The Schools Outreach Ministry (SOM) of The Church of Pentecost has organised a two-day seminar for its Area coordinators.
The maiden event took place at the Pentecost Convention Centre from Friday, July 30 to Saturday, July 31, 2021. It recorded about 100 participants, including representatives from all areas, the National Coordinating Committee (NCC), members of the Youth Ministry’s National Executive Committee and some Travelling Secretaries.
The programme, which was organised as part of the recently-held Youth Ministry’s mid-year review meetings chaired by Apostle Samuel O. Asante (Youth Ministry Patron), was part of activities earmarked to kick-start the full implementation of the ministry in the church.
The seminar began with an exhortation by the Deputy Director of the Youth Ministry, Elder Dr Eric Apau Asante, on the topic: “Blockages to the progress of the Ministry.” In his sermon, he stressed the need for the various leaders of the SOM to identify obstacles that may hinder the smooth running of the SOM and to deal with them for maximum impact.
The National Coordinator of the Schools Outreach Ministry, Elder Desmond Addison, gave an overview of the ministry and touched on its focus and objectives. The key focus of the ministry, he said, was to ensure that the Gospel message is preached to every pupil/student in clear terms.
To achieve this, he outlined practical steps that could be undertaken such as creating simple salvation messages in audio and video formats, creating simple Gospel games and workbooks, and organising evangelistic outreaches to schools, among others. He further touched on the leadership structure of the ministry across the various levels of the church.
Addressing the gathering on the topic: “Possessing the Campus to Possess Society and the Future,” the Youth Ministry Director, Pastor Ebenezer Hagan, gave a breakdown of the population of students in the country. He mentioned that 5.9 million Ghanaian students, representing about 19% of the country’s population, are between the ages 15 and 24 years (thus, SHS and tertiary level), while about 11.3 million students fall within the basic school bracket.
He noted that by “possessing the schools” the SOM team would contribute significantly to the “Possessing the Nations” agenda of the church since a huge number of the Ghanaian population could be found in the schools.
Elder Addison also gave the participants an update of the work done by the National Coordinating Committee (NCC) since assuming office. The spoke about ongoing works on the SOM handbook, quiet time manual, SOM reporting format, etc. He concluded his presentation by unveiling the social media handles of the ministry and the website (www.schoolsoutreachministry.org), which is currently under construction.
Elder Felix Amofa Frimpong, a member of the NCC of the ministry, on his part, shared with participants some strategies that could be adopted to take the gospel message of Jesus Christ into the various educational institutions. He also educated the participants on how sounds are used to preach the word of God to pupils in primary schools and how to form Bible clubs for the various age groups.
A workshop was also held as part of the exercise to enable participants to suggest more ideas on how to make the SOM more effective and impactful, after which they engaged in a time of fervent prayer.
At the end of the event, the Area Coordinators were tasked to do the following:
- Submit a list of schools in their respective areas to the National Leadership of the SOM.
- Submit names of all members of the church who are professional/trained teachers in their respective areas.
- Organise training sessions for the district and local teams and the teachers in their jurisdiction.
- Create awareness about the School Outreach Ministry in their area to court the support of the entire church.
- Develop operational strategies to help them reach out to all educational institutions in their jurisdiction.
The Schools Outreach Ministry of The Church of Pentecost was created during the 45th General Council Meeting. It seeks to win pupils/students at all levels for Christ and “possess” the various school campuses for the Lord. The core mandate of SOM is to advise the Church on how to create more ministry opportunities for itself in educational institutions.
The ministry is led at the national level by an 11-member team appointed by the leadership of the Church. They are Elder Desmond Addison (Coordinator), Elder Dr Joseph Budu (Deputy Coordinator), Deacon Alex Anning (Secretary), Mrs Priscilla Yirebi (Youth Ministry NEC Representative) and Elder Edward Koomson (Evangelism Ministry Representative). The rest are Mrs Joyce Albina Assan, Deaconess Olivia Serwaa Opare, Elder Prince Gyan, Elder Felix Amofa Frimpong, Elder Reindorf Anaba and Elder Daniel Yaw Sarfo.
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