E-church shortens link with God

Feel like worshipping but can’t make it to church? Relax. Kenyans can now access quality church services — including praise and worship, preaching, and offering tithe —from the comfort of their living rooms.

Church is brought right to the living room of every homestead either through TV, radio, mobile phone or the Internet.

And the experience is similar to that of attending church physically.

A departure from the traditional gospel music and preaching through the media, the Church is spicing up the idea to make it complete.

Apart from listening to music and preaching, you can now pay tithe, offering and other monies through mobile phone money transfer services. Churches now have such accounts.

One thing has been missing in all these: the Holy Communion.

However, some Pentecostal churches have introduced a new doctrine that you can pray for ordinary bread or biscuits and juice in your house and partake of them as Holy Communion.

And if you think the TV or radio preacher was not as elaborate as you wanted, you can now subscribe to Bible verses using your mobile phone or ‘google’ sermons through the Internet on your phone or computer.

Welcome to the world of e-church also known as virtual church, in Kenya.

Today, TV stations are awash with tens of preachers from Sunday to Sunday. The same applies for radio and Internet links.

Some stations have taken e-church a notch higher with the introduction of live coverage of church proceedings in Nairobi.

Edward Buri, a pastor at the PCEA St Andrews Church, argues that e-church is the solution to unending excuses by people who cannot make it to church for some reasons.

"Technology, in this context, should be viewed as an enhancer of the Church," he said.

However, he says only spiritual nourishment can be accomplished through an electronic-enabled church while it denies such people other benefits that come with physical attendance.

Takes away bodily meeting

"What we need to watch out is when technology affects the Church negatively. For instance, when it takes away that bodily meeting that brings the togetherness," said Buri.

Gospel music, which a while back was considered a lame duck, has now been given thumbs up by TV stations.

Media houses managements are now more than willing to invest heavily in gospel programmes.

For instance, KTN has Off the Hook airing every Sunday from 4pm for one hour while NTV and Citizen have several programmes on Sunday morning.

The shows are attracting a near-cult following, mainly those urbanites who cannot make to church physically, but still want to reconnect with God.

National Council of Churches of Kenya Deputy General Secretary Oliver Kisaka said electronic church should be seen as a language that the Church has learnt well.

"It is a language that if you don’t speak people won’t understand you," said Kisaka.

Buri also says the fact that people are able to give (offering) either via M-Pesa, Zap or YuCash is step in the right direction.

However, churches have been accused of enriching themselves by appealing for financial support on TVs. Questions have also been raised regarding accountability of these churches as no one monitors the accounts.

"Technology should come as an expansion of what we have been doing," he said.

But the pastor argues that even when people sit in the living room, they should be alive to fact that the televangelist is preaching to congregation of many people and should thus desire to be among them.

"If you are travelling or are unable to attend church service for genuine reasons, then the so-called e-church comes as the perfect alternative," he said.

Some Christians fail to attend church due to various reasons, including dislike for some clergymen, congregation members, long boring sessions, hangovers from Saturday night’s unwinding or are simply pagans.

Today, these are no reason for failing to worship unless one does not own a TV set, radio or a mobile phone.

But according to Kisaka, a research needs to be carried out to establish the negative impact this kind of worshipping.

"The whole scenario shows Christianity has moved on we are able to speak new language and relate in the new culture," he said.

Holy communion

"However, the challenge is that human beings thrive in physical relations yet the concept of e-church is separating people from one another and leaving them secluded in their living rooms," he pointed.

Buri agrees. He argues that while Pentecostal churches accept people to give thanks for a glass of juice and biscuits and partake of them as Holy Communion, it beats the logic of the idea behind it.

"It is a communion which means fellowship, kinship, friendship, fellow feeling, togetherness, closeness, harmony, understanding, rapport, connection, communication, empathy, accord and unity. So when you do it at home alone then it loses the meaning of Holy Communion. It is a holy something else," he stated.