Start with the Lord's Table
Communion is the first service most new churches furnish for, and the Table needs both vessels and elements. For congregations serving individual cups: a communion tray (our golden tray seats 40 cups and stacks as you grow), cups (glass and silver are washable and last years; plastic serves large gatherings), and a refiller bottle that fills each cup with 10–15ml without a drop on the linen. Churches using the common cup begin instead with a chalice — or a chalice-and-paten set for the full traditional form.
Then the elements: communion bread in 200, 500 or 1,000-piece packs (one piece per communicant plus about ten percent margin — a fellowship of 150 uses a 200-pack per service), and the cup's filling — communion wine such as Devai (a 1-litre bottle fills 66–100 cups) or unfermented grape juice, both stocked, poured as your tradition directs. An airtight bread container keeps opened stock fresh between services.
The minister and the pulpit
The vestments take the longest lead time, so order them first: a made-to-measure cassock or preaching gown is sewn in our Nairobi workshop in 5–7 working days from confirmed measurements — order about two weeks before the launch service to leave room for fitting and delivery. Ready-made sizes ship immediately when the calendar cannot wait.
Most ministers start with the daily cassock, a clergy shirt and collar, and two stoles — green for ordinary time and white for the feasts — adding the other liturgical colours as the church year comes round. A large-print Bible completes the lectern: our NKJV Giant Print is the volume made for reading aloud.
The sanctuary itself
The room finds its voice with a few well-chosen pieces: an altar bell (single to four-bell styles) for the solemn moments; offering baskets — light, dignified, one per aisle or section, with the large basket for combined services; candles and holders for the altar; and, in traditions that use incense, a chain-swung thurible. Altar linens and general church ware round out the room as the congregation settles in.
The door and the aisle
Order flows from the door. Uniform usher belts identify the welcome team at a glance, so guests know who to turn to and the service moves in good order — from first greeting to the offering to the final blessing. It is the least expensive item on this list and among the most visible every single Sunday.
Dedication day — and buying in phases
For the dedication of the building, churches reach for anointing oil (kept ready thereafter for prayer, blessings and hospital visits, after James 5:14) — and many congregations mark the day with a gift for the presiding minister.
The honest sequencing: phase one is the Table, the baskets, the minister's vestment and a Bible — a modest sanctuary serves its first communion from a few thousand shillings of individual cups, a wafer pack and one bottle. Phase two adds the bell, candles, more stole colours and larger trays as the congregation grows. Send your situation on WhatsApp (+254 727 891 989) and we will build a complete, budget-conscious list with you — we do it for new churches every week, with parish accounts and delivery across Kenya, East Africa and worldwide.
