Abstract:
The research seeks to discover the contribution of the church towards poverty
alleviation in the society, in order to empower the poor in the community to meet their
economic and social-political needs. To achieve this purpose for the research, the
biblical basis for the church’s support of the poor was examined. Also programmes
and activities of the church towards poverty alleviation in the community were
investigated. Grace Baptist Church Centre for Community Empowerment
(CeFORCE) of the Ghana Baptist Convention was used as a study and examined
thoroughly. The research revealed the many contributions of CeFORCE in the area of
counseling, business startup support, educational support, health care support,
vocational skills acquisition and several advocacy programmes aimed at empowering
the poor to meet their economic and socio-political needs. Some beneficiaries of
CeFORCE programmes were doing well in their chosen trades and professions.The
research further revealed that CeFORCE lacks donor support for many of its projects
as the organization is sorely founded by Grace Baptist Church members. This is
affecting CeFORCE support for most of its poverty reduction programmes in the
community. Laudable projects such as the construction of CeFORCE village for
vocational and technical training, the Northern Immigrant Transit training programme
designed for street girls have been suspended. It was also discovered that
documentation of CeFORCE activities were poorly managed. The dissertation argues
that in order for CeFORCE to continue contributing effectively to poverty alleviation
in the community, it must seek donor support to fund most of its programmes and
projects through collaboration with BREDA and other donor agencies. CeFORCE
advocacy programmes should cover advocacy on parental neglects, a primary curse of
illiteracy and unemployment resulting in increase poverty in the community.
