Reverend Minister shows concern

Accra, June 10, GNA - The Reverend Dr John Owusu-Afriyie, President, Youth Ambassador for Christ Association, on Thursday said although the Church had registered a tremendous growth in recent times, it had not been able to turn out Christians whose attitude reflected the true teachings of Christ.

He said many Men of God today had declined from teaching the rudiments of Christian doctrine and had rather taken to a stylish method of preaching to excite the congregation as well as arousing their emotions.

Rev Dr Owusu-Afriyie, who was speaking at a press conference to launch the 35th Anniversary celebration of Youth Ambassadors for Christ Association (YAFCA) in Accra, said statistics had shown that the number of Christians had increased to 70 per cent of the countries population as compared to about 30 per cent in the sixties. The anniversary which is on the theme: "Now Is The Time" would seek to mobilise individuals whose lifestyles had been positively influenced by the ministry of YAFCA to join hands in praising God and also to support in pushing forward the objectives of the Ministry in the 21st Century.

Rev Dr Owusu-Afriyie noted that the church was faced with a great deal of challenges in transforming the lives of thousands that gathered for first and second services each day adding: "Most of them are just nominal Christians filing the church even beyond capacity." He said the youth, who formed the greater proportion of members the church had lifestyles that were undesirable and absurd adding: "The young people are now involved in all manner of ways, fair or foul to make a living, being disobedient and disrespectful." Rev Owusu-Afriyie said it was sad to observe individuals singing and dancing happily in the church but they lacked total commitment to Christ.

He called on Christian leaders to adopt a more radical approach to teach the rudiments of the Christian doctrine based purely on Christ. The Youth Ambassador for Christ Association was established in 1969 to reach out to young people with the gospel to live a more meaningful and purposeful life.

Today, through its flagship programme dubbed "Youth Evangelism School" (YES) it has trained over 8,000 young people who are today holding leadership positions in big churches both within and outside of the country.