Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana was established in 1958 by missionaries from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and formally registered with the Ghana government in 1964. Since then the church has established congregations and preaching stations in ten regions of Ghana. Four American missionaries are working with the ELCG along with the Ghanaian pastors, evangelists and lay leaders trained to lead the congregations and preaching stations throughout the country. The church accepts the scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the only rule and norm of faith and practice, the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasias Creeds, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and the Large and Small Catechism of Luther. The church believes and teaches the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and confesses God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The ELCG is not only interested in the spiritual life of Ghanaians but is also involved in social services in the country. Presently the church has day-care, primary and junior secondary schools in nine locations. Special programmes have been established for the blind and the deaf in several regions. The church also offers free eye testing and free eye glasses to people in all walks of life. In the northern parts of the country the church is seriously involved in agricultural programmes. It has introduced a crop improvement scheme based on the use of lime to control soil acidity, which has had a marked effect on improving crop yield (statistics show an increase of harvested crop of over 35 percent). In addition the church is involved in a water project with several rural communities to provide clean drinking water for the people. It runs an ambulance service to support its clinics in the northern region for people who do not have means of transport to go to hospital.

The church has set up the Lutheran media ministry and runs a series of programmes including a Bible correspondence course with a registration of 18,000. "This is the Life" of the Lutheran Church is telecast every Sunday on Ghana television. Another ministry has been the support of Liberian refugees since their arrival in 1990. In recent years the ELCG has opened mission stations in Uganda, Benin and Ivory Coast. The church since its inception relied on a seminary in neighbouring Nigeria for its needs of properly trained pastors and evangelists. By the grace of God, since 1998 the church has been blessed with a Lutheran seminary, known as Lutheran Clergy Study Programme, located adjacent to the head office in Accra. The objective of this seminary is to further train our local evangelists to become pastors.