Innovative thinking to drive Church’s growth

Catholic laity and the clergy in Ghana and West Africa have been entreated to be innovative, foster effective team spirit to build a self-reliant and sustainable Church.

The appeal was made at the Imani-Catholic Bishops’ Conference Business Roundtable on the Catholic Church Growth in West Africa, last Saturday.

The programme which was held as part of the just ended Second Regional Episcopal Conferences of West Africa (RECOWA-CEROA) in Accra, and was themed: Church Pathways-From Dependence to Self-Reliance in the RECOWA-CEROA Sub-region.  

Speaking on the topic: Sustaining relevance of the State media in the face of the fast changing media landscape, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey, Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, highlighted the need for a change in attitude of Catholics and called for responsive leadership everywhere.

Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey, with panelists at the meeting

He urged the laity and the clergy to constantly scan the environment and seek ways to grow the Church, urging them to embrace the media to evangelise and tell the Church’s story, as well as respect and treat both her internal and external customers as kings.

To sustain its growth, Mr. Ashigbey called on the Church to draw effective pastoral plans, which would ensure full participation of the laity and all to build a self-reliant church.

He also challenge the Church to develop innovative businesses that will create jobs for the professionals within the parishes, and to generate profit that will help run the Church’s evangelisation activities.

Mr Felix Nyako-Pong

Similarly, Mr Felix Nyarko-Pong, Managing Director of uniBank who spoke on how to maximise the Church’s socio-economic projects and how to reduce unemployment, reiterated the need for the Church to put in place effective strategies to create businesses to support the Church mission works.

He said the Catholic Church has what it takes to build and create unique enterprises that would help reduce unemployment and help in the Church’s growth.

To achieve these stated ideals, Mr Nyarko-Pong called for a change in attitude and mind-set so that collectively the church can harness its resources to make profit to support her social works.         

Mrs. Felicity Acquah 

Shedding light on leveraging on assets to build a sustainable funding base for the Church, Mrs. Felicity Acquah, Former Director of EximBank Ghana, observed that the Catholic Church has the expertise to exploit her resources to the fullest.

She said the church should look for viable investment instruments to invest and to acquire more assets for her expansion project, adding that it was time the Church started thinking competitive in her approach to doing things and remunerate her workers well or risk losing them to other competitors.

Fr Filton Mensah making a contribution at the Meeting.

Discussants at the roundtable highlighted the need to seek balance in carrying out the Church’s mission of seeking salvation for souls, even while doing business and striving to make the Church more self-reliant than donor dependant.

Sir Fosuaba Banahene, former Administrator for GETFund, who chaired the function observed that accountability, and solidarity were key in the Church’s strive for self-reliance, and entreated all stakeholder to maintain the integrity of the Church.

At the meeting were most prelates of the Church in West Africa, the Laity, and Civil Society Organisations.