Exposition theme

There are not many words that can articulately describe Sunday service with our chairman, Aps. Eric Nyamekye & his wife, Mrs Mary Nyamekye. The Chairman was the speaker for the day and he highlighted and explained aspects of the Vision 2023 to the congregation.

To set the ball rolling, he stated that God usually picks a physical leader of the church whom he has made deposits in and this helps the leader understand what God intends to do at that particular time. Vision 2023, which is, “possessing the nations: equipping the church to transform every sphere of society with the values and principles of the kingdom of God” is what God has given to the church for the period of 2018 to 2023.

Elaborating, he mentioned that the church was expected to influence all spheres and sectors of society including the workplace; this was the reason for the chaplaincy programme of the church. Drawing lessons from the old testament, he mentioned that God chose Israel, despite owning all nations of the world so through Israel's obedience he could pull all other nations to himself.

Israel was honoured to be the nation through which the Messiah would come and Mary was chosen to be his mother. Aps. Eric Nyamekye mentioned that, just as Visas are needed to enter into countries, the womb is needed to enter the planet earth. And it was for this reason that our Lord Jesus Christ was born through Mary.

Blood is needed for the forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22) and the womb allowed the Jesus to have flesh giving him a body with blood. This development made it possible for there to be the forgiveness of sins as his blood was shed for us. Aps. Eric Nyamkeye further added that Jesus died so that all men could be saved and if anyone goes to hell, it will only be because they refused to accept the gospel, not because of the sin they committed.

Still on the old testament, he mentioned that the Lord kept telling the Israelites to possess the land He had given to them (Deuteronomy 7 & 8) but in actuality he was going to do the battle (Deuteronomy 9); their minds however had to be tuned to the task. He further stated that, in the same way, the Lord was going to use the church to possess the nations. The goal is a church where the members go to possess the nations, he added.

“We are not coming to church to warm the chairs, we must transform our spheres”, he said. He mentioned that 72% of the population professed to be Christians, but quickly forgot that when they left the church. He also stated that the emergence of many churches is not enough to change the Ghana and the world at large, righteousness is what is needed (Proverbs 14:34).

There is the need to refocus the church on what was important and the Church of Pentecost intends to do just that. He added that this was an agenda in the will of God. It was therefore necessary for the Church to be intentional in equipping the members with the required resources and also reorganise some of its structures.

The Church of Pentecost in pursuit of this agenda has decided to deploy its members as agents of transformation (Society transformation) and encourage them to get involved in the management of the community (Community Transformation). The Church of Pentecost is also initiating Church-Government partnerships with the aim achieving transformation on a larger scale. These have led to the initiation of projects such as bus rests, boreholes, CHP compounds and police stations.

One of the major projects being pursued also involves de-congesting already existing prisons by building ultra-modern facilities to reduce the burden on the already existing ones. He also added that, even though prisoners are considered sinners, we needed to lead them to Christ. Elaborating on this, he mentioned that for the church, sinners are our clients.

Aps Eric Nyamekye also mentioned other initiatives being undertaken by the church which included home and urban missions. One of the targets of these initiatives was to plant French and Chinese churches due to the increasing number of French and Chinese nationals in the country.

Concluding, he mentioned that there was the need to pray, but there was also the need to get involved. He also encouraged the congregation to love the church and trust in their leaders. He reminded the congregation that the church of Christ is to be a glorious one which simply means, we need to be transformed so we can transform our societies.

It was quite the honour to host the Chairman, but one with many lessons and we hope he comes back soon! Finally, remember to be an agent of change and positively influence your sphere! God bless you!