Blessed are the rich and prosperous for theirs is the Kingdom of this world:The Kenyan Challenge

Abstract

Any study on Prosperity Gospel is not only contemp orary and significant in its nature but, it is also controversial and affects large populations of people. This makes research on this important area interesting and wo rthwhile. This article investigates the rapid growth of the p rosperity church in Africa and Kenya in particular, the role of the Prosperity Gospel clergy in their churches, th e impact of Prosperity Gospel on its adherents, th eir preachers on Christian spirituality and the negative impact o f Prosperity Gospel on the growth of Christianity. In actualizing the findings of this research, the foll owing questions were posed : Have Prosperity Gospel churches grown from preaching Prosperity Gospel? Has the cle rgy of Prosperity Gospel benefitted from it? How ha ve adherents of Prosperity Gospel advanced in health a nd wealth promotion? Has Christian spirituality suf fered any consequences as a result of preaching Prosperity Go spel? In this article, article literature search, q uestionnaires and oral interviews were to collect data from a cro ss section of the targeted population. Ten senior P rosperity Gospel preachers were interviewed; Questionnaires w ere administered to two hundred followers of these churches, while fifty students who were not necessa rily members of the targeted churches were randomly selected from the University of Nairobi.