As you may have noticed, Hope City Bible Church Nairobi has been closed or in other words, the members have not been meeting for the Sunday fellowship for quite some time. The church was planted in early 2020 and has been meeting every Sunday since then until a few months ago when we learned that the church was longer meeting.
As of 14th October 2023, their social media pages had not been updates for about four months and their church website was down. The last post on X (formerly Twitter) was on June 17th 2023 welcoming to their Sunday service on 18th June 2023. The sermon topic was “Armor of God.” Part of the tweet read as follows;
As Christians we must realize that we are faced with a deadly enemy and that ‘we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in the heavenly places’ In that situation we must make sure we are clad from head to foot in the armour described in (Eph 6:13-16)
Hope City Bible Church, Nairobi on Twitter (June 17th 2023)
Why was Hope City Bible Church, Nairobi closed?
Hope City Bible Church was a reformed congregation whose motto was ‘An assembly of believers in Christ; Focusing upward (God), Nurturing inward (Discipleship), Engaging outward (Evangelism/Church planting).”
The internal conflict is what is thought to have led to the split after one of the leaders of the church was caught acting not in line with God’s Word. This undoubtedly would have called for the church discipline for the member, with prayers that he/she would repent and be restored to the fellowship.
However, the rumors have it that some members leaked the struggles in the church to the outside which then offended the person they were to care about. Over time the struggle escalated from bad to worse thus leading to the closure.
We are not sure whether the members anonymously agreed to close the local assembly or they just stopped attending service over time. But many who were members of the Hope City Bible Church have since joined other reformed churches in Kenya.
Hope City Bible Church, Nairobi was a church that had most of the congregation under 40 years and many were unmarried, therefore being unfit for being elders of the church. If the church had elders, the issue could have been resolved and the church would be operating.
What Can Churches Learn from Hope City Bible Church?
Let’s always pray for our local churches that God may raise elders to serve and safeguard the sheep. It is worth noting that the lessons newly-planted churches can learn from the Hope City Bible Church. Members of the church must be willing and keep secrets about what is happening in the church within the four corners of their church. Letting out information can really destroy the local congregation.
Church leaders and elders must also be willing to submit to Biblical church discipline. In God’s house, no one is above discipline. But when leaders cannot swallow their pride and Ego, a good fellowship will be destroyed. May the Lord protect His so that His name may be glorified.