The Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC) has ordained 38 pastors during an ordination service at the closing ceremony of its 55th annual session, which was held at the Baptist Women’s Retreat Centre at Ejura, in the Ejura/Sekyedumase municipality in the Ashanti region.

The four-day convention of the church started on Tuesday August 29, 2018, and ended on Saturday September 1, 2018.

The executive president of GBC, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, called on the newly ordained pastors, including three females, to avoid ministerial jealousy and refuse to measure their effectiveness by the number of their church members in their quest to propagate the gospel to the world.

He charged the pastors to rejoice in the successes of their colleagues and avoid being jealous of their seeming breakthrough.

“Rejoice in the successes of others because God has called us into different ministries with different gifts”, he said, and further admonished: “If another colleague of yours is being used in another ministry, rejoice in that”.

Dr. Adu-Gyamfi explained that ministerial call is a very lonely profession, hence the need for pastors to keep close to their wives wherever they go. Rev. Dr. Adu-Gyamfi and his deputy, Enoch N.N. Thomson, were retained by the convention to steer its affairs.

The Baptist Prelate further told the new pastors to make time to live with their children and family.

Apostle Jude Hama, former president of the Scripture Union, who delivered the sermon, urged the pastors to keep their head up in all situations and endure hardship. He also urged them to preach and evangelise to the world.

He further advised them to aim to wear the crown of righteousness and loyalty, adding that they should never give up in answering to the call to minister the word.

Source: GNA

Reverend Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, President of the Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC) has urged Ministers of the Convention not to measure their effectiveness by the numbers in their Churches.

He also advised them to rejoice in the success of their colleague pastors and keep themselves away from ministerial jealousies in the work of God.

Rev Adu-Gyamfi gave the advice to the 38 newly ordained ministers at the closing ceremony of the 55th Annual Session of the GBC at Ejura in the Ashanti Region at the weekend.

The four-day annual session which was on the theme: “Kingdom Loyalty for Accelerated Development,” brought together members of the convention across the country, Africa and the World and head pastors of other churches to solidarised with the Convention.

It climaxed with praises and thanksgiving for their lives and how far God had brought the Convention and said the call to ministry was a great job and that there was a solemn responsibility in Christian Ministry.

The Executive President charged the ministers to make preaching of the gospel their priority and find time to renew and upgrade their knowledge by reading the Bible on daily basis.

He said the most sacred thing ministers should do was to be taking serious rest, adding that, the call to ministry was a lonely professional job and must draw their wives closer to them.

Rev Adu-Gyamfi stressed the need for the ministers to read wide to acquire more knowledge that would be impacted in the coming generation. “Don’t go and undermine the senior pastors in your churches but, you should respect them and be role models to the coming generations”.

Apostle Jude Hama, Former President of the Scripture Union in a sermon also advised ministers of the GBC to be sober-minded and fulfil their ministerial duties diligently devoid of misconceptions.

He said pastors and ministers in Christianity must preach the word of God and not opinions and philosophies and that there were many charlatans in the in Christendom this times.

Apostle Hama said pastors must be loyal, truthful and God fearing to their congregations no matter what hard times they go through and that determination, commitment and hard work was the key to the success of every situation.

He asked them to set the pace for the younger generation to emulate by been respectful, humble and peace loving people in society as Christians must live to the life of Jesus Christ and what he practised.

Source: GNA

Reverend Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the Executive President of the Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC) has tasked the government to as a matter of urgency complete all neglected health facilities in the country.

He expressed the hope that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akofu-Addo will uphold his pledge to complete all abandoned projects despite the agitations from quarters.

“Governments come and go, but every project is eventually paid with the Ghanaian taxpayers’ money and Ghanaians must not suffer the loses”.

Rev Adu-Gyamfi was speaking at the 55th Annual Session of the GBC on the theme: “Kingdom Loyalty for Accelerated Development at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

The annual session brought together senior pastors, of the GBC across the country and some parts of the West African continent to deliberate on issues affecting the Convention.

He said in the last four months, the GBC has had to start operating a new Baptist Health facility at Nvulenu, pending the official commissioning of the facility, adding that within one month of the facility operation witnessed four save deliveries.

“Currently the facility laboratory service is the best in the whole area serving the Ellembele and Jomoro districts”.

Rev Adu-Gyamfi announced that in the past year, the GBC had received accreditation and pay-roll mechanization for seven new Baptist Health Services facilities by the Christian Health Association of Ghana and Government of Ghana.

He said it was noteworthy to say that Churches operate in areas where regular governmental facilities were not available and that these were complementing government efforts and meeting health the health needs of the country’s rural community.

The Executive President congratulated the government for successfully implementing the first year of the Free Senior High School project despite the challenges faced during the implementation process.

“I believe the Free SHS project is one of the most far-reaching social intervention programme the country is currently witnessing”.

He said the GBC, for that matter Ghana will be hosting this year’s All African Baptist Fellowship Western Region Women’s Conference.

Rev Adu-Gyamfi announced that the GBC had established the Shalom Broadcasting Network, a Television Station not only to meet it core mandate of evangelism but to provide the platform for sharing of religious and faith-based news.

Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority who was the Special Guest deep into the historical antecedents of taxation of religious organisations in the country.

He said the 1947 ordinance outline the first provision of exemption of tax by charitable organisations including religious organisations which specifically exempted religious bodies from paying duties on imported items.

Mr Kofi Nti said these tax exemptions was in recognition of the contribution made by the religious organisations in society as they prioritised the helping of the poor and needy whilst lifting the spiritual welfare of the people.

He said the Income Tax Degree, 1975, S.M.C.D 5 maintained the tax exemption status for religious organisations under Section 3(1)(d) but limited tax exemptions to the Christian Church with regards to their income other than derived from business.

Mr Kofi Nti said Churches have been in the forefront in societal transformation and that before and after independence churches played a significant role in the emancipation of the people when it came to the subject of education.

“Churches provide the setting for the development of the nation’s human capital through the provision of schools and led the society in meeting its socio-economic needs”.

He said there was the need for pastors to build the loyalty of their church members by encouraging them, recognising exemplary services and having a strategic sustainable approach which has a footprint in the lives of their members.

The Commissioner-General said the GBC is one big family which needs to be fair to its members of the family, adding that, the leadership must have a programme to know and experience the working environment and activities of individual pastors.

Source: MyJoyOnline

The President of the Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC), Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, has called on the government to complete abandoned hospital projects across the country in order to expand healthcare delivery.

Reverend Washington Komla Darke, Vice President, Administration, Ghana Baptist Convention, has called on all stakeholders to give critical attention to the issue of ritual servitude popularly known as “trokosi”, and purge it out.

The Ghana Baptist Convention is inviting applications from suitably qualified persons for the position of Bookshop Manager.