Below left: Communion served during the AABF General Assembly in Accra, Ghana

of local Baptists in the global movement and the significance of this for their own existence.” African Baptists were also reminded of their fiduciary responsibilities to the BWA and the global Baptist movement through their financial and other contributions. Gathered under the theme, “Jesus Christ, the door of Hope,”

the 2016 AABF assembly was particularly concerned about longstanding political, social, and security issues on the continent, such as the threat posed by militant Islam in West Africa through the Boko Haram insurgency and the Fulani herdsmen militia, among others. Reports were received on work done to counter the Ebola epidemic and the impact of the outbreak. Delegates saw the need to integrate Francophone countries

more fully into the AABF and expressed a desire to improve AABF funding. A desire was expressed to establish Baptist work in underrepresented areas, such as the Comoros Islands in Southern Africa.

Efforts are being made to address the shortage of educational

material, such as Sunday School lessons, in parts of Africa. BWA regional secretary for Africa and AABF general secretary, Duro Ayanrinola, reported on leadership training seminars and writers conferences held in various regions. “Some of these materials were written and developed by indigenous people who partook in the training programs,” an AABF report states. The settling of differences and conflicts among Baptists received the attention of the AABF leadership. “Many crises have been resolved and peace has returned to most of the affected conventions and unions,” AABF declared. New leadership were elected and installed in a ceremony presided over by Callam. Among those elected were Ernest Adu-Gyamfi of Ghana as president and vice presidents Angelo Scheepers of South Africa and Kakule Molo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ayanrinola, from Nigeria, continues as AABF general secretary as well as Donald Ndichafah from Cameroon as associate general secretary/recording secretary, and Moses Adebayo of Nigeria as treasurer.

end of the period you’re going to be there and how do you intend to do those things?

The search committee looks at those things and based on all these things they do their short listing. There is a written paper to test how you can instantly think on your feet and be able to make decisions. There is an oral, face to face interview that takes a minimum of an hour and a half. This is a very rigorous process in selecting an individual. Once that selection is done we expect that what you said will be your vision will be translated into real action. Fortunately I’ve been the first person to be in this seat. I began in early January 2014.

I do understand it goes with a lot of risk. That is why the Search

Committee is very, very careful in what they’re looking for. In the previous arrangement we were looking at someone who had a pastoral background. Now we are looking at not only pastoral background but a leader and manager. I have realized this is more of an administrative role than a pastoral role. If you don’t have the skill of doing that you pose a big risk. The advantage I brought to the job was the fact that I trained as an accountant and practiced as an accountant for several years. I came into corporate circles and ran my own business for 19 years. I pastored a church for 25 years. It’s a mixture of my corporate experience, accounting practice and ministry life, which is not normal with a lot of pastors. Bringing all those together makes a big difference in the current portfolio that I hold within the convention. It raises a challenge. Can we always find somebody with the same background? It’s a real challenge. One of my vice presidents, the vice president of administration, comes with a similar background. We’re hoping that we’re in a process of recruiting a lot more people intentionally to give them similar background training so that for the future of our convention we can have that kind of succession. We are recruiting a lot of our young graduates, bringing them into a masters program, a doctoral program, systematically bringing people in so that we can train a lot of people who have the skills to provide that kind of leadership. That is the path we have chosen.

Ordination of Baptist pastors in Ghana

(Photo courtesy of GBC)

The gains have been massive. Last year we grew our revenue by 154 percent over the previous year because the president has more time to raise money for the convention. Within the last two and a half years, we have been able to acquire 12 brand new vehicles for the convention. We’re giving more support to our rural ministers. We sent motorbikes to southeast rural pastors in the areas where it’s not easily accessible. In the northern region, where churches were putting up buildings and needed roofing because of the rainy season, we could send money immediately for two church buildings to be roofed.

There have been a lot of changes to our infrastructure. We are acquiring and putting up new hospitals. Our vocational schools are expanding. We have orphanages which have been fully supported. Our retreat center is gradually coming up. We are improving on them, adding to the facilities. We’re doing borehole water projects in the villages. Our nongovernmental organization wing does all kinds of things in relief. These are significant things that are happening and our people are really, really excited.

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