Historical Factors for the Church’s Involvement in Holistic Community Development in East Africa

Abstract

Christian education plays a significant role in accelerating holistic development among people. As an agent appointed by God to be His representative and to be “salt and light” in the world (Matt. 5:13), the church, through Christian education, is well positioned to bring needed transformation in a world haunted by much evil: injustice, prejudice and corruption, to name but a few. However, the church cannot effectively administer transformational Christian education without understanding her past, in order to correctly interpret the present and adequately strategize for the future. This paper aims at explaining the role the East African church has played in community development since its inception in mid 1800’s to post independent. Although the church has accomplished much, the author argues that the church currently faces many challenges in the task of holistic community transformation, which has historical roots. During the pre-colonial era, missionaries endeavored to establish mission stations. They were engaged in transformation work mostly through Christian education ministries – administered through churches, health, literacy and vocational training programmes. Although many initiatives have resulted to commendable transformative development work by churches and parachurch organizations, much is still to be done to enhance holistic community transformation. Although the approach to community transformation had a common brand among the missionaries, in establishing mission stations and the services offered, their partnership with colonial masters mingled with contextual realities produced divergent results in the region, with significant variations from the originally intended goals. These diversions have resulted to key challenges plaguing present transformational efforts through Christian education. They include: cross-cultural issues leading to mistrust among Africans and foreigners, inter-faith issues causing problems among people of different religions and ethnic issues causing suspicion among people of various tribes. Unless the church salvages the opportunities embedded in the challenges, accelerating holistic development will remain an enigma.