Church leaders should educate members on biometric registration-Apostle Amoani

Apostle Dr Stephen K. Amoani, Chairman of Christ Apostolic Church International (CACI) has asked church leaders to educate their members eligible for voting to register during the forth-coming biometric voter registration exercise.

He said it was only when they register that they could vote during Election 2012.

Apostle Amoani, however warned the congregation to be neutral in their deliberations to save the church from engaging in partisan politics.

"Under no circumstance should any of you use the pulpit for any partisan political campaign for any political party," he added.

Apostle Amoani, who made the call at the opening session of the 55th Ministerial and General Council meeting of CACI in Kumasi said, "We must endeavour to remain neutral in the eyes of the congregation to save our church from any embarrassment".

The theme for the meeting is "Let this mind be in you".

The meeting was attended by national executives, territorial apostles, area heads, Ministers of the Gospel, lay preachers, elders and deacons as well as auxiliary group leaders from Ghana, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Italy and the United States of America.

Apostle Amoani said CACI had put in place a four-year development agenda code-named 'Vision 2015', which would tackle infrastructural development, human resource capacity building, management, infusion of information technology, improvement in the provision of social services, strengthening of governance institutions, building corporate image, massive evangelism and intensification of prayer and word ministration.

"Under Vision 2015", much premium would be placed on certain key areas to hasten the process of achieving developmental goals.

Spiritual standards would be improved at all levels of the church, growth would be earnestly pursued to achieve over 100 per cent in the church, pastoral training would be intensified for greater efficiency and effectiveness and consolidation of the operation of administrative structures at the territorial area, district, circuit and local levels pursued.

Apostle Stephen Douglas Kwame Larbie, Ashanti West Territorial Minister of CACI, called on church leaders to continue praying for peace in the country, especially in the forthcoming elections, as the church could not grow and expand in the mist of chaos and confusion.

He said the meeting was being held at a critical time in the country's history when Ghana is celebrating her 55th independence anniversary and preparing for Election 2012.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to these national events if we want to grow and expand as Christians, and therefore it behoves on us as a church to pray for the continued peace of the nation," he added.

Apostle Larbie said the church had a responsibility to educate the laity in the mechanisms of voting, devoid of any partisanship and was optimistic they would rise to the occasion.

He noted that to maintain consistency in church growth, Ministers of the Gospel must offer their members the life-changing gospel of Christ to not only excite their members but also help them provide a service where they could bring their friends and relations to the church.

"We do not have to compromise our message for our missions to grow and expand because Jesus Christ drew large crowds but never compromised the truth."**