A Vision for God's GloryOur ministry burden for Nairobi, Kenya is that we would be intimately involved in evangelism, church planting, and ministerial training. We plan to partner with experienced Kenyan missionaries, a new team of enthusiastic ministers, and Kenyan nationals in church planting and ministerial training ministries.
We are burdened to glorify our Lord in Kenya by advancing an indigenous church planting movement and by theologically influencing and educating the leadership of that movement.
A Strategic Location ~ The capital city of Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital of Kenya, and it is the largest city in East Africa, boasting over three million people. Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, as the population is expected to reach five million by 2016. As one of the most prominent cities in all of Africa, its role as an influential hub for international affairs, business development, government, and culture thrusts it forward as a strategic center for ministry. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of conservative, Bible-believing churches within the Nairobi district. Yet due to Nairobi's location, size, and prominence we believe it holds the key to reaching East Africa's people for Christ.
The Providential Preparation in Nairobi
In God's marvelous providence, He has already provided the land we need in the Lukenya region on the southeast side of Nairobi, which is the only direction that the city can grow. The existing one hundred acres of mission land sits directly on the only trans-African highway that connects Nairobi to all of inland East Africa. All of East Africa's commercial traffic must travel along this highway to carry their goods from the coast to Nairobi and then to branch out to the rest of East Africa. This location along the highway provides exposure to the ministry, quick access to the city's downtown, and ease of access to travel to other regions of the country for teaching and ministry.
Additionally, the Lukenya mission land already contains first class facilities due to the camp work that is presently operating there. Space exists to develop a ministerial training Bible school, and the Lord has provided the mission with a 10,000 volume theological library of contemporary resources. Thus, it has been providentially arranged so that we can focus our ministry on this developing southeast side of Nairobi, utilizing the mission land as our base of operations.
An Assembled Partnership
It is our aim to partner with the assembled missionary team and national pastors to develop an indigenous, sustainable, and reproducible ministerial training program. The facilities and resources on the mission land in Lukenya will allow us to theologically impact the churches of Kenya by providing a base from which to center a residential program, and at the same time we will be able to easily access downtown Nairobi to assist current pastors in training and passing on the things that they have learned. God has given us the privilege of being fellow-workers in the Truth by going out and equipping others to also go out for the sake of His name.
The Task in Kenya
Reaching the lost
We will primarily engage in personal evangelism by developing meaningful, redemptive relationships with people that we frequently come in contact with. It will also be our privilege to assist with the teaching and counseling of the predominantly unsaved campers who attend Camp Lukenya. We will clearly teach the gospel publicly and call for the recipients to respond in faith and repentance. We will lovingly and passionately implore those we meet to repent and believe the Gospel.
Preaching the truth ~ Church planting with Kenyan nationals and fellow missionaries
We will be involved in the planting of churches on Nairobi's growing southeast side. It is our plan to gather the evangelized converts and then nurture the believers through teaching about church life and leadership, answering developing questions, teaching doctrine, and mentoring leaders. However, it is our desire to not only participate in, but also ignite a passion for a church planting movement in the Nairobi region, which then spreads to the rural and coastal regions of Kenya.
We believe the proper goal of cross-cultural church planting is to have churches that are indigenous and self-replicating—free from reliance upon foreign funding. Further, no church planting effort is complete without an exit strategy; what we start in the next decade we want funded and administered by nationals in the time to follow. Thus, it is our desire to plant churches alongside of Kenyan nationals who will be able to pastor the churches after receiving the appropriate theological education. We are devoted to planting self-supporting churches that are not dependent on outside funds in order to exist or expand.
Teaching the hungry ~ Ministerial training program for men who are preparing for ministry
Our efforts at theological training will be a significant aspect of our ministry. We plan to create flexible, quality ministerial training programs. Everything we do will be oriented toward enabling the Kenyan churches to pass on to faithful men the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are designing several different "tracks" for ministry training to accommodate the diversity of life situations in Kenya. These flexible tracks include theological Bible conferences at Lukenya, training in block modules that can be administered in Nairobi and also in the rural areas, and providing a seminary resident program on the mission land. We desire to disciple and train East Africa's future spiritual leadership through these endeavors.
The training of Kenyans in this manner presents other exciting opportunities outside of a church planting movement in Kenya alone. Kenyans who are trained in theology have the potential to reach people in other nearby East African countries, like Sudan and Somalia, which are predominantly Muslim and "closed" to traditional western missionaries. The Africans have the opportunity to reach, preach, and impact the lives of people that we could never touch. Due to these considerations we believe the Lord has brought all these factors together to provide an exciting future for East African missions.
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the work to which God has called us.
