An investigation of the impact of Prophecy on the unity of christians in Evangelical Churches in Keiyo North Constituency, Kenya

Abstract

Prophecy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which was bestowed among the disciples on the day of Pentecost. It has been shown that prophecy played an important role in establishment of the early church. The advent of Pentecostalism resulted in straining of unity among Christians due to divergent views over the belief and practice of the gifts of the Holy spirit especially the practice of prophecy. Prophecy has been embraced by Pentecostal and Evangelical churches at present. However the extent to which the impact of prophecy has had on the unity of Christians in evangelical churches is not well understood thus the need to investigate its impact on the unity of Christians in evangelical churches in Keiyo North Constituency. This study was guided by the following objectives; to find out the nature and purpose of prophecy in Evangelical Churches, to examine Christians’ views regarding belief and practice of prophecy and to evaluate the impact of prophecy on the unity of Christians in evangelical churches in Keiyo North Constituency. The study was guided by structural functionalism theory. This study employed survey research design. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in addressing the objectives. The unit of analysis was Christians from the four selected evangelical churches. Simple random sampling was used to select 120 Respondents from the 4 selected Evangelical churches and Self administered questionnaire was carried out on sample size of 120 respondents. Interview schedule was used on 8 elders and 4 pastors who were the key informants. Focus group Discussion was purposely sampled from representative groups of each selected church. The total number of respondents was 140 out of the accessible population of 200 Christians. The data was analyzed with the help of SPSS Version 20 and presented using descriptive statistics such as; Bar charts, percentages, tables and pie charts. The findings showed that prophecy is practiced in evangelical churches and Christians had different views regarding the practice of prophecy. It was evident that prophecy had caused disunity among Christians. The study is useful to government policy makers, religious institutions, Christian leaders and generally Christians in various churches today. It is recommended that the Church leadership take a swift move to curb problems in the church such as false prophecy and Christians to take critical approach regarding the practice of prophecy.