Rev Donkoh elected President of Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana has elected Reverend John Shadrack Donkoh as its new President. Rev Donkoh officially takes office on July 1st, 2018.

For the past two years, a constitutional review committee has been working to prepare the grounds for a new system of leadership for the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

On January 27 this year, the highest decision-making body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church met in Kumasi at a special delegates conference and voted overwhelmingly for an amended constitution and a new system of governance and leadership for the church in Ghana.

The newly approved system includes the appointment of senior pastors who will be responsible for mission outreach, pastoral leadership and church relationships throughout each of the ten regions of Ghana.

The senior pastors will work with a new church president to help the congregations and pastors do their ministry by bringing the gospel out to more villages, towns and cities in the nation of Ghana.

The next step was to elect an entirely new leadership for the church, that is, a new generation of leadership. To this end, an election was conducted on Saturday, March 17, at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Kumasi.

The Rev John Shadrack Donkoh emerged as the new president, Rev Dr Ebenezer Boafo was elected the First Vice President, Mr Alex Lanbon the Second Vice President and Mr Kwame Poku-Boah, Third Vice President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Rev Dr Paul Koi Fynn, who led the church in Ghana for the past 40 years, was at the conference.

He pledged to work with the incoming officers to ensure a smooth transition and subsequent installation of the newly elected officers in June this year.

In his speech after the election, Rev Donkoh the newly elected President of the church observed that these are huge changes for the church in Ghana as well as a great deal of both anticipation and trust in the Lord’s guidance as the church moves forward.

The newly elected officers will serve a three-year renewable term after which they will be eligible for a final three-year term.

Profile of Rev John Shadrach Donkoh

Background, Education, work, and church experiences

John Shadrack Donkoh was born on 30th December 1958 and baptized and confirmed in 1973 and 1978 respectively into the Lutheran Faith. Since then John has served as a Sunday school teacher, and a Sunday School Superintendent at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Takoradi. He has led various choirs and singing groups in the Church. John has also held the congregational Secretary Position at St. John’s (Takoradi) and St. Paul’s (Accra). He was elected a pioneer Secretary of the Lutheran Laymen’s League. He represented the church at the constitutional drafting to usher in the Fourth Republic of Ghana at the Christian Council in the late 1980s.

John’s training begun with Theological Education by Extension (TEE), and later at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Nigeria and completed in 1990. He was commissioned by the Church in 1991 to do Word and Sacrament ministry and sent as an Evangelist and Church Planter to Wassa Lutheran Mission, where he served and revived 10 preaching stations in the Western region. In the Central region, John planted churches in Buduburam, Amadua, Bujwasi and Amamuma. And in the Greater Accra he was among the team that surveyed the land at Anyaa and planted the first Lutheran church at Gbawe.

Missionary

ELCG sent John to Uganda as a pioneer evangelistic missionary in 1994, with the responsibilities of church planting, teaching and development of local leaders at the Preaching Stations, and also assisted in the overall program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Uganda. Today one of John’s students is the Bishop of the Lutheran church of Uganda!

Manager/Country Director

John was given additional assignment as Manager of Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) in Uganda, after establishing LHM and purchasing an office building for the ministry and landed property for the church in Uganda. John translated, with the help of trained local leaders, the Luther’s Small Catechism in the mother tongue of the people of Uganda. John later served as the Country Director of LHM in Ghana from 2003-11. He assisted in the identification and purchase of another office building in East Legon for the Ministry.

Other Roles:

Secretary - Ministerial Council of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (2003 –2008)

Vice Chairman – Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana Restructuring Committee (2006)

Secretary - Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana Disaster Committee (2007 – 2011)

Currently head pastor of All Saints Lutheran Congregation Anyaa

Part-time Lecturer at ELCG Seminary in Sasaabi

Work Experience

Emil Ghana Limited 1981-1982, Quality Control Officer

Christian Service Farms Ltd 1983-1988, Administrative Assistant

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana 1990-1994, Evangelist and Church Planter

Lutheran Church in Uganda 1994-2002, Evangelistic Missionary (Uganda)

Lutheran Hour Ministries Uganda 1995-2003, Country Manager

Lutheran Media Ministry Ghana 2003-2011, Country Director

Serving All Saints Lutheran Church – Anyaa as Head Pastor

Conferences and workshop participation

Since 1995 John has attended and participated in various conventions, seminars, workshops and training in Strategic Management Course at Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration (GIMPA), Fundraising, Leadership, Stewardship, ICT in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Rev. Donkoh has no strength of his own except that given to him by the Holy Spirit in the area of preaching and teaching. The Holy Spirit also provides John with ability to work with diverse people. Good in outreach and missions. Good communication skills. Ability to communicate the Gospel to unseen audiences through broadcast media and gifted with organizational abilities. Strong conviction and focused. Good management and leadership skills. He produces tangible and observable results based on properly planned activities. He is independent minded but consults widely. He has mobilization skills and a good listener.

John’s Seminary training has equipped him especially in the area of Lutheran Confessions, which has assisted him to develop a stronger sense of loyalty to the traditions of the Lutheran church as they are found in its confessions and enhanced his willingness to serve the church both in its general and specialized tasks. John wishes to strengthen and develop pastors to be able to articulate the truth of God’s word, be an effective pastor and teacher to the church and be faithful to the Scriptures. He plans to assist pastors to have reputation for Pastoral approach to instruction with a top notch faculty coupled with high standard.

Rev John Shadrack Donkoh holds certificates and degrees in Theology, Journalism, Management and Administration, Mass Communication, and Divinity. He is married to Monic Donkoh (Mrs.) and has five children.