Investigating Luhya Naming Rituals and Their Implications on Christian Worship in the Baptist Church in Vihiga County, Kenya

African Christianity remains sandwiched between the western-prejudiced Christianity and traditional positioned Christianity. Western Christianity condemns and opposes Christian involvement in African rituals in the rites of passage lead to syncretistic practices in the Church. These ritual practices particularly naming cannot be divorced from religious perspectives of the Luhya tribe of Kenya. The study investigated Luhya naming rituals and their implications on Christian worship on Christian worship in the Baptist Church in Vihiga County, Kenya. Descriptive research design was employed with qualitative approaches. Random sampling procedure was used to sample 183 Lay Christians while purposive sampling was applied to sample 16 Pastors and 22 Church Leaders making a total sample size of 221 respondents. The study was informed by animism and sociological theory that was pivotal in reviewing the literature and computation of data from Likert scale questionnaire and interview schedules. Qualitative data from respondents was thematically coded, cleaned, analysed, and tabulated into descriptive statistics, frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs then documented. On naming of children, the study found that children were named after ancestors, dead relatives and Christian saints bringing in the concept of blending and inculturation of traditional Luhya practices with Christian values. The findings revealed that there were salient levels of inculturation of Luhya naming rituals and rites of passage into the Baptist Church liturgy. The study will help the Church leadership and scholars in reviewing Luhya naming rituals on Christian worship and incorporation of relevant practices in Christian worship.