Rev Wengam takes Over as General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Church

Rev Steven Yenusom Wengam, the Head Pastor of the Cedar Mountain Chapel, has been officially inducted as the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Ghana on Saturday, February 25, 2023, in Accra.

The colourful inducting ceremony was attended by hundreds of congregation, clergymen, family, friends, and other Christian faiths.

The event was also used for the commissioning of the new Executive Presbytery Officers of the Assemblies of God, Ghana.

Rev. Wengam was elected together with the new Executive Presbytery Officers on August 5, 2022, to take over from Rev. Professor Paul Frimpong-Manso.

He becomes the seventh General Superintendent of the church after Rev. Nyamela Panka, Rev. Simon B. Asore, William W. Dontoh (all deceased), and Moses S. Sumaila.

The other new Executive Officers were Rev. Dr. Gordon Tito Agyei, Assistant General Superintendent; Rev. Dr. Ernest Birikorang, the General Secretary and Rev. Dr. Simon Abu Baba, the Treasurer.

The President of the Africa Assemblies of God Alliance, Rev. Barnabas Mtokambali, inducted Rev. Dr. Wengam and the Executive Presbytery Officers into office.

In his maiden speech as General Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Wengam assured that the new administration would continue from where its predecessors left off, promising to use God’s divinely inspired policy to shift, grow and transform the Church.

According to him, his administration would focus on real issues of what he termed, the “Six Rs – Reach, Rebuild, Restore, Reform, Reposition and Rebrand”.

The Church, Rev. Wengam said would assertively prioritize the welfare of the needy and rural pastors, saying that, “Another element of this agenda is massive human capital and infrastructure development. The highlight would be the construction of an iconic state-of-the-art Assemblies of God Centenary Village (an international convention centre) to mark the 100th anniversary of Assemblies of God Church in the country.”

Touching on national issues, the new General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God decried the ills in the country, especially the lack of political will to tackle cases of corruption, the menace of illegal mining, destruction of the environment, despondency, dishonesty, among other forms of indiscipline and prescribed holiness as a solution to those problems.

Rev Wengam said, “Citizens steeped in holiness will not tell blatant lies, inflate prices of goods and services, falsify procurement figures, steal state funds, pollute water bodies, litter their surroundings, denigrate their neighbours, assassinate the character of their political opponents, do shoddy work, laze around during working hours or exploit their workers.”

He however employed all citizens to join the Church to inculcate holiness in every spectrum of national life, since it was the most effective solution to societal decay and the growing challenges on all fronts.

Rev Wengam added that the Church would join in the effort to find lasting peace in the Bawku, stating that the situation,” is potentially corrosive to Ghana’s reputation as the most peaceful nation in West Africa and second in the whole of Africa”.

He said no efforts should be spared at containing the hyper-sensitive and supremely complex situation which threatens to cascade into security challenges of unthinkable proportions.

Former President Mahama, who was the special guest of honour, called on members of the clergy to be balanced in their utterances irrespective of the government in power.

He said they should not be quiet when one government was in power and then be loud when another government was in power.

“We must be seen to be balanced, be non-partisan,” the former President said, adding that members of the clergy must endeavour to always speak the truth to whichever government was in power.

President Mahama said the church did not only exist to pray for leaders and that it was also to offer suggestions and guidance to leaders.

“The church did not hang in the air, it exists in society and whatever happens in society affected it,” he stressed.

Mr. Mahama noted that, for instance, the current economic crisis that Ghanaians were going through affected church congregations all across the country.

Rev. Mtokambali who speak on the theme: “One Giant Step for the Assemblies of God, Ghana”, expressed the belief that the church had over the years moved from baby steps through to ordinary steps and that with the coming leadership, he could see the church in his spirit heading towards “a giant step.

He named baby steps, ordinary steps, and giant steps as the three kinds of steps, the giant step being the most superior.

Some dignitaries who graced the induction ceremony were former President John Dramani Mahama, former Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood (both members of the church); the Archbishop of the Perez Chapel International, Charles Agyinasare; former Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyina, and senior pastors and members of the church.