General News of Thursday, 12 May 2005

Source: GNA

Prof Adei condemns noise making by churches

Accra, May 12,GNA - Professor Stephen Adei, a Management Consultant and Theologian, on Thursday took Pentecostal and Charismatic churches to task, and condemned the making of noise in loud prayers that disturbed others at night.

He said making noise was totally un-Christian and any Christian who made noise during the night to disturb those who were asleep was not following Christian principles.

Prof Adei, who is also the Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), made the point in an address of at the opening session of the Eighth Annual Conference of Association of Christian School, Ghana, in Accra.

Head-teachers and Proprietors of Christian schools, mostly Pentecostal, are attending the two-day conference, organised jointly by the Association with the Oral Roberts University Education Foundation and the Ghana Pentecostal Council.

The conference on the theme: Christian Education: A Tool for Dynamic Change in Education", is discussing topics including: "Financial Management and Records Keeping", "Evangelising Children from Pre-School Upwards" and "Preparations of Lesson Plans". Prof Adei said Christians should be known by their goods acts of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, adding that noisy prayers deprived people of their sound sleep and rather made it impossible for people to believe in the Lord.

"The daytime for working, the night is for sleeping," Prof Adei said adding: "Sorry for that one, I think that was inspired by the Holy Spirit", attracting laughter from the audience.

Prof Adei called for change in Ghanaian education system and said 'growth without change' in Ghanaian universities had produced a mess, which must be halted by appointing changed leaders as heads of institutions and not professors whose credentials were only the number of articles they had published in their areas of discipline.

"Don't get me wrong, a Professor can be a good leader; but that is not as a result of being a Professor, but the result of learning to lead and manage well.

"Being a Vice Chancellor or Head-teacher is not an academic job, but managerial job first and foremost. Similarly, the pre-university educational system requires total transformation" Prof Adei said. He also observed that managerial leadership, teacher motivation and supervision were important in transforming non-performing educational institutions.

"But the difference true Christianity makes is that the very agents -the headmaster, the teachers and the supervisors are first to be transformed within," the GIMPA Rector said, and listed four dimensions of Christian education as physical growth, intellectual growth and the right application of knowledge, intellectual development and having favour with God.