Innovative Ministries F

Church Planting in NORTHEASTERN GHANA By John Drummond

rom 1999 to early 2005, Emmanuel “Muss” Mustapha served near the city of Wa in northwestern Ghana. During this time he planted more than 40 churches and trained more than 25 church leaders. He learned valuable lessons regarding church planting techniques and the necessity of leadership development. He also directed an extensive social ministry and established an orphanage during his time in Wa. In the midst of this ministry, God began to foster in Muss’ heart a passion for the people of northeastern Ghana. This passion prompted a period of intentional, dedicated prayer for northeastern Ghana in Muss’ life, and initiated a process of research in that area that began about two years before his eventual relocation to Yendi. Muss’ priority was to plant a Baptist church in Yendi, as there

were no other Baptist churches in the area. Muss planted this first church, Ditney Baptist, in April 2005. It was Muss’ desire that Ditney Baptist serve as a “mother church” to all of the future church plants, and it continues in that role to the present day. Aside from his immediate family, Muss had no other Christian

leaders or believers to help him in his work. God raised up a local believer, Manasseh Wumbei, to assist Muss in his ministry to the people of northeastern Ghana. Manasseh has served alongside Muss since 2005, providing critical assistance and leadership to the task of planting churches.

Muss, along with help from his new ministry companion,

Manasseh, successfully established the first village church plant, Victory Baptist Church, in the community of Ngondo in May 2005. Soon after this initial village church plant, 12 other villages were identified and targeted, and churches were successfully planted in these communities as well. These 13 churches began to reach out to neighboring villages, and by November 2005, a

total of 19 churches had been planted. As the churches began to replicate themselves and with continued efforts by Muss and Manasseh to plant new churches, the number of new churches swelled to more than 400 churches by 2010. Following this same methodology of reproduction, the goal was to plant an additional 1,000 churches by 2015.

Church Planting Dynamics

Most of the churches planted by Muss and his leadership team have occurred among six indigenous people groups – the Konkomba, the Dagomba, the Anufo, the Basare, the Nanumba and the Gonja. These people live in small communities of approximately 200 people per village, and individual villages are typically separated by one to three kilometers. Because of the social structure within the communities, permission must be granted by the village chief before church planting activities can proceed in an individual village. This permission is typically sought directly by whoever is leading the effort to plant a church in the new community, either by Muss and his leadership team or by church leaders in a neighboring village. A second way that village chiefs are contacted is through Muss’ radio ministry, which is based in Yendi. During his broadcasts, Muss offers to plant a new church in any village that desires to have a Baptist church in that community. As a result of these ministry broadcasts, village chiefs will often extend permission and an invitation to come to their village to plant a church. Once permission to plant a church is granted, a time is set for the people of the village to gather and for the Gospel to be shared. Individuals from Muss’ leadership team or from a neighboring Baptist church will meet with those who are gathered, often under a large tree, and share the Gospel along with an invitation. From those who choose to receive Christ

Emmanuel “Muss” Mustapha

Left: Worshippers gathering at a new church location in Ghana

Contextualizing the Gospel Continued

evangelicals. Often missionaries scratch where one doesn’t itch and wonder why they are not gratified. Today there is a widespread recognition even among evangelical Christians around the globe that in order for the Christian message to be meaningful to people it must come to them in language and categories that make sense within their particular culture and life situation. It refers to contextualization. Contextualization has to do with how the Gospel revealed in Scripture authentically comes to life in each new cultural, social, religious and historical setting. In reality, many evangelicals are still suspicious that attempts at contextualization will lead to the compromising of biblical truth because the term contextualization

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was coined by ecumenical groups, and their theologies were generally liberal from the evangelical perspective. However, contextualization is not optional. Although the

term contextualization was quite recently coined, the activity of expressing and embodying the Gospel in context-sensitive ways has characterized the Christian mission from the very beginning. Timothy Hyunmo Lee is professor of Mission at Korea Baptist Theological Seminary in Daejeon, South Korea, and Mission Committee chair of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation. This article contains excerpts from a presentation at a meeting of the BWA Commission on Evangelism. The full paper was published in Baptist Faith & Witness, Book 5.