (false- I would argue) spread in the media that Kibera has received such a big attention from the rest of the world and has been the focus for many relief and rehabilitation efforts. How should the church respond to this? I haven't figured this one out...

What do these stories have to do with the CRC?

The CRC's goal is to impact the life of the church in Kenya by providing resources for pastors whom God has entrusted with his flock, to shepherd them and shepherd them well. I would humbly suggest that with the church's involvement in all these aspects of life, there needs to be a biblical training on how the church should respond to these issues. It is very easy for the church to lose her focus and concentrate on pursuing goals which are not really her primary calling and mandate. My hope is that the CRC will be a place where pastors and the Kenyan community can find biblically sound material to help shed light or even challenge their stand on some of these matters.