Ready to Launch! Nairobi Church Location – Hillsong is granted non-profit registration in Kenya

After a three-month application process, we recently received the great news from our attorney that our application to be registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee had been approved.  Hillsong Kenya Foundation is now a legal operating entity – hallelujah!

This culminates over 20 months of collaboration with Enock Ngone {pr. n-GO-nay}, pictured above with his wife June, as we journeyed together in a ready-to-launch process for which Nairobi Kenya has been a key city in our African church planting strategy.  As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, the “50-50” vision originally spoken by Pastor Phil Dooley in August, 2020 set out the goal to build 50 churches in 50 of the most influential cities across Africa within 20 years.  A key element of the strategic framework that was developed under that vision was to focus on launching “hub” churches in 5 of the largest cities within each of the geographic regions of the content.  Nairobi, Kenya has been selected to become our hub church for the Eastern Africa region, encompassing 14 countries which can been seen in the green shaded areas of the regional map of Africa below:

Across those 20 months I’ve met biweekly with Enock in the role of a “readiness planning coach” to help him plan and grow his core team of volunteers to build the competencies and capacity to launch church as a fully-operating Hillsong location.  In addition to the hub church focus, our strategic church planting framework also prescribes three stages of readiness, with criteria s to be met within each stage before moving onto the next.  Enock and his team have been working diligently to meet the criteria of the third and final stage for about the last year.  One “must-have” criteria of that final stage was to become a registered, legal entity within the country.  Now that this registration is in hand, Enock and his team can begin moving into the final phases of planning for the official launch, which he has targeted for Sunday February 18^th, 2024.  The church has been meeting as a “connect” since 2019 and they have been averaging around 200+ adults weekly over the last few months.  Taking the step to begin operating as a Hillsong location means they will provide the full set of services to all age groups from children, youth and adults plus all the pastoral care elements, all weekly platform preaching and locally-produced worship.  As a “connect” Nairobi was supported for the last couple years by streamed-in sermons and worship content from Hillsong South Africa.

Kenya Registration document

What this registration also means is a Board of Directors must now take steps to set up and govern the entity with Enock and June and their core leads operating the church as its executive management.  Before application for registration was made back in August, Lourens Kruger, the COO of Hillsong Africa approached me to be named as a director of the new Kenya Foundation entity.  I accepted and through the registration, am now a Director who, along with Lourens and Alima Awori (an excellent Kenyan businesswoman in Nairobi), will begin in earnest to oversee the set-up and ongoing operation of our newest African location in Kenya – Hillsong Nairobi!  (see the Registration Document inset above)  This past week Lourens also asked me to take on the Chair responsibilities of the Nairobi Board for the next year – so I will have my hands full as I serve in this new capacity.  Our first meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, December 13^th, where we’ll be defining our constitution, appointing Enock and June as lead pastors and considering the 2024 operating budget to name just a few of our initial duties.

The Hillsong Kenya Foundation entity will report into the Hillsong South Africa Board for the interim until Hillsong Global publishes its new global / regional governance structure, anticipated since the appointment of Phil and Lucinda Dooley as new Global Senior Pastors of the movement.

I covet your prayers for Enock, June and their core team of faithful volunteers as they prepare to launch as a church location, and for the new Kenyan board as we seek the Lord’s wisdom in getting this new church going, supported and operating as a healthy, thriving church; and we look to the future to see it grow and develop into a hub church, eventually reaching tens of thousands with the Good News of the Kingdom within Eastern Africa in the years ahead and with God’s faithful provision.

Very exciting days ahead!