This blog is hosted by
elders/pastors of three churches: Grace Baptist Church-Kisumu, Bethesda Baptist
church (Nairobi) and Grace Baptist Church-Eldoret. Out of the five Reformed
Baptist churches in Kenya that are in urban setting these three came together
last year to form an association that will help indigenous Kenyans to see their
role in propagating the doctrines of grace in this beloved nation.
Who we are:
‘Reformation Carried Forward by Kenyans’ (‘ReCFoK’) is an
association of Reformed Baptist churches in Kenya of like minded people and
same profession of faith (1689 Baptist
Confession of Faith) that believe in sensitizing and empowering local believers
to run the show of Reformed work in line with biblical mission.
Vision:
As
befits our Lord; to have self propagating Reformed churches in major towns in
Kenya.
Mission:
-
Raise partners in this vision both locally and
abroad.
-
Train and post men in cities of Kenya to plant
biblical churches.
-
Support and encourage churches in the
association.
-
Run conferences and fraternal for members of the
association.
In the providence of God,
Reformed work was introduced to our land in the early seventies with its base
in Nairobi. Much of its extension work has been concentrated in the rural parts
of Kenya, mostly in the Western and Eastern. These churches are yet to achieve
and experience independence. This scenario can be explained by the fact that it
is relatively easier for an urban church plant work to be self sustaining and
independent of the parent church than a rural church plant work. Also, it is
easier for the urban church to influence the rural work with the gospel by
releasing men to church plant in the rural than the rural church influencing urban
in the same way. As they say, ‘rivers only flow downstream and not up stream.’
The Reformed church work in Kenya
has experienced many and unique challenges. While Pentecostal charismatic churches
come and righty target urban centres hence influencing major towns and larger
part of the nation, Reformed work has exerted its energy in the rural with
minimal influence to the urban folks hence we have remained insignificant and unnoticed
in the Christian arena in this country. It is unfortunate that at a time when an
increasing number of people are looking for places of serious biblical
ministry, what are readily available are centres of Christian mediocrity. We in
the ‘ReCFoK’ believe that unless the work of Reformation in Kenya is well
thought through, with clear planning, and having the right strategy it will not
make the desired impact. We are therefore convinced that it is time for a
paradigm shift. We are committed to the following which we believe hold the
future of the Reformed work in Kenya:
1)
Conscious
planning and strategy to plant churches in urban areas. Kenya has over forty
million people with about 42 ethnic groups. We have eight administrative
provinces. Current statistics show that the provincial head quarters (towns)
host a total of close to 10 million people. Nairobi alone has close to four
million people yet we are only aware of not more than four Reformed churches (where
the Doctrines of Grace are faithfully preached) with total Sunday attendance
not more than three hundred. (Compare this with Lusaka Zambia which is much
smaller but has over ten Reformed churches on the move!). If this statistic is
transposed to over 150 urban centres in Kenya, it follows that the greater
population of Kenya are practically urban dwellers; this has been caused by the
rural urban drift.
Good sense will
direct mission work to urban centres. This explains why Apostle Paul was more interested
in cities like Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae and Thessalonica. This large
population that was very mobile would carry the word of God to many other
unreached areas.
2)
Training
men for ministry. There is need to train men to fulfil the vision of ‘ReCFoK.’
The trained men will be sent to do the church plant work in these many cities.
Already a Bible School has been started in Kisumu (third largest city) which
was inaugurated in March this year (2012) with eight students ready to go all
the way to earn their degrees in theology after four years of training. We are
partnering in this with our Zambian brethren who have been quite helpful to us
in many ways.
3)
Conferences.
It is our desire to hold family conferences every year during the month of
December in which we invite people from all walks of life to be taught the word
of God. Last year we held the very first conference and the response was
encouraging as reported elsewhere in this blog.
4)
Partnership.
We believe that the task before us is so enormous, just as enormous as the
family of Christ worldwide is. We therefore wish to co-labour and partner with
the people of God from every part of the globe. ‘ReCFoK’ is therefore not
exclusive so long as we work with people of like mind and vision. This has been
demonstrated by our co-labouring with the Zambians who are fully involved in
our conference and running of the college mentioned above, ‘The Kisumu Reformed
School of Theology’ (KReST). ‘HeartCry’ missionary society from the USA has
been our great partner in this as well including friends from the UK and the USA.
We pray that together we will change the Reformation landscape of our great
nation Kenya and influence many with biblical ministry of the Doctrines of
Grace.
