Samuel Sarkodie-Addo lives in Ghana and started Langham Training in 2009 when working with Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Over a couple of years he completed the three levels of training and in 2011 finished the Training the Trainers course. In 2019 he applied and received a Langham Scholarship after completing his Masters in Religious Studies. He completed his PhD in 2023 from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and is now a university lecturer, author and works at his local church.
Samuel wrote his PhD on ‘Church and Politics: A study of the political engagement between some selected churches and Christian politicians for the promotion of good governance in Ghana.’ He shares, “We had a lot of Christians who were into politics, but the practice of politics and faith seems to be different. I was looking at how the churches are engaging their members who are into active politics and whether they have been able to bring the Christian faith to bear on public policies and fighting corruption using resources… I drew on the issue of resource utilisation and the concept of stewardship of the Christians who are into politics.”
A supportive network
When Samuel started his PhD, he also started work full-time at his church as an administrator, which he continues to do today. He is very grateful for the scholarship, and shares, “The scholarship program was extremely helpful. In terms of the financial assistance, it would have been very difficult for me if I had not had the scholarship from Langham… it helped me, helped my family, it reduced a lot of financial burden… it was extremely important for my journey.”
He continues, “Also to add is the scholar care coordinator initiative… the care for me and my family; having interest in and asking how we are doing beside academic issues. The support for my family; praying with me, encouraging me, and always checking up on how the family was doing was very helpful. I don’t think we have that in a lot of scholarship schemes and it is unique to have that kind of pastoral counseling advisory and supporting role from the scholar care, I think it is extremely important.”
Teaching and equipping
In addition to working as the Church Administrator, in 2021 he was offered a lecturing role in Christian leadership at Christian Service University. In 2023, he was also appointed to teach Ethics in Communication Practice. Samuel has written and published 11 books, and gets invited to speak at conferences and churches. He also recently started an initiative in ‘Stewardship Advocacy’ and hopes to engage the whole country and continent of Africa about being good stewards with resources.
In Africa, Samuel describes Christian faith as “Miles wide and then an inch deep… as a practical theologian, I see that Africa has a lot of problems with regards to practice. The understanding of the gospel is also defective because if we were to have a better understanding, we should see that reflecting a better practice of how the gospel influences every sphere of our lives… if you also study African traditional religion, you could see that it’s still a strong presence affecting African Christianity. The influence of African traditional religion is very strong, so you see people holding those views and not able to decipher and separate and come completely to the gospel.”
“I think Africans have not brought the Gospel to bear in our daily lives. Therefore there is an issue of theology; wrong theology, wrong foundation, which is influencing wrong practice. So for me that is what I seek to challenge. That is what I seek to do; how to bring the Bible into everyday practice, politics, governance, in management, institutions and everything… we cannot have good practice if we don’t have strong theology.”
Supporting the mission
Langham Partnership is equipping people all over the world to reach more people with the Gospel. Samuel shares, “Langham is a very strategic ministry; very important in the scheme of God’s mission. If you look at the three key areas of scholarship, preaching and of literature, these are very helpful. And I have benefited from all three, and I’ve been involved with all three. I would say that anyone who has the opportunity, should get involved whether through the training, through literature, and then through the scholarship or partnership, and also those who are willing to support so that Langham can continue. We are reaching a lot of people across the continents and the nations of the world, and I believe that a ministry that has integrity, that has credibility, and has a history of impacting, is worth supporting.”
Prayer Points
- Thank God for Samuel and his passion to see Ghana and the whole African continent have strong theology and biblical practice. Pray for people in Africa to come to know Jesus.
- Pray for his various roles of lecturing, writing books and working at his church and establishing a ministry. Pray for God’s wisdom, support and opportunities to reach people with the Gospel.
- Pray for his family; his wife and three young boys, that they can remain strong in Christ.