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SDA Mission in Southern Ghana Union Conference. Asia http://dx.doi.org/10.21806/aamm.2016.14.06 Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry Vol. 14, pp. 91–109, Aug. 2016 SDA Mission in Southern Ghana Union Conference Oppong Kenneth Abiodun A. Adesegun Peter Obeng Manu ABSTRACT—Knowing the past will influence the present and mostly importantly, guide the future. Studying church history will help identify the failures of the past so as not to repeat them in the church today. It will also help identify the successes of the past so as to modify them to ensure the success of the church today. Church history is tantamount to the success of the present day church. The history and the mission of the Southern Ghana Union Conference in modern day Ghana calls for historical evaluation. This study seeks to trace the history of the Southern Ghana Union Conference and how it has carried on its mission since its establishment. The study is a historical evaluation of Southern Ghana Union Conference from 2013 to 2015. It was discovered that the leadership of the SGUC is mission conscious and Adventism is getting more rooted in the Southern part of Ghana. The historic growth of the Southern Ghana Union Conference has been enormous over the few years of its birth and a birth to a new Union Conference was foreseen by the researchers. It was noted that the Union has challenges, even, though it is speedily growing. Also, it was identified that appetizing church houses should be built to accommodate the fast growing membership of the Union. More so, the leadership of the Union should furnish some of Manuscript received June 11, 2016; revised Aug. 20, 2016; accepted Aug. 24, 2016. Oppong Kenneth ([email protected]) is with Chaplain’s office, Valley View University, Techiman, Ghana. He is a Ghanaian by nationality. Abiodun A. Adesegun ([email protected]) is with the Theology department, Babcock University, Nigeria. He is a Nigerian by nationality. Peter Obeng Manu ([email protected]) is in Valley View University, Techiman, Ghana. He is a Ghanaian by nationality. its existing temples to a status that can attract and retain high profile persons in the society especially the capital. Keywords: SDA, Mission, Southern Ghana Union Conference I. Introduction Knowing the past will influence the present and mostly importantly, guide the future. Studying church history will help identify the failures of the past so as not to repeat them in the church today. It will also help identify the successes of the past so as to modify them to ensure the success of the church today. Church history is tantamount to the success of the present day church. The history and the mission of the Southern Ghana Union Conference in modern day Ghana calls for historical evaluation. This study seeks to trace the history of the Southern Ghana Union Conference and how it has carried on its mission since its establishment. The study is a historical evaluation of Southern Ghana Union Conference from 2013 to 2015. The paper has been compartmentalized into seven sections. The first section will be the introduction to the study. The second section looks at the origination of Adventism in Ghana. The third section will discuss how the Southern Ghana Union Conference came about. The four section will consider how the Union has carry on its mission so far. The impact the Union has made so far will also be looked at in section five. The sixth section will look at the challenges the Union faces in carrying out its mission. The last section will give the conclusion of the study. II. An Origination of Adventism in Ghana This section looks at the origin of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States of America and how it got to Ghana. It traces the history of foreign missionary activities and the expansion of the Church in Ghana. It gives a brief description of the nation Ghana and how Adventism had it base in Ghana. 92 Oppong Kenneth, Abiodun A. Adesegun & Peter Obeng Manu A. History of Worldwide Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church is “a conservative Christian body, worldwide in extent, evangelical in doctrine, and professing no creed but the Bible. It places strong emphasis on the Second Advent, which it believes is near, and observes the Sabbath of the Bible, the Seventh day of the week” (Neufeld, 1976, p. 1325). As at the year 2010, the SDA church has established itself in 213 out of the 236 countries recognized by the United Nation. The Church has 70,188 organized churches and 65,157 companies, with a membership of 16, 923,239 as of December 2010 (Annual Statistical Report, 2010). The Seventh-day Adventist originated from the Millerite Movement after the Great Disappointment in October 22, 1844. Based on Miller’s understanding of Daniel 8:14 he began preaching the Second Coming of Christ around 1843 and 1844 and had many followers. On October 22, 1844, over 100,000 Millerites with joy and great hope waited for the Advent of Jesus but unfortunately, they found themselves bitterly disappointed. This incidence has come to be called the Great Disappointment in history. After the disappointment many Millerites failed to believe in the imminent coming of Christ and left. Few saw the date as correct but the event wrongly interpreted. This few people grew and developed to become the modern day Seventh-day Adventist Church. One of the Adventists, Hiram Edson (1806–1882) wrote “Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn” (White, 1969, p. 4). This recounts how the Millerites were greatly disappointed. Edson on the morning of October 23 had a vision whilst passing through a grain field which he later shared: We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days [calculated to be October 22, 1844], He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; AAMM, Vol. 14, 93 and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to the earth (Nichol, 1945, p. 74). This experience of Edson encouraged many of the local Adventists that they only got the event wrong and with Bible study a better understanding of Daniel 8:14 has been gotten. That Jesus on that day was moving from the Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary to the Most Holy Place. With intensified Bible study, the group discovered several present truth from the Bible which strengthened their faith. In October1860, the believers formally assumed the name “Seventh- day Adventist.” This occurred in Battle Creek, United States of America. Between 1860 and 1863, various separate conferences of Seventh-day Adventist emerged in America with Michigan Conference as the pioneer Conference in October 1861 headquartered in Battle Creek. The year 1863 is crucial in history of Adventism. In that year organized Seventh- day Adventist Church work as one entity formally began in May at Battle Creek, Michigan, United States of America. The new organization became known as the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, with John Byington as the first president of the worldwide church (Owusu-Mensah, 2005, p. 7). Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) have been blessed with two essential messages to proclaim to people everywhere including themselves. The messages are that Christ will soon appear the second time to judge all people of the earth and to give them their fair reward and that the seventh day of the week, Saturday, is the true, holy and sanctified Sabbath day of the Creator God. Anyone who accepts and believes these messages is preparing for the Second Advent of Christ and can be regarded as an Adventist. So out of these two truths came the name, Seventh-day Adventists (Owusu-Mensah, 2005, p. 7). The SDA Church accepts the Bible and the Bible only as the source of authority, the standard of faith and practice for Christians. Currently, Adventists hold 28 fundamental beliefs. The church is present in almost every country of the globe. It has thirteen world divisions and two attached fields. Ted N. C. Wilson is the current president of the world church of Seventh-day Adventists with G. T. Ng as the Secretary and Juan Rafael Prestol-Puesán as the Treasurer (https://www.adventist.org/en/) 94 Oppong Kenneth, Abiodun A. Adesegun & Peter Obeng Manu B. Adventist Church in West Africa The Adventist Church after the establishment of its headquarters focused on carrying the gospel message to far and near places. The use of printed literature was employed very early in the work. With dedicated missionaries and Christian literature the Adventist church became an evangelistic and missionary movement in its formative years. On this Owusu-Mensah opined: A crusading spirit was born which aimed at saving as many as possible, among the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, for Jesus Christ their Lord, Master and Saviour. Both men and materials were to be scattered, not just in North America, but in every nation of the earth to herald the truths and preach salvation through the blood and merits of Christ to all who cared to receive them (Owusu-Mensah, 2005, p.
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