History of Churches of Christ in Meru
THE SETTING AND
HISTORY OF THE MERU MISSION
The Church of Christ is a relative newcomer to the religious scene in Meru, Kenya. Yet the church is making a significant impact which should continue to increase as the church continues to grow.
Kenya
Kenya is a nation of diversity. It is a country of
approximately 225,000 square miles bisected into almost even parts by the equator.
The highland belt, which lies mostly below the equator, comprises two-fifths
of the total landmass. It is a fertile area of good soils and dependable rainfall
that sustains over ninety percent of the country’s agriculture and human
population. The northern three-fifths is marginal desert sparsely inhabited
by nomadic peoples (Kaplan 1962:1).
The country is as culturally diverse as it is physically
diverse. The people live within
forty tribal groupings whose languages come from four major linguistic families.
The population of twenty-four million people grew at 4.1% per year in 1988,
giving Kenya the highest population growth rate in the world (World Population
Data Sheet 1988). This is leading to rising frustrations as limited land resources
and economic gains are outstripped by massive population growth. The majority
of people are agriculturalists who live on family farms in the rural areas with
an average per capita income of $300 per year. There is, however, a growing
urban population which is doubling every ten years. Nairobi, the capital, is
a world class city with a population of over two million souls (Niemeyer 1989:9-10).
English and Kiswahili are the official languages. The government is based on
a modified parliamentary model in which the president serves as both head of
state and head of government. Religious freedom is granted in the constitution.
Kenya has a rich religious heritage. David Barrett
reported twenty percent of the population considered themselves Christians in
1972 (1973:177). While the figure given for professing Christians is nearer
seventy-five percent today, the number of practicing Christians is actually
closer to twenty-five percent (Niemeyer 1989:19), There are significant Islamic
populations along the coast and scattered throughout the inland areas. The Hindu
and Sikh religions are also present among the peoples whose origin is from the
Indian subcontinent.
The Meru people call themselves
Ameru. They are a Bantu tribe who live on the northeastern slopes of Mount Kenya in the
central part of the country. They live among
rugged hills with land that ranges from heavy virgin forests above 8,000 feet elevation to
semi-arid desert at less than 3,000 feet elevation.
The Meru are a fairly homogeneous tribe composed of
nine sub-tribal groups each speaking its own dialect of the Kimeru language.
The population in 2001numbers over 1.3 million people and is increasing at 3.5
percent per year, slightly below the national average (Ombour 1989: l4-l5).
Meru town is the largest urban center with a population of 72,000 people. The
majority of Meru people are subsistence farmers who live on small family farms
where they raise food and cash crops. The fertile land produces a large variety
of food crops, the staples being corn, beans, potatoes, and millet.
Coffee is the most important cash crop followed by tea leaves and cotton.
The average income is somewhat higher than the per capita national
average of $300 per year.
The two most important unifying
aspects of Meru culture have been their age-set system and clan/family system. The age-set
system joined the men together according to their circumcision times. This system provided
the political and social controls which have largely been replaced by the present
governmental administrative system. The clan system followed family ties. It operated as a
security system for the families and provided a work pool. Today the clan has lost some of
its vitality, but the extended family continues to be the major societal relationship for
the Meru people. Typically families live on
two to five acre farms which house the father and his sons and their families. The
influence of the family on the individual is powerful, affecting every major decision of
life. It can truly be said of the Ameru that there is no individual; each person is a part
of a multi-individual, mutually interdependent whole.
Religiously, the Meru people originally followed a
tribal based traditional African religion. This traditional religion disintegrated
rapidly in the 1950’s and 60’s until it is of little significance
today. The first Christian witness
began in 1911 when four Consolata priests established a mission in the central
area. The Methodists began their first mission in Meru in 1913. In 1984, they
reported 40,000 members. Other
denominations working in Meru are the Presbyterians, Baptists, and a variety
of Pentecostal churches and African Independent churches. While a random street
survey would indicate that everyone was a Christian, it was our best estimate
in 1984 that less than twenty percent of the Meru people were meaningfully involved
with any Christian religious group (Church Growth 1984: 47). Much of the remainder
live rather rudderless lives, seeking direction either from the increasingly
ineffective social patterns of old or an amoral materialism.
The Church of Christ in Meru drinks deeply of its cultural
setting. Meru people tend to enter
the church through the multi-individual, mutually interdependent conversions
of family units. The language of the church, in its life and worship, is Kimeru.
The dialect differences of the sub-tribes are reflected in the natural grouping
of the Meru church into three divisions. Inter-congregational fellowship is
most active within the division. The patterns and cycles of the worship and
activities of the church revolve around the rhythm of life which reverberates
from the heart of Meru culture. The Church of Christ in Meru is, indeed, a Meru
church.
The Churches of Christ entered Kenya in 1965 (Kenya
Mission Team 1980:126). For the next fifteen years, the church was concentrated
in western Kenya and Nairobi, moving into other areas only since 1983. The church
now has over 15,000 active members in 600 congregations across the country.
The first contact in the Meru area was made in 1979.
This contact was a correspondent student of the church’s World Bible School
program named Ambrose Gichunge. Ambrose was baptized by missionaries from Nairobi
in 1979. With periodic help from the Nairobi based missionaries, a small congregation
was established in his village of Luiri in 1980 in the Igembe area in the northeast
corner of Meru. From this first contact other congregations began at Kibilaku
(1980), Kanthiari (1981), Andula (1982), and Antubociu (1983). These were the
five congregations which existed when the first mission team of the Churches
of Christ entered Meru in 1983. The membership figures, the churches gave, indicated
125 members, though the actual number of faithful members was closer to fifty.
The original team of missionaries to the Meru was organized
in 1982 and consisted of the David French, Sam Thomas, Stan Granberg, Richard
Trull, and Bruce McLarty families. These families used available missions research
and interviews with missionaries to select three tribes which were evaluated
on a survey trip in January 1983. Based on the four criteria of receptivity,
a population where at least fifty percent were unchurched, a tribal unit over
350,000 people, and adequate living conditions, the Meru tribe was selected.
The team entered the field over a six-month period of time in 1983 and 1984.
Three of the original families left the field prematurely during their first
term. The Granbergs and Trulls remained by themselves from 1985 to 1987 when
they were joined by the Roger Pritchett family. In 1990, two new families and
a single joined the work. The Mark Nicholas family came to do evangelism and
church planting and the Keith Williams family to head up the development program.
Lavonne Taylor teaches school to most of the eleven children on the team. Bill
and Cathy Searcy and their family arrived in Meru in January 1992.
The Meru mission team has been guided
from the beginning by a philosophy of church growth; the belief that God wants local
fellowships of believers to come into existence and to grow in quantity and quality (Kenya
Mission Team, 1980:5). We believe that the central task of the church, as summarized by
Jesus in Mt. 28:18-20, is to communicate the gospel to unbelievers, then to incorporate
the believers into living, multiplying congregations. This task gives definition to our
mission. First, it defines our mission role as communicators who go to and identify with
the people in order to communicate the gospel to them using the language and ideas which
will most readily allow them to understand, accept, and practice the will of God. Second,
it defines our mission work as church planting; the incorporating of individual believers
into local fellowships of the Body of Christ (churches) and the maturing of those bodies,
within their cultural context, until they have the maturity of knowledge, ability, and
personnel to sustain the body, mature the members, and produce other fellowships of
believers (Church Growth Among the Meru 1984:6-7).
The missionaries spent their first two years focused
on language and culture learning. During this learning period three new work
areas were opened outside the Igembe region. The Igane church began in 1984
in the Imenti area of central Meru. The Mukuuni church began in 1985 in the
Chuka region in the south, and the Miathene and Kalimba churches began in 1985
in Tigania of north central Meru. The Igane and Mukuuni churches seeded clusters
of churches which have arisen around them in their respective areas.
Also in 1984, the mission team wrote their first major church growth
study which formed the base from which all subsequent studies have been written.
The study showed 210 faithful, baptized members in six churches and three
preaching points.
Three teaching points of 1984 at Miathene, Kalimba,
and Mukuuni grew into churches in 1985, even though furloughs were begun the
latter half of that year for both the Granbergs and Trulls. The year 1986 saw
one church planted at Gankere. This was also the year that we began our LTEE
(Leadership Training by Extension for Evangelism) program. One hundred and fifty
men and women have participated in this program since 1986. The following year
was a mixed year of growth. The church experienced its highest AGR of 50%.
Five new churches were begun: Akinga, Ikuu, Kiria, Kirindini, and Kathagara.
The team wrote its second major church growth study during 1987. This study
showed 401 members in fifteen organized churches and three preaching points.
In 1988 seven churches were started and two were lost.
In 1989 the mission team began a development program focusing on teaching church
communities how to use appropriate technology building methods and intensive
gardening techniques. This program was designed to strengthen the churches by
encouraging them to build church buildings, helping them organize more effectively,
and establishing them as permanent parts of their communities. Also in 1989,
the Leaders’ Meetings program was begun. This program gathers together
church leaders and evangelists in each division on a quarterly basis for teaching,
encouragement, planning, and prayers. One church gained and one lost offset
each other for no net growth in churches. In 1990, the development side showed
some success as the first church buildings were roofed using the fiber-cement
tiles made by church members and plans were made to build several permanent
buildings. There were three new churches begun and two lost. Three congregations
were given titled land by church members for this purpose. Two new congregations
began at Kithaene and Bwetha, each swelling to over seventy-five members in
their first three months.
By 1993, the number of churches had increased to 32
congregations. That same year,
the mission team began to slowly phase-out of the work in Meru.
It was anticipated that some team members would remain until 2001 or
2002. Tragically, the team suffered
the death of one of its members, Cathy Searcy, that same year.
The Granbergs, having been on the field ten years, and Williams phased-out
of the work shortly afterwards. The
Trulls phased out in 1994, after ten years.
This left the Nicholas, the Pritchetts, and Bill Searcy to continue the
work.
As of July of 2001, there are no longer any missionaries
residing in Meru. The Pritchett
and Searcy families phased-out in 1997 and 1998.
There are approximately forty-two churches in Meru and with 1800
total members. The churches continue
to grow spiritually, working together in their local areas, and the leadership
of many of the congregations continue to mature.
When possible the Trulls make yearly visits to do follow-up
work and leadership training.
REFERENCES
CITED
Barrett, David
1973
Kenya Churches Handbook Nairobi • Kenya: Evangel Press.
Kaplan, Irving
1982
Kenya A
Country Study, Washington, D.C.: Foreign Area Studies.
The Kenya Mission Team
1980
Church Planting, Watering, and Increasing in Kenya, Austin, TX:
Firm Foundation
Publishing House.
Meru Mission Team
1984
Church Growth Among the Meru: A Church Growth Study of Churches of
Christ in Meru, Kenya --1984. Unpublished study.
Niemeyer, Larry
1989
Summary of the Nairobi Church Survey, Nairobi, Kenya: Daystar
University
College.
Ombuor, Joe
1989
The Land That Has It All,” Daily Nation, October 2.
World Population Data Sheet
1988
World Population Data Sheet, Washington, D.C.: Population
Reference
Bureau,
1988.