MissionField News

Kisii town in Kenya

Raising a Radical Generation through Interdenominational Ministry in Kisii Town

by Eric Bosire • 31 March 2023

Kisii town, the capital of Kisii County, lies in the South Nyanza region in Kenya. The town has grown both economically and socially over the years running a 24-hour economy. This town has churches, mosques, and Hindu temples, showing the diversity of religions. It is in this regard that a friend invited me to a midweek Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship. As a Pentecostal, I was a bit skeptical about the idea at first, but as a born-again Christian and my hunger for God’s word, I accepted the invite. 

One fine Thursday evening I found my way to the fellowship. The reception was quite glamorous. The praise, worship, and delivery of God’s word were remarkable, I gave it an applause. I felt the presence of God in the room and since that day, I have been attending the fellowship, the experience has been amazing. In the course of regularly attending, I noticed with a lot of concern that the majority of the attendees are youths. I, therefore, sought to hear more about the ministry from the Senior Pastor, Evangelist Kevin Mosomi who agreed to an interview.  Evangelist Kevin Mosomi is a pastor and also the Kisii county youth president, a political position he holds in conjunction with the government to represent the youth. He comes from Kisii county, above all, he is born again and he loves Jesus Christ as his savior. He is a very busy man, but I was glad he spared some time for an interview. 

Ev. Kevin started by saying that Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship is a ministry that is not affiliated with any denomination. It is free to all denominations and religions, whereby they have people from the Pentecostal church, the Roman Catholic church, and the Seventh Day Adventist attending. They have even succeeded in attracting visitors with pagan backgrounds with the hope of changing their beliefs.

He went ahead and said that Jesus himself was not religious, it is evident from his teachings which included everybody. Therefore, we should not be religious, why should we be religious yet the fellowship is free for all? Their mission is to make the word of God known everywhere. It is why Jesus told his disciples, “go thee and preach the gospel in every corner of the world” (Matt 28:19).

Ev. Kevin said that Kisii town is a mess and the secular world is taking over brainwashing the minds of young people. Therefore, their mission is to save the youth and bring them back to Jesus. He also explained to me about their motto “raising a radical generation”: He said a radical person is somebody who is energized and strong, therefore they are raising people who are passionate and steadfast in the Lord, people who fear and love God. There is a perception that the youth don’t love God, or rather don’t do the work of God. Ev. Kevin wants to change that by raising a radical generation. Raise people who will serve God diligently, do all that is Godly, and win souls back to Christ.

The ministry began in April 2022: It has been in existence for the last 9 months. I asked about the response from the community, Ev. Kevin said that just like any other thing, it has received both positive and negative responses. On the positive side, they have seen the transformation of many youths. So many young people have received Jesus Christ as their savior. The ministry has impacted the youth and made them break out of their comfort zones whereby they know that every Thursday at 4 pm they have to be somewhere giving thanks to the Lord. It has indeed changed the lives of the youth because many of them have testified to quitting bad habits like cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and going to nightclubs. Through this, they have made their bodies pure for the Holy Spirit to intervene and they have committed themselves to the fellowship. Another noticeable thing Ev. Kevin added that when they began the ministry, they had like 80 people attending, but nine months down the line, they are heading to 400 people. The numbers are on an upward trajectory.

The ministry has had its own share of criticism. Ev. Kevin explains this by saying that just like Jesus had critics, their ministry has critics as well, which they faced for a short period of time. He claims that the critics gave up when they saw what the Lord is doing to this ministry. God has lifted this ministry, amazing things are happening. It has brought unity among the pastors and churches in the town by virtue of it being interdenominational, even though not all pastors attend. The Bible says where there is unity God commands a blessing (John 17:11-19).

They hold their fellowship services on Thursdays at 4pm to 8pm, at Kwanza Place mall which is within Kisii's central business district. Before they moved there, they used to fellowship in another place, they were not lucky enough because many people complained about their fellowship. Nonetheless, God has been faithful to them and now they have a place at kwanza mall which is quite familiar to many people around Kisii. The young people have made this fellowship their Thursday church because of the proximity. 

They pay Ksh 5000 (50 US$) for the hall per every meeting. Sometimes it might be challenging to pay because most of them are young people, and not employed, but God is always the provider (Jehovah Jireh), they have never failed to pay for the hall. They have never fundraised or sought help on social media platforms, they rely on tithes, offerings and contributions from the leaders of this ministry. Ev. Kevin quoted the Bible and said that whatsoever you pray believing you shall receive and it shall be yours (Mark 11:24). 

Ev. Kevin has constituted a small group of people who are the leaders of this ministry. The leaders are assigned different roles. I have interacted with these leaders and their commitment to serving God is on another level. They normally hold meetings, the agenda mainly being on how to run the ministry. They have a fantastic working relationship which they attribute to prayers and the word they receive and read every day. 

Though they do not get any help in form of donations or sponsorship from abroad or any other special organizations in Kenya, they pray to God to connect them to “destiny helpers”; these are people who help other people achieve what God has predetermined them to be. Ev. Kevin said when God connects you to destiny helpers, they call that “divine connection”, which brings enlargement to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. They are looking forward to God opening more doors for them because the bible says that God will give them the wealth stored in secret places (Isaiah 45:3) that wealth belongs to them. He went ahead and said that God will bless you in the land He has given you (Deuteronomy 28:8), they believe in those blessings and as time goes by, God will make a way where there seems to be no way (Isaiah 43:19)

From time to time, they invite guest pastors from within Kisii and outside to speak in their services. These are impressive men and women of God with great experience. I had an opportunity to talk to one of them, Pastor Benson Onami. He is an associate pastor at Grace Revival Church Kisii and he is in charge of the praise and worship team. Apart from ministry work, he is a professional marketer, he works for Unilever Kenya as a key distributor manager. He holds a bachelor's degree in business management and finance from Moi university in Kenya. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Business Administration and Strategic Management. Pastor Benson said that the Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship is very impactful in Kisii, especially to the youth. It makes them learn how to live a holy life that is pleasing to God albeit in these challenging times of alcoholism and drug abuse. It instills morals and breaks down religious barriers because everyone in society is included.

Pastors' Perspective on Kisii County Interdenominational Ministry

In my interview with the leader of the Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship. Ev. Kevin indicated that the ministry has had its share of criticism. He said that most pastors are jealous of this ministry because it has commanded a large number of people in a short period. According to him, these pastors have been in ministry for many years, but the numbers in their churches are on the decline or have stagnated for years. The progress of this ministry does not please them. I did not get a comprehensive account of criticism from Ev. Kevin because to him, he is surprised why pastors are jealous about his ministry. I decided to seek more information from other pastors in the town to get their perspective on this ministry.

In my pursuit to reach out to pastors about the Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship I met Rev. Michael (not his real name), a renowned pastor in Kisii town. He leads one of the churches in the town. He has in the past attended a service of Kisii County interdenominational fellowship, therefore he has little experience with it. He began by saying that the fellowship is a good idea because, above all other reasons, it’s a way the body of Christ has been expanded and many have had an opportunity to be drawn to God, in so doing they know more about God, however, as it is in life everything that we do will have its positivity and negativity.

Although he acknowledged Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship as a good concept in the body of Christ, pastor Michael did not shy away from pointing out a few shortcomings. He said that the newness and uniqueness of the fellowship is a challenge to the community because the mainstream churches hold their services on Saturday for the Adventists and on Sunday for the Pentecostals and Catholics. The Interdenominational Fellowship’s services are held on Thursdays, and it being on a weekday does not augur well with the Seventh Day Adventist. The town or rather the region is well dominated by Seventh Day Adventist worshipers. Some of the Adventists tend to feel that this could be a new way of challenging the fact that the day of worship is supposed to be the Sabbath day. The Adventists feel they are being countered on what is right according to them, which is worshiping on the Sabbath day.

Another issue Rev. Michael noted is that of the age factor, a certain age group is taking all the entitlement and feeling as part and parcel of this ministry. The Kisii County Interdenominational fellowship majorly comprises the youth, we have a challenge because the people who are above the youth bracket feel left out while the activities concerning God are supposed to incorporate everybody, when you look at the ministry of Jesus, he had children, the youth and the old people surrounding him. The older generation is left out in this one, they cannot identify themselves with this ministry which contravenes the unity of the body of Christ. The word of God shows there is unity in the body of Christ, the trinity God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit identifies the trinity and unity that works in God’s presence because God is a God of order. Therefore, this ministry according to Rev. Michael should look for a way of making it accommodate all age groups so they grow all round because the Bible says that Jesus grew in stature and wisdom and he pleased God and man (Luke 2:52). 

Rev. Michael sees the difference in worship styles as a big challenge in relation to this ministry. People worship differently from their various denominations in terms of praying, singing, and delivery of the word of God. The young people may be conflicted during all these activities, because the worship style in this ministry inclines to one denomination. This will have an effect in two ways, a person may feel the worship style in this fellowship is good and better than that of their parent church and another will feel the exact opposite, that is their church has a better style of worship than this fellowship. Eventually, they will stop attending because they feel out of place.

There is also the difference in doctrines in this fellowship because of the different denominations. Doctrines are the beliefs that are taught by a church. Every church has its doctrines, some churches don’t believe in speaking in tongues, others believe in short prayers and others have their style of dressing, etc. When many people with different beliefs converge in one place it becomes an uphill task to make them reason together. However, this being the work of God pastor Michael said everything is possible. 

I had another interview with pastor Ruth (not her real name). She was happy and upbeat about this interview. She said that the interdenominational fellowship is one avenue of bringing men and women of God together, knowing that we only serve one God despite the difference in denominations. God is not divided and is God for all. She said it’s a ministry that should be supported so that it can bring us back to the drawing board and do things like the early church which did not have denominations and was called the church of God. 

Having spoken of the goodness of this fellowship, she was quick to highlight some of the drawbacks of this interdenominational fellowship. She stated that when something good like this starts people envy it, especially the men of God, they start raising queries about how fast this ministry has grown in a short time, and they raise false narratives that the fellowship is funded from abroad which is not the case as Ev. Kevin, the leader of the fellowship, made it clear. 

She added and said that this interdenominational fellowship is attracting people from different churches to support it therefore a conflict will emerge between the founder Ev. Kevin and other pastors because these pastors will feel that their members are being taken away. These envious pastors will warn their members from attending this fellowship or else they will be removed from the church membership. In Kenyan churches, pastors have adopted their members to be their spiritual sons and daughters, therefore the emergence of this ministry is disrupting this relationship because pastors feel threatened that they are losing their children.

There is the issue of tithes and offerings, pastor Ruth said that pastors feel that their members will start tithing in this fellowship and forget to tithe in their churches. They will give more or they will divide their offerings between their churches and this fellowship. This will greatly affect the finances of the churches and they will not grow in terms of development and taking care of their expenditure like paying wages and bills. Most churches in Kenya depend on tithes and offerings in running the activities of the church. 

Still on the issue of giving, when some pastors see their financially stable members and good givers supporting this ministry, they will not take it lightly. They will feel threatened because these people might change allegiance. Spiritual matters are very dynamic, a person may feel he/she is getting more blessed in the interdenominational fellowship than his or her church and shift all support in terms of finances and other resources.  In a nutshell, pastors are foreseeing a church emerging out of this interdenominational fellowship. What that means is, they might lose their members to this emerging church, who will they be left with? A church without people is not a church. The pastors fear losing the youth who are the benefactors of this fellowship. The youths are the future of the church. The growth and the unity of the body of Christ is in jeopardy from the conflicts that emerge between pastors and the leadership of Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship. 

In the context of my interview with Rev. Michael I mentioned that the Kisii region is dominated by Seventh Day Adventists. I asked him why he thinks this is so. He said that when the missionaries came to Kenya, they found out that the Catholic Church had taken over most of the provinces in Kenya. They decided to pick an area that had no Catholic dominance, therefore they landed in Kisii. Rev. Michael continued and said that Kisii is the headquarters of the SDA church in Kenya, which has enabled it to build schools, hospitals, and colleges over the years leading to its popularity in the region. 

Further on this issue, I sought to hear from one of the SDA pastors by the name Pastor John (not his real name). Pastor John said that when the missionaries came to Kenya in 1906, they first settled in Kisii land and Luo land (Kisii neighbors) where they started their mission work. He quoted the Bible, “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8) he believes that the missionaries brought this message, and the Kisii people being the first to hear this, have held on to it, that’s why the SDA church is dominant in the region.

Are the Youth Becoming Radical through the Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship?

At the beginning of our article, I mentioned the leader of this fellowship Ev. Kevin said that their motto for this fellowship is raising a radical generation. Raising people who are passionate and steadfast in the lord. Jesus was radical in his ministry by teaching people the importance of loving and caring for one another. He says, “a new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). From the teachings of Jesus, we see that he was radical. Ev. Kevin is challenging the youths of Kisii to become radical like Jesus. I delved into this matter to find out exactly what is happening.

My first conversation was with Makori Evans (not his real name). Makori recently graduated from Kisii University with a bachelor’s degree in Information technology. He started by saying that he is born again and loves Jesus, he got born again in the year 2017 immediately after clearing his high school studies. He continued and said that since joining the fellowship he has met wonderful people and by doing so he has developed a network that he believes is pivotal in his life, especially during this time he is looking for employment.

In this ministry, according to Makori, they don’t exalt the works but exalt the worker, they don’t exalt the miracles but exalt the miracle worker who is Jesus Christ. He has seen a true gospel, that of Jesus being preached in this ministry, every Thursday people are getting saved and he has seen his life being transformed from his attendance. Makori said he has developed a different way of reading the word of God from regularly following the teachings of different preachers every Thursday, he even said that he sees himself being together in spirit with some of the preachers because what is in his Bible study schedule is what is preached in the subsequent sermons. He sees this as a miracle.

Makori said that the different preachers in the fellowship have impacted his life, he has been enlightened to study the word of God every day, and he has learned the importance of fasting and praying. He remembers one speaker saying, “to keep the tempo of the fasted life a person has to say no to sin”, he has seen this working for him. He has seen people receive healing in this fellowship even without hands being laid on them, just from the powerful worship, praise, and the word of God that speaks from the Spirit, the Spirit itself delivers the healing.

Makori went ahead and explained what it means to him to be raised radically in the fellowship. He said it means raising Christ-like people. When Jesus was ascending to heaven he told his disciples that he is sending a helper who is the Holy Spirit, raising a radical generation is done by the help of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to do greater and mighty works than Jesus did. Therefore, Jesus Christ is doing great things by raising a radical generation through this fellowship, the youths are following and having fellowship with the Holy Spirit. God uses people through the Holy Spirit to impact the world.

I sought to know from Makori whether there is a real movement of God through the Kisii County InterdenominationalFellowship. He said indeed there is a move of God through the word and spirit whereby He touches people through worship. People have changed through the music that is sung in the fellowship, this is not just normal music but the spirit ministering. Someone comes in with heaviness and leaves smiling and that is the mighty work of God in this ministry.

We live in a complex world and a lot is happening, especially to the youth, there is unemployment, drugs, substance abuse and high cost of living, etc. I was keen to know from Makori in regards to this if the Kisii County Interdenominational Fellowship makes any sense. Makori was quick to acknowledge that indeed the youths are facing a lot of challenges. He is not left out in these challenges either, but through the fellowship, God has worked tremendously in his life. He said that when a person is in the fellowship, there is something that God does that brings peace that surpasses all human understanding (Philippians 4:6).

He continued and said that they live in tough times but when they come to this fellowship, there is encouragement that comes through the Spirit which has helped him and his fellow youths to navigate through the challenges they face. When they come together they keep on encouraging and giving hope to one another. The Bible says that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). 

Makori believes that seasons come and go, and times come and go, but the word of God remains the same and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Despite the challenges, he is encouraged that Jesus is the same in times of joy and the same in times of sorrow. Makori concluded by saying that the youth should endeavor to be wise and have character to tackle life’s issues. This wisdom comes by Seeking the kingdom of God first (Matt 6:33).

Aaron Ruto (not his real name), a mathematics and computing graduate from the Kisii university, has been regularly attending the fellowship. He says that he has grown spiritually from the word he receives every Thursday. Secondly, for him as a member of the praise and worship team, he has grown musically. He sings and plays the bass guitar, it delights him to hone his skills and worship God through music in the fellowship. 

Kaloki Esther (not her real name) is a fourth-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at Kisii University. She said that she came to know about the fellowship when the host Ev. Kevin came to visit and pray for a fellowship member and a student at their university, who was involved in an accident. 

It was through Ev. Kevin's visit, Kaloki came to know about the Kisii County Interdenominational Ministry. She was later invited to attend the fellowship. Kaloki said the fellowship has made a big impact on her life. She has come to a realization of the importance of God in her life and she has also been able to learn a lot from this ministry. The fellowship has been a blessing to her life. She has met wonderful people, she has known God more and she is serving God more. She says that the fellowship has educated and brought the youth together and they have been taught not to confine to earthly desires and passions. The fellowship has made a great impact on the growth of the youth in general and they have been seen to handle their life much better. 

Kaloki encourages other people besides the youth to join the fellowship because it is interdenominational. She confessed that since she joined the fellowship, she is a changed woman. She has grown both mentally and spiritually and she seems to handle her life problems much better. She has known God better and she has seen how God has manifested his love in her life. She is now a good intercessor because of regularly attending the fellowship. 

Kerubo Melody (not her real name). Kerubo is an actuary by profession and works in Kisii town. She is a regular at the fellowship and said that it has impacted her radically at a personal level because she can have an interaction with God. Yes, she interacts with God daily through prayers but there is just something special about this fellowship that she never wishes to miss. She has set in her mind that every Thursday there is somewhere she is supposed to be; this has helped her because she is committed to a certain course. 

With the intricacies of this world, sometimes Kerubo misses church on Sundays because of her tight work schedule.  She admits attending the fellowship on Thursday evening after work helps to keep her Christianity in check hence leading a righteous life by working out her salvation. She is thankful to God for giving the leader of the fellowship Ev. Kevin the vision. The teachings from the fellowship have been a blessing to her life despite the life challenges, she can maneuver all that comes her way. It’s her prayer always for more grace to continue covering them in everything that they do and to speak over their lives as a fellowship. The fellowship has helped her to identify that truly her purpose, among other things, is to serve God through praise and worship which she enjoys doing. She finally said that she believes she is not there yet, it’s a work in progress. She is looking forward to growing more and knowing God more through this fellowship.

There you have it, from what we’ve heard from Makori, Aaron, Kaloki and Kerubo I can surmise and say that this interdenominational fellowship is indeed truthful in their claim of raising a radical generation and transforming lives of young people in Kisii. It is the right kind of radical, which has played a key role in uplifting the spiritual lives of the youths, they now see life from a different perspective and hence make wise decisions to live a splendid life. The gospel is radical and it is good to be reminded that the gospel is radical. However, the ministry is young; there is the question how things will develop. I am hopeful that this ministry has a great future.

 

Next: Forgiving when it still hurts, by Bosibori Osusu.

 

About the image:
The photo was taken by Eric Bosire.

Suggested citation:
Eric Bosire: Raising a Radical Generation through Interdenominational Ministry in Kisii Town. MissionField News (ISSN 2813-2270) https://missionfield.news/2023/1_Radical_generation 2023-03-31.