Financial Management Practices and Their Impact on Spiritual Nourishment in Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Kenya: A Systematic Review

Financial management is vital for the sustainability and credibility of faith-based organisations. In Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) churches, it is tied to spiritual nourishment, as transparent, ethical stewardship boosts trust and sustains investment in faith and outreach. This review synthesises the evidence on financial management in Kenyan SDA churches and evaluates its impact on spiritual nourishment and church vitality. Using a PRISMA-aligned protocol, English literature (2018–2025) was sourced from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar with Boolean keywords on financial governance, stewardship, transparency, accountability, and spiritual nourishment; reference lists were manually searched. Two independent reviewers screened studies with consensus resolution, data were extracted using a standardised form, methodological quality was appraised using design-appropriate checklists, and findings were synthesised narratively with quantitative trend descriptions. The synthesis shows systemic financial governance weaknesses: approximately 60% of churches lack clear, accessible financial records; nearly 50% do not conduct regular audits or maintain oversight committees; under 40% implement formal budgets aligned with spiritual priorities, leading to faith-development program underfunding; and fewer than 25% use secure digital platforms for tithes and offerings, relying on manual processes and insecure methods. Across studies, these deficiencies are consistently linked to suspicion, reduced member engagement, leadership distraction from core mission work, and weakened spiritual cohesion, reflecting a disconnect between financial practice and SDA stewardship values. Integrating stewardship, resource dependency, and spiritual leadership perspectives, augmented by the 4S model, suggests that improving reporting, budgeting discipline, internal controls, ethical leadership capacity, and secure digital adoption can restore trust and support spiritual nourishment. However, these conclusions are tempered by heterogeneous study designs and reliance on secondary evidence, highlighting the need for more primary research in Kenyan SDA settings.