Abstract:
he following study was born out of puzzlement through twenty years
of pastoral ministry as to why a significant number of church members in Nairobi tend
to exhibit behavior not different from that of their non-Christian counterparts at some
point through their mid-life.
Existing literature describes a phenomenon that is said to occur at mid-life,
called mid-life crisis. Most of such literature does not originate from Nairobi or
Africa. The objective of the study was to go into the field, visiting congregations and
senior pastors of a representative sample of mainline churches in Nairobi with a view
to finding out whether the same experiences described as indicative of mid-life crisis
exist in such churches, and whether they occur along the same patterns. Another
objective was to find out, if such experiences exist, whether the churches have
recognized their challenge to the extent of putting relevant interventions in place, both
to prepare persons for the mid-life crisis and to support those already experiencing it.
A ten-page questionnaire was designed and refined as the research tool for
collecting quantitative data from the sample churches. An interview instrument was
also designed to collect qualitative data from senior pastors of the said congregations.
All 18 churches, randomly chosen from 9 denominations, gave permission and support
to the study. A total of 1381 church members responded to the questionnaire.
Findings were interesting. Experiences similar to those described in existing
literature as being indicative of mid-life crisis were found to prevail in the Nairobi
churches. However, the pattern was significantly skewed towards the earlier period of
mid-life, 30-45 years, as opposed to the usual pattern in existing literature where the
crisis peaks at age 45 years. Possible explanation is to be found in the heavy social
responsibilities placed upon younger working persons in mid-life in a challenging
socio-economic environment. The churches were found to be ill-prepared in regard to
interventions they have put in place to prepare their members for and to support them
through the challenge of mid-life crisis.
