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40th Anniversary Lecture by Rev. Prof. Emeritus John Samuel Pobee
(Word document)
New Answers to Prayer and Prayer Requests as of August 2011
The Good News Story:
A Collaborative Achievement,
(1969-1971)
In a photo taken from the bulletin board in the Library, the old classroom block can be seen in the foreground. Below is the new Education Block that replaced it.
The establishment of the Good News Training Institute (now, Good News Theological College and Seminary) in Accra, Ghana, was a culmination of many incidental events in the 1960s in West Africa. The most important event was the phenomenal growth of African Independent Churches (AICs) in Africa, particularly West Africa. This heightened the curiosity of scholars, missiologists and researchers to find the causes of the popularity, growth and challenges of AICs. Dr. Harold W. Turner and Dr. Andrew Walls were some Western scholars who pivoted the study of the AICs in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
In the early '60s some AICs in Southeastern Nigeria invited the Mennonite Board of Missions to work with them to enhance their theological education. The Nigerian civil war in eastern Nigeria (1967-1970), however, disrupted the AIC/MBM interaction. Edwin and Irene Weaver were among the MBM missionaries evacuated in Nigeria. On the advice of Turner, Primate Adeleke Adejobi, then the head of the Church of the Lord (Aladura), invited the MBM to establish a seminary for his church in Nigeria. It was in Freetown, Sierra Leone where Ed and Irene Weaver came into contact with the Church of the Lord (Aladura) but due to the unfavorable social conditions in Nigeria, Primate Adejobi recommended the Weavers to Apostle E. A. Ofosu, head of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) in Ghana.
The Weavers began a Bible study at the choir loft of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) at Nima, a suburb of Accra, where Archdeacon Solomon Krow was the head Pastor. The Good News Bible was the version that was used so the Bible Class was named Good News Bible Classes. Prophet Mills, an AIC leader and brother-in-law of Krow, introduced the Weavers to many AIC leaders, who were not necessarily of the Aladura stock. They grouped themselves into what became known as the Leaders Fellowship. More Good News Classes were opened at many AIC worship centers in Accra. The classes were taught by Western missionary scholars, Ghanaian scholars and church leaders and some students of the Trinity College, a seminary for Protestant churches in Ghana. The Leaders Fellowship was ecumenical in nature. A dialogue between the AICs and the mainline churches known as Inter-church conversations was facilitated by the Weavers and other Ghanaian Church leaders. It was patronized by the Christian Council of Ghana and the AICs.
In early 1971 a decision to turn the various Good News Bible Classes into an evening part-time theological institute was taken and implemented. The school was called the Good News Training Institute. James Anquandah, K. B. Ellis and Willard Roth were appointed to administer the school. The school was opened at the YMCA, Accra, on 4 October 1971. It was formally inaugurated on 6 Nov. 1971.
Click to read the history of the library.
Highlighted AIC Churches
and Resources
