The Church of Pentecost (CoP) will by June, this year, establish an e-church (online assembly) to reach out to people in the virtual space.
It intends to also preach the gospel to celebrities.
The CoP online church is a purely missiological church established with the primary focus of reaching a targeted online audience who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. It primarily seeks to win such people for Christ and disciple them within a CoP church community that operates entirely online.
The initiative forms part of Vision 2028 outlined by the Chairman of the church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, at the 2024 Global Ministers and Wives Conference at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region.
“One of the wonderful things that we are going to do is to have an e-church.
This means we are going to have a pastor, a presiding elder and a place that will be filled with gadgets, and then we will be ministering to people in the virtual space,” he said.
The five-day event is being attended by more than 5,000 ministers and their wives locally, as well as those joining by zoom from over 150 countries.
It is on the theme: “A people of God unleashed to transform their world with the values and principles of the Kingdom of God”.
The annual all-ministers and wives conference is aimed at delving deeper into the chosen theme of the year to empower the target group, who will in turn go back to impact members who are expected to reach out to their communities.
Unlike previous years, the 2024 conference has grouped some pastors at specific locations to join via zoom.
Apostle Nyamekye said the vision was a direct follow-up on the Vision 2023 agenda, which spanned 2018-2023.
In the context of the theme, he said the term “unleashing” meant getting members out of the fortress of the church into their spheres of influence and transforming them.
“Transformation” was also used to describe the conversion of souls and society through the gospel.
“Possessing the Nations” agenda is strictly in line with the Mission Statement of The Church of Pentecost,” he said, referencing the text: “We exist to establish responsible and self-sustaining churches filled with committed, Spirit-filled Christians of character who will impact their communities”.
Thematic
Apostle Nyamekye further said “each of the 31 thematic areas designated for this vision has specific strategic objectives to guide the implementation strategies.
“The Vision 2028 agenda recognises that The Church of Pentecost as a global church that operates in 150 nations as of December 2022.
While this strategy document serves as a guide for the church’s activities over the next five years, it is impractical to include specific interventions that are relevant and appropriate for every context,” he said.
Therefore, Apostle Nyamekye said, it was essential to note that some planned interventions might be more applicable to the mother church in Ghana than in other nations.
However, he said, external branches should be guided by the spirit of the vision and to develop specific interventions within their contexts that were aligned with the church’s goal of unleashing the whole church to transform their world with the values and principles of the Kingdom.
Transformation
Apostle Nyamekye said Vision 2028 would keep to the overall goal set for the Possessing the Nations agenda, namely “a church where members go to possess their nations by transforming every worldview, thought and behaviour with values, principles and lifestyle of the Kingdom of God and thereby turning many people to Christ”.
“Leveraging on what has already been achieved in the last five years, we foresee a church actively conscious of its role as salt and light in the world, a church where each member identifies himself or herself as a disciple and a witness of Christ tasked with a ministry outside the walls of the church.
“This underscores the fact that while Vision 2023 focused on ‘equipping the church’, Vision 2028 focuses on ‘unleashing the church’ into the society to possess it,” he said, and added that “every member will, therefore, be encouraged to have a ministry outside the church, becoming channels through which God’s grace will flow to the outside world,” he said.