Friday I attended a church service entitled the “Empowerment Summit” with a Ghanaian friend. I could tell by the name that it wasn't a regular church service, but I didn't realize it would be held in a large stadium. When we entered, people were chanting loudly and dancing with full on energy, a little shift from the last church I visited. I didn’t pick up on everything that was said because there was an issue with the speaker system where the voices echoed, but the little I did pick up on was very note-worthy. The Bishop said, "One day Africa will have a new identity" and went on to preach about how he was in America, but God told him to come back and teach his people in Ghana. He continued, "I'm going to teach you the secrets of financial empowerment." I picked up on a few of his latter statements. "Christ already paid for your enrichment, your financial and economic empowerment", "You can't have a voice without being economically empowered", "Financial empowerment is our dominion in Christ", "The point of slavery has been removed from your life", "If you understand what the Bible says, you wouldn't be a burden to everyone, you'd be a blessing to everyone".
My friend handed me a piece of paper and said, “Here, write down what you want God to do for you”. The most interesting part of the service was when everyone started praying, and loudly. Although the majority of it was done in the local language, I recognized that it was pretty much just like a stereotypical Black Baptist church, only a little turned up. They were shouting loudly, dancing a little, and moving their bodies in a way they probably wouldn't in a non-religious setting. As we were leaving, my other Ghanaian friend said to me, "God is going to answer everything you put on your list". We'll see...
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