| dc.description.abstract | There are indicators that in Nyakongo district many youths are leaving the
church and the church leaders do not have strategies to retain them in the church.
Churches in Nyakongo have many adults than youths, youths are there in the region
but they are not church members. This study seeks to find reasons as to why many
youths were leaving the church. The study sets out to design and implement
programs which eventually will yield results of reclaiming many youths and winning
new ones.
Hence, the purpose of this study was to design a program to reclaim the youth
who had left the church and also nurture those who are still in the church. The
programs were carried out in Nyakongo district from August 2011 to December 2013.
The participants were youths, church officers, non-church members who had left the
church. The data for the study was collected by interviewing the youths and adults.
Many youths were retained and among those who had left the church 40% were won
back. Members agree that the programs can help the church to retain the youths and reclaim the missing ones. It can be concluded that with the implementation of this
program the problem of youths dropping out of church due to social, religious and
economic factors like peer influence, non-involvement in church activities can be
curbed and the youths reclaimed and retained, through the programs developed, the
nurturing of youths will be taken care of by involving youths in the youth ministry
which was not there before. The backsliding youths will also be cared for which was
not there before in the churches in Nyakongo District. The researcher recommends
the programs develop to be used by Nyakongo district, Kenya Lake Conference, and
other church institutions which may have the problem of nurture, reclamation and
finally retention of youths. | en_US |
