Archbishop’s Message

Greetings in the Name of the Most High, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank the Lord for preserving us through 2024 and graciously bringing us into the new year 2025. Thankfully, we have been saved by the grace of God through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, many are not as fortunate as we are. Many are those who are still lost, while others are trying to reach God through other means apart from Christ. Also, there are others who have tasted the saving grace of Christ but are being led astray by false teachings and doctrines. Our calling as a church is to “accept the challenge of our Lord’s Commission to propagate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit in Ghana, Africa, and other parts of the world.” We are therefore tasked to reach these groups of people and lead them to Christ. But we cannot effectively do this if we, as a church, have not developed ourselves well to take on the task. As such, our aim, this year 2025, is to position ourselves, as good and faithful stewards of God, by implementing activities and programmes that will lead to “Building a Growing and High-Performance Church”. Our key Bible verses for the theme are Ephesians 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 3:9-15. However, I will encourage everyone to read the whole of Ephesians Chapter 4 and

1 Corinthians Chapter 3, as well as the book of Nehemiah. Indeed, there are many scriptural references for our theme of the year 2025, and I encourage you all to research and to dig into them.

The Great Commission that the Lord Jesus gave to us is not one to be taken lightly. There are many aspects of the Great Commission that demand our total dedication and commitment. As we have it in the motto of the Church, ‘we are to proclaim the Gospel to all people, to warn and to teach them in all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ Jesus’ (Colossians 1:28). We cannot do this if we do not develop ourselves and put in place the right systems and structures. The church has come a long way since its inception, and we need to move it to the next level in order to meet the demands of the Gospel internally (that is, within the Church) and externally (that is, outside the Church). This is the reason for the theme of the year 2025. We need to build a growing and high-performance Church so that we can fulfill the Great Commission, which is our mandate.

To do this, the following are some key thoughts to remember:
1. We need to Grow Spiritually and Disciple Others. This involves developing a deep, personal relationship with God. How are we developing through our personal and corporate Bible studies? Do we act on what we learn from the Word of God, which brings transformation or do we just go through the rituals? How about our prayer lives? Are the prayers we offer to God geared toward building a personal relationship with God and letting the Will of God rule in our lives? Or are our prayers to God meant to demand Him to do things for us according to our own will and desires? What about Worship? Do we
dedicate our whole lives, publicly or secretly in worship to God or do we worship only on Sundays when we go to church? What about the teaching of sound Doctrine? Are we dedicated to studying the Word of God to understand what it means for us personally and our generation, and communicating it through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring transformation and to make disciples who have the nature of Christ? Or are we being tossed by every false doctrine and communicating same to others, thereby leading them away from Christ? We each need to take an account of our lives to see if indeed our Christian life reflects the nature of Christ, and then take steps with the help of the Holy Spirit to run with perseverance this race that has been set for each of us, looking to Jesus who is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2). Spiritual growth is the engine of church growth.

A high-performance church begins with disciples who have high-commitment. It is only when each person is transformed that they can mentor, guide and lead others to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

2. We need to work together to grow our church and to share the Gospel with others. Church growth happens when we are able to engage our members with the true Word of God in a timely and relevant manner, addressing contemporary issues from a Biblical perspective. Providing pastoral care and support for our members, be it spiritual, emotional or physical, helps members to practically experience the love of God. We also need to encourage each member to be part of a church group or ministry such as men, women and youth fellowships, to keep them engaged and offer avenues for them to use
their God-given gifts to help build up the church. Now more than ever, the church needs to be united to carry on the mandate God has given us. Let us put away pride, tribalism, bitterness, and works of the flesh that bring divisions in the church. Proverbs 6:16-20 says “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers…”. Let us uproot all these from our church and rather build together in unity as Ephesians 4:1-6 says “… I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” When the church works together in unity, there is no limit to what God can accomplish through it. To grow our church, we need to explore innovative and more effective ways of delivering messages and serving our communities. The use of technology will greatly enhance our services and help us reach a wider audience. We need to be dynamic in our services to accommodate the different generations we find in our churches, including the youth and children. Church growth also depends on evangelism. As we share the Gospel, we also receive many to join the church family. Every church member should be trained to do evangelism. All church branches should prioritize evangelism and this can take the form of one-on-one evangelism, mass evangelism in the form of crusades and other outreach programmes. Evangelism is the core of our Ministry and we must commit to it.

3. We need to be operating at a high level to build and grow our church. Leadership at all levels of the church structure should be operating with excellence. We need to embrace the vision of the Church and be committed to it by working to achieve it. Many a time, we see some branches doing different things from what has been communicated by the headquarters and that is because the leadership of those branches do not align to the vision of the church. We all have one identity. We rise or fall together. So, all leaders need to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose (1 Corinthians 1:10), in order to achieve the purpose of God for our church. Leaders also need to be well trained in all aspects of leadership in order to effectively perform their roles and responsibilities. Operating at a high level means that all aspects of our operations are functioning in an effective and efficient manner. From our church services, through our administrative processes to financial management and so on, we need to ensure that we put in place effective systems and structures that would enhance operations for the now and for the future. We need to adopt a new constitution that is relevant to our ever- changing world,
and that addresses peculiar realities of our Ministry, including the welfare of workers in the vineyard. It does not reflect the excellence of God if we are not structured and if we are disorganized. No one part of the Church can be better than the whole. We need to start building together now. That is the way to go. We have a big task ahead of us. To build, we may first have to pull down some things that hinder our progress. This would take courage, commitment, resilience and the grace of God to do. But we have confidence in Christ who is our firm foundation that when we are all aligned, when we build upon Him, we will be like the house built on the rock which stood no matter what storm came against it. (Matthew 7:24-27). The Lord continue to bless you as you
join in “Building a Growing and High-Performance Church”. I pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.