Cross-Cultural Christian Mission in the Ghanaian Context: Challenges, Strategies and Prospects

Isaac BoahengORCID iD

Issue: Vol.6  No.1 January 2020 Article 2 pp. 16-26
DOI : https://doi.org/10.32051/01202002 
© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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The Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20 and its parallels) mandates the Christian Church to proclaim the gospel in different nations and to all manner of peoples with the purpose of revealing God’s salvific plan for humans wherever they might find themselves. Certainly, this missionary role of the Church involves an encounter between the gospel and different cultures. Encountering people of a new culture and introducing the Christian faith comes with challenges. Yet, at the same time, there are a number of strategies by which missionaries can work effectively and make use of various prospects in their field. This paper, through a critical analysis of data extracted from textbooks, thesis/dissertations, and scholarly articles, discusses the challenges, strategies and prospects related to cross-cultural missionary enterprise in Ghana. The main thesis of the research is that the gospel can and should permeate the ethos of a group, its essential attitudes, its institutions and all its structures without necessarily becoming an obstacle to the promotion of the Ghanaian cultural heritage. Hence, to make the Christian faith meaningful and relevant to every culture, missionaries must try as much as possible to contextualize their message.

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ISAAC BOAHENG, an ordained minister of the Methodist Church Ghana, currently serves as a Translator for the Bible Society of Ghana. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Trinity Theological Seminary,Ghana and has research interest in Public Theology, Biblical Studies, and African Christianity. Email: revisaacboaheng@gmail.com

Boaheng, Isaac. “Cross-Cultural Christian Mission in the Ghanaian Context: Challenges, Strategies and Prospects.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 6, no.1 (2020): 16-26. https://doi.org/10.32051/01202002

© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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