Critical Factors Influencing Success of Sunday-School as a Mission Field at Bondeni Africa Inland Church, Kenya

Abstract

It is indicated that the emphasis of the Sunday-school as a mission field has reduced across churches. The African Inland Church simply mentioned the Sunday-school as one of its functions; however, it fails to show the progress of the Sunday-school and how it presently functions as a mission field. It was of paramount importance to examine the Sunday-school as a mission field in the AIC church as a representative of all other churches that have this mission as part of their functions. The general objective of the study was to have a critical review of mission work at A.I.C Bondeni in Nakuru County, Kenya. Specifically, the study examined how budgetary allocation, competence of Sunday-school teachers and also how administrative support influence Sunday-school as a mission field in the aforementioned church. The study was guided by the Bosch’s paradigm theory of mission. The population of 548 Sunday-school instructors, youth, parents of Sunday-school children, pastors, and administrators at the AIC Bondeni Local Church was studied using a descriptive survey design. Stratified random sampling was used to select 85 congregants from the research population. To obtain data, a detailed self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was pilot tested before being used to collect data for the main study, in order to determine its validity and reliability. Prior to data collection, all necessary permits and consents were obtained. The collected data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively with the aid of the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences software. Results were presented using tables. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. Results revealed that budgetary allocation, teachers’ competence, and administrative support have a positive and statistically significant influence on the success of Sunday-school as a mission field. Teachers’ competence had the strongest influence on Sunday-school success while administrative support had the least. From the discoveries, the study recommends that AIC Bondeni and other churches should create budgetary allocation for teachers’ stipends, assess the theological understanding of Sunday-school teachers, create continual teachers’ training and development programmes, and enhance church leaders’ involvement in the planning and implementation of church activities.