Drawing on a conversation with Edith Wamalwa in Nairobi, Dave Stedman reflects on a simple but important question: what does it really mean to be a pastor?
Allow me to introduce my good friend Edith Wamalwa. Edith was the first person I met when I landed in Nairobi on my very first trip to Africa after I had started working for APF in January 2015.
At that time Edith was the manager of the CLC Bookshop in Nairobi. She really wanted APF to remove the rusting container full of children’s books, picture sets, and other literature that APF had printed and had been storing in the bookshop compound for several years.
Since then we have worked together on a few projects and remained in regular contact through the APF WhatsApp prayer group. Edith currently serves another organisation, but today she is helping me with some administration for the conference APF will be running for key African partners in Nairobi in September.
It has actually been several years since we last spent time together, so we had a lot to catch up on during the few days I have in Nairobi this March. I knew that the pastor of the church where Edith had been a long-serving and very active member had sadly died prematurely a few years ago, and that Edith did not enjoy the same rapport with his successor. Edith shared that, with regret, she had felt it was right to find a new church in which to worship.
Edith Wamalwa is helping APF organise a key partners conference in September
“I doubt the new guy would even notice I have gone,”
I asked Edith whether she had spoken with the new pastor about how she felt. She explained that she had discussed her feelings with her trusted friend, the previous pastor’s widow. Then she added, “I doubt the new guy would even notice I have gone,” and said that he had “not allowed the church to grieve and heal” before moving on with new programmes and ministries. The church was still strong with new people, but the “elderly”, as she described herself, largely felt unwelcome and many had left.
This is sad, but it is also, sadly, very familiar. I could name several churches in the UK and elsewhere where the same is true. In the rush for new initiatives and pioneering projects, the actual people can get overlooked. I may even have made this mistake myself in the past.
Pastors come in many shapes and sizes, with diverse and eclectic gifts, but the clue is in the word. “Pastor” is derived from pastoral and means shepherd: someone who cares for sheep, who protects and guides them; a person who knows their sheep by name, sees when they are lost or hurting, cares for them individually and collectively, and actively seeks them out, sometimes even at personal cost.
There are sometimes good reasons for leaving a church and going elsewhere, but it should never be because “the new guy wouldn’t even notice.”








