With doors closed, and congregations forced to follow Sunday summons online, the churches are going through a sticky patch as financial uncertainty looms.
The giving has almost dried up – and some of the churches are trying to woo congregation to give and tithe online.
Many congregants have lost jobs and have nothing to contribute, and church employees are now taking salary cuts as the pews remain empty.
Worldwide, and majority for the first time, churches have become empty sanctuaries as the stay-at-home orders continue to bite.
Last week, a mainstream church in Kiambu County sent a message to its members urging them to pay their weekly offerings since “the church is in dire financial need”.
While Church offerings support ministers and pay staff salaries and benefits, many other expenses running into millions of shillings will suffer as contributions decline.
With the crisis, Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit has retreated to his Narok farm from where he watches over his more than five million followers.
“At the moment, I am in the village in Narok farming and taking care of my cows. I have urged the clergy to find other means of survival even as we pray that things go back to normal,” says the Archbishop, who has been forced to suspend his programmes, which would have involved visiting the various dioceses.
Archbishop Sapit’s church is staring at a financial crisis. For example, they have slashed salaries by 50 per cent, and the clergy is working in shifts.
ADOPT A FAMILY
Bishop Philip Kitoto, General Superintendent, Kenya Assemblies of God, says that KAG is currently supporting close to 2,000 of its pastors who no longer have a source of livelihood.
“Those particularly affected are those that serve in vulnerable areas, semi-arid areas (such as Turkana and Pokot) and informal settlements scattered all over the country,” he explains.
Bishop Kitoto says that the majority of the congregation in these areas are poor, and therefore they are in a dire situation since many have lost their sources of income.
“Simply put, they cannot afford to give,” adds Bishop Kitoto, who oversees over 5,000 pastors who lead over 4,000 churches scattered across the country.
The Presbyterian Church of East Africa, PCEA, which has over four million followers in Kenya, is also navigating similar waters.
Rev Peter Kaniah, secretary-general of the PCEA, says that the church has been forced to suspend all its projects, including constructions since they can no longer afford to fund them.
They have also lost revenue from their various hotels in Nairobi and Mombasa after the hospitality sector was shut down.
“If things don’t get better, some of the staff, especially those serving in our churches, may go without salaries; however, we are still remitting money due for NHIF for those who were working in the hotels and also supplying them with essentials such as foodstuff,” says Rev Kaniah.
At the moment, with churches closed, the PCEA says they are focusing on supporting the needy through the help of their congregation and well-wishers.
“To help support those in need during this time, we launched a programme that allows well-wishers to adopt a family or two depending on their capability,” says Rev Kaniah.
CHARITY ACTIVITIES
While some churches have switched to Facebook live streaming for Sunday services and Zoom meetings in a bid to win the congregations locked out by the Covid-19 pandemic, a big number of Kenya’s church ministers in many places of worship are unable to feed their families.
For KAG, providing upkeep for their active pastors is not the only headache they are dealing with right now.
“KAG has over 10 orphaned and vulnerable children’s homes, and though many of these children were released to go back to their closest relatives, we need to continue supporting some of the workers that looked after these children, not to mention pay the salaries of the teachers in our schools,” says Bishop Kitoto, who foresees difficulty in sustaining these and many other projects.
The churches various programmes have taken a hit too. “We, for instance, run children’s homes, these homes depend on visitations from Christians who donate foodstuff and other needs. With the restriction of movement, they have been worst hit,” he says.
For the Anglican church, which owns several properties in Nairobi and other towns, they now face the dilemma of what to do with tenants who are unable to pay.
The church also runs a number of private schools and is grappling with how to pay its teachers.
“We have had to approach the banks to restructure our loan repayment timeline because without much money coming in, we are not able to service our loans,” says Archbishop Sapit, who is also mobilising his members to take part in various humanitarian activities, such as supporting their needy neighbours.
PAY CUT
It is these needy members of the society who are now the focus of various churches.
“The numbers of the needy families keep rising, and though we are struggling, it is important to ensure that nobody goes to bed hungry for lack of food,” says Bishop J.B Masinde, founder of Deliverance Church Umoja, in Nairobi.
“(But) at the moment, we are not going to church kitty since we have many staff members that depend on us for their livelihoods, therefore we don’t want to get to a point where we cannot pay them.”.
Bishop Masinde says many pastors are struggling to pay bills such as rent for the halls they hold their services in – or even meet the needs of their families.
“Through the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, a national umbrella organisation for evangelical churches of Kenya, we are trying to see how we can help the struggling clergy,” says Masinde.
To keep afloat as sources of income vanish, Christ is the Answer Ministries (Citam) has requested its staff to take a 50 per cent pay deferral.
“We didn’t want to introduce pay cuts yet, but instead asked our staff to take a pay deferral until next year. However, if things will not have settled by September, we might be forced to consider pay cuts,” says Bishop David Oginde.
But even as the church faces an uncertain time, they have to continue to give to worthwhile causes.
For instance, Citam contributed Sh10 million towards the Covid-19 response found kitty to support the government to fight the pandemic.
FOOD RELIEF
The Nairobi Chapel has not suspended any of the charitable initiatives it runs, thanks to its vibrant congregation.
“We have called upon them to support the initiatives such as helping the needy and vulnerable through active communication with them,” says Outreach Pastor Festus Omoto, adding that for years, the church has had an active food bank.
Most churches are struggling though, for the last two years, for instance, Bishop Kitoto’s KAG church has been providing monthly support in the form of food to its retired pastors across the country.
With dwindling finances, he says, it is becoming difficult for them to sustain this responsibility.
In an effort to ease the burden on its clergy and ministers, the church has struck off loan interest for the next three months.
“Most KAG pastors are part of their own denomination’s Sacco. To mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on members, it was decided that there will be no interest on loans charged for the next three months, while the interest will move from 12 per cent to six per cent after the pandemic is over,” says Bishop Kitoto.