The Local Church and Lived Out Politics in Africa

Abstract

Politics is much more than elections, democracy, State governance, and such like activities; it encompasses all of life in a society. The church is not left out in politics and it is my assertion here that it is at its most political when it lives out its true message as the church. I seek to illustrate this assertion using Karura Community Church based in Nairobi, Kenya under the leadership of Rev. Ngari Kariithi. This is on the backdrop of the indictment from Gifford (2009) that the Church in Kenya is co-opted with the State machinery. The study seeks to illustrate that as much as the hierarchical Church structures are important in confronting excesses in state Governance, lived-out Christian testimony is just as effective. This is because the one who issues authority to Govern for the State is the same one who issues authority for the Church that is God. It, therefore, follows that the quality of congregants produced by the church should be of great interest to the State because in healthy functioning governance because they make good citizens. This is a neo-Augustinian understanding of the connection between the Church and politics where we see the City of God and the City of Man work alongside each other.