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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Rise of urban and funky churches, and how they changed worship

National

By Manuel Ntoyai | Jul 14, 2024

**Bishop Allan Kiuna founded JCC alongside his wife Kathy in 1999.** [File, Standard]

Decades ago, towards the end of the 1990s, the exodus from organized religion that began with Generation X and was further accelerated by Millenials became a worrying development for those in mainstream churches.

Established churches, Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and AIC among others, began to lose numbers to emerging evangelicals where young and well-educated men and women launched their own church missions. Inspired by the US, where church ministries were huge, preachers ran online services with mesmerizing television presence which caused change in Kenya.

Enter the new swanky churches where pastors rocked T-shirts and jeans, wore the latest kicks and would mingle with celebrities, with the modern preaching embracing the glitterati lifestyle from the pulpit to attract the youth.

Jubilee Christian Church (JCC) was born in 1999, with Bishop Allan Kiuna, who died on Tuesday, as its leader, alongside his wife Kathy, who was the praise and worship leader. The swag they brought was unrivalled and enchanting to the many mesmerised city youth who had seen such only on TV. It was associated with the young popular preachers abroad.

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“God has no issue with you getting blessed. God is a God of abundance. It is us who have issues with preachers getting blessed and preachers living well,” the late cleric once stated during the Churchill Show.

“When I was a young man, I used to go to this church where young people were contained in a corner. When we started JCC, we said we were going to create a platform for young people to come and have a good time in the church. So we dance, shut, celebrate and just have a good time because Jesus is wonderful,” he said.

With his wife Kathy being a singer, many gospel artists would flock to the church where they felt at home with their locks and rugged clothing that would otherwise be seen as blasphemous in other mainstream churches.

Her song Never Give Up On God featuring Jamaican reggae and gospel singer Chavelle Franklin had a hoard of gospel stars including Emmy Kosgei, Size 8 Reborn, DJ Moh, and Mercy Masika among others.

“There was a new wave about having a worship experience and the new movement was able to fill in the with new ideas. Many decided to go the youthful way and ended up opening their own ministries,” says Pastor Stephen Nzusa of We Pray Ministries.

Pastor Nzusa says the new movement began to gain traction due to their ability to define liturgy, leadership, and practices outside the usual confines of mainstream churches.

There was a paradigm shift from youth ministries in the 2000s with new thinkers revisiting incarnational youth ministry with some fresh ideas, most notably.

“This development was influenced by modern recording-house-based project churches such as Hillsong, Bethel and Jesus Culture, Pastor Joyce Meyer on TV and so on,” Nzusa says.

Nzusa says as a minister, he has been forced to redesign how he delivers his summons where he also uses sheng when preaching.

“As ministers, we have to understand the young people’s ways and change our ways of delivery but not the message. That is key to having them in the church where they will feel ownership of the gospel. We have teens who now go to the streets at the National Archives, do their evangelical missions in sheng, to fellow young people,” he adds.

Another popular denomination in Kenya is Mavuno Church, whose strategy of reaching out to the unchurched young adults is summed up in the Mavuno Marathon. The Marathon is a discipleship tool that a new believer goes through to help them grow spiritually.

Media personality Kush Tracey says there has been a need to go with the times in ways that bring young people closer to God.

“Young people are more concerned with personal relationships with God over religion. I dress comfortably and conveniently and put on cool shoes and there is nothing wrong with that,” she says.

Kush Tracey attends Ruach Tabernacle along Kiambu Road which is headed by Rev Julian Kyula, the founder and senior pastor.

“Our pastors are approaching this issue with a youthful mindset knowing that the young people are more informed and exposed to different cultural settings. They always fit in whether in dressing or even in the language used,” she says.

Last week, the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Mbeere Diocese in Embu established a youth and sports outreach programme to reach out to young people in the community.

The approach, according to Bishop Rt. Rev Moses Masamba, will go a long way in enhancing talents among young people as well as instilling family values.

“We feel this is an attractive way of engaging young people, to create a platform to promote the prevention of social ills such as crime, alcoholism, drug abuse and teenage pregnancies,” he said during the event.

Bryan Mwashigadi, the youth pastor at Deliverance Church Zimmerman, says there are lessons that the older generation can learn from today’s Gen Z in churches.