URBAN MISSIONS NEWSLETTER No. 40
Serving Christ in the City, for the City

December 1993

Westminster Theological Seminary, Urban Missions Program P.O. Box 27009, Philadelphia, PA 19118, USA

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Sm.3U Groups and_Renewal: A Gttana Case Study

The city of Akropong in the southeastern area of Ghana was the nursery of the Presbyterian Church. From here in 1843 the Basel Mission initiated a work which, by 1867, had a Christian community of 369 and had spread to include eight mission stations. By 1989, eleven percent (1,604,450) of the national population were attending over 22,000 Christian churches (National Church Survey: Facing the Unfinished Task of the Churchjn Ghana [Accra North: Ghana Evangelism Committee, 1989], p. 5).

But with the growth of the church has come easy-believe-ism. Nine million Ghanaians claim to be Christians today but, depending on the region, never more than 3 to 14 percent are found in church. The 1989 Survey estimates there are eleven million - --- nominal Christians in the country.

And surrounding this nominal church are another 9 million Ghanaians, still outside of Christ. Two million of these are adherents of Islam and of African traditional. religions.

Has the church outlived its usefulness? Has the salt lost its savor?

These are the questions addressed by Dr. Guggisberg Aku Dadzaa in his 1993 study, "Mobilization of the Church for Effective Evangelism through Small Groups" (Unpublished D.Min. project, Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia).