Students in Ghana gather for a 2022 training session similar to sessions that will take place this summer.
Photo provided
Through centuries, Christians have shared the Bible and its message via scrolls, printing press pages and even green flannelgraph boards.
In the twenty-first century, add the micro SD card to the list.
Two local pastors plan to travel this summer to Ghana, where they hope to be part of training sessions for Christian leaders there and share a film about the life of Jesus.
They hope to not only encourage fellow Christians there and learn about another culture, but to also share the excitement of the ministry happening abroad with their congregations in Indiana. They also hope to highlight opportunities for individuals, particularly from smaller congregations, to find a place on a visiting mission team.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Blue of St. James Lutheran Church, a North American Lutheran Church in Greenfield, and the Rev. Kory Chesser plan to travel with a team from One Mission Society (OMS), which has headquarters in Greenwood. Chesser is pastor of Morristown Methodist Church, one of two Global Methodist congregations in the area.
The team will meet with 120-150 students in a church planting curriculum. OMS’ Extend the Word seminars focus on ministering in communities with little or no access to a Bible. Class members learn how to start small film discussion groups in their homes, using 2- to 5-minute segments of footage.
The clips are on micro SD cards, donated by the ministry Cru, and played on solar- or battery-powered devices carried in backpacks. Such groups watch the clip and then discuss six to eight questions based on it; the curriculum was written by someone from Africa.
“The training teaches them how to watch those segments and ask those questions … ‘Now go out and train someone else on how to do this,’” said the pastors’ contact at OMS.
The contact avoids being named publicly because, while he has ministered safely in Ghana, some of the other countries he visits during his work are more closed to Christian ministry.
One of the questions at the small group discussions is often “Who will you tell this story to before we meet next time?” the contact said.
“We have seen quite a few churches start from these trips,” he said, as people meet in small groups. “They’ll meet once a week to keep discussing these film segments, almost like a Bible study-type thing.”
Chesser met the OMS contact in 2019. They were roommates on a trip to Israel organized for young pastors and/or seminary gradutes. He encouraged Chesser to consider going to Africa someday.
Blue and Chesser hope to make brief videos while they travel, so their congregations and others can follow the vlog and learn about the work happening in Ghana.
They’re excited to travel as pastors of different denominations, serving together in a spirit of ecumenicalism. They hope to promote the idea of churches coming together, even — and perhaps particularly — smaller congregations.
“We have a lot of these smaller churches, and we focus on what makes us different rather than focusing on the main priority, which is spreading the gospel of Jesus,” Blue said.
Yet “You start to build those connections,” Chesser said. “… I think its pivotal sometimes to do some of these things across denominational lines.”
They hope the trip will help individuals consider how they might connect with a mission team if they have the desire to go serve, regardless of whether their church is sending a team.
“If you’ve got one or two people from a smaller congregation who go have this life-changing experience and bring that back to the church, it could change the whole culture of a congregation,” Blue said. “It could make it more outreach-centered, renew a fire in the congregation to grow and to spread the Gospel.”
Helping send
Pastors Richard Blue and Kory Chesser have a site summarizing plans for their upcoming trip in late June. They are still raising the $8,000 for them to both go, much of which is airfare. Find out more about supporting the trip through prayer or financially at https://missions.outreach4christ.org/ghana2024
Ways to go
Learn more about teams forming at onemissionsociety.org/opportunities.
