“YOU ARE A SERVANT” - NEW GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY OF GHANA TOLD

Story: Rachel Mercy Arhin & Emmanuel Ashong, Accra

The newly inducted General Secretary of The Bible Society of Ghana [BSG], the Very Rev Dr John Kwesi Addo Jnr, has been admonished to see his new role as that of a servant leader.

“Coming as the General Secretary of The Bible Society of Ghana, I want it to go down within you that you are a servant…that you are a steward”. Those were the words of the Presiding Bishop of The Methodist Church Ghana, the Most Rev Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, to the new BSG scribe.

Most Rev Dr Boafo was delivering the sermon at a Church Service held on March 19, 2023 at the Christ the King Methodist Chapel, East Legon, to induct into office, the Very Rev Dr John Kwesi Addo Jnr as the 8^th General Secretary of the Society.

“Servants do not have authority on their own, but they depend on their masters, and so see your leadership here as a servant, a servant who is down there, brewing to make effective, the work of the Bible Society; to make sure that the work of the Bible Society is brought to another level”, Most Rev Dr Boafo explained, adding “the moment you stop being a servant, who is ready to serve, then the ship grinds, the ship comes to a halt.”

Inducting the new General Secretary into office, the President of the Society, Apostle Prof Opoku Onyinah, prayed for God to endow him with grace and fill him with power to energize him for the task ahead. “May you use him to impart society and wherever he goes”, the Immediate Past Chairman of The Church of Pentecost prayed.

For his part, Very Rev Dr Addo Jnr thanked God and the Council of BSG for “this privilege offered me to serve the entire Christian community in Ghana and beyond as the General Secretary”. He outlined his vision as helping to build “a financially self-sustaining and high performing Society” and appealed to heads of member churches to encourage their congregants, home and abroad to become members of the Society and donate towards Bible work.

Giving an overview of the work of BSG, the Chairman of the BSG Council, the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Sylvanus Mensah Torto, who is the Anglican Bishop of Accra Diocese, explained that, the Society’s focus is not only on the translation and distribution of Bibles but also “interested in how the Bible imparts lives and transforms society”.

Established in 1965, BSG is a non-denominational and inter-denominational Christian organisation set up by the churches in Ghana for the purpose of making God’s Word available and affordable and encourage its use to transform lives.

The Society has translated the Bible into nine major Ghanaian languages and has ongoing projects to cover more languages as well as revise existing editions of the Bible.