GEOFFREY, A WITNESS OF JESUS CHRIST

I became a member of the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK), Nakuru, in 1978, and for several years, I was taught the ways of the church and carried on an extensive study of the Bible. I became an ordained church elder ten years later and was charged with leading the neighborhood fellowship at Kivumbuini and the elder who was assigned leadership before me. The fellowship congregation at Paul Machaga grew, and we were moved to a more significant meeting area in Kivumbini. I later relocated my family from Paul Machanga Estate to Kivumbini number four to a bigger house near the meeting facility. The house we moved in belonged to a young single person who had opened his home for Christians to use. 

Kivumbini fellowship had fourteen locations, where members of the congregation lived. Six connections met once a week. On Sundays, we all worshiped together in Langa Langa church. The Langa Langa church grew to become the largest church in the area. Members of the congregation who had land in Ngachura and Munyeki farms established an extension of the church to the area outside Nakuru town with about six worship centers. I was one of the elders who went to help preach the Word in those worship centers, including Nyonjoro farm in Lanet, Kabatini, Murunyu in Ngachura, and Munyeki farm. The church continued to grow into the outskirts of the town. There was only one Pastor, and the church elders assisted himpreach th gospel.

THE CHANGE AND THE CHURCH

The church’s drastic growth saw twenty-six churches, which created the need for leadership reorganization in the church. The decision was to have more pastors instead of having the churches’ elders under one Pastor’s leadership. 

One member suggested that the best way to implement change was to throw the existing leadership out of the Langalanga Church. He indicated that an elder is picked by five muscular guys and thrown out of the church-their Bibles were then thrown out to them. This idea worked. The elders were thrown out of the church one at a time, and when the Pastor saw what was happening, he followed them out. The new leaders renamed the church Worldwide Full Gospel Church under the USA umbrella. The leaders threw out maintained Kenya National Gospel Churches under the Finland missionary founded in 1949 in Kisumu. The conflict was resolved in court, where a judge’s ruling upheld that FGCK keep their name and property, and the Worldwide Full Gospel Church relocated a new site.

I left FGCK on the Sunday the elders were thrown out of the church. The Pastor followed the elders – five of them were thrown out, and a number of the congregation also walked out. The Pastor asked another church to host us under their licensure until we got our own. We rented a large facility, reorganized our leadership, and selected more elders from the group. We got a license under the name the Holy Spirit Revival Center (HSRC), and with the Pastor at the helm, the church began growing again.

Later on, HSRC split into two; the Word of Life and HSRC, and the leading Pastor left the World of Life group. HSRC was reorganized, and I was chosen as the chairman and ordained as a supreme pastor, a position I have held in HSRC until today. HSRC thrived, and the congregation grew to a point where benches had to be squeezed in to fit the new members. It was not long before external and internal conflict influenced members to change the church’s name from HSRC to Holy Spirit Spring Revival Center (HSSRC) to push the leading Pastor out. The competition found it was into the court of law, a suit that took seven years to resolve, and by then, many members had left the church. Finally, the court ruling concluded that HSRC and the leading Pastor were to remain on the premises, and the new church, HSSRC, had to vacate the premises. 

I was to retire from the municipal council in Nakuru in two years, and this would give me more time to be fully engaged with the church ministry. We had three worship centers, in Nakuru town, Wangũhũ farm, and Gwakīongo. As the congregation dwindled in Nakuru, paying the rental fee was a huge burden, so the church was closed down. We maintained the other two locations, Wanguhu farm, and Gwakīongo. 

What I have observed in all these years is that leadership survives for about ten years before the new generation demand change. If change is not considered, the new generation finds ways of enforcing change. This happens in our homes – when children grow up, they go from relying on you the entire time and looking for a change in their life, away from the parents’ control or influence. When the church fails to listen to its congregation’s voices, the church loses purpose to its service.