Citing the indigenous church’s ability to extend to about 100 countries using home-grown resources and putting up a world-class centre for holding international and local meetings, he said the government could learn from the church.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 43rd General Council Meeting of the church at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region.

During the four-day meeting, which has the theme: “Remain in Christ and His basic message", a new chairman for the church will be elected
The current Chairman, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah, who has held the position for 10 years, will retire and end 42 years as an active minister of the church.

Dr Bawumia urged the church to use its influential platform to educate its members on the need to pay taxes for the economic development of the nation.

Commendation

He commended Apostle Prof. Onyinah for his services to the Church of Pentecost and the nation as a whole.

He described Apostle Prof. Onyinah, who has been a member of the National Peace Council, as a statesman who was dedicated to peace.

Touching on how the church could shape the moral fabric of society, he said: “We have to use the church to nip anti-social behaviours in the bud by directing the moral compact to what is faith and fit for a good society. Children must be taught not to take what is not theirs, while parents set good examples in order to fight corruption.”

State of the church

Accounting for his 10-year tenure, Apostle Prof. Onyinah said the church, presently in 99 countries, currently had more than three million members worldwide.

Out of the number, he said, more than 2.5 million were in Ghana, constituting 85 per cent of the total worldwide membership.

In Ghana, the membership of the church represented approximately nine per cent of the total Ghanaian population of 29 million as of December 2017, he added.

Apostle Prof. Onyinah said the church had eight health institutions, comprising one hospital and seven clinics; 84 basic schools, three vocational schools, two senior high schools and a university in Ghana.

Police station

The church used the occasion to hand over a GH¢5.2-million two-storey police station to the Ghana Police Service.

The facility includes a barracks to accommodate senior and junior officers on a 4.9-acre land.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr David Asante Apeatu, said the facility would contribute to the achievement of the police transformation agenda to a world-class police organisation.

He expressed gratitude to the church and said the station would be put to good use to enhance police visibility, as well as gather information from the community.