Church expansion through church planting in Ghana : a case study of the Lighthouse Chapel International Model / Emmanuel Louis Nterful

• Main Author: Nterful, Emmanuel Louis
• Language: en
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Great Commission; Church planting; Missions; Lighthouse Chapel International; Church Expansion; Charismatic Churches; Ghana; Lay Ministry; Loyalty; Permanent Church Halls
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/11924

Jesus Christ instructed His disciples before His death to limit the preaching of the gospel to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt 10:6). After His resurrection, however, He broadened the scope of proselytizing to all: “Make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18-20). This meant that the gospel should be preached everywhere and to all peoples. This mandate has come to be known by Christians as the Great Commission. Since the 1970s a new wave of churches, commonly referred to as the charismatic churches, have come to be firmly established on the religious landscape of Ghana, West Africa. One of the most prominent is the Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI). Headquartered in Accra, the LCI is a large worldwide denomination that aggressively employs the agency of church planting in its attempt to facilitate the fulfilment of the Great Commission. This study enquires into the church planting activities of the Lighthouse Chapel International with the aim of documenting the processes, principles and strategies underlying the denomination’s mission. It is hoped that this empirical analysis of the LCI will benefit newer struggling churches, particularly those within the charismatic tradition,in their efforts to spread the gospel of Christ, while providing a new self-understanding that will carry the LCIitself into the future. The study employs a qualitative methodology through the review of some relevant literature, interviews with key informants (LCI ministers, non-LCI charismatic leaders, andnon-LCI leaders conversant with the LCI church planting model), together with collated views from focus group discussions and the results of a qualitative questionnaire. The literature review on the LCI relies primarily on the sermons and writings of Heward-Mills, the founder of the denomination, which have informed the strategies and other processes in the church’s missionary work and advancement. The study reveals that, overall, the LCI’s mission strategies, including the focused emphasis on church planting, lay ministry, administrative support systems, and use of permanent church halls, have combined to create a productive and robust church planting model in Ghana. The study concludes that the fulfilment of the Great Commission must be the main preoccupation of the charismatic churches in Ghana, and that the foremost strategy for achieving this is church planting. The study recommends the development of a wellthought-out biblical and theologically based mission strategy. Church planting will be enhanced by more effective use of lay people, appropriate attention to a doctrine of loyalty, efficient administrative support systems and the building of permanent church halls. Each network of churches ought also to appoint a missions department with a named director to ensure that the missional aspect of the work of the Christian church in Ghanaremains central in its planning and activities. === MA (Missiology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in co-operation with Greenwich School of Theology, UK, 2014