Those businessmen again
They call themselves businessmen, though many of them do not hold briefcases or control any resources except their own pay cheques. Indeed, they are not businessmen; rather, “business men”. The difference is significant because for them, the word translates as “working men”.
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They include three to four-star military Generals, as well as month-old recruits, Commissioners of Police, as well as Corporals; captains of ocean liners, as well as ordinary ratings; they include shipping magnates and big-time freight forwarders, as well as tally clerks and chippies; captains of industry, as well as office clerks; chartered insurers, as well as weather-beaten, sweating insurance agents who live on commissions.
I am talking about a group whose first attraction is the length of their name: the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI). All over town in the past two weeks or so, Accra has been awash with street banners announcing the group’s 20I7 national convention at the International Conference Centre.
In their radio advert, they describe themselves as the happiest people on earth.
The happiest? Really? The question hits anyone who has encountered this group, for in their midst – though a miniscule proportion of their population – are some fairly old and young adults struggling to make ends meet; men and women who, in the words of one of their national vice-Presidents, dwell in the armpit of suffering.
As I found out, however, they are happy not because they own mansions and fleet of limousines. They are happy not because they are unfamiliar with grief; they are happy because they believe, with their founder, Armenian-American dairy farmer, that, “God has a particular gift for each one of us, some special ability we’re to use for His kingdom. I believe if we find that gift – and use it – we’ll be the happiest people on earth. And if we miss it, no matter how many exciting things we do, we’ll be utterly miserable.”
His name was Demos Shakarian, a man who, with his father, once upon a time (in the late 40s-through-mid 50s) owned the largest cattle ranch in the world; who, in spite of wealth, made the service of God his delight, putting God ahead of everything, including business.
In the FGBMFI, the word “business” is everything one does to earn a legitimate income; so for example, armed robbers and drug barons are barred or are counselled to drop the ‘profession’.
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Another seeming misnomer is the “men” in their name. In their midst now are many women, including (in Ghana) the former Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, Madam Joyce Aryee and a certain woman who is a senior partner in Ghana’s first all-female law firm.
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Someone asked: what has been the economic importance of this group? In other words, how does their line of business contribute to gross domestic product (GDP)?
Besides providing a forum for contact, sharing experiences and exchange of ideas, the fellowship also promotes Christian values in the marketplace, in communities and the home. As the National President of the fellowship, Mr George Prah, will tell you, the effect of national transformation starts with transforming one man, one woman at a time.
The fellowship believes that a business/working man or woman who is won over for God will spend less time stealing from the economy. At the home level, a man who spends time hiding the Word of God in his heart is less likely to waste his income (by extension the family resources) in a night club or hotel with another man’s wife or with a female undergrad young enough to be his daughter. That translates into personal saving, an investment and the expansion of the private sector. One person rescued from the jaws of irresponsible prodigality is one person who has become less wasteful of national resources.
A look at the list of resource persons for the convention speaks volumes. These are men and women who have piled up godly character upon impressive academic qualifications and corporate experience.
Talk of Dr John Kpikpi, holder of a doctorate degree in Medical Biology and former lecturer in the Zoology Department of the University of Ghana; Dr Richard Oswald Commey, an Electrical Engineer by profession and a registered member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) in the United Kingdom; Rev. Dr Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Baba Mahama, a Chartered Accountant and chartered insurer who serves as director on more than 15 boards.
As approximately 3,000 of FGBMFI’s number journey from all parts of Ghana to Accra for their three-day convention, members of the fellowship are coming to ‘awaken the sleeping giant’ in themselves. As working people, they are the lay — as opposed to ordained Reverend ministers.
The fellowship has identified lay Christians as the giants needed for God’s work. Its worry is that these giants are sleeping. That is what the national convention is about: to awaken these sleeping giants.