A Theological Analysis of the Informal Social Safety Net of the Ghana Baptist Convention Churches in Ashanti Region, Ghana
Résumé
Churches in Ghana and in many emerging economies are confronted with masses of church members who are poor but have no access to the formal social safety nets of the country. This is because the present system of formal social security neglects people in the informal sector of employment. The extended family’s ability to meet welfare needs has been severely curtailed by the forces of urbanization and modernization. The aim of the study was to seek a theologically sound, biblically grounded and sociologically appropriate means of organizing social care in these churches. Using the Zerfass (1974) practical theological model as a primary tool for the study, data was collected from twenty (20) churches from each of the five Associations of the Ghana Baptist Convention Churches in the urbanized parts of the Ashanti Region to give a thick description of the current situation. The research showed that the system relies on social insurance principles to guide its operations just like most other mutual support groups. It also discovered that the Baptist social welfare schemes, being part of national informal safety nets are providing valuable service to their members. However, the welfare schemes, which are constitutionally formulated, are limited to membership contributions to finance their projects. Due to their financial limitations, their current interventions are quite restrictive. The study made recommendations from ideas and examples from the teachings of Jesus and the best practices of both biblical Israel and the New Testament Church. Keywords: Modernization, Individualism, Communitarianism, Neo-Puritanism, Social Contingency.
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