Inner-City Nairobi

I have for some time had the feeling that 2017 will be a year of changes — for Kenya (which has a major election in August, for UK, for USA and for the Eatons!) 

The biggest change in our life arises from the fact that Chrisco Fellowship of Churches has lost the use of Nairobi Cinema!  This year we have not been able to hold meetings there.  We reckon the Lord is answering prayer in unexpectedly doing some new things for us!   

Some changes in inner-city work have already come.  The Sunday meeting that used to meet there has moved to a hall attached to a hostel about 1 kilometre away.  It is a loss so far as Monday-Friday is concerned, but for Sundays it is a good location since it is quite a densely populated area.  As a local church it will probably do better there.

The daily early-morning prayer meeting at the Cinema, and the lunchtime prayer meeting which used to get large numbers have now ceased to meet.  Some of the praying-people are continuing to meet in smaller groups in various smaller rooms and halls, but the opportunity to reach a wider range of people is not so good as before.

For me personally the biggest change is that my evening meetings in inner-city Nairobi have ceased.  This has not come as a complete surprise.  I have been sensing that this work would change after thirty years.  For exactly thirty years 1987-2016, when in Kenya, I have preached almost every Monday and Thursday in Nairobi, originally in Nairobi City Hall, then in the National Union of Teachers hall, then in Nairobi Cinema.  At one stage it was quite dangerous.  Three times I was attacked trying to get back home late at night.  Once in 1999 I was half-strangled by an attacker wanting a briefcase and I was left unconscious on Kenyatta Avenue minus my briefcase (which actually was returned to me via Nairobi Baptist Church minus some cash!).  More recently inner-Nairobi has become much safer.  The traffic congestion has become so bad and the crowds struggling to get home after work are greater than before, so robbers and crooks cannot escape so easily!  On the other hand evening Christian meetings in town have become fewer for the same reason (people are struggling to get home).  I think I was one of the few who were holding on to a regular evening meetings in the inner business-district.  It has been a great thirty-years, and a major contribution to the life of inner Nairobi.  Christians from many fellowships have taken part in the life of inner-city Chrisco and I regularly hear Nairobi preachers quoting bits and pieces of the many expositions given over the years —  which is very encouraging.  However now it is time for some new ventures!  The 3 million word Branch Commentary (forthcoming, getting nearer I hope!) arises from this work, and so does my Whole Counsel of God (which also needs some development).

A New Centre; a New Website

My dear friend Charlie Plettenberg has for many years maintained a website for us (michael-eaton.de).  But Charlie - for whom I have often asked you to pray - suffers from A.L.S., and he is no longer easily able manage this work.  Marilyn is doing OK.  Please continue to pray for them both.

So the question has been: what new form should my detailed-preaching-for-training-preachers take?  There are two answers. 

Firstly, there is this website.  Westminster Chapel, London, have very kindly been giving me help in this.  The Chapel are making available everything that was on michael-eaton.de —  and I shall be adding much more in the weeks ahead.  My new book on Hebrews 9 (The Blood of Christ) will be there also.  I was just about to start a kind of over-the-internet Bible-school when Charlie became ill, but now I hope to do more along these lines.  It will be of use to some of our friends overseas.  But I would like to enlarge this aspect of the matter for Kenya-generally, for India, and for others around the world who follow this little bit of Chrisco-ministry from afar!  

   Secondly, there is some possibility of the actual central-meetings being transferred to Kibera, and Chrisco Central Church.  It has not happened yet but I am expecting something along these lines.  There is still a need of actual meetings —  preaching not lecturing —  and perhaps these need to be located in Kibera.  We shall see what God will do.

Nairobi Baptist Church

For the last couple of weeks (Feb, March 2017) I have been involved in some meetings at my old church which I left 36 years ago.  It has been a joy to catch up with them.  They are doing well!

Hi Everyone,

Here are some of the items of our most recent news.

THE CHRISCO CHURCHES

Our official base in Kenya is in the regular work of Chrisco Central Church among the residents of Kibera — one of the largest slum settlements in Nairobi.  Much of the work there is in the hands of Pastor Jeremiah; Michael is there about a quarter of the time and at other Chrisco churches and their allies about 50% of the year. For a long time now he has been preaching on John's Gospel on the Sundays. Chrisco Central Church has various offshoots and 'daughter churches' in Masai-land, in Namanga (Tanzanian border) and elsewhere, where we send our elders and pastors-in-training. Our nursery school unobtrusively assists many who are desperately poor.

OUR 'ORPHANS'

Africa does not have as many 'orphans' as is generally supposed (since children belong to the clan and the extended family is Africa's social welfare system). But the Eatons keep a watch over some at-risk children for whom we feel responsible and who are specially needy for one reason or another.

THE 'WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD'

In 2007 Michael spent 3 weeks preaching on 'The Whole Counsel of God' in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa — 40 one-hour sessions preaching, plus 10 one-hour 'question-and-answer' sessions. With the help of Christian friends in the south, the whole lot was recorded, transcribed and Michael was presented with the 450,000 words transcription!  This is now being used in South Africa.  It is a way of giving a cheap-and-easy, preach-able, training-course in biblical theology to pastors who cannot easily get the kind of training they need. For many of them it gives content to their ministry that they have not had before.  This might be formally published at some stage but early in 2014 this was published by Grace Generation Church (Pietermaritzburg) in spiral binding.  It is being used 'down south'.

A contract has been signed for the production of the 75 books of ´Preaching Through the Bible´ in a few large volumes.  Also in the pipeline is the 430,000 word version of Romans.

The second edition of 'No Condemnation' has been published by Piquant.  It contains three extra chapters on the work of Tom Wright.

THE 'WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD' IN DUTCH

A friend in Holland is working through the 'Whole Counsel' material; he tells me that he writes out a summary in Dutch and that in this way a Dutch book is coming into being which summarises the WCOG.

CAREY AND CALVIN EATON

Most of our friends will have heard of the tragedy which hit the Eatons in June 2014.  Carey Eaton - one of Kenya's prominent businessmen - was with a group of friends at an evening meal in a Nairobi suburb, when the house was attacked by a gang.   Carey was shot and lost his life.  Many reports went round the world, and the media in Europe and Australia was full of praise for Carey's amazing work of redefining what a C.E.O. ought to be in Africa.  Michael preached two sermons in Chrisco and in Nairobi Bapist Church at that time, speaking of our 'blessed hope' of glory and the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.  One can be listened to (in the download section of this website).  The other has been transcribed and has gone into many parts of the world.  We are still recovering from the pain of those days.   Calvin is still in Kenya working in connecton with the various companies founded by Carey. 

Southern Sudan

As always we are continually concerned with southern Sudan.  Jenny continues to organise relief-work and evangelism-teams there.  The various Chrisco activities and other gospel-ministries in Juba (capital of the new Southern Sudan) and in the areas further into the interior continue.  The suffering there is terrible.  It is like the 19th century.  The north/south war has ended and South Sudan is Africa's youngest country.  But internal strife is bad.  We said before that ‘the peace’ that was negotiated is fragile and it is still true.  But there are some encouraging features.  Chrisco has planted some churches there – young and small but with great potential for reaching many others with the gospel message.  People are clear about one thing: they do not want to be Moslems!  The decades of bombing from the north has not been a recommendation of the Islam in the north.  The southerners are more interested in the gospel - because of the persecution of every kind of Christian faith for many years in the recent past makes people want to know more about the faith for which they were once persecuted!  

The "Branch Commentary",  For about 17 years now we produced commentaries on the various books of the bible.  This work was completed in 2007.  Now work is going on aiming at a one-volume edition of 2.9 million words!  Preachers need help in expounding Scripture in ‘points’ that make preaching freer, easier, and hopefully more powerful in the Holy Spirit.  And some countries which are facing opposition and persecution need help, and we have reason to believe that the ‘Preaching Through’ material is helping them.  It is nice to know that the entire New Testament exposition is around somewhere.  Although it is sometimes difficult to get hold of the particular bit you want it is all in existence somewhere, and we persevere in getting help to preachers.  We have learned that books that reach the world need prayer.  They do not come into being easily!  

Hebrews in German - Der Brief an die Hebräer

Friends in Germany will be interested to know that the first bit of 'Preaching Through the Bible' to be put into German is now available.  It has also resulted in the first German 'Slices of Bread'.   

The next few months

 The next few months will find us mainly in Nairobi but also on visits to South Africa and UK. 

Downloads

Some major expositions are being put on this website.  The preaching on 1 John is there and 1 Peter is appearing.  A lot of our friends put preaching on the various church websites (Cornerstone, Johnnesburg; Westminster Chapel, London; Grace Generation Church, Pietermaitzburg). 

Writings

You have no idea how much I struggle not to be a writer!  I really do put people and praying and preaching (the three p’s) far above writing!  Jesus never wrote a book, and Luther said ‘The church is a mouth-house not a pen-house’! 

One of Luther’s editors said, ‘According to Luther’s understanding, the Word of God is not simply to be equated with the written text of the Scriptures .... It is a uniquely life-imparting power, a message communicated by men in whom the Scriptures had become alive. The church is, for Luther ‘not a pen-house but a mouth-house,’ in which the living Word is proclaimed'.

   On the other hand preachers do need help in knowing what to preach and there is not much specially designed for them these days.  For me, the thing for which much prayer is needed is the production of the big ‘Preaching Through the Bible’ in hardback form for the western world.  Piquant Publishers and Langham Trust are hard at work in trying to produce it – and I get called upon the check manuscripts.  I am currently trrying to find time on my travels to check various drafts.  I have learned over the years that any book that will really help other people has to be prayed into existence.   

Nairobi Cinema meetings

   In Nairobi Cinema (Mondays and Thursdays) the preaching continues.  There are a number of things that go on in-and-around the Nairobi Cinema meetings,  Notes are produced.  Two service sheets come out every week with material for people to read alongside what is preached.  It is not a big meeting; inner-city Nairobi is not the place for big meetings in the way it was twenty years ago.  The immense congestion of traffic in the Central Business District of Nairobi makes meetings in the evenings difficult to say the least.  Michael parks the car outside the CBD and walks into town for the last kilometre because taking the car into town in the late afternoon is almost an impossibility.  But still we have never felt free to close these meetings down and they continue.  Some of our brightest Christian people love to stay on in town after work for the expositions and it is the place where Michael’s most detailed expositions take place.  The rest of the world hear the abridgements!  

Love to all … Michael & Jenny