Kumasi, April 29, GNA - The 19th Annual Kumasi Presbytery Representative Council conference of the Global Evangelical Church opened in Kumasi on Friday.

Forty-eight delegates from 16 districts within the Presbytery are attending the three-day conference, under the theme, "There Is More Land, Step Up Your Efforts."

Reverend Samuel Oyetey Attu, Kumasi Presbytery Chairman of the Church addressing the opening session, said the theme for the conference was timely because there was the need for Christians to take up the great commission, make disciples and teach them on the Gospel. He commended the pastors, evangelists, catechists, church leaders and members for their relentless efforts to proclaim the Gospel and made sacrifices towards the Church's growth. Rev. Attu said available reports indicated that most congregations recorded some significant growth while few registered a decline due to the re-location of some members. He said in some congregations they undertook physical structures like schools, chapels and pastoral manses while the Presbytery presented food items and clothing worth six million cedis to the Kumasi Children's Home during the Easter celebrations. The Presbytery Chairman called on pastors and evangelists of the church to use the pulpit to preach the Gospel and environmental cleanliness on sustainable basis to bring attitudinal change in the society.

He called on Ghanaians to love and respect each other for the prevailing peace in the country to be sustained. Professor Kwesi Andam, Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), called on the delegates to ensure Christians know Jesus Christ.

He said although about 70 per cent of Ghanaians were Christians, their depth of faith in Jesus Christ was shallow and therefore, behoved them as a Church to let their members be "Born Again in Jesus Christ." Prof. Andam stressed the need for the church to endeavour to make the members 100 per cent literate for the church to have a future, adding; "If they are not literate there will be no future for the church."

He urged leaders of the Church to make good use of the youth and involve them in evangelical activities.