“WE BELONG TO A CHURCH AND A MISSION”MINISTER OF GOD REMINDS CHRISTIANS.

The Chairman for the North American Mission of the Ghana Methodist Church, Very Reverend Kofi Bart-Martin, has reminded persons in a mission field that they do have a responsibility to their religious authorities over them and their community in which they practice.

He made it clear that persons in mission field do not operate on their own or lord things over their various congregations or community they live in and operate but rather belong to the societies or communities they live in and practice.

Very Reverend Kofi Bart-Martin, stated this when addressing the third annual general meeting of the North American Ghana Methodist Church at Toronto-Canada on May 21, 2011. The annual general meeting was under the theme,” Behold the lamb”.

“We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to a church, a mission and a conference. As Methodists, we are connexional. We do not have isolated congregations that do not encounter each. Each congregation is dependent and related to each others and the larger body” Very Reverend Kofi Bart-Martin held.

He observed that the work of missions and developing congregations often find individuals who may respond to the urging and promptings of the Holy Spirit to do the work of God.

But missions also often happen in a very virgin area where there are not enough trained persons, resource persons or gifted persons who may be entrusted with the work. We may find out that only a few people may be relied upon to do different tasks, adding” often these individuals come to believe they are indispensable to the enterprise as they fail to see themselves in the servant mode by seeing themselves as bosses, he further observed.

Sounding biblical, he explained that God chooses the worthless, the hopeless and the giftless and makes them worthy for service, hopeful in service and gifted in service and he does all these things for his own glory as Reverend Charles Wesley discovered that happy if with my latest breath, I may but gasp his name, preach him to all and cry in death,” Behold, behold the lamb of God”.

The chairman made it clear at the meeting that as the church develops societies; it will put individuals in charge. But when a minister comes he takes over.

He said,” The lay person in charge must decrease. The wisdom of our forbears calls our system the minister in charge. The minister bears responsibility to give an account to the bigger body to which all of us are a part.

“Leaders have a responsibility to assist and counsel their ministers to make good decisions that uplift the church and work of God as a whole. But as a church, our ministers are not localized as the whole world is their parish” he remarked.

Reverend Bart-Martin, urged the societies in North America to embrace the concept where a minister preaches once in a month at his station with the rest of the month serving on out stations especially where there are a few ministers.

He charged members not to allow their parochial interests to override the interest of the mission as a whole as he prayed for the entire church in North America.

Mr. Kodjo Mawutor, Ghana's Consul General in Toronto, in a good will message to the church reflected on the theme,” Behold the lamb” saying the word lamb is very symbolic, far reaching and significant.

He called on Christians to allow the lamb or Sheppard which was Jesus Christ to impact on their lives to overcome all problems of humanity and provide salvation, economically and socially.

“Believers are to be conscience of society to bring balance to all man's problems and challenges and hope that the meeting will bring believers to know their roles” he prayed.

Earlier in his welcome address, Very Reverend Dr. Emanuel Asare Kusi, acknowledged that the people called Methodists have continued the work of Reverend John Wesley over the past years where they the ministers are privileged to be part of God's mission in that area.

According to him, the great task of Jesus in bringing many more sheep to his fold demands evaluation of the past and planning for the future.

He resolved that as the church praise the men and women both clergy and the laity in North America, for their great sacrifices and success in the past, they must press on to greater goals especially in planting many more societies in strategic places in the area for a holistic growth of the church.

Present at the meeting were reverend ministers from America and of course in Canada with selected members as delegates. The meeting would be rounded off with a special church service on Sunday May 22, 2011.