Books
“Sankofa” (Renewal in Asante)
(By Samuel Prempeh)
Introduction
Asante is the dominant ethnic or tribal community in Ghana, having the largest concentration of churches, and various denominations in the nation. There have been several missionary efforts with the intent to affect the people spiritually and materially but not very much has been achieved as at now, especially, concerning the dimension of in-depth or qualitative spiritual relationships. The need for renewal in the Asante Church can therefore not be overemphasized. “Sankofa” in the Akan or Asante language means society going back to the good things while leaving the garbage whether it is old or new. Renewal indeed presupposes some good things that have been left behind, which we want to return to in order that we might glorify God.
Because of the objective of attaining a truly spiritual renewal, the principles of cultural anthropology will be used to analyze aspects of Asante culture in addition to reviewing the history of the Church’s involvement in Ashanti, and to make the necessary recommendations towards the suggestion of an appropriate model for renewal for Asante, which will be spiritually rigorous. The suggestion will however, take cognizance of experiences and suggested theories and models of renewals in history through to our day.
Election and Renewal in the OT, NT and History
God established a Covenant (Grenz defines as the act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind [1999: 32]) with Noah in Gen. 9: 1-17. This covered not only Noah but also the total human race. It also had its place in the formation of a culture with God’s involvement and protection for animal and human life and blood, the firmament, fruitful cultivation of the earth while humanity played very important roles. Snyder affirms this assertion by deducing from Eph. 1 and Col. 1 that God’s plan of reconciliation involved “all things” (1977: 47). Though the call of Abraham marked profoundly the institution of new beginnings, it was nevertheless a renewal of the Covenant with humanity, which one might not be wrong in identifying with the creation and restoration of Adam and Eve (humankind [Gen.l – 3]). While Noah had relatively, little awareness of communities and cultures outside his own, Abraham had much awareness since he had himself been called from one of the communities or descendants of Shem, son of Noah. He was also aware of the several other nations descending from Noah (Gen.10), including Haran and Canaan (Gen.12: 5). It is therefore not strange that among the new dimensions of the covenant with Abraham is the idea of raising leaders without boundaries. The logical conclusion of this is the idea of developing global persons and leaders. By this time, we can recognize the main idea behind covenant relationships as the Sovereign and Loving God seeking to connect with human beings in ways that demand their spiritual awareness, sense of stewardship and obedience. It demanded God’s providence in raising leaders and consequently in identifying or raising nations to effect the working out of his promise and vision. This is the biblical connotation of the idea of Election, which is rightly understood as the selection of persons or a community for the outward effect of obedience to God in bringing others into active participation of the covenant relationships. It is not an inward calling that closes the door to “outsiders”. We will also recognize that beginning from the creation account, God does so progressively from one generation to another. It thus implied that given God’s faithfulness and in the spirit of permanency established with Noah, Covenant Renewal would be an on-going process throughout time or at least to the point where ultimate renewal takes place, all to the glory of God.
The next biblical stage of renewal we shall proceed to discuss involves the call and formation of the nation of Israel. Hebrews constituted the major source of inspired persons for the Inscripturation of the Bible as God chose to make their own the cultural center of God’s covenant relationship with humankind (Heb. 1: 1-2). A major part of the Old Testament was documented by the Hebrews after the Babylonian exile. John Goldingay supports this idea with the presence of Aramaic sources in most parts of the Old Testament, particularly, the Pentateuch and the Writings, including some parts of the Prophets (2003: 5). Both the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles had caused major disorientation among the Hebraic culture or community. Ever since the people had been seeking a Messiah to restore their nationhood and culture, which the New Testament categorically seeks to identify in the person of Jesus Christ. Like the Old Testament, Hebrews or Jews were the major contributors in documenting the New Testament. In the light of the discussions on renewal above, God called Moses and some assistants like Aaron, Miriam, Joshua and Caleb to lead the Israelites out of Egypt where they lived under oppression. When they reached Sinai, the Bible states God established a covenant with them, which we can analyze as a renewal of the covenants or renewals established in the former generations with Noah and Abraham. What renders much support to this assertion is the fact that biblical writers themselves connect the ancestry of Israel throughout the ages to these leaders in their various genealogies (1Chron, Mt.1) and assume a very serious ownership of their covenantal relationships (2 Kgs. 22-23, Ez. 9: 5-7, Ac. 7). The people had not only lived under oppression in Egypt but with some sense of benefit of the doubt, could claim had been reasonably restricted from relating adequately with their God in order to effect their part of the covenantal relationship, hence God’s instruction through Moses to Pharaoh, “Let my people go”, ostensibly to worship him (Ex. 3-10). It is therefore not strange that after their liberation, God instructed them further to serve as his priests to all nations (Ex. 19: 6), in order to facilitate the total realization of the covenant with Abraham for the blessing of all nations. Apart from this concept of Priesthood the renewed covenant had other symbolic structures, which included the Sacrificial System, the Tabernacle, and the Law. It is ironical that the Israelites lost the vision of the covenant to the extent that they did not only choose to keep God to themselves alone but refused to be used seriously and effectively to connect other nations with the covenant and with God. They also rejected the sincere pursuit of justice and righteousness internally, which led to the exile of the two kingdoms. The stories of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel help understand the importance of the Jews relating appropriately to other nations. The Lord even connected the experience of his providence by Israel through Gentile leaders like Cyrus and through their cultural elements like the synagogue and the Aramaic language. Gentile culture was related to, through to the period of the New Testament, to the extent that the New Testament was recorded in the Greek language. However, the Jews could still not discern the leading of God’s Spirit until Christ’s advent through to our day. The idea of slipping away from the covenant relationship started very early, and can be linked categorically to the period of the judges and the later institution of the monarchy.
Jesus came in fulfillment of the covenant relationship with humankind including the Jews (Mt. 5: 17). He spoke and acted in several ways to bring the awareness of the Jews to God’s intent to relate to all tongues (Mt. 23, Mk. 11, Lk. 10, Jn. 4) and taught of righteousness and justice. The Lord’s apostles including Peter, John and Paul reached the Gentiles with the Gospel. Other areas, which Jesus and the apostles demonstrated in furthering the right understanding of ways of working out covenant relationship, included a discipleship or mentoring program through which leaders emerge and develop spiritually. It must be noted that women were encouraged by Christ and Paul in partaking in ministry. While some women contributed financially or materially, others, particularly Mary was encouraged to listen to Christ’s teachings (Jewish tradition did not allow that). Priscilla, Phoebe and Lydia played effective roles in Paul’s ministry. The place of the Holy Spirit is established in prayer and the employment of various strands of giftedness (spiritual gifts, natural abilities and acquired skills). In essence, Jesus came to foster better understanding of God’s covenant and to facilitate the manifestation of the covenant vision, which involves the inclusion of all nations in the covenant relationship (Great Commission). This is the mission of God, which we are called to pursue the way Jesus did (Jn. 20: 21). As it is, whenever there happens some monumental effort or movement in this direction, one can label that as renewal of the covenant and we can be described as being unfaithful whenever we act in a way impeding the advance of the above precepts in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It is true that in history, the activities of several movements or organizations have been described as renewal or revival efforts or programs but we can adequately consider or describe such bodies so only by the standards set by Jesus in the New Testament. Some of the Movements that might be described in history as causing some sense of renewal despite much opposition, especially from ecclesiastical centers include Montanism, Monasticism, Reformation, Pietism, Moravianism and Wesleyanism. There have been recent efforts in dealing with post modernity, globalization and others that smack of renewal tendencies. It must be noted that recent scholarship or studies in Intercultural Studies or World Mission in Seminaries like Fuller, Trinity and Asbury have been a major contributory factor in looking at Biblical, Historical and Cultural aspects of affecting the global Church with renewal.
The Asante “State”
Asante or Ashanti by European dialect is considered by some as a “nation” or at least a state within the state of Ghana because of its history and culture. The kingdom begun before the 13th century, became as large as the size of present day England until the partitioning of Africa by Europe which separated some of the people into other modern nations (Tufuo and Donkor 1969:7-8). The Asante nation is a confederacy of several communities still existing, with a nucleus body that originated from Northern Ghana and Bontuku in the Ivory Coast, and most of the communities are victims of war whose peoples were nationalized as Asante citizens (Fuller 1968: 1-11). The confederacy is strengthened by the presence of the Golden Stool said to have been drawn “…down from heaven…” by the powerful shaman or priest, Anotchi (Okomfo Anokye) who proclaimed that it contains the souls of Asantes (Smith 1928: 1-2). The British’s attempt at seizing or confiscating the stool deemed a “fetish” according to Claridge failed in the last decade of the 19th century (1964: 443), resulting in the Yaa Asantewaa War of 1900 between Asante and the British (Tufuo and Donkor: 117-118).
Cultural Organization
Asante, has a socio - political organization or chieftaincy system headed by the King, the “Asantehene” who exercises legislative, executive, judicial and religious control over the people through divisional chiefs and their elders appointed through their matrilineal kinship system (Busia: 1-18). Matrilineal and “matripotestal” descent are seen as most appropriate for the physiological reason of the presence of blood in the female during childbirth and menstruation (Rattray 1923: 77).
There are at least two important levels of decision making in Asante, taking place in chiefdoms and in Kumasi, the seat of the central government, demonstrating the sense of democratic culture in Asante. Decisions are generally publicly made by chiefs, subchiefs and family elders representing the people in public rooms (dampan) built by the chiefs in the respective wards of Asante, and in each of those built by the respective subchiefs in Kumasi, such that during festivals and other special occasions when it becomes necessary to make a decision in Kumasi, the people from each town will find a place of meeting together to participate in the making of the decision. The State’s decision making is made by the territorial chiefs constituting the confederacy in Kumasi headed by the Asantehene, at Dwaberem (the Great Market) and Apremoso, the place of the Cannons (Wilks 1975: 378-390). This Asantemanhyiamu or Kotoko Council, the National Assembly takes both legislative and executive decisions but the Asantehene has veto or absolute power and is reported as, “…could kill whom he liked, fine whom he liked, and order what he liked”, with Bonnat adding “Every inhabitant, from the greatest chief to the lowest slave, belongs body and possessions to the king, and is at the mercy of his wishes and caprices” (1975: 387-388).
The importance of the Asantehene, the occupant of the Golden Stool in Asante politics is indicated by Governor Maxwell’s comment, “ The fact is that Kumasi has no special importance as a town in the absence of a Native King and his Court and the people who at one time kept up house there to which to resort on special occasions now live entirely in bush villages” (1975: 383). The Asantehene also has judicial power, and sits over cases regularly ( 1975: 392). There is a check, however, on the Asantehene in the presence of a Senate of paramount chiefs that regulates government and decides all disputes as a supreme tribunal (1975: 388).
Asantes have various forms of social organization including the holding of various rites of passage from birth through to death (Rattray 1979: 48). Festivals like the Yam Festival and the Odwira during which the Asantehene sits in state to interact with the people and issue statements in honor and propitiation of Ashanti kings are also held (1979: 126-127). There are ceremonies marking installation of chiefs and thanksgiving (Rattray 1923: 137). Dress, minstrels, dance, drumming and music are some of the forms used in Asante traditional worship.
The Asante culture is further strengthened by its religion and economics. Asante has a hierarchical doctrine of God. They believe in the One Creator, Onyankopon who has linguists in the lesser gods, which serve him just as the King has his linguists, and involve the dead (Tufuo and Donkor 1969: 86). There is also the belief in the existence of divine powers in rivers, stones, rocks, and trees while “medicine-men” and priests of the gods deemed to have been trained by dwarfs or faires (Rattray 1979: 38) minister by way of making animal sacrifice, and the provision of various elements for healing, protection, purposes of fertility and others (1969: 87-88). There are very important priests or shamans recognized in Asante but Okomfo Anokye remains the most important among them for the historic feat recorded about him, including having mysteriously conjured the Golden Stool from “heaven” (Smith 1928: 2). I have visited sites of his groves in Kotwi, near Kumasi and his planted sword at the precinct of the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti region of Ghana. These priests have their various temples and Rattray claims to have visited some (Rattray 1923: 116). The Asantes believe the human being has a soul, which animals do not have but leaves the former just before the event of death for the spirit world, and they also have an awareness of the presence of evil spirits possessing human beings, as indicated by the presence of witches (Rattray 1928: 153-155).
Ashantis are farmers producing cash crops like cocoa, cola-nuts, cassava, yam, vegetables and many others sold in great markets like Salaga in exchange of items like cotton and domestic animals (Tufuo and Donkor 1969: 10-11). There are many craftsmen like goldsmiths, and silversmiths manufacturing several vessels and jewels most of which are exported, thus attracting the British to establish the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation mentioned by Rattray, who writes that Asante had been introduced to the use of tools made of stone and iron even before the 17th century (1923: 304, 324).
Advent of Missionaries and the Asante Church Today
The Portuguese were the first to arrive in Ghana and for that matter, West Africa, precisely at Elmina, where they built a fort and the St. George Chapel in the 15th century, under the command of Don Diego d’Azambuja (Agbeti 1986:3). I have been to both places at Elmina, which is very near Cape Coast where I served as pastor of the Redemption Baptist Church. Other missionaries who arrived later and worked in Ghana in those early days included English, Danish, Swedes, and Dutch protestants who trained the first Ghanaian or African natives to serve as protestant priests by 1742, and had the creeds and parts of the Bible translated into the Fanti language by 1764 ( 1986: 5-6). Elmina had belonged to Asante, which felt as late as the 19th century that the former still belonged to them, even though various European nations had one time or the other made Elmina their stronghold leading to “The Sixth Ashanti War” (Claridge 1964: 3-5). The defeat of Asante in a later war with the British in 1874 eventually led to the advent of missionaries directly into Asante, with results both positive and negative (Fuller 1968: 223). Sanneh rather feels the wars or defeat of Ashanti delayed mission into Asante, which only happened in 1896 with the advent of the Basel Mission (1983:114).
Fuller states missionaries from the Church of England, Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, the Scottish (Basel), Seventh Day Adventists and the Zion established several schools all over Ashanti but some “ friction was caused by Christian converts refusing personal service to their chiefs on the plea that they could not do violence to their religious feelings”, which attitude according to Fuller was “nothing more than an excuse to avoid communal or personal obligation” (1968: 223-224). Busia affirms this development more comprehensively, asserting also that, the introduction of education and Christianity has been a social revolution in Ashanti (1968: 138). The translated Akuapem Twi Bible by Christaller in the middle of the 19th century could be read by Asante Twi readers as Rattray reports of abuse by the educated Christians against their society and culture as the result of their interaction with “ethical teachings of Christian theology”, which wrongly deemed the Ashanti belief system as “fetishism” (1923: 86-87). There is rampant description of the Asante religion as fetishism to the extent that, ordinary writers including the architect, Michael Swithenbank titled his work on Asante Temples or houses and some rituals as, “ Ashanti Fetish Houses” (1969: 1-13).
Many Ghanaians including scholars like J. B Danquah, Busia, Tufuo and Donkor have stood against the use of such derogatory remarks against their culture by foreigners, especially missionaries, and this rebuttal has been supported by Western writers including Rattray (1923: 139-141).
Kwame Bediako affirms the stand of Mbiti, that, Mission Christianity did not have a serious encounter with the traditional religions, philosophy and modern changes in Africa which makes the African Church finds itself in the situation of trying to exist without a theology (1992: 307). This is true of the Asante situation whereby many of the above mentioned traditional religious or worship forms and practices were degraded and ignored by the European missionaries. This is to say mission in the past was not designed to cause and sustain any serious revival.
Missionaries were deemed to have some ulterior motives. Asante resisted early mission advance mostly because of the latter’s link with the colonial administration, which made the missionaries establish a school within the Cape Coast Castle, the seat of the colonial administration (Hastings 1994: 341). Missions were also seen to be materialistic, as they involved in the acquisition of large property and trading activities (Sanneh 1983: 115).
The churches that earlier arrived in Ashanti included the Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist and the Roman Catholic from Europe. These were followed by the Seventh Day Adventist, A.M. E Zion and the Southern Baptist Convention from the United States. These churches are now spread throughout Asante with their educational institutions, retreat centers, clinics, and empowerment centers for the training of the unemployed in several skills. Some are also involved in some farming and transport ventures. The churches lost their relevance in terms of the spiritual needs of the people and like other mainline churches elsewhere in Africa, their missionaries and ministers lost contact with the people at a time that the church was apparently getting influential in the society (Hastings 1994: 585-586). The missionaries opposed exotic gifts like the speaking of tongues, healing and deliverance from demonic oppression, and were also indifferent to the indigenous culture, particularly, the religion of a people who knew the Supreme Being (Onyankopong) before the white people set foot in their part of the world. Among the differences that ensued between the Southern Baptist Convention missionaries and the indigenous leaders of the Ghana Baptist Convention in the 1980’s, was the development of exotic gifts, clapping of hands and dancing in the chapels. African or Asante church leaders replacing the missionaries continued with the traditions of the missionaries. For instance, they ignored polygamists in worship and fellowshipping but graciously accepted the support that came from the rich among them. Akan scholars like Aggrey, Hayford, Danquah, Busia and Baeta, who were also lay leaders in various churches, especially the Methodist expressed their sentiments on this particular factor but to no avail (1994: 604-605).
The emergence of the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Independent churches in Ghana including Asante was the result of the above theological, ministerial and contextual vacuum. The need for a leadership to deal with deep spiritual needs relating to spiritism, demon possession or witchcraft, interpretation of dreams, healing and poverty could not be overemphasized. The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches like the Church of Pentecost, Christ Apostolic and the Assemblies of God emerged very successfully as a result of the above historical and contextual conditions. These have highest numerical growth among the churches in Ghana and Asante today. The independent churches like Prophets Harris’, Wovenu’s Apostolic Revelation Society and Adejobi, the Nigerian’s Aladura were not only Pentecostal and Charismatic, but they also provided avenues for contextualization using the indigenous forms and equipment including drums, cymbals, and xylophones. They provided deeper sense of fellowship, sharing and counseling. These churches appealed to important dignitaries like the Asantehene’s family and ministers of state during the era of President Kwame Nkrumah (Sanneh 1983: 200). The Pentecost Church, Apostolic Revelation Society and others have created faith community townships in areas like Edumfa and New Tadzewu, which is mentioned by Hastings (1994: 536).
A Missiological Interpretation of the Asante Mission
Asante is a victim of the modern Christendom Missionary Triumphalism written of by writers like Shenk, Driver and others. It is alleged when the church becomes the center of its own concern and activity, the attitude of the church becomes marked with triumphalism seeing itself as an agent of the Kingdom of God, dispensing salvation instead of being a sign and a witness to God’s amazing grace (1993: 97). In ignoring the traditional forms, practices and philosophy as mentioned above, missionaries were demonstrating signs of the assumption of such triumphalism. There was the need for applying some of the concepts taught by writers like Gilliland and King, which allow for some measure of contextualization while ensuring that syncretism is not irresponsibly encouraged. Gilliland argues that contextualization can be achieved by removing both foreign dominating structure and substructure of absolutes like the insistence on “historico-grammatical method” for getting truth from the scriptures, since it excludes all but the few who have been trained in exegesis (1989: 13). There are very important questions which missionaries are called upon to decide when reaching such cultures with the Gospel: How should we respond to veneration of ancestors, witchcraft, magical charms, idol worship, and human sacrifice? How can we best express the Gospel in the new culture (1989: 101)? All these are questions that were very relevant and ought to have been seriously considered by the missionaries who went to Asante, a kingdom replete with the above traditions. In the end, they only resorted to the derogation of everything that was new to them, instead of identifying the elements of “Redemptive Analogy” in them as suggested by some scholars. The Pentecost, Charismatic, Harris, Wovenu and other independent church leaders just seized the opportunity advanced on the peripherals of the Church by the agitations of the above “lay leaders” to begin their very popular movements throughout Ghana including Asante. The new “Sankofa Movement” seeks to build on the foundations of these and other movements that have already affected Asante and still have some influence on the nation.
Developing an Appropriate Renewal Model
With the above missiological, interpretation in mind and in reviewing the “Renewal Model” put in place during the ministry of Christ and missional history, vis a vis the Asante Church experience, one may identify some of the areas needing change in order that Asante might experience an appropriate Revival. The need to study God’s covenantal relationships leading to an understanding of his revelation in our society and the place of some aspects of our culture in relating to God cannot be overemphasized. We need to have the right understanding of giftedness and leadership development skills coupled with the centrality of the Triune God in our relationships. Again, we cannot ignore the importance of relating rightly to temporary authority, various communities, cultures and parishes we interact with, not forgetting the right stewardship of the total creation including the environment.
There are some theses describing factors culminating in the renewal and expansion of the Church, established in my “History of Christian Mission” and “Renewing the Church for Mission” courses taught by Dr. Snyder, which might be considered in examining the mission, renewal and expansion of God’s kingdom in Asante. Three of these important theses very relevant to the Asante situation are, (a) Renewal and expansion are accompanied by new and key catalytic leadership patterns (b) Renewal and expansion are often accompanied by new spiritual dynamics or recontextualized forms of spirituality (c) The normative use of the Two Structures Model taught by Winter is likewise very paramount. For me, most of the readings or models, which I will apply from other scholars (Hendry, Gibbs, Stevens, Sider, Stark and others) apparently touching on anthropology, economics, sociological and other dimensions are rooted in the above thesis.
It needs to be established that Asante has identical elements of the covenant structures, which were revealed to the Jews and maintained through to the time of the New Testament. We have sacrificial systems involving the sacrifice of animals. The presence of the office of the Shaman runs parallel to the Jewish priesthood. In terms of indifference of the Church to culture, one area where the former failed to affect for expansion is the office of the Shaman. Asante nation had lived with the traditional priest ministering in shrines and understood within the rubric of the culture it finds itself, and for that Christ ought to be shown to have more power than the Asante Shaman and spirits (1981: 360-365 ). Montanism similarly came in to fill such gaps, and their example has been followed in history by Pentecostalism. Shaw teaches the importance of the prophetic office in filling the office of the Shaman who catered for needs relating to witchcraft, economic activities, healing of various diseases and others. The effectiveness of the people in responding to this effort is self-evident since Charismatic churches that continue to encourage exotic gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, and word of knowledge expand tremendously in the developing world. The Asante Shaman maintains the temples, and “fetish houses”, which are strewn all around the various communities. In fact, a deep understanding of the Tabernacle connects with the idea of Community and Fellowship, as found in the New Testament. In Asante, the sense of community is not limited to the place of the shrine or the temple. Community and relationships are basic to life in our society. This is why in envisaging renewal we must direct energies in evangelism and other areas towards community relationships. If we can relate rightly to elders and occupants of stools for instance, having in mind the influence they wield in society, we can relatively affect many people at any particular time instead of overemphasizing one to one witnessing and relationships.
When the Church remains indifferent to the culture of a society, cults or groups falsely claiming to be Christian like the Gnostics emerge with the view to offering answers to “imperil the true quality of Christianity” (Neil 1964: 32). This assertion is relevant in Asante where the importance of dance and music in communication cannot be overemphasized. Some cultural aspects, which the missionaries and mainline churches should have tapped on through relationships with leaders gifted in such areas, include the use of traditional dress, music, equipment like drums, clapping, myth and story telling, and others, which would have facilitated communication in worship since these are verbal and nonverbal modes of communication that constitute signals of communication useful in analyzing information (Smith 1992: 145-146). The absence of these implied the lack of effective communication with God during worship, which King claims gingers the setting apart of persons for expansion of the Kingdom as it happened with the sending of Barnabas and Saul in Antioch when the church was worshipping (1992: 2). Some of the cultural practices that might be incorporated in worship celebration include festivals like “Odwira” and the Yam Festival. The Gospel could be made to influence such festivals beginning from the small towns like Bompata and Tanoso where the church wielded much influence, and later when such influence had taken roots in those towns, urban areas like Konongo, Obuasi, Mampong and Kumasi could easily learn from the earlier experience. The church may involve by instituting prayer revivals, preaching and counseling with the view to identifying the place of the Gospel in such festivals even as found in the Scriptures. Jesus affected the Passover and gave a new meaning to it. Again, instead of deeming the myth of Okomfo Anokye and the Golden Stool as a sign of redemptive analogy to be related to in advancing the Gospel, missionaries and native church leaders chose to oppose this myth and abused any relevance it has in communicating the Gospel. We have similarly related to Islam and Traditional Religion concerning their doctrines of God, Life, Death, Ancestral Worship and others, all of which can be seen in the “ dim light” of their concept of revelation of God. The “Sankofa Renewal” will go back to all the good things in these traditions and respond appropriately to them in order to effectively communicate the Gospel and have effective and relevant responses. This and the parallel attitude to postmodern culture underscore Webb’s approach labeled “Redemptive Movement Hermeneutic” described as a model, that aggregates perspective and the redemptive spirit of Scripture (2001: 30-31).
By learning from the experience of the Constantine/State – Church coalition through the medieval ages, we can avoid the negative relationships with other faiths, communities and cultures. There were both positive and negative effects from this coalition and we might copy the areas where the coalition positively blended culture and faith without allowing any syncretism or exerting the pressures of Church triumphalism and materialism, as explained by Frend (1984: 555).
We the current ministers and the missionaries have similarly not done well by maintaining and stereotyping the above forms and in areas like marital counseling and polygamy where especially many wives and mistresses suffered so much disorientation caused by the Church, and our double standards have kept many married people outside the church. Though Harris might have overdone it in encouraging polygamy, the Church ought to have been sensitized by the fact that tens of thousands left their “fetishes” and followed him, and thus to exegete the Bible’s teaching on the issue, especially from I Cor. 7 (Hastings 1994: 444). This enjoins us to embark on a program investing the biblical ideas of righteousness and justice. Asante has been very oppressive against women and other tribes before the arrival of Europeans, through the era of the Slave Trade and to our day when we continue to misuse people of other tribes, especially in hiring their under - age children thus hindering their education and development. We do not only need to stop this attitude but we must have the mind of demonstrating a repentant attitude by making some “token” deals with them through mixing with them in our churches and seeking to share our material wealth with them. All things being equal, this seems very difficult but when we come to Christ in growing faith, he will give us the grace to have a foretaste of the joy and peace in relating to our neighbors in sincere love (The Parable of the Good Samaritan). This implies the institution of a teaching ministry with leaders developed to discern the right interpretation of scripture and adequately communication and mentoring others. We will not only involve the ordinary people in participating with us in doing theology but be guided by the teachings of Webb to act redemptively by applying the spirit of redemption to the text in our ethic (2001: 247-248). We will also employ the principles of Anthropology and Cross Cultural Communication in effecting the necessary change without encouraging the present destabilization of various cultural groups in the nation. The importance of such an effort, which recognizes the importance of the world and culture cannot be overlooked as Hoekendijk points out the fact that God works first with the world and culture, sending the church to find out what he is doing, celebrate and thus embrace his mission (Stevens 1999: 205).
There is a large flock of “laity” waiting to be tapped for God’s work. The need to have many leaders trained and emerge from the congregation in order to foster grassroots participation and to provide effective leadership for the new churches emerging especially in the rural areas, total renewal and expansion in Asante cannot be overemphasized. They should be very purposeful by having a greater awareness of the true mission of the church and thus be involved in the crossing of the several cultural barriers in Asante including Islam, Traditional religion and other ethnic groups like the people of the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana despite how unexpected it is, with the Gospel of Jesus. We should not behave like the 2nd through to 6th century Church that ignored the “barbarians” until the “barbarians” from Scotland arrived to evangelize the unevangelized. It must be noted that many have remained members of the church without exercising any leadership influence whatsoever, and they are always waiting only to attend “Revival Programs”, Prayer Revivals and others but never growing or equipping thus impeding growth and expansion. New leadership patterns have emerged several occasions in history and have contributed greatly to the expansion of the church, as it was with the Waldensian Movement in the 13th and 14th centuries (2004: 36). Earlier examples include the founding of monasteries where several so-called laypersons participated and positively impacted the church in moral life, work and mission. Bosch agrees with Niebuhr who said, “Only Monasticism saved the medieval church from acquiescence, petrifaction, and the loss of its vision and truly revolutionary character” (2003: 230). Similarly, in regard to intermittent attempts by various governments to control the church, as it happened with the Acheampong and Rawlings military regimes, we can learn from Puritanism and Pietism both of which involved several “lay” persons, and also saved the Protestant Church from the excessive influence of State authority (2003: 252-259). In fact, all the above movements were moved by the passion to be truly and spiritually purposeful. The new leaders can be developed in a discipleship program that makes good use of mentoring relationships and be encouraged to undertake counseling, visitation, recovery and other similarly important programs that are ignored in the Church. The nature of our kinship networks will be helpful in instituting mentoring relationships. The training will then be upgraded with more and more emerging to serve ministerial positions in the church, since local churches can hardly sponsor their members to pursue “expensive” seminary education in Kumasi, the capital of Asante or other cities in Ghana like the national capital, Accra. It is important to develop the giftedness of those being trained outside the academic environs since most of them might not have the relative sophistication of academic and college backgrounds or preparation, but whom the Lord has prepared by way of the acquisition of natural abilities, some vocational skills and spiritual gifts. By conducting both structured and prestructured interviews as the case might be with those volunteering among the “laity”, we can determine areas to develop in each prospective leader. Leadership emergence must be encouraged in a way that will ensure an all time growing character of the new leaders. In connection with this, some equipping along the patterns developed by Clinton in his “Leadership Emergence Theory” shall be very helpful. This theory rooted in the Gospels offers the candidate opportunity to have a better understanding of their calling by processing several aspects of the leader’s life concerning issues like destiny, boundaries, social base inventory, mentoring, the study of Biblical and historical leaders and many others. These will not only help one verify one’s calling but enable one to be adequately prepared for a serious lifelong ministry (Clinton 1989: 7-10).
The idea of new leadership patterns could stretch even to involve existing patterns in the Ashanti culture. This was explored by the British government in adopting the Indirect Rule, which made the chiefs agents of local government, and therefore enabled the colonialists to be finally accepted by Asante chiefs and people. Indeed, it was in this spirit of respect for traditional authority that enabled the introduction of the Gospel itself in Asante, as the friendship developed between the Methodists James Hayford and Freeman on one hand and the Asantehene, influenced the latter in encouraging the beginnings of Methodism in Greater Asante, particularly, Kumasi (Sanneh 1983: 120). The isolation of traditional rulers and family elders is always seen as a sign of disrespect for an African people, as evidenced by Gilliland (1989: 19-24). From Hendry, we can infer the importance of connecting with traditional rulers in effecting communication with local bodies or communities that do not have central administrations (1999: 168).
Walls writes of two principles in the life of the Church and mission, and we ought to have applied these principles; the “Indigenizing Principle” (not separating persons from their social relationships and society) and the “Pilgrim Principle” (transforming the people into what God wants them, instead of applying principles of disenculturation (1996: 7-9). The missionaries ought to have focused at least equally on the discipleship of the community of the Asante nation, in relation to individual persons, an attitude which was influenced by their western culture as alleged by Walls who insists the essence of Christ’s incarnation is explained by internalizing the Gospel in various cultures and not to proselytize or westernize the believers (1996: 48-51). Tippet similarly argues, the missionary or pastor must serve as an agent of change for a quantitative impact and an organic renewal of the group with the intent to achieve a steady state and not a “Western demolarization”, submersion and oppression (1987: 161-162).
The Asante Church has waited too long to have a normative use of the two structures in doing mission. Pierson identifies Ralph Winter’s two structures, Modality and Sodality as church or congregational structure and parachurch or mission structure respectively capable of doing inward evangelism (evangelizing its own people and others of its own cultural and geographical background [ E 0, E 1], and outward evangelism (2004: 10 [Lecture Resources] ). He continues that, both structures are needed and must exist independently and interdependently in order to do mission, adding that, “When the Church stops seeing its missionary call to the world it loses its vitality” (2004: 10-11 [Lecture Resources]). The importance of the two structure system can therefore not be overemphasized despite the fact that some like Geoffrey Thomas writing in a book edited by Harvie Conn teaches against parachurch organizations seeing them as competing with the local church and without spiritual direction ( 1990: 81). The truth, however, is God has used both structures in the Bible and in history, and they “are essential for a healthy Church.”
In the 2nd century, there were both local churches and their ministers on one hand while itinerant leaders served as a second structure in the church. There have been both interdenominational and denominational mission organizations serving as second structures for the Church. Some of such organizations are, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Baptist Missionary Organization formed by William Carey, Edinburgh Missionary Society, Church Missionary Society, Basel Missionary Society, Society of African Missions, and the British and Foreign Bible Society which were the very early mission structures working from the 17th century to the modern era ( Agbeti 1986: 7-18). Many of these bodies worked in Africa, and the Basel Mission Society and the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society went to Asante where they did some outstanding works especially in meeting social needs. The China Inland Mission known today as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship also did some outstanding work in China, as there have been several student movements doing similar work in several places. Student Movements today include the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the Campus Crusade. Parachurch organization has also opened several areas of service for women who have also established such organizations as Mary Slessor’s ministry in Calabar, Southern Nigeria and Mella Moe’s service with the Scandinavian Alliance Mission in South Africa (Pierson 2004: 93 [Lecture Resources] ).
There is the need to bring Church leadership in Ashanti to the awareness of the effectiveness of the two structure system. The churches must be encouraged to take the advice of Pierson regarding the necessity to have some cooperation with second structures in order to be purposefully apostolic and to be the “One holy Catholic.” We must be part of the new evangelical ecumenism, which has arisen today (2004: 9 [Lecture Resources]). Our sense of purposelessness facilitates the intra and inter denominational struggles existing between us with fruitless and endless debates and arguments over theological positions. Meanwhile many of our churches, particularly the Mainline are loosing their numbers to Independent Churches, and at times to traditional religions and Islam. They do go to the Shamans and “Malams” of these systems to consult them when they come face to face with difficulties in life situation. Our purposefulness as One Church will also be very helpful in checking tribalism and other cultural differences dividing persons in and outside the church, since the Church in Asante is not only the majority faith but wields so much influence within every family and organization in the nation. There is virtually no meeting whatsoever that does not begin with and end in prayer in Christ’s Name. In effect, it must be mentioned that churches must have their own denominational mission structures in as much as there should be independent and interdenominational mission structures bringing the churches together in crossing the various cultural barriers in Asante. It can also be inferred from Stark that the prevalence of kinship networks and organizations, friendship clubs and vocational organizations that consist of members coming from several different churches and denominations point to the fact that, it is possible to bring Christians together sociologically and ecumenically for mission purposes, and we must do so especially in the face of several crises facing us today (1997: 73-94). Renewal cannot persevere if it has no ecumenical objectives or does not involve the grass root population and their basic and pressing needs, making it a people’s movement.
Finally, one factor for the survival of renewal in the two-thirds world concerns partnership with the Western World, which can help our churches materially and with the acquisition of training. African economies are growing weaker and weaker making the Church hardly able to support its programs. Emphasizing interdependence is not strange since the Bible teaches so and encourages the formation of global persons and fraternity in Christ, an idea expressed initially in this paper. This must cause the church to respond effectively to issues concerning the degradation of the environment and the effects of globalization and development strategies. It is pathetic to learn that despite our Christian majority, our streets and drainage systems are littered with waste plastic sheets or bags, human waste and other droppings. Our natural resources are waiting to be tapped via indigenous and multi-national joint ventures and it is the Church that can mobilize the people for such programs that will lead to the growth of our economies. Transnational corporations being assisted by local authorities in devastating our human, land and other resources must be checked by the Church. We must not seek assistance from Western natives alone but also Ghanaian Christian leaders some of whom like Richard Kyerematen have established growing churches and organizations in Europe and US (Sider 2002: 162-165). We must, however be reminded by the book of Acts and by the passage of Est. 4: 14, that nothing can hinder the Gospel and the Spirit, and that there is no tragedy or difficulty beyond God’s Sovereignty such that if we hardly find Western partners given to the course of a spiritual revival we do not give up. It is this very hope and foundation of God’s love and omnipotence, upon which Christ built his Church. It is with the same hope that the “Emerging Church” concept seeking to deal with the complexes of the postmodern Western Church, mobilizes all revelation experiences despite the resistance of both culture and the tradition or dogma oriented Church (2005: 234-238). The Mission of God is not our private business, but that of Christ who chose us to go and bear fruits that will last.
Conclusion
A renewal based on a “Sankofa Theology of Mission” is not only attainable, practical and desirable. It holds the key to experiencing a New Testament paradigm that does not only prevail against the gates of Hades but is spiritually purposeful and remains faithful to the covenantal expectations of God. We can test the proposals of the “Sankofa Renewal Mission” with various rigorous theories formulated by renowned missiologists including Snyder’s “Glory of God” Model. The “Sankofa Renewal Mission” has all the aspects or elements proposed in the above Model said to strengthen the Church while glorifying God. “Sankofa”, which means a community going back for the good old things, taps on the rich community elements of the Asante culture and responds adequately to the preponderance of receptive groups waiting to be reached through faithful witness. We had a doctrine of God and we only need to be made to understand the Triune nature of God and the fact that his angels and all other creatures are not to be worshipped as deities. We have priests or shamans with their temples and they must be connected to the power of the Holy Spirit instead of the power of dwarfs and other spirits. Indeed, they can be helped to understand that in Christ they can withstand the wickedness of the spirits. Our traditional chiefs and family heads must be connected with the revival and be helped to understand that they wield political power as stewards or custodians of laws guiding relationships and they will be accountable to God. Our traditional authorities influencing very large communities or people groups and the national government must not be ignored and condemned as it has happened in the past. The Model adds to the existing natural instincts of worship, the direction needed to balance the intellectual, the emotional and relational instincts necessary for the liberation that points to experiencing the Kingdom now and then, regardless of the material and apparent hindrances of the African situation. It is when we do not allow our material limitations to hinder us in relating to God that we can claim to be living to glorify God.
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