First Ghana Seventh-day Adventist Church

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” - 1 Samuel 7:12 (NJKV)

A Brief History of the First Ghana Seventh-day Adventist Church

Long before there was a church building, there were people. At first, it was only one person – Seth Boamah (1972); then it became two – with the arrival of his wife, Dora; Then it became eight – with the addition of Goodfellow Adusei-Poku, Knight Badu-Nimako, Margaret Osei, Ampofo Mensah, Jonas Apau, and Nicholas Fianu. With time, this small group was joined by more Ghanaians as they worshipped at the Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist church in the Bronx, NY. Consequently, the group constituted itself into a fellowship of Ghanaian Adventists meeting every month. The initial objective of the fellowship was enlarged in the years between 1984 and 1985 when Joseph Owusu Frimpong, Paul Adu-Gyamfi and Kwasi Boamah Gyimah arrived in New York from Germany. Believing that the felt needs of members of the Ghanaian fellowship could best be met within the context of a Ghanaian Adventist church, this new arrivals emphasized a shift in the focus of the fellowship towards the establishment of a church. 

In an effort to execute the above strategies a twi Sabbath school class was established through the invaluable assistance of sister Marjorie Campbell, the then Sabbath school superintendent at Grand Concourse. Brother Michael Frimpong Manso served as the first Sabbath School teacher of the fellowship. Alongside the Sabbath school class, the regular small group meetings in homes, the organization of singing groups, a soccer team, and an active welfare ministry offered a unique dimension to the social and spiritual activities of the church. 

In order to implement the goal of organizing the Ghanaian church, Pastor Brempong Owusu-Antwi was invited in the summer of 1989 to hold an evangelistic campaign. Thus, in 1990, our Ghanaian fellowship was officially organized as a company. A year later, in November 1991, the company was accepted into the sisterhood of the Greater New York conference of Seventh-day Adventist churches and formally adopted the name First Ghana SDA Church with sixty seven baptized members. 

In January 1993, Pastor Brempong Owusu-Antwi, currently the President of the Adventist University of Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, was appointed as the first Ghanaian pastor of the church. In 1996, Pastor H.V.A. Kuma, currently the Director of the Greater New York Conference Multi-Ethnic Ministries Department, was appointed as church pastor. In 2009, Pastor Emmanuel Osei was appointed as the third and current pastor of the church.

Today, the members of the First Ghana SDA Church are a diverse group of members. There are over 400 baptized adults and 100 children. The church caters not only to the Ghanaian community of the Bronx, but to the wider community as well, welcoming all those who wish to join us in worship, study, and praise.