By Damian Avevor
Very Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Abbey-Quaye, Assistant Secretary General at the National Catholic Secretariat, has called on those holding leadership positions in Ghana to constantly seek the Lord for His guidance and direction.
“All Christians have a role in ensuring that we choose leaders who will live by the values of the Bible for a group or nation cannot succeed if its leaders do not adhere to the principles taught by God’s Word, “a lamp to our feet and light to our path”
(Ps. 119:104).”
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Fr. Abbey-Quaye was delivering the Keynote Address at a Mass to climax of this Year’s Bible Week celebration in Ghana at the Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church at Dansoman last Stop, Accra on the theme “The Bible: Guide To Godly Leadership” (Titus 1:7-14).
The Mass was concelebrated by Rev. Fr. Charles Ackon, Priest -in -charge of Our Lady Star of the Sea. Present were a delegation from the Bible Society of Ghana led by Rev. Emmanuel Antwi-Tumfuor, who represented Rev. Erasmus Donkor, General Secretary of the Society and scores of Parishioners of Star of the Sea.
The Assistant Secretary General commended the organisers of this year’s Bible Week Celebration, namely, the Bible Society of Ghana, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council and the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
He noted that to succeed in the task of leadership, every leader must create the necessary conducive environment and fashion out the correct methodology that motivates the group he led to achieve the set goals
He said the theme was very appropriate and opportune for two basic reasons, the need for all Christians, especially Christian leaders, to prayerfully reflect on and aspire to live by leadership values espoused by the Bible and also for Ghanaian Christians to seek God’s help, direction and intervention as we prepare to elect our nation’s President and Members of Parliament on November 7.
Fr. Abbey-Quaye noted that Christian leadership was unique because he operated within the will, plan, priorities and purpose of God as revealed in the Bible and under the lordship of Jesus Christ and therefore, he could not lead without adhering to the Biblical values of leadership.
Fr. Abbey-Quaye urged Religious leaders and Christians in Ghana, to condemn in no uncertain terms, the phenomenon of syncretism among some Christians and the sale of spiritual goods by some Christian leaders.
He decried the phenomenon of idolatry and vote-buying creeping into Ghanaian body politic, the use of intemperate language, propaganda, threat, intimidation and violence, before, during and after elections.
He noted that the monetization of our politics was a disgrace and a disease eating into Ghana’s democracy at an alarming rate and has to be halted, calling on Ghanaians to learn to reject those who use intimidation and propaganda to win political power at all cost for they have nothing to offer except to seek the mandate of the people for their own selfish interests and to loot the nation.
“On this occasion of the climax of this year’s Bible Week celebrations, we wish to call on all our leaders to give us a cause for hope and to inspire us by their good example of servant leadership.
He quoted Blessed Pope Paul VI who once said, “The world today does not listen to teachers but to witnesses but even if it listens to teachers, it is because they are first and foremost witnesses.”
This statement, he said, held true for all times but especially today when exemplary leadership in our country and on our continent seemed to have become a commodity in short supply.
Africa had not developed at the rate it should due to poor and uninspiring leadership offered by many of our past and present leaders, noting that “We cannot come out of our poverty, ignorance and disease if we continue to elect for ourselves leaders who are corrupt and only good at propaganda.”
The Bible, he said taught that leadership was a gift from God and not a position that is merited by anybody, stressing that no one leads in a vacuum.
“The Bible also teaches that leaders are chosen by God to occupy specific positions and to pursue certain purposes and mission. Even though they are chosen to lead God’s people who are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), they are to see themselves as ambassadors of God sent into a world which is hostile to Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:9-10; 2 Cor. 5:20).
He noted that “leadership according to the Bible involves working with all people in the world to glorify God and to better the lot of humanity. A Christian leader therefore has a duty to both Christians and non-Christians alike.”
Adding, he said, the Bible also taught that Christian leadership was servant-leadership and must be modeled on the leadership style of Jesus Christ who said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
Fr. Abbey-Quaye said to become a godly leader, one should be able to serve all and be prepared to spend and to be spent, urging leaders to lead by the example of their own lives and not just by what they say (Jos. 24).
“They are to lead in righteousness and not in wrongdoing for a throne is established through righteousness and kings should detest wrongdoing (Proverbs 16:12). They are to guide their followers in honesty and truth (Psalm 43:3); to make good rules and commandments for their people,” he added.
The Assistant Secretary General said the Bible also taught that leaders must be blameless; they must live beyond reproach; they must be temperate, self-controlled, respectable, gentle, reachable, hospitable, free of vices, peaceful and not greedy.
“As far as the Bible is concerned, leadership is a two-part dimension, a first part in which God selects, calls and equips His chosen leaders and a second and practical part where the people who have been so selected or chosen by God learn specific leadership skills and inculcate certain moral values to enable them exercise their leadership under the authority of God.”
He urged Christians to reflect on the choices they made daily, especially regarding the values of the kingdom and the values of the world – power, possession and pleasure while the values of the Kingdom are service, detachment and self-sacrifice.
“With 70 percent of Ghanaians professing to be Christians, one would have hoped that the values of the kingdom would reflect in daily lives but unfortunately, what we see on daily basis is the pursuit of power at all cost, wealth by any means possible and pleasure without boundaries,” he added.
