“The spirit of God does what he wants to do across contexts in the world.” This is the message that Rev. Prof. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu of Ghana reminded the over 5,000 delegates that have gathered in Incheon, Korea for the fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne 4).
Sharing his brief message titled “Not orphaned - an African perspective on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in world Christianity”, Asamoah-Gyadu traced the rise of the Spirit-empowered church in Africa to the ‘gaps’ that pre-independence Christians encountered in their interaction with the then missionaries.
“We don’t attempt to create any us versus them syndrome in Christianity, but the ordinary Africans brought a certain dimension of Christianity that they felt was missing from what they initially encountered,” said Asamoah-Gyadu.
To illustrate that God’s salvation plan included Africa from the very beginning, Asamoah-Gyadu referenced the presence of Africans from Egypt and Libya among the nations present during the Pentecost.
“That tells us that the Holy Spirit cannot be considered as a being that can be held in anybody's custody. The spirit of God does what he wants to do across contexts in the world,” stated Asamoah-Gyadu, who also sits on the Lausanne Global Analysis Editorial Advisory Board.
He reminded the delegates that the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been at work in Africa by drawing examples from the late 1800’s to date. In Ghana, for instance, Asamoah-Gyadu told the delegates that a Methodist catechist by the name William Jehu-Apiah was pushed out of the church in the 1920s when his small prayer group experienced the graces of the Holy Spirit including speaking in tongues, prophesying and healing. "Methodists are not like that." he was told by the Methodist superintendant.
“When he was thrown out, his supporters went with him and the result was the rise of the Musama Disco Crystal Church which became one of the largest independent churches in Ghana,” said Asamoah-Gyadu.
He also mentioned how the power of the Holy Spirit was at work in the healing and prophetic ministry of pastor Garrick Sokari Braide in the Niger Delta. Sokari offered an alternative to traditional evangelism by preaching against idol worship and consumption of alcohol in the early 1900s. He was arrested by the authorities who were concerned about the falling tax collections from alcohol.
“I can say the same for South Africa in the Ministry of Isaiah Shembe, in the DR Congo of Simon Kimbangu. They may not necessarily have called themselves Pentecostal, but these were renewal movements that brought a new energy into Christianity in Africa,” noted Asamoah-Gyadu.
Referring to Galatians 3:13-14, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us….he redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit,” Asamoah-Gyadu stated that this promise of the Spirit is at work in Africa.
“So what we are seeing on the continent is; believing in the promise, believing that the promise was fulfilled and is still being fulfilled, and that the promise can be experienced because God is at work,” argued Asamoah-Gyadu, who has been a Minister of the Methodist Church Ghana for 37 years and the current President of the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana.
He added that the growth of the church in Africa evidenced by the number of people that gather in megachurches is further proof of the work of the Spirit of God.
“We do not romanticize the growth of Christianity in Africa, but the fact that it has since the middle of the 20th century experienced some dynamism and vibrancy is not in doubt,” said Asamoah-Gyadu.
