Who we are

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.