The second International Missions Conference in this African Church culminated in plans to launch a first-ever Ghanaian missionary sending agency

The Mission Society partnered with The Methodist Church – Ghana to conduct its 2nd International Missions Conference in January, 2008. Hosted by the Evangelism, Missions, and Renewal (EMR) committee of the Ghanaian Church, the conference was attended by more than 100 African pastors and church leaders, including five of the church’s bishops. The Revs. Kirk and Nicole Sims, missionaries with The Mission Society who serve in Ghana, coordinated the event.

Presiding Bishop Robert Aboagye-Mensah set the tone for the conference when he called on his denomination to establish a missionary-sending body, challenging the participants to bring a proposal to the church to launch such an effort. (The Methodist Church – Ghana is 172 years old, but has not previously had a formal missionary sending structure.) Bishop Robert electrified the gathering when he cast the vision for sending 500 missionaries across West Africa and beyond in the next five years.

Dr. Darrell Whiteman, Mission Society vice president for mission education, led the first portion of the conference, teaching about the dynamics of communicating the Gospel across cultural barriers. Noting that radical enculturation was demonstrated in Christ’s Incarnation, Whiteman challenged the participants to engage in mission in the spirit of Jesus.

The latter portion of the conference was devoted to presenting the Global Outreach Seminar, The Mission Society’s flagship tool for mobilizing local churches for global outreach. (The seminar has been translated into six major languages.) Instructors included several Ghanaian leaders, missionaries serving in Ghana, and the Rev. Dick McClain, vice president for mission operations at The Mission Society.

The 1st International Missions Conference had been conducted three years ago under the leadership of Mission Society vice president and former missionary to Ghana, the Rev. Frank Decker. (That gathering was itself the outgrowth of The Mission Society’s initial effort in international missions mobilization that took place when the pilot program – for what is now the Global Outreach Seminar – was taught in Ghana in August, 2003.) At the conclusion of this winter’s conference, The Mission Society’s team collaborated with the Ghanaian Church’s EMR committee to draft a proposal for the formation of a Ghanaian Methodist sending body.