Pastor Weeps for the Black Race

A REVERED man of God, Reverend George Annan has expressed serious reservations about people of the black race of which he is no exception. He has spoken against the inferiority complex that has suddenly taken over the minds of blacks. Reverend Annan who is the Greater Accra Regional Pastor of the Assemblies of God Church believes this is gradually affecting the fortunes of the African continent since according to him, whites are seen and projected as superior and perfect than their fellow blacks.

He made this observation over the weekend at the induction service of Reverend Francis Nyarko as District Pastor for the Madina Area Assemblies of God. Preaching the sermon, he criticized blacks for being pleased with mediocrity, which he said, "God is not pleased with".

The Pastor attributed the situation to the fact that blacks do not esteem themselves of their racial background. After 50 years of independence, he wonders why a country like Ghana, endowed with rich natural resources would still bank their hopes on the Bretton Woods institutions for financial assistance. For him, it is high time the people of Africa and for that matter the black race changed their mindset on whites in order to develop the African continent as envisaged. Reverend Annan apportioned part of Africa's teething problems to its leaders.

"The bane of leadership in Africa is corruption," he said, accusing most people in leadership positions of exploring ways to line their pockets. He also spoke against the adoption of imported culture into the African society. This he said was gradually disintegrating the norms and culture of African societies, making specific reference to the upsurge in patronage of second hand or used items imported from abroad as a creeping danger. Simply put, he said Africa and blacks must start charting their own course if they indeed intend to develop rather than being over reliant on foreigners for development since according to him, no one but Africans themselves could solve their problems.

In the course of the sermon, he asked members of the church to know God by aiming high, asking them not to despise small beginnings. Most often, he noted that people in leadership positions start with fire, trying to change things overnight, stressing "when you start with this mindset and dislocations set in, you become discouraged". In order to achieve one's ambition, he emphasized that there was the need to have a clear and well-defined goal. He based his statement on the premise that "a double minded person is unstable in all his ways".

"If you don't know where you are going, anything goes" he said. On his part, Reverend Nyarko, the newly inducted District Pastor for Madina said it is not for nothing that the global community was focusing on integration, globalization, networking and collaboration. He thus urged the church as an institution to follow suit by pulling its resources together. Without this approach, he believes little can be achieved. Rev. Nyarko pledged his preparedness to unite the 15 churches, 18 pastors, deacons and other leaders in the District for the common good of the church.

"When this is done, God would lift the District to the place he intends it to be".