LPI Supports Growing Kenyan Preaching Movement
Reflecting on the Kenyan Langham Preaching programme, Yusufu Turaki, a Nigerian pastor, theologian and contributor to the Africa Bible Commentary said, ‘I have been a pastor and professor for a great number of years but this is one of the most exciting things I have seen.’
Over the past 3 years the Kenyan preaching movement has been growing steadily, not least through the sustained training of the annual seminar programme hosted by St Paul’s College in Limuru, through the help of Dr. Esther Mombo. This August 119 participants came from all over Kenya, with 33 attending for the first time, 53 returning for a second level of training, and another 33 returning for the third level of training.
Alongside the seminar programme, the preaching movement encourages local initiatives, through small preachers’ clubs and day workshops.
For this, the fourth seminar at St Paul’s, Biblical exposition was modelled as the book of Ruth was taught each morning. Participants at each level were helped to see the importance of studying the Scripture in its context, understanding its meaning for the first hearers, and then building the bridge from the Biblical world to their contemporary world.
There were very encouraging comments from some of the preachers : ‘I am learning so much and I want to go back now and practise what I have learned.’ One pastor said, ‘I used to preach whatever I wanted, but now I know how to find out what the Bible is saying and how to preach that.’
As a large African country with a strong Christian community, Kenya benefits from several training initiatives for pastors and preachers, not simply the programme organised by Langham Preaching, and there is growing integration between these various projects.
Plans are underway to develop a training of trainers consultation in 2008, which will equip a small team to develop more Langham Preaching Level 1 regional training programmes supported by the local churches, and thus to extend the impact of the preaching movement around the country.
