HISTORY OF THE GLOBAL EVANGELICAL CHURCH

LET'S KNOW WHO WE ARE!! PART I

Contrary to what the perception is, we have a rooted and a firm believe in Christ Jesus.
Our name is GLOBAL EVANGELICAL CHURCH. This name was chosen at the EXTA-ORDINARY SYNOD held on the 3rd of May, 2003 at Adonai Chapel in Madina, Accra. The church through her constitutional process, adopted and affirmed the new name GLOBAL EVANGELICAL CHURCH to replace the old name, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
The logo of the church, very symbolic, is a globe on an open Bible.
The components are;
a) the Globe depicts the world
b) the cross depicts salvation through CHRIST'S DEATH.
c) the Bible depicts the WORD OF GOD.
*Meaning of the components.*
a) The world was created through the WORD OF GOD, hence the placement of the globe on the opened Bible. (Gen. 1:1-25)
b) salvation through CHRIST JESUS came to the world by his death on the CROSS OF CALVARY, hence the placement of the cross on the globe. (Luke 23:46, Peter 2:24)
c) Blue: two tones of blue have been used. The light blue for sea and the deep blue for land. They have the same meaning of Peace, Love and coolness. The church presents a cool, lovely and a peaceful atmosphere for worship. These are the attributes of the fruits of the spirit. (Gal. 5:22, Col 1:20).
d) White: signifies Purity, Victory and Joy. The use of white by the church is in line with the teaching and practice of holiness, victory achieved through the death of Christ on the Cross and the Joy afterwards.
e) Red: signifies close blood relations. This is in respect to the blood covenant between the Church and Christ.

THE ROOTS OF THE CHURCH
The Missionary Era (1836-1918)

In the 19th century, there was a religious wind blowing in Germany known as *pietism*. It's emphasis was on personal holy living. Consequently, it was incumbent on each person who subscribed to pietism to lead other people to live holy lives. It thus became a responsibility of every Christian to be a missionary. Pietism therefore led Germany Protestantism to form missionary societies.
On April 11, 1836, four different churches in northern Germany - The Evangelical Church of Bremen, The Lippe Church, The Lutheran Church of Oldenburg and The North West Reformed Church of Leer, came together and formed the North German Missionary Society in Hamburg to send missionaries to "heathen lands" with these aims;

a. The proclamation of Jesus Christ to heathens and care of new Christians.
b. Mastery of the language of the people
c. Study of their customs and culture
d. Establishment, worship and conduct of new congregations
e. Establishment of schools
f. Peaceful relationship with local authorities.

Later, the headquarters was moved to Bremen, leading to its popular designation as "Bremen mission". The first leader was Rev. Johan Hartwig Brauer. To facilitate their work they established a school for the training of missionaries in Hamburg on October 10, 1837. Only four students started the school, but by 1842, the number had increased to ten. Most of them were from North German and they were all tradesmen; carpenters, shoemakers and others such as farmers and those who manufactured goods with leather. The Missionary Society decided on New Zealand and India as their first mission fields and in 1842 and 1843, missionaries were sent out to these places. The missionaries were very selective about mission fields. They wanted places where there were no wars and where the weather was conducive to good health. Later on, Gabon and West Africa was adopted as thier third mission field.
The pioneer missionaries who came to Africa were 32 year old James Graff of Jutland in Denmark, 28 year Luer Bultman of Vahr near Bremen, 26 year old Lorenz Wolf of Bingen on the Rhine and 25 year old Carl Flato Horn near Bremen. They were all young men in their prime of life, with youthful vitality who decided to serve the Lord in unknown heathen lands.

*The Arrival of the Missionaries on the Gold Coast.*

The German missionaries set sail from Germany on March 17, 1847 and arrived at Cape Coast on May 5, 1847. They were well received by the Wesleyan missionaries who had arrived earlier, led by the famous Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman of the Methodist Church.
Two of the Missionaries travelled along the coast in search of a mission field but they realized, to thier disappointment, that slave traders had occupied all the places and they were likely to be mistaken as slave traders. Eventually, they arrived in Gabon and decided to work there, although Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries were already there.
But the expedition to Gabon ended in disaster. Within a very short time, Bultman was taken ill and he died. Wolf was also forced to abandon the place of work and go back to Cape Coast, because the French government, which was pro-Catholic, did not want any rivalry with Protestant missionaries from Martin Luther's country. On arrival, his companion Flato was also dead. Wolf and Graff travelled to Christiansburg in Accra to seek advice from the Basel missionaries from Switzerland who had settled there since 1826. They wanted to start their work among any tribe not yet touched by the earlier Missionaries. The Basel missionaries therefore advised them to make eweland thier mission field because no Missionary had as at yet gone there.

..........to be continued

From:
Protocol Department- UHAS
Bible Studies Department- UHAS