It was all joy and palpable excitement when Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was been ushered into the church hall of the Methodist Church in Obuasi as the Special Guest of Honour at the 25th Anniversary of the Obuasi Diocese.

The congregants sang, danced and waved handkerchiefs in ecstatic joyfulness as the Vice President and his entourage entered the church. He was carefully and courteous ushered to his seat even as the cheers and melodious singing continued.

The Vice President, a former Member of the Church’s Boys Brigade could not help but smile and acknowledge the cheers and hearty welcome he got.

When it got to his turn to speak, he lauded the role of the Church not only in the building of the spiritual and religious life of Ghanaians but its invaluable contributions in health, education, economic and social development of the country.

He underscored the importance of anniversary celebrations as avenue to allow for stock taking and adoption of strategies to achieve set goals. He them urged the church to work even harder to resources for soul winning purposes and discipleship.

“Anniversary celebrations such as this are very important for many reasons. It is during such occasions that stocks are taken so that the positive interventions and gains are consolidated. Usually measures are put in place to scale up the gains in the coming years. On occasions like this also, we reflect, recognize and salute our Forebears for their toils and selfless sacrifices. Let us pay glowing homage to them.

Mr. Chairman, the Methodist Church Ghana as we have known over the years is conscious of going all out to win souls for Christ. The hierarchy of the Church is bent on discipleship with the view of intensifying the teachings of the beliefs of the Church. Scriptural holiness is the measuring rod for every Methodist to gain firmer grounds to stand the pleasures of this earth.

With this in focus, the Church must rise up to the task to marshal resources available ‘’to equip members to illustrate to the world through the demonstration of Christian faith and love’’ to make the vision of the Church a reality. After teaching everyone to live like Jesus Christ, it is very necessary for us to live the talk. This is very much in sync with the theme for the anniversary “Discipleship: Living the Transformed Life in Jesus Christ.’’ (Rom. 12:1-2),” he noted.