It has been established that out of every 11 Ghanaians you meet, one will be a member of The Church of Pentecost.
This is because the overall membership of the Church in Ghana as at the end of December 2017 had grown to 2, 566, 818 (Two million, five hundred and sixty-six thousand, eight hundred and eighteen), representing an approximately 9% of the total estimated Ghanaian population of 29, 088,849.
This was disclosed in the State of the Church Address read by the Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah, at the opening session of the 43rd General Council Meeting at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC), Gomoa Fetteh on Wednesday, May 2, 2018.
According to the Chairman, the sterling growth of the Church is a great potential for policy change and total development of the country, saying, “Leadership of the Church must therefore harness this potential for advancement of the gospel and development of the nation.”
At the end of December 2017, The Church of Pentecost operated in 99 countries with an overall worldwide total membership of 3,037,068, an 8.3% increase over the 2016 figure of 2,804,861. The church operated a total of 20,863 assemblies worldwide with the number of districts totalling 2,253.
“The overall percentage growth might have been enhanced by the One Member, One Discipled Soul project initiated by the Evangelism Ministry and adopted by the Executive Council,” he said.
Within the period 2008 to 2017, the Lord added 1,341,656 (one million, three hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-six) to the overall worldwide membership of the Church.
During the year, the evangelistic activities yielded good results as we recorded a total of 260,583 adult souls won, representing a 23% increase over the 2016 figure of 211,795. Out of the total number of adult souls won, 185,746 (71.3%) were baptised in water. “This however shows that there is need for improvement in follow-up, as 74,837 souls were left out. The number of souls baptised culminated in the establishment of a total of 1,102 new assemblies for the period,” he disclosed.
Touching on the youth growth trend of the Church in Ghana, the Chairman said since the future of every institution depends on the young generation catching the vision of the leaders or adults, there will be a deliberate attempt to mentor the children and the youth to know Christ in a personal way, grow in Him and also understand the Church’s beliefs and practices as envisaged in the Vision 2018 document.
As a result, he said, there has been an increased intentionality by leadership of the Church over the past ten years to focus on empowering children and youth by involving them in decision making, giving them opportunity to lead programmes and utilize their talents and skills in church, giving them leadership opportunities and many more. This contributed to increasing the youth membership in Ghana.
As part of the growth plan projected by Vision 2018 for the period 2013-2018, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah said that it was expected that each assembly, district, area and nation would increase its overall membership (adult and children) by 7% per annum. By the grace of God, he said, the Church achieved an overall membership average annual growth rate of 7% for the 10 year period, 2007 – 2017, exactly as was planned.
“Breaking the 10 year tenure into two, the first five years recorded an average growth rate of 6%, while the second term (2013-2017) recorded an average growth rate of 8%,” he disclosed.
PENTECOST NEWS
