What if....?

PCEA Kahawa Farmers Congregation

While sitting through a 4 hour service at PCEA Kahawa Farmers I began thinking about the differences between the Church of Scotland (CoS) and the Presbyterian Church in East Africa (PCEA).  And not just the differences - but the differences that the differences make.  The 4 hour Sunday morning service was a Commissioning Service which takes place each year.  A few weeks ago all church members gathered at the home of their own district elder (there are 27 districts in the parish) and elected people to serve as deacons and leaders for the next year.  Likewise, new Kirk Session officials were elected from the elders.  After election there is a 1 day training for all leaders. Deacons serve for a period of 3 years and with a staggered system of some new deacons being elected each year.    Kirk Session officials serve for 1 year so there is a constant rotation between elders.  The upshot of this is that many more people feel they have a stake in the church - there were over 140 people standing at the front of the church being commissioned for service.  More people than in many Church of Scotland congregations!

And its not just the leaders that rotate service.  Ministers themselves are sent to a new charge every 5 years on the basis that those who are effective can share their gifts while congregations are spared a long-time with a minister who is not so effective!  It is the PCEA equivalent of '121' CoS Head Office that decides where the next posting is to be.  The individual congregation has no right of call. This has a very clear impact - the laity is much stronger in PCEA churches.  Services are led by the laity often with the minister only preaching the sermon and celebrating sacraments.  Pastoral care is much more embedded within districts with a strong network of support for those who are sick and bereaved.

The attitude toward the youth is also refreshing.  In PCEA Kahawa Farmers there is a designated Youth Elder who, with a church paid Youth Pastor, oversees the running of the Youth Church.  No arguments about the likes and dislikes of a separate service for the youth which I have heard in so many CoS churches.  Just take a look at their website and you will get an idea of how vibrant this congregation of over 200+ young people are.  These young people lead the services, pray, praise, preach - the whole lot.  I am constantly amazed by the spiritual maturity of many of them.  And then when they reach 26 they transfer over to the adult congregation where they are welcomed and given a full role to play.

It is a group of young people from PCEA Kahawa Farmers Youth Church that now regularly go into the local prison and spend time with the young people each week, talking with them and playing sports.

I wonder if there are a few things we can learn from the way they do things in the church in Kenya?