Ghana (MNN) ― Every Child Ministries is taking an experimental approach to their outreach this year in Ghana.
ECM's John Rouster says phenomenal church growth gave them pause because the evangelism and discipleship teams were getting spread too thin. He explains, "We are putting more intense work into one given area rather than traveling around to several different schools. We combined the teams and brought them together and put them in one area and intensified our approach to this particular area."
The approach gives the teams time to build relationship. On their most-recent trip in June, villagers in the Volta region were amazed at the time the American team from Every Child Ministries spent in their area.
One of them shook his head as he said over and over, "You spent a full two weeks in my village." The team of eight Americans and four Ghanaians taught character-building lessons in the schools of the area, visited local homes to make friends and share the Gospel as opportunity arose, and shared the Gospel with the local authorities and traditional priests of the area.
On two successive Friday nights they showed the Jesus Film in villages, with a follow up class the next day. Many came to Christ, received follow up visits and were steered toward local churches. Team members split up on Sunday to visit and encourage all the churches of the area.
Rouster says they found enthusiastic response from the people, which emphasized the need to continue with the combined discipleship approach. "In Ghana, the church is very wide, but the depth of knowledge of the Scriptures and the depth of people in their Christian lives is quite shallow. What we're hoping to do is give more people more depth in their knowledge and in their love of the Lord."
The new program was a modification of ECM's very successful school ministry which is now in its eighth year. It combines large group teaching in the schools and mass evangelism using the Jesus Film with intensive personal interaction in the community.
ECM's Lorella Rouster says, "What we are aiming for is a deeper faith more solidly rooted in God's Word. Deep faith takes time to grow, but we think our new approach is a step in the right direction."
