THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN SOCIAL-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNITY: FOCUS ON REDEEMED GOSPEL CHURCH IN MAKUENI COUNTY, KENYA
Abstract
Across the globe, questions have emerged on the role the church should play in enhancing community development. A majority of scholars have agreed that the Church has an integral responsibility in creating an environment fit for socio-economic development in any country. For instance, churches have been seen creating awareness through seminars. Nonetheless, some countries have recorded the participation of the church in quite a number of educational and healthcare facilities that are rooted to the Church. The Roman Catholic and the Lutheran churches are some examples that have enormously influenced the lives of many in socio–economic development. This paper seeks to explore the role played by the Redeemed Gospel Church (RGC) in socio-economic transformation of the community in Makueni County besides its evident spiritual transformation. In achieving this objective, the paper uses empirical qualitative "ethnographic" design. With a sample of 30 churches across the County, participatory ethnographic interviews and questionnaires were used as the main methods of data collection. Analysis of the collected data was then done qualitatively, and the results presented in themes. The study finds that education, healthcare and agriculture are among other sectors in which the Redeemed Gospel Church has played a role in development.
Article visualizations:
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Allen A. E., Luscombe K., Myers, B., & Ram, E. R. (1991). Health, Healing and Transformation: Biblical Reflections on the Church in Ministries of Healing and Wholeness. Marc/World Vision International 919 West Huntington Drive, Monrovia, California 91016 USA.
Asante, M. K., & Gudykunst, W. B. (Eds.) (1989). Handbook of international and intercultural communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), 19-31.
Cole, S. (2011). Church plays 'critical role' in development, says economist. Catholic Social Ministry Leaders Conference, Oxford University.
Masilela, E. (2012). The role of the church in economic development and the separation of the church and the state. Paper presented at the occasion of the Easter mass of the Lutheran Church Manzini, Swaziland.
Modise, L. (2018). The Role of the Church in Socio-Economic Transformation: Reformation as a Transformation Process. DOI: 10.25159/2412-4265/3900
Mpumlwana, M. (2016). Church in Action: The South Africa We Pray 4. Johannesburg: South African Council of Churches Press.
Mugenda, O., & Mugenda, A. (2012). Research methods dictionary. Nairobi: Applied Research & Training Services (Arts Press).
Mutua, P. (November, 2011). Kenya: Church Should Let Go of 'Franchise' to Avert Crisis. Business Daily, All Africa Global Media.
Myers, B. (2011). Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. New York, Orbis Books.
Redeemed Gospel church Inc. constitution (1974). Nairobi Kenya.
Schoeman, M. (2011). The Political Economy of South Africa in a Global Context. In Government and Politics in South Africa, edited by A. Venter, and C. Landsberg. Pretoria: Van Schaik, 213–230.
Solomons T. J. (2012). Exploring the role of the church in economic development: A literature review. (Unpublished Thesis) University of Stellenbosch.
Stearns, R. (2009). The Hole in Our Gospel. Nashville. Dallas Mexico City. Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, Thomas Nelson.
Strauss, S. D. (2013). Planet entrepreneur: the world entrepreneurship forum's guide to business success around the world. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com.
Terreblanche, S. P. (2012). Lost in the Transformation: Search for the Future from 1986. Cape Town, KMM Review Publishing.
Wircharuck P. G. (1973). Building Effective Leadership: A Guide to Christian and Professional Management. Alberta. Leadership Development Foundation.
Wubeneh, N. J., & Sanders, J. H. (2006). Farm-level adoption of sorghum technologies in Tigray, Ethiopia. Agricultural Systems 91(1-2), 122-134. DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2006.02.002.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v5i4.885
Copyright (c) 2020 Joseph Mutisya Kioko
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
Copyright © 2016 - 2023. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.
