Christian diversity and community development in VIHIGA District, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the efforts by development thinkers and practitioners to eradicate poverty, it has remained a feature of the society in most Third World countries. This has stirred further global search for better solutions to the poverty crisis. It is in this regard that religion, particularly Christianity, has been involved in the development process, not just in terms of spiritual contributions, but also in material enhancement. This involvement is based on Christ's approach to his evangelistic mission and his command of love for God and neighbour as the overriding commandment. The prevalence of Christian diversity then, may be assumed to be a boon for community development. Whereas some scholars have historicized the diverse nature of Christianity in Kenya and the perceived effect to people's spiritual lives, there is scarce information on how these diverse Christian groups within a specific region contribute to people's spiritual and economic development. This study investigates how the different Christian denominations and movements have interpreted the Biblical concept of holistic development and how they have applied their interpretations to community development activities in Vihiga district. The study is premised on the Biblical concept of holistic development which is an allembracing human progress that takes care of all facets of human life. This is in line with Christ's gospel in which he fed the hungry, healed the sick, taught the law, and preached the Word. This holistic package is a universal aspiration for all churches so as to ensure an improved livelihood for the suffering humanity. The study used both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 424 respondents consisting of church leaders, lay leaders, church members, community members, social workers, and community elders, were sampled. Simple random, purposive, and snowball " sampling procedures were used to sample the respondents. Oral interviews, questionnaire method, and focus group discussions were used to collect data from the respondents. Case studies and observation methods were used to validate the information obtained through oral interviews and questionnaire methods. Secondary data was sourced from published and unpublished literature. The study used both descriptive and inferential means to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicate that majority of the diverse Biblical interpretations of the churches in Vihiga emphasize the relevance of integrating both spiritual and material development. Most churches therefore are involved in both spiritual enhancement and community development. The leading explanations for this involvement showed that this kind of integration is first, Christ's command, and secondly, a way of evangelizing. Consequently, the churches in Vihiga have used varied ways of evangelizing as well as different approaches to community's development activities. Whereas open-air crusades, Sunday schools for the young children, and provision of material needs for the poor are ways commonly used in evangelism, giving of handouts, capacity building, departmental approach, partnership with Government and NGOs, community mobilization, among other approaches, have been used to ensure material development. v Following the application of these approaches, development activities such as provision of health services, education, child development, HIV and AIDS awareness, care for widows and aged, guidance and counseling, and, agricultural activities among others, were undertaken by the Church to promote development in Vihiga district. This provides a basis for this study to posit that Christian diversity has positively contributed to community development in Vihiga district. In addition, there are noted indicators of spiritual development such as establishment of many churches, availability of preachers/priest in the numerous churches, availability of spiritual literature to followers of different denominations, diverse prayer groups in the different churches, people's commitments in spiritual activities, among others. These were pointers towards growth of Christianity in Vihiga district. We therefore conclude that Christian diversity has positively contributed to people's spiritual growth in the district. The study observes that despite these positive contributions there are challenges to development activities as well as weaknesses to churches' approaches to development. It therefore recommends Bryant's model of participatory development. This model takes a Biblical perspective of what gives life to God's people, thus, the 4 - D model of Discovery, Dream, Design, and Delivery.