The Relevancy of Evangelism yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The book of Acts 8:25 “After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lords and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.” The evangelical movement responded to the call and purpose of the Jesus ministry. Reading the book by Bebbington “Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s” gives us an amazing history of the gospel development out of the Protestantism evangelical movement in Britain. Bebbington states that this evangelical religion that was established in the 1730s, was not equated with any single Christian denomination, but through existing protestant churches all across Britain.[1] The evangelical movement is viewed from my understanding as a means by which we eventually got to be evangelized in Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries from both Britain and America.
The book opened a new understanding of how the Quaker church was established in Kenya through the same spirit of evangelism. When I read what Bebbington is written, I could notice that most of the reformers of evangelicals were renown theologians who strongly argued their cases theologically criticizing the Catholicism process that was dominant. I find it contradictory to the way the Quaker church was established through the principles but along the way lost the principles due to a shallow understanding of the gospel. Especially the four qualities of the evangelical religion; Conversionism, Activism, Biblicism, and Crucicentrism. I connect very well with this with our Quaker church establishment in Kenya in the early 20th century. The missionaries came and converted many Africans to Christianity from animalism. All the four objectives of the evangelical movement were fulfilled to the later. While the missionaries that came to Kenya agreed with all the four qualities of the evangelical, most the Quakers from Britain were not in agreement with some of these qualities. They differed with the authority of the scripture but believed that scriptures were inspired by God, yet they still refused to take it as an authority is Christian life. However, the church in Africa refused to buy in the concept and remained on the side that the bible is the Christian authority and a true inspired word of God.
This book has somehow touched on my research question about the clergy and the laity in the church. The Quaker in Kenya is going through and challenge where the Clergy is always in conflict with the laity, and this affects the four evangelical qualities. Its also interesting how the Quaker movement cut across Calvinism, Arminianism and the Wesleyans doctrine of understanding Christianity. It is a hybrid type of each not taking all their doctrines in practice. My research question concerns the unity of the clergy and laity in the Quaker church in Kenya which is a challenge and how growth is realized in such a situation. Chapter six of Beddington book and more so the bible reference “Can two walk together, except they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). The walking apart of the conservative and liberal evangelicals in the early 20th century is similar to the big difference between the clergy and the laity in the Quaker church in Kenya now in the 21st century. It is rather discouraging to see what was happening in the early previous centuries starting to emerge in our churches now. We started feeling the evangelical revivals in Kenya through the Quaker church in the late 20th century. The Quaker church in Britain where it started and being part of the evangelicals are most affected but its extreme liberalism and the rise of biblical criticism. The liberal wing of the Quakers known as silent worshipers does not believe in the clergy but the priesthood of all believers. The better known is the controversy of 1922 in the Church Missionary Society, the barometer of the Evangelical party, some of its missionaries in Bengal expressed publicly their disquiet at the spread of higher critical views as early as 1907.[2] This is a similarity to the controversy of the Holy Spirit in the Quaker in Kenya in 1927, that saw a split of the church and some members were excommunicated out of the Quaker movement. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” (Joel 2:28) This happened in the Quaker church in Kenya but was received with shock, and the church was divided on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit especially when people started speaking in different tongues, healing, and many miracles happened. The clergy and laity leadership of the church has remained an outstanding issue in the church to this moment.
[1] (Bebbington 1989) pg1
[2] (Bebbington 1989) pg 216
About the Author
John Muhanji
I am the Director Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting. I coordinate all Quaker activities and programs in the Quaker churches and school mostly in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The focus of my work is more on leadership development and church planting in the region especially in Tanzania.. Am married with three children all grown up now. I love playing golf as my exercise hobby. I also love reading.3 responses to “The Relevancy of Evangelism yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
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Hi John. Nice post! You offered great reflection about the Quaker church in Kenya. I especially appreciated your reflection that “the church in Africa refused to buy into the concept and remained on the side that the bible as the Christian authority and a true inspired word of God.” This is powerful, as the word of God is our blueprint for life. Thank you for sharing, John. It was a powerful post!
Thank you for sharing your reflection on the impact of evangelism in Kenya John! I’m curious how you perceive the link between the spread of faith and the spread of culture? Bebbington hilighted that foreign missions were deemed a worthy investment if theew were great stories of conversion to share at home. These stories stories of expanding the church abroad were also tight to the expansion of British culture in many cases. How did that look in Kenya? Was it received as a gift in Kenya? Or seen as part of the colonial agenda? Again, thank you for sharing your perspective.
Thank you Jenn for your question about the British culture through the Quaker church. It is interesting that althought the Quaker church started in Britain and Kenya was a colony of the British government, The mission of Quakers was established by the American Missionaries and not the British. It is only that the British government had a soft landing for the Quaker missionaries because they new the church from Britain. There was no British culture at all in the Quaker church in Kenya since it was established. But many British Quakers came to Kenya after its establishement and were very instrumental in starting schools and not churches. The confusion was only experienced when some of the Broitish Friends who attebded some of the churches were from the liberal wing and the Americans Quakers were of the evangelical wing. Many Quakers were given scholarshjips to learn in Britain and they attended Quaker meetings in Britain and as they came back they were different from what was established on the ground. that is why the quakers in kenya are in the middle. But of late they are more evangelical and bible rooted Quakers in East Africa.