WELCOM ADDRESS By Mrs. Justina Darko Andoh ( Human Resource Manager St. Georgina Health Care and Consultancy)
Distinguished Arcbishops and bishops, honourable ministers of the Lord, members of the Press, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I am glad to welcome all of you to the first day of Transformation conference 2023.
I am honoured and humbled by your presence.
Thank you.
God has layed a burning desire on the heart of His servant Dr. Godfred Andoh to lead a crusade for Transformation in our beloved country through the Church.
Since the inauguration of this program three years ago, it has had tremendous impact on the lives of many individuals, churches and the country.
The church as a religious and social organisation, driven by moral and social principles as contained in the fundamental teachings and doctrine of Christian faith, is expected to play an important role towards the social change and the improvement on society’s value system.
This should lead to the transformation of the social life and put society in a holistic growth- and development-oriented direction.Unfortunately, the modern day church seem to have almost completely forgotten about her role and responsibility in national transformation.
A cursory look at Ghana depicts the people as intensely religious and demonstrating uncommon passion and commitment to our chosen faith but divided along political, religious and socio-economic lines.
Since religions are intended to infuse divinity into humanity, making humans less barbaric and more humane in their relationships with one another, it is expected that there would be some cultural overflow of religious legacies into the psychosocial and political atmosphere of the country.
This was certainly the case in the early years of Ghana’s independence.
However, given the present scenario of underdevelopment of Ghana coupled with the depreciation of moral values, insolence, corruption and prevailing religious bigotry, it becomes expedient to review the place of Christianity (which incidentally is the foremost in terms of spread and influence) in sustainable national development in Ghana.
The Church has become engrossed in materialistic cares of the world system, thus she has lost her light. Darkness naturally takes centre stage whenever light recedes, so is the case of Ghana in contemporary times.
Moral conscience for which we were known for has become strange to the succeeding generations.
Thus, it is commonplace today for ocult groups and witchcraft societies to flaunt their paraphernalia publicly, acts which were not socially acceptable in the yesteryears.
It is time for Ghana to leverage the Christian faith for her development, which has been more of a mirage for succeeding governments.
In Ghana,Christians are prone to complaining about why God is not giving the nation godly leaders.
What a paradoxical and hypocritical question that is, because on one hand most churches teach its members to refrain from politics because it is a dirty game.
But when Muslims and unbelievers take over government, we begin to complain that there are no Christians or godly people in power.
If we are going to teach our people not to go into politics because it is dirty, then who is going to clean it up? Are there angels in charge of that kind of job? No!
This implies that our posture cannot be one of subservience to the powers that be, but the realization that we represent a higher Kingdom and we have a mandate to execute the agenda of that Kingdom here “on earth as it is in heaven.
Thus, we cannot be aloof or be content with superficial access to the corridors of power.
We must begin to infiltrate and occupy strategic boardrooms of power.
Didn’t the Bible tell us we are the light of the world? Is light not given to dissipate darkness?
If the secular world is the darkness and the believer is the light, then God has provided solution to the problem of darkness.
That solution is the church and believers.This implies that rather than our predominantly reactionary posture, we must begin to develop strategies for positioning godly people on all the mountains of culture and influence – from the Mountains of Government and Family, to the Mountains of Economy and Arts and Entertainment; from the Mountains of Media and Education, to the Mountain of Religion, until the flag of the Kingdom of God is hoisted on every mountain.
The Church must become skilled not only in “rightly dividing the word of truth” but also in rightly dividing public policy, and we must design programmes and initiatives that develop the latent capacities of our people to understand and excel in the art and science of governance across sectors. Until we step outside the comfort zone of our cosy Sunday services and interface with the rot around us as salt and light, the work of nation-building cannot begin.
While we wait for the coming of the Lord, we cannot sit idle in poverty, ignorance, destruction of our environment and in a society of increased moral decadence.
It is time to align with God’s purpose and timing for the nation, to build capacity as nation-builders, and to create strategic structures and alliances, aimed at deploying key leaders in every sector, public and private, in every city.
Moreover, it is time for the body of Christ to come together, to reconcile our differences, to heal as a body, to become united in purpose, with every joint supplying its unique strengths, as we rise up as one body, to take orders from our Lord and Master, to build a great nation on the foundations of righteousness and justice, faithfulness and truth; a great nation where peace, prosperity and unity prevail, where no one will be oppressed, and where every man, woman, boy and girl can go to bed giving thanks to God and saying, “thank God I am a Ghanaian!”With our carefully selected speakers, I believe you will receive great illumination during these three days.
Once again thank you for coming and please enjoy the program!
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