What a Slum Church in Kenya Can Teach American Believers About the Kingdom
While on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, megachurch pastor Jeremy Treat saw—and heard—something that not only stunned him, but melted his heart. As he walked through a poverty-stricken area in the Kenyan capital, Treat witnessed joy, peace and contentment through heartfelt worship, something he rarely sees in American churches.
It’s a kingdom-minded attitude, Treat says, that many American churches would do well to adopt.
“When we were walking through this slum area in Nairobi, I just saw poverty like I’ve never seen in my life,” Treat said on a recent episode of “Charisma Connection” on the Charisma Podcast Network. “We started to hear this rumbling noise in the distance, and as we got closer, I could tell that it was voices. We walked up to this shack, and I realized that it was a church service in the middle of this slum. There were about 75 people in it, and they’re just worshipping Christ, completely pouring themselves out to the Lord. I remember seeing in the midst of this brokenness, they were singing ‘Heaven is Breaking in Right Here.’
“These people realize that even though they have nothing in life, they’ve been given the immeasurable riches of God’s grace in Christ. To me, that was a beautiful picture of the kingdom, because it shows how God’s reign breaks into even the worst of situations. It’s God’s grace at work doing restoration and renewal in the middle of their pain and brokenness.
“To see the advancement of the kingdom today in Africa, in Asia, in South America—it’s remarkable the things that are happening. For us in the West today, it’s encouraging and exciting, because there are times when we really need to learn from our brothers and sisters in other cultures as to why they’re thriving. We need to try to figure out what it looks like to be faithful.”
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