Joe Connell: the Brong Ahafo teachings
Chris Pepple |
The 2007 Summer Celebration lectureship at Lipscomb University brought lecturers from around the country to speak to families about this year’s theme of Messiah: The Astonishing Stories and Timeless Teachings of Jesus from Matthew. One Lipscomb alumnus, Joe Connell (’58), travels annually to another continent to help make sure preachers and church members in Ghana have their own lectureship to encourage church growth and promote leadership training in the area. Every January, Connell journeys to the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana to participate in a four-week program to share the astonishing truths of Jesus with local churches in that region.
About two million people call the Brong Ahafo region home. Brong Ahafo is the second largest region of Ghana in terms of landmass offering a multiplicity of ethnic groups, physical features and cultural practices that date back into antiquity. The people are principally farmers and raise important cash crops such as cocoa, cassava, yams and maize in addition to a variety of fruits. Connell travels over 40 hours round-trip as he makes his yearly journey from Tupelo, Miss., to meet with Ghanaian Ken Kesse and a handful of others who lead the church growth and leadership lectureship and the preacher training school.
“I became interested in the work in Ghana when I met Ken Kesse, a Ghanaian, who at the time (1992) was teaching at the University of Monrovia in Liberia,” Connell states. “When Ken and I started working in this region, we planned to have four training schools in the month of January. At the time (1996), there was something like thirty churches of Christ in the region.
“We didn’t know what to expect, but had hoped for fifteen to twenty each week to come to one of the four schools. To our surprise, over 200 came to the first training program, bringing their families, their cooking utensils, etc. These are tribal people who cook, eat and bath outdoors, so this fit well into their way of life. Each week the attendance grew. This gave Christians from congregations many miles apart a chance to get to know one another. Now, we will have as many as 1,200 at a training school.”
The original goal of the lectureship was to train the churches in the Brong Ahafo region how to establish other congregations. The region now has over one hundred new congregations established since 1997. As an outgrowth of the Church Growth and Leadership Training, Connell and other preachers also assist with the preaching and church leader training school.
“Our training school, the Brong Ahafo School of Preaching, is doing well with some forty students,” Connell wrote in a report about his 2004 trip. “It’s a three-year course. The men support themselves and their families and go to school on Fridays and Saturdays. The teachers/preachers give their time and I help them with travel expenses. Some of these preachers have been trained at Lipscomb, Freed-Hardeman, Ghana Bible College and Otis Gatewood’s school in Austria.”
Connell, who has completed eleven trips to the region, also assists in raising funds for the churches of the Brong Ahafo region. In a journal entry from his first trip to the area, Connell writes, “The church is trying to buy one acre of property for $250. They say it is important to own property so people will know you are here to stay.”
When Connell began his work in the Ghana region, it soon became evident that he was willing to make a long-term commitment to the program, but his journals also show his long-term commitment to his family. In one brief journal entry, he wrote: “Preached at the Bantama congregation tonight. About 600. Francis Gyamarah is the preacher and was also one of the teachers in the training schools. It was good to talk to Pat (Connell’s wife)…I miss her.”
Joe and Pat Connell, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August 2005, have a son, John Connell, and a daughter, Elizabeth Daniel. They have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. In 1997, Connell wrote: “Arrived Amsterdam at 6:30. I am having a nine-hour layover. Arrived Memphis 6:30 p.m. after 10 hours flying. It was so good to see Pat, Elizabeth, Adrienne and Michael (two of his grandchildren) waiting for me when I came out of customs.”
In November 2006, Connell wrote in a pre-trip report: “We are about to become great-grandparents any day now. We are grateful for all blessings that come our way.”
Scott McDowell, associate provost for student development at Lipscomb University, knows the blessings Connell brought to his family. “Right around 1960, Joe and Pat Connell were living in Nashville where Joe was selling insurance when another Lipscomb alum convinced Joe he ought to go up to the mission field of western Pennsylvania and preach for a couple of years. His primary work in Johnstown was evangelism. He worked with the church for over six years while starting other congregations,” McDowell states. “Joe got involved in planting churches and established the first congregation in Altoona, Pa., and helped plant a church in Ligonier and would drive over the mountain and preach there. In 1963, Joe held a meeting at the Ligonier church of Christ and visited my parents in their home during the meeting. Joe studied the Bible with them and, as a result, they were baptized into Christ in the summer of 1963
“I owe a great debt of gratitude to Joe and Pat Connell. As a result of Joe and Pat’s work, I was raised in a Christian home along with my four sisters. My dad became a preacher and planted two churches in western Pennsylvania and my whole family has been involved in kingdom work ever since. All of us attended Christian colleges and married Christians and we are now well into the third generation of McDowell’s who know and love the Lord as a direct result of Joe’s work.”
McDowell adds, “Every time I think of Joe Connell, I think of my favorite movie of all time—It’s a Wonderful Life—and the classic line from that movie—‘each life touches so many other lives.’ Joe Connell has touched our lives and we will never be the same. That’s the value of a Lipscomb education.”
Joe Connell has touched lives around the country and around the world through his dedication to teaching and preaching the astonishing truths of Jesus wherever he is led.