THE GHANA NATIONAL MOVEMENT OF EVANGELISM
                                                                - Rev. Ross Campbell

(Note: Rev. Campbell, when invited to write a chapter on Ghana's national movement, sent us a group of articles which had appeared in The Task, Ghana's quarterly report, and wrote, "Maybe you can put something together using the enclosed resources." The following was "put together" from the articles he sent and are quotations).

CAN WE DISCIPLE A WHOLE NATION?

from The Task, July - September 1988

The Ghana Evangelism Committee (GEC) came into existence in 1974 to introduce the New Life For All (NLF A) movement into the churches of Ghana. Inspired by the Nigerian NLF A movement, NLF A in Ghana has developed over the years into a clearly defined strategy for discipling a whole nation.
It seeks to be not only a programme, but more than that - it seeks to promote a basic life style for every Christian and every congregation which results in total growth - numerical, spiritual and functional. Its ultimate goal is to saturate the nation with active witnessing churches - at least one for every community of 300- 1000 people.
The NLF A movement was launched in major denominations in 1975 under the slogan "Total Evangelization Through Total Mobilization" and adopted the Nigerian twelve-month cycle of events: preparation, district leaders retreats, congregational prayer cells and training classes, district evangelization and follow-up. Ninety-six District Evangelism Committees were established to plan, and in 1975-'76 more than 120 three-day retreats were held for pastors and church leaders.

As a result, over 2,000 churches became involved: more than 2,400 prayer cells were started, and over one and a half million Bible study outlines and witnessing aid~ were circulated to the churches for training and outreach.
In 1977, despite the encouraging response of the previous two years, it was realized that the ultimate goal of total evangelization wasn't going to be achieved merely by making converts.
Total Evangelization would only be achieved through making disciples and a process of multiplication.
A New Approach - In 1977, instead of seeking to serve over 2,000 churches with materials and limited help, it was decided to concentrate on 120 pastors and equip them to train selected lay leaders to witness, win and disciple. Through them congregations might be equipped to be reproducing Christians and saturate their districts with the gospel.
The results of the new approach were most encouraging. All churches experienced unprecedented growth as the pattern of witnessing, winning and discipling was established. Some churches experienced growth in attendance of over 1,000% and established up to four new congregations. In October 1977, a meeting of the Committee was convened to evaluate the new approach. It affirmed that the 4iscipling of the nation in our generation was now a realistic goal. .
The Essence of the Revised Strategy - Spiritual Multiplication - We begin by mobilizing every Christian within the framework of a local church under local leadership to:
- Pray for the unsaved;
- Witness, win and disciple those in their sphere of influence, and to

- Utilize their God-given spiritual gifts and ministries.
As a result, mobilized Christians and mobilized churches become reproducing Christians and reproducing churches. In the local church the pastor is the key that unlocks the process of multiplication. The pastor equips and involves selected lay leaders. They in turn equip and involve congregational members in a life style of fruitful evangelism, reaching out in ever-widening 'circles to touch the unevangelized.
At a district, regional and national level mobilized congregations become models on which new churches, outstations and sister churches pattern themselves. We end up by mobilizing a significant number of churches capable of:
- Taking the gospel to everyone everywhere.
- Planting a church in every community.
- Discipling all people groups and the nation. .
Measurable Goals for Discipling the Nation - Since the breakthrough in 1977 the vision, objectives, strategy and methods of the movement have been further defined and developed. In 1984, the GEC saw the need to translate the ultimate objective of total evangelization into a measurable goal to deter- mine the extent of the unfinished task. . Inspired by the goal of the Filipino church to plant a church in every barrio (village) by 2000 AD and armed with the 1984 government population census listings for all localities, the GEC staff began a series of regional surveys. The aim of the surveys was to reveal how much remained to be done and establish a basis for church planting related to the saturation of districts, regions and the nation with active witnessing churches.
The initial surveys of all ten regions were completed by early 1988. The facts and figures are now available to help establish measurable goals for the discipling of districts, regions and the nation.

GHANA BREAKS NEW GROUND

Task, July-September 1988
In January 1988 the Ghana Evangelism Committee published the last of ten unique reports on the state and accomplishments of the church in each of Ghana's regions. This research has been acclaimed internationally as "the most in-depth research carried out in any nation."
The purpose of the research has been to :
1. Find out how far the church in each region has come towards the goal of an active witnessing church in every village, town, neighborhood and minority ethnic community.

2. Find out the number of existing churches, where they are located, whom they are for and how fast they are growing and multiplying.

3. Identify the villages, towns, neighborhoods and minority ethnic communities still to be evangelized.
4. Find out the rate of church planting within the church as a whole and within each denomination.

5. Discover the facts that will help us set definite and realistic goals for church planting, aiming at active, witnessing churches in every part of the region.

6. Identify the factors which are contributing to the rapid growth and multiplication of churches. Armed with questionnaires for the churches and localities the GEC staff, assisted by church leaders, visited region by region virtually every town and village of 50 or more people. Thousands of kilometers were covered by car, motorbike, push bike, canoe and by foot to complete a survey of every church and every locality. They came back with the facts which were then carefully compiled and published.
For the discerning church leader the published surveys pro- vide a gold mine of information. They sweep away the fog and the false assumptions accumulated over years by promotional church reporting.
    Denominational strength is presented on the basis of regular church attendance rather than ghost membership rolls. Growth rates are presented relative to other denominations. Church attendance and the location of churches are related to population figures, and unchurched towns and villages are listed area by area. The failure of the church to penetrate minority ethnic or tribal groups is also highlighted. The surveys give the most factual and comprehensive picture ever presented of the church.
The Surveys raise four major questions which every
church should consider urgently:

1. With 52% of all Ghanaians and 75-85% of those in southern Ghana claiming to be Christian, why are so few attending church on a regular basis? The national average church attendance is 12% and varies from 16% in Greater Accra to 3% in the Upper East Region. How can we reach the great host of nominal Christians and make them vital vibrant members of a local church?
2. Why are the major Pentecostal denominations growing faster than the other major denominations and the African independent churches outstripping all major groups?
The Church of Pentecost which began in the late 1930s has more local congregations and regular at tenders than the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, established more than a century earlier. In the past ten years over 3,500 new African independent churches were established, compared with 2,050 new churches established by the major Pentecostal denominations and 1",500 by the older denominations. How can the growth of the older denominations be increased and that of the Pentecostal denominations sustained?
3. How can the planting of new churches be greatly accelerated to meet the challenge of an active church in the hundreds and thousands of towns and villages to be found in every region?
There are over 3,600 unchurched towns in the three northern regions and 12,000 in the southern regions without a church of any older or Pentecostal denomination. How can the planting of vital congregations of believers be speeded up?
4. Why haven't the many communities of northern and alien people in both northern and southern Ghana been penetrated with the gospel?
In the northern regions, less than 2% of most tribal groups attend church regularly, while in the south Northerners and aliens represent a large untouched mission field. In Accra there are over 232,000 non-southerners; in Ashanti 460,000 and in Eastern Region 240,000. How can indigenous churches be established amongst northerners and aliens?
These questions pose a great challenge to our complacency and call for urgent and serious prayer, consideration and action.

AN EVANGELIZED GHANA AND BEYOND BY AD 2000

The Task, July - September '89
An evangelized Ghana and world in the next decade was the focus of a unique consultation held in Accra June 19-23,1989.
More than 500 Christian leaders representing every major Protestant denomination, mission and para-church ministry in Ghana, together with eight delegates from neighboring countries, met to face the challenge of the unfinished task of the Church in Ghana and beyond.
Delegates were encouraged to hear of the growth of the church since 1900. The number of Protestant churches grew from 385 in 1900 to 10,105 in 1976. In the decade 1977-'86, a further 8,575 new congregations were established - a growth of 85% in ten
years. Delegates were challenged to lift the growth rate to 100% per decade and so add a further 33,5000 churches by AD 2000.
If every Protestant church existing in 1986 were to plant churches at the rate of one every ten years Ghana could have 53,000 congregations by AD 2000.
By the year 2000 Ghana's population will be 19 million. If the total of 53,000 churches were achieved, this would be one church for every 360 people. Delegates were cautioned, however, that 53,000 churches in AD 2000 may still not result in an evangelized Ghana. There must be a church that proclaims the living Christ for every class, ethnic group and geographical community of people. Many of the new churches must be planted in the unchurched towns and villages, and among communities of unreached peoples, in languages they can understand.
The focus of the consultation was on the unfinished task. According to the National Church Survey released at the consultation, five major groups of peoples are not being effectively reached by current evangelistic efforts:
- 7 million nominal Christians;
- 15,000 unchurched towns and villages;
- 2 million northern and alien people in southern Ghana; - 3 million unreached northern and alien people in northern Ghana, and
- 5 million adherents of Islam and traditional religions. Each morning the focus was on one of the above classes of peoples and the responses and resources that might be employed to reach them. In the afternoon denominational delegations, missionary societies, Bible school staff and para-church groups met separately to discuss and list their specific responses. The resulting decisions, policies, plans and goals are most encouraging.
The consultation process continues as denominational, mission and para-church committees continue to meet and implement plans for an evangelized Ghana and beyond.

PROJECT 2000 - WHAT IS IT?
The Task, October - December '89
It is a Vision for the establishment of 2000 indigenous groups of believers (a local church) in each of three communities of un- reached peoples by the year 2000.
- 2,000 churches among the unreached people groups in the
Upper West and Upper East Regions; - 2,000 churches among the unreached people groups in the
Northern Region;
- 2,000 Northern and alien people churches in Southern
Ghana In September the Ghana Evangelism Committee endorsed Project 2000 as a thrust to enable, encourage and exhort churches and other Christian organizations to reach the unreached communities in Ghana by the year 2000.
The concept was first introduced by GEe's National Director . during the National Consultation on Evangelization in June 1989. The national Church Survey released at the consultation revealed that the church was well established and multiplying congregations at an encouraging rate among the major people groups of southern Ghana - the Akan, Central Volta, Guan, Ga/Dangme and Ewe peoples. However, among the numerous ethno-linguistic people groups originating from Northern Ghana and other West African countries, the church is weak and struggling.
Currently 95% of churches serve 67% of the total population, and 5% of churches serve the remaining 33% comprised of people of Northern or West African alien ethno-linguistic origin.
If southern churches continue to grow and multiply only among their own peoples, northern and alien will still be unreached by the year 2000. The purpose of Project 2000 is to focus the attention of southern Christians on the unreached northern and alien people groups and the need for a church planting movement within each. The ultimate aim is that every people and population group in Ghana will have a valid opportunity to hear the gospel and worship in a language they can understand.
In promoting the Project 2000 vision the GEC seeks to encourage the Body of Christ to: .
- Pray for unreached people groups.
- Target unreached people groups and communities for church planting.

- Redistribute material resources to work among unreached
people groups.

- Establish programmes for training, sending and supporting
missionaries.

- Set up national church networks for the major unreached groups. - Appoint gifted denominational coordinators to oversee the
multiplication of mono-ethnic congregations in the south. - Utilize the potential of Christians from unreached people
groups.

- Develop first generation leadership within each emerging mono-ethnic group of believers.

- Facilitate missionary Endeavour by each new community of believers and each network of mono-ethnic churches.

CAN GHANA BE EVANGELIZED BY AD 2000?

The Task, July - September '89
It is over 160 years since the first seven Basel missionaries set foot in Ghana to establish a continuing church. Can the task that has eluded the Church for 160 years be completed within the next ten? For too long, many of us have focused on our church and our denomination, or our ministry . We have lost sight of the big picture - the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole and what God wants to do in our nation.
When we stop to look at the big picture of the Church in Ghana today it becomes apparent that we have come a long way since ,the arrival of the first Basel missionaries in 1828. The situation has changed dramatically, particularly in the past fifteen years. By 1976 the number of Protestant churches had grown to 10,105 and in the decade 1977-'86 a further 8,575 new churches were established.
The Situation - As a result of research conducted in 1986-'87 we now have a clearer picture of the force for evangelism - the church. We know the number, type, geographical location and vitality of existing churches. We also have a clearer picture of the unfinished task - the number of towns, villages and ethnic communities without churches.
The Force for Evangelism - Since 1900 the Church has made significant progress. The number of Protestant churches has grown from 385 in 1900 to 10,105 in 1976. In the decade 1977-'86, a further 8,575 new congregations were established - a growth of 85%. If we can increase this growth rate to 100% a further 33,500 churches could be established by AD 2000.