Critical Reflection of Determinants of Conflict in Selected African in Land Churches in Kangundo Region, Kenya

Abstract

The African Inland Church has undergone leadership wrangles at the national offices. These conflicts have however percolated to the local level which has resulted into schism which have caused some churches to separate completely and some factions went to courts to seek regress. The aim of this study is to determine the root causes of church conflicts among selected churches in Kangundo Regional Churches (KRC). The objectives of the study were to access the root causes of the church conflicts in KRC and to analyze the systemic issues in the churches that might have triggered the conflicts. The study adopted a qualitative research design. The target population was 11 KRCC churches where members of the congregation of all categories of men, women, pastors, adult youth and leaders were purposively selected. The researcher sampled 100 respondents from the 11 churches, approximately 25% of the total churches selected. The data was collected using questionnaires, focus group and narrative interviews which were administered by the researcher. The researcher used NVIVO 11 to analyse the data. The data was thematically analysed where responses were organized according to themes with the aid of the analytical tool. The study established that the main causes of conflict in the AIC churches in Kangundo regions was the fact that the local churches felt overburdened by the financial needs of the DCC which caused rebellion and others started to seek autonomy. There were also leadership wrangles at the national office but trickled down to the local churches as there were faction for the warring groups one led by Rev. Yego and the other by Re. Mbuvi. The conflict was also as a result of the bureaucracies and autocratic leadership of the church which resulted in some churches seeking break away. The church resisted change as any person particularly the pastors perceived to be going against the church doctrine like welcoming Pentecostalism, was excommunicated from the church. The study established that there were feelings by the dissenting groups who felt that the DCC/RCC strong hand interfered with the day to day running of the local churches. These included the transfer of pastors against the wishes of the congregation. There was also the issue of control of the church property such as church land among others. The study recommends that the DCC should be flexible to allow the local churches space and not to overburden them its financial needs but rather seek alternative sources of finance to raise money for its financial needs, there is need to conduct a free and fair elections and also to diversify the church's leadership structure so as to avoid contested elections of the national church leaders particularly the bishop, the church needs to embrace change so as to accommodate the modern ways of worship so as to avoid walkouts or loss of members to other surrounding churches or worse still a split in the church and lastly, there is need for the DCC/RCC to involve the local church leaders in certain decisions like the decision to transfer a pastors so as not to be seen as interfering with the day to day running of the churches.