Church and Community Development and Empowerment in Northern Kenya

Church and Community Development and Empowerment in Northern Kenya

Travelling across Africa, it is inspiring to see so many initiatives that are seeking to empower people to harness local skills and resources to serve and develop their churches and communities. And it is clear that, as external resources become harder to source, this movement is vital for the sustainability and development of local churches and communities.

It was therefore an honour to be invited to lead a training workshop for Ministers in Northern Kenya on Church and Community Development and Empowerment. In so doing, I focused exclusively on examples from across Africa to encourage and inspire the participants.

So it was that on Saturday 21 January, some 40 lay and ordained ministers, women and men, from across northern Kenya, many from challenging rural contexts, gathered together at the Miathene Synod Office, north of Meru. After an Introductory session that set the scene with stories from within Africa, we lay the foundations for the day by breaking into a group Bible Study session on passages that highlight the nature of mission, community and discipleship. Rooted in the biblical mandate and recognising that the participants are the experts in their context, this participatory activity set the positive tone for the whole day.

The content of the rest of the morning looked at the principles and process of Church and Community Transformation and we looked at the signs of a ‘healthy’ church. I am grateful to Tearfund for their brilliant material on this subject. Again, using examples from across Africa, we explored the importance of working with the community and with other ‘stakeholders’ in whatever context, including other churches. There followed an exercise in ‘mapping’ the local community in identifying ‘partners’ with whom we can work in order to serve the community’s needs. It was moving and encouraging to see the excitement with which the participants embraced this approach.

In the afternoon, I led a session sharing inspiring illustrated examples from across Africa in both rural and urban settings, of how the local church, often with minimal resources, is empowering local people to achieve great things, often through very simple strategies and utilising local skills and resources. In the plenary session, the excitement was palpable as ideas emerged in abundance from the ministers in how they might be able to apply some of what they had learnt, in their local contexts.

It was humbling to see the enthusiasm and gratitude at the end of the day. Afterwards, I was asked if I could stay in Kenya to repeat the day at the National Synod, and have been invited to repeat the workshop in other synods in Kenya and in Uganda. Just a few days later, I was told that quite a few Superintendents had already started preparing strategies for Community Development Initiatives in their Circuits.

Such initiatives are one way in which partnership can be so constructive and positive. The expertise for this day lay in the participants themselves. All that was needed was to inspire and nurture what was already there and to ‘light the spark’ that I hope and am told will bear fruit and nurture a greater sense of capacity and sustainability in all parts of our church family.

Dr. Andrew Ashdown

Partnership Coordinator for Africa.

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