Amoah, John Kenneth (1914–2000)

Pastor John Amoah served in church administration in Ghana from 1965 to 1975 as president during the time that the Ghana Mission became the Ghana Conference.

Early Life and Education

John Kenneth Amoah was born on January 22, 1914, to Opanin Kwabena Bi and Madam Serwaah Bi at Kofiase, Ashanti Region, Ghana.¹

Sometime in the 1920s and 1930s, while still a youngster, Amoah traveled to various towns and villages in the Ashanti Region with pastors and leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on the Lord’s errand. One of his main assignments during these trips was to carry the lamp during night times, leading the way for pastors, evangelists, and other church officials. Impressed by his dedication and faithfulness to his job, one of the foreign Seventh-day Adventist leaders visiting Ghana once joyfully and prophetically told him, “Kwaku Amoah, God’s hero to whom we are saying goodbye today, you will carry God’s light all the days of your life.”² Pastor Amoah’s life from then until 2000, when he peacefully fell asleep in the Lord, substantially fulfilled this prophecy.

After completing Senior School, Amoah joined the gospel ministry as a teacher evangelist in 1932 and was posted to Yonso, where he worked for one year. From 1932 to 1943 he worked as a teacher evangelist in the towns of Kokoben, Anyinasu and Wiamoase, Agona, Kumasi, and Patriensa.³

Pastor Amoah was diligent in his work and had the desire to climb higher on the academic ladder. Therefore, in 1947, he entered the then Seventh-day Adventist Teacher Training College in Bekwai, leaving in 1948 with a teacher’s qualification. He was subsequently appointed as a Bible teacher and housemaster of Bekwai Seventh-day Adventist Secondary School. While there, he took the World Correspondence Courses I & II from the Voice of Prophecy in Los Angeles, California, United States of America (U.S.A.).⁴

Career

Pastor Amoah was ordained on December 11, 1948, at Kwame Danso and was transferred from the Secondary School in 1949 to Kete Krachi to be a district pastor. He was there for a year and then was posted to the Seventh-day Adventist seminary in Bekwai as the Bible teacher and district pastor. He performed these two roles from 1950 to 1956. Between 1957 and 1964, Pastor Amoah was the district pastor for Mampong District of Seventh-day Adventists. At the same time, he enrolled as a student in the People’s Educational Association (PEA) Institute of Extra-Mural Studies at the University of Ghana, ending his course in 1962.⁵

On January 13, 1965, he was elected as president of the then Ghana Mission with headquarters in Kumasi, a position he held until 1970. There was a remarkable growth in the Church’s expansion program, so the church in Ghana attained conference status on Christmas Day 1970; hence, he became the president of Ghana Conference.⁶ Owen Troy’s great stewardship drive and the resulting financial growth that became evident from 1964 to 1966 occurred during Amoah’s days and was one key factor that helped bring about the move from mission to conference status in 1970.

Although not highly educated, Pastor Amoah got Seventh-day Adventists in the tertiary institutions active in Church work. Notable converts of his included Israel Agboka, Charles Kyereme, Amos Amofah, Isaac Ansong, Kofi Owusu-Mensa, Matthew Ango Bediako, and David Amponsah.⁷

The first mammoth camp meeting in modern Seventh-day Adventist history in Ghana, the Accra Sports Stadium camp meeting of December 1965, was organized by the Amoah administration—the only one of its kind in the entire history of the Ghana church. C. E. Moseley, the guest speaker at the camp meeting, did not come from America just to give a Sabbath sermon in Accra. He also preached at an evangelistic crusade at the Kumasi Cultural Center in January and February 1966, which not only added precious souls to the Amakom Seventh-day Adventist Church but also served as the remote origins of the present Bantama Seventh-day Adventist Church, both of which are in Kumasi. That evangelistic effort was followed up by oversight from Matthew Ango Bediako.⁸

During Amoah’s administration, the North Ghana Mission was organized in 1968.⁹ On leaving the conference presidency in 1975, Amoah handed the baton of leadership to a person God used to convert him 26 years before (in 1948): Matthew Ango Bediako.¹⁰

The Church needed to tap Amoah’s rich experience, so in 1977, he was appointed a chaplain and Bible teacher for Adventist Vocational Institute, Techiman, and he continued there until 1979. In 1986, he was posted to Asamang Hospital as chaplain and the pastor of the church there.

He was still active in 1991, so he was made the zonal pastor to serve Kofiase zone churches in the Mampong District.¹¹

Pastor Amoah was a delegate to the General Conference Session in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., in 1966. From 1972 to 1975, he was a member of the North European Division-West African Division Committee.

Pastor Amoah lost his wife, Mary Amoah, on January 4, 1975. Since it was necessary for him to take another wife, in November 1982, he married Grace Amoah. John K. Amoah died Tuesday, June 6, 2000.

Source

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1972 and 1977.

Notes

1. John Kenneth Amoah, interview by author, Kofiase, Ashanti Region, Ghana, August 15, 1978.↩

2. Ibid.↩

3. Ibid.↩

4. Ibid.↩

5. Ibid.↩

6. “Ghana Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1972), 213.↩

7. John Kenneth Amoah, interview by author, Kofiase, Ashanti Region, Ghana, August 15, 1978.↩

8. Ibid.↩

9. “North Ghana Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook 1972, 214.↩

10. “Ghana Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1977), 239.↩

11. John Kenneth Amoah, interview by author, Kofiase, Ashanti Region, Ghana, August 15, 1978.↩