Destructive Competition Hurting Kenyans in New England
Apostle David Karanja of Christ Harvesters church in Atlanta Georgia (center) together with Rev. Carl-Phillip Kihato , his wife Anne Phillip of the ANTO church in randoplh, Mass., left, and other worshippers during a revival conference at the church this past summer. by H.Maina/ Ajabu Media |
By Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted November 11 , 2010. Updated 10pm 11/12/10
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ROCKLAND, Mass.,_ Destructive competition, and sheer jealousy perpetrated in bad faith, has been blamed for the many divisions among the significantly small Kenyan immigrant community in the New England region, leaving the community struggling with issues that should not be difficult to solve, in the land they refer to as full of “milk and honey”.
The straight to the point declaration was made by Apostle David Karanja of the Christ Harvesters church in Atlanta Georgia (website) , during a recent visit to Massachusetts to attend a revival conference at the ANTOR church in Rockland, held this past summer on August 19.
Apostle Karanja told worshipers that he was disheartened by the bad spirit of competition in New England which has resulted in a myriad of small churches competing to serve a very tiny population within the same locality, instead of combining efforts and resources to make things easier for everybody and bring a feeling of true unity.
“It is Cain’s spirit”, said Apostle Karanja, referring to the biblical story of Cain and Abel where Cain killed his brother because he thought he was doing better than him.
“We all need to say no to this spirit”, added the preacher man.
Pastor Karanja, who heads a large church in Atlanta Georgia with a membership of about 1,000 Kenyans, said that there are very many Kenyans in the New England region who do not attend Kenyan community churches because they perceive the rabid competition as ill conceived and hence do not view churches as existing for spiritual guidance but rather as a place of social- economic security, just in the event one falls into unforeseen trouble like sickness or death far away from the motherland.
The advise comes at a time when the Kenyan community in New England is badly divided along church lines, with several pastors competing for the faithful, and occasionally sabotaging events hosted by rival churches by fixing previously unplanned events to collide on the same dates and time, in an effort to keep their members from attending rival church events or community events organized by other churches.
Other pastors have been known to openly discredit the stature of other pastors in the community in an effort to win over faithful from other churches.
The competition has now trickled down into the emerging business entrepreneurs, with many Kenyans jumping to blunt the effectiveness of those who start unique businesses in America that seem to be making some money, rather than come up with original ideas.
Competing for the limited dollars in the small community, the businesses end up operating at losses and with poor quality services, leaving them hamstrung from growing into the multi million dollar businesses found in America , and knocking them off stride at infancy.
Apostle David Karanja |
Mainly organized through churches, the Kenyan immigrant community views the unity of the churches as the major catalyst to wider communal unity that will spur faster development of structures and institutions that are crucial to the current and future generations.
Other immigrant communities in America have succeeded in uniting their people into powerful organizations that reap both social and political benefits, most notably the National Council of La-Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.
However, it remains difficult to unite the pastors, leaving the majority of Kenyans deeply disappointed, yet have the basic desire to attend church for worship. As a result, Kenyans have lost a lot of opportunities in the land of opportunity which would be easy to achieve or lobby for as a united block instead of fragmented pieces.
Others in the community have also complained that some pastors surround themselves with close allies as church committee members, who will not want to question decisions and actions of the pastors, or usuallty rush to defend them blindly when questions arise in running the affairs of the church.
Although in some cases some pastors mean well, they are still blamed for failure to attract Kenyans who are knowledgable and skilled in various areas as members of church commitees, especially in the areas of financial and non profit organizational management.
This leads to a lot of dissatisfaction in the way that some churches run, prompting some leaders to leave and start other smaller churches that offer potential for the right leadership.
However, money wrangles, power struggle, and lack of transparency among leaders in churches has been blamed as the main reason that churches fragment, leaving some of them to operate as places of weekly social gatherings, entertainment and as lucrative sources of part-time income rather than places of serious spiritual nourishment.
Several pastors have been known to engineer reasons for unnecessary fund raisings in the churches that have nothing to do with the building of the body of christ, or demand commissions from fund raisings to help unfortunate members of the society that are held in their churches.
Close and reliable sources say that these funds are usually channeled to Kenya where some of the pastors involved have massive real estate investments that have come up since they started ministering in the churches in America, someting that regular folks would take ages to save for, yet work in the same jobs and pump in same or more hours at work than the pastors.
"Only very few or none of our churches have real charitable missions that can be verified going on in Kenya", said a source who prefered to remain annonymous while answering to a survey about this situation from Ajabu Media.
"Infact, many regular Kenyans who are not in the same positions of influence like the pastors are in, do operate charities that are helping the unfortunate in our motherland. I hope our pastors can step up and do the right thing instead of just looking at how many plots they can develop for themselves", added the source.
Reliable sources also indicate that some individuals have started small churches out of nowhere usually in basements, claiming that they were pastors in Kenya before coming to America.
With no one having the time or means to verify where and when these pastors were ordained, the pastors have
therefore usurped power and given themselves titles that make then apprear as bonafide ordained men of God.
This has led to sprouting churches that have no supervising authority to whom they they are answerable, leaving the pastors to do as they please.
However, others see the many churches as a good thing in the spreading of the word of God, only if they operate on uncompromising godly principles and open transparency to their members.
During the sermon, Apostle Karanja said he did not understand why he came to Boston at this time in life, but felt that he had a strong prophecy to deliver.
He asked Kenyans who have a vision of doing something to align themselves with the right people because some of their close friends will never support them simply because they do not want to see a person from their midst achieving great things.
“If I tell some people in my village of Limuru to do some progressive things, they will ignore me and speak negative because they used to see me riding a donkey and so they think I am still the same person”, said the fiery preacher.
He said this bad attitude leads to poor communities and is a waste of opportunity that is brought about by failing to appreciate and utilize different talents of different people within a community.
Apostle Karanja delivers his hard hitting prophecy to schocked Kenyans |
“That is why Jesus never did great works in his home town of Nazareth because people used to belittle him there”, added the pastor.
He added that because of the infighting between the church leaders, many Kenyans do not attend Kenyan community churches, and only come there when they need help with funds after someone dies or when they are in big trouble.
“I wish every Kenyan in the Diaspora can hear me. Every Kenyan here needs a Kenyan pastor that they can be answerable to”.
The pastor said that he prays for unity among Kenyans in the New England region so that every Kenyan out there can have a church to attend that they will feel well ministered to spiritually.
There is an estimated population of about 15,000 to 20,000 Kenyans in Massachusetts, and according to preliminary survey by Ajabu Media, there are about 3,500 Kenyans attending or registered at the available Kenyan community churches, leaving the rest attending the regular American or international churches, or none at all.
According to a count by Ajabu Media , there are 32 formerly established Kenyan community churches in Massachusetts alone, not including various informal fellowships that operate during weekdays to provide opportunities for praise and worship as well as bible studies to the community.
Most of the churches have an average membership of between 25-80 members.The biggest church is in Lowell with a membership of about 250 people, followed by another church with close to 180 members, still in Lowell.
However, there are numerous churches with a membership of between 5 to 20.
The revival conference was hosted by the ANTOR church led by Rev. Carl-Phillip Kihato and his wife, Anne Phillip. Among those who attended the revival meeting were visting gospel musicians, Moses Ndichu and Phillip Kimani.
Many God fearing Kenyans are optimistic that out of the disjointed body of christ, a few pastors will rise up and find the courage to go aganist the norm of their denominations to pull the community together with the realization that Kenyans in the Diaspora are more enlightened than their counterparts back home which calls for a different style of leadership than what pastors were used to back in their parishes in Africa.
Important links
Christ Harvesters church
Antor Church
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