Religious leaders should make their convictions relevant to society

Tema, March 24, GNA - Bishop Richard Ahiagbedey, Presiding Bishop of Adonai International Ministries (AIM), has underscored the need for the Clergy to ensure that their lives and convictions become relevant to society.

He said religious leaders would be shirking their duty if they failed to influence the current generation with the standards of Christ. Bishop Ahiagbedey who made the call when he shared his 30 years experiences in the Ministry, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema, advised Ministers of the Word to influence the youth to fulfil their potentials in Christ and become relevant to society. The five-day anniversary celebration of the Presiding Bishop, which is slated for May 19 to May 23, would be held on the theme: "The Meaningful Impacted Life."

He reminded pastors that as "Light of the World," their reverence to God should make them honest and genuine leaders, who would re-emphasise discipline to affect every facet of society; be light of development, and progress of society.

He reminded them that as Ministers of the Word, God's authentic agenda for calling them was that they live above reproach, in order to ensure that social vices in society are minimised.

"Let us use morality and the fear of God to bring positive change to society by becoming hope for the hopeless, salt to purge society of decay, and light to bring enlightenment to every facet of society," he said. On the challenges facing the 21st century religious leaders, Bishop Ahiagbedey expressed regret that there are a lot of socio-cultural differences creeping into the Church.

Bishop Ahiagbedey asked Christians to lead true lives for Christ, saying: "We can no longer deceive ourselves if we don't project the values of Christ as our leader."

"As Christians, Christ is our standard, and that anything outside the standard of Christ, isn't His. We must be able to live His life if He is our root and foundation."

He advised Christians to guard against giving people the chance to draw their names into disrepute, pointing out "if any group of people claim to be a Church, they should have Christ as the centre of their lives". Bishop Ahiagbedey asked Ghanaians to have keen interest in national issues and pool their human and material resources to facilitate the development of the country.

He warned politicians to guard against parochial interests, and place the nation's development and progress on the top of their agenda. He said politicians ought to re-define their commitment to the nation and the electorate, and also design policies that would have the interests of the individual as its main goal.

Bishop Ahiagbedey advised them to be genuine in their pursuits and guard against making vain and empty promises. He said AIM started as an evangelistic group in 1980 with majority of the members being students, who preached the gospel in market places, schools, and on buses.

He said on April 23, 1989, "We started a local church which sought to help improve the physical and spiritual lives of members". The church, which has its headquarters at Community 12, in Tema, have three other branches in Takoradi, Ashaiman and Afienya, with an international branch in Britain.