Pentecostal Council Sacks Churches

The Ghana Pentecostal Council (GPC) is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to rid its membership of charlatans.

Out of some 15 �smaller� churches which applied to become members of the council, only Omega Evangelistic Ministry headed by one Reverend Dr. Quarcopome Sackey was admitted into the fold.

The remaining 14 did not make the cut because of the stringent criteria set for would-be members. Most of the churches that applied wanted to join the council to enhance their credibility status.

But meeting the basic requirements alone could not enable them join the group as they did not have the proper structures in place to secure them admission in the Ghana Pentecostal Council.

Reverend Anyani Boadum, chairman of the GPC membership committee who confirmed this told Daily Guide the council has adopted a lot of stringent measures to prevent fake churches from infiltrating their ranks adding �we also have the same concern that because of current issues, people may want to rush our corridors.�

He believes certain pastors who refuse to join Christian councils and associations do so because they probably have something up their sleeves, saying �some of them will not join any Christian council but what they do is that they try to find anybody in the system and say we want to submit to you to father us and we take them along but they need to come into an association.�

�I don�t actually know what association Obinim joins but if Obinim was in our council, for sure he has fallen seriously and what he has done is an abomination,� were his words.

For this reason he said an applicant church has to go through an extensive process before being admitted showing ordination credentials, registration with the Registrar General�s Department, a brief history of how the head pastor had his calling, the name and contact information of the minister who ordained the pastor, church staff, the church�s constitution, tenets of faith, organisational structure, payment of staff SSNIT contributions, income tax and a whole lot after which the applicant pastor would be investigated and vetted.�We think that we have a lot of work to do, we think they will need to come back, we think that we have to do more due diligence before we even accept them because we must also be very careful so that as much as we want to mentor people, bring credibility into the Christian ministry, we don�t want as it were to bring people who are not structured, who have not been called to come into our fold just like the Ghana Medical and Pharmacy Council,� he said.

In spite of that he said �it is not so much cumbersome but we also need to absolve ourselves from certain tendencies.�

Asked what sanctions would be meted to members who go wayward, he replied �we have not had too many of such challenges� supposing he (Obinim) was a member, I�m sure that we would actually sanctioned him seriously because he does not have the qualifications. Things that he has done, do not exhibit the qualifications of a minister that has been called of God.�

Source: Charles Takyi-Boadu