The West African Director of The Samaritan Strategy, Elder Dr Chris Ampadu, has said that although many church leaders strife for recognition and laurels, it is rather their association and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that matters most.

According to him, “the fall of man has affected every aspect of humankind’s life. The African’s relationship with God, with others, with the environment and with the community has become affected, therefore, accepting the Saviour Jesus Christ and living a Christ-like life with a renewal of mind, will free humankind from this effect.

“The African Traditional Religion beliefs have created barriers that have pitched many people against each other. These barriers include tribalism, corruption, mediocrity, lies and many other vices but it is only in Jesus Christ that these barriers can be broken,” he added.

Elder Dr Ampadu made this assertion at the 2018 Apostolisation Retreat of the Kete-Krachi Area of The Church of Pentecost, which is currently ongoing in four zonal centres namely Krachi, Banda Chinderi and Kpandai zones.

The Director further stated that today there are many people in the Church that have experienced mistreatment of various forms even more than those outside the Church, meanwhile Christians are the people who are supposed to bring peace and relief to the world.

Dr Ampadu explained that the type of Christianity that came to Africa through the missionaries brought about a dualistic nature of the Christian. The grace (spiritual) and nature (physical/secular) nature. The spiritual life, he said, was seen to be more important to the physical or secular. This, according to him, led to the establishment of dualistic churches or gnostic churches by the coming of the missionaries and the type of Christians produced then became very imbalanced.

He, therefore, challenged Church leaders that doing aggressive evangelism is not enough but focusing on intentional discipleship of the souls won to be like Christ must be pursued. This he said is the mark of a balanced Christian.

Elder Dr Chris Ampadu concluded by saying that the total Christian growth must be in semblance to the growth of Jesus Christ.

“We need to grow in wisdom, in stature, in favour with God and in favour with man. We must be true models in all aspects of our lives, reflecting the image of Christ,” he said.

Report By: Overseers Ernest Perbi-Asare and Isaac Klutse, Kete-Krachi