The Most Reverend Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, has charged new Ministers of the church to wear their ‘servants’ coat and serve humanity as waiters and not lords waiting to be served.
“People become ministers and wait for others to polish their shoes before they wear them. Methodists are not like that. So if you have come to lord over people (the congregation and society), then this is not your place. He who serves best leads best,” he added.
Bishop Boafo, who said many Christian Ministers lately assumed the status of rulers rather than servants, admonishing that, serving the church and humans as a Minister of the gospel, was as high as being uplifted as a servant at the seat of the Lord.
“Lets look at the Bible verse Mark 10:45 and Luke 22:27, that says that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
“So it is unfortunate that service and servants are missing from the church now because the world does not see leadership as a service but a status to be served. Our new Ministers, please don’t look at the world because its standards don’t fit into God’s standard,” he said.
The Bishop was leading an order of service for the commendation and commissioning of 70 new Ministers of the church to commence their probation.
The ministers from across the country were commissioned at the St. John Methodist Society, Achimota, Mt. Zion Society, Sakumono, and the Joseph Afotey Society, Teshie North.
Bishop Boafo made reference to how politicians begged for power in all humility with desperation and behaved in a contradictory manner after being given the mandate, adding: “You ministers shouldn’t be like that because you are waiters and waitresses in the Kingdom of God.”
The fields of the world, he said, were rife with immorality, evils, vices and corruption, hence why the Lord heard the cry of the church to call ministers to labour and serve to redeem the world of its wrongs.
Bishop Boafo also bemoaned the current way of leadership in churches and across countries, saying: “It is so disheartening that leadership now is about selfishness and greed.”
He advised church and national leaders to see their positions as a sacrifice, where they needed to empower and help people out of their troubles.
“God has called you to right the wrongs in society, families, social media and everywhere, so don’t come and rather compound the wrongs in society,” he reiterated.