New Wine in Old Wine Skins: Wesleyan Methodism within the Contemporary Religious Market Place in Kenya

This paper purposed to explore the impact and future of Methodism in the face of challenging trends in the Kenyan religious space. Through qualitative empirical research done in the Njia Circuit of Methodist Church in Kenya (MCK) Nyambene Synod, this study identified the main practices and trends that are challenging and influencing Methodism in Kenya. They include religious commodification that has been developing and infiltrating Christian churches in the last three decades, the Pentecostal spirituality, mass and social media influence, spiritual lethargy and “quick fix mentality,” Africanization of Christianity campaigns, and MCK structures. The study found that Christianity in Kenya has been forced to swiftly respond to the enlightenment brought about by modernity, socioeconomic currents, and political winds of change. Churches including MCK, are grappling to control the religious space in Kenya and that dictates that adaptation is necessary for survival. This paper addresses the gap in how to integrate eighteenth-century Methodism into the twenty-first-century church in Kenya. Consideration is based on the fact that since the inception of the MCK, other forms of churches, ministries, and social change have happened. This paper proposed a consideration for a paradigm shift in the way the Methodist Church carries out mission work in today’s society, and especially through its structural organization. Thus, acceptance and use of new wineskins to withstand the vigour of new wine to avoid tearing away in the form of loss of relevance and impact. Keywords: Methodist Church in Kenya, John Wesley, Commodification, Africanization, Methodism, Religious Marketplace.