Church holds send-off service for founder

Accra, Dec. 3, GNA - Apostle Ekow Badu-Wood, General-Secretary of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, on Saturday called on African leaders to be banners of good examples for the younger generation to emulate. He said what most African leaders had failed to recognise was that no human was indispensable so they had often strived to hook unto power, even when they were supposed to hand them over to others. Apostle Badu-Wood, who was speaking at a send-off ceremony in honour of the founder of Church of the Living God-Ghana, Bishop James Annan Aryeh in Accra, said lack of preparedness for retirement and trust in their successors had prevented many leaders from handing over their positions to others. Fourteen new pastoral ministers were also ordained for the Church at the ceremony.

"Let our leaders begin to demonstrate trust in the younger generation so that they would be more responsible and be able to operate with little or no supervision to build a mighty empire for Christ Jesus and for our nations," he said. He said leadership was only opportunities given to men to serve and as it was required of every servant to be humble, so must all leaders be humble, to be able to provide quality services to their people. "Many have fallen because of arrogance, disobedience lies and failure to hear the voice of God, and therefore, it is required that a good servant or steward be humble and obedient to God and to the people he serves," he said.

The retiring Bishop received a citation, a cheque for one 100 million cedis as his gratuity and an Opel Vectra car. The Church also pledged to pay a monthly pension allowance of one million cedis to him. Apostle Badu-Wood said African leaders, as well as Christians should always prepare themselves for the exit when it is their turn to go, so that they would let go of positions without a fight. Leadership of the church should not be a dynasty or a marriage covenant where partners are bonded for life, he reiterated, adding that there should be a serving period to allow others to also exhibit their talents.

He related good leadership to parenting, where parents strive to ensure that their children do not become totally dependant on them by providing education and instilling good Christian values in them so that they could survive when their parents were no more around. "This is an example to indicate that as leaders and stewards of God we need to prepared others to take over the mantle when we have served our term," he said, commending Bishop Annan Aryeh as good example. Bishop Annan Aryeh thanked the church for its support over the years and urged the leadership to have a "waiting spirit," and allow the Holy Spirit to guide its activities.