A new movement of the Spirit in Western Kenya began in late 2019. And it portends an exciting opportunity for churches beyond Kenya to return the core roots of the earliest churches of the New Testament. Like then, and as it has always been for all Core 300 missions, it is agnostic to denomination.
It’s called the Sanctuary Church Movement
Birthed out of the Core 300 International ministry to this region of the world, we found most churches existed to expressed exhilaration through song and worship and to aggrandize the local pastor–often more tribal than a servant-shepherd to the flock. Throughout the Scriptures, God commands the nation of Israel–and later, the Church, to prayerfully, financially, and practically express the redemptive compassion and care of our Heavenly Father for 5 marginalized demographic groups–even allocating one of the 3 Tithes to them in the Law of Moses.
The (abject) Poor
The Fatherless (orphans)
The Prisoner (Hostage/Captives)
The Physically/Mentally Challenged (Blind/Sick/Lame/Deaf/Mute)
Exiles (Gentile/Sojourner/Homeless)
When Core 300 arrived they began teaching the Warrior in 2013–and soon afterward the Priest courses–to many 1000’s ministers in Eastern Uganda and Kenya, it was clear that the enthusiastic word of mouth growth and stories of changed lives were happening. Yet we learned many disturbing “cultural” insights which grieved us. One of those was that churched pastors and their people hated Ex-cons! They refused entry–even violently if necessary.
Today we have trained and graduated over 20,000 church leaders, which s expanding by 500 new conference attendees per month! But it was the data from the Wives’ Surveys of late 2019, that confirmed that the vast majority of these men had become sustainably transformed men–as husbands, dads, and leaders in ministry.
Their churches had been changing as well. They were no longer “Tribal”–self-serving with inward-looking congregations, but their hearts were changed, and they began to feel the compassion of Christ for the marginalized. When COVID struck and 15,000 inmates–mostly innocent men–were released into the streets. There was a crisis of safety put on top of COVID!
A few Core 300 certified prison chaplains felt led of the Spirit to breach a bitter, 50-year-old resentment-fueled division that had existed between the church ministers and the prison ministers. A few began to talk and pray together and an innovative idea emerged: What if they worked as a team to proved a soft landing for these disenfranchised men? Watch as Nicholas, a Muslim man convicted of a murder shares his Sanctuary story;
Looking to the Scriptures, they saw how Jesus had preached his first sermon from Isaiah (Luke 4:18) of his burden to proclaim freedom to the prisoners–-and that there was an eternal reward for those followers who cared for and had compassion on them and their families. Our African Board in Kenya facilitated–with advice from our US leadership–to formalize a partnership between selected local churches–who would be trained by Core 300 Kenya–and the Ministry of Prisons to collaborate with all soon-to-be-released Ex-cons. They would be helped by the Chaplains–even to the sharing of prison records–to be received by a local, welcoming, and prepared Sanctuary Church. Although only 31 exist today, the queue of the churches in training is currently 165!
Can you join us to help our volunteer Coordinators train and mentor these local church leaders? The 6-month process will cost each team of 2 men to travel multiple times to the church, costing an average of $500 USD per church. Join our team with prayer and financial support because beyond travel, room, and board, almost every Ex-con comes with needs of food, education, job preparation–as well of the ministry of reconciliation between him, and his wife, and his children.
Here is a fun way to get involved. Adopt a new Sanctuary Church for $85 per month for 6 months! Click on
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