iPlus40 - Outrunning Horses

iPlus40 is a pastoral mentoring conference put together by Bishop Gideon Titi-Offei, Ghana’s most influential behavioural coach to empower and educate pastors under 40 years. This is a mentorship programme that provides current tools and strategies for pastors to be effective and relevant. We caught up with the Bishop for a brief interview with regards to the upcoming iplus40, 2017 L.E - Hello Bishop, good morning BISHOP - Good morning how are you? LE - Very well, thank you. How are you too? BISHOP - The Lord has been good to me. LE. - So I've heard about iPlus40 coming up this year, do you mind telling me about it? BISHOP - iPlus40 is an acronym for International Pastors and leaders Under 40 summit. A few years ago, the Lord told me to bridge the gap between the accomplished ministers of the gospel, Christian leaders and emerging leaders. There is a leadership vacuum and we need to fill that leadership vacuum. So what iPlus does is to create a platform where these accomplished pastoral and Christian leaders mentor through the sharing of experiences and ideas with emerging leaders and this is the 3rd year we are running this conference. L.E - What was your motivation behind this? BISHOP - You know I have always been a leadership person, my calling is to discover, develop and deploy leaders from the church to the world and win leaders from the world to the church. My motivation is my mission; my calling. This leadership thing that I want to be developed for the church. L.E - When is it coming off this year and what are we to expect during this conference? BISHOP - The conference starts from the 1st and ends on the 6th of May, at the Pleasant Place Church on the Spintex road. Everyday from 7 am to 4 pm. Starts with the ordination school, then continues with 5 sessions daily. L.E - Who are some of the Christian leaders mentoring this year? BISHOP - The array of speakers we have put together includes the Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, Bishop Charles Agyin Asare, Rev. Sam Kurankye-Ankrah, Rev. Steve Mensah, Bishop Dominic Allotey (USA), Dr. Ralph Dartey (Canada), Pastor Walle Olulana(UK), Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah from the Church of Pentecost, Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante from the Methodist Church, Bishop N. A. Tackie-Yarboi and of course myself. You can imagine the impact that these men of God are going to have. If we combine the ministry of these men who will be speaking to us, you are looking at a combined experience of over 300 years and all these will be poured upon the emerging pastors within one week. The impact is to revive the ministries of these ones, renew their mandate, encourage them as they leave, they should make the fullest impact on their congregation.

L.E - That’s indeed a number of men of God gracing the conference. How many pastors are you looking to host this year? BISHOP - This year, we are expecting to host about 3000 pastors, already I was with the leaders in Togo and they are coming in buses, as I speak with you, the 3 Northern regions are coming in buses. We are also taking care of their transportation. Others from the Brong-Ahafo Region and Eastern Region. Nigeria is not left out, in fact from our social media advertisement, there are more Nigerians registering than even Ghanaian pastors. So you can imagine. We have distributed over 10,000 letters to 10,000 churches in Ghana so you can imagine what will happen here during that week, L.E - Is this a paid for conference? BISHOP - The conference is free, nobody pays anything. In fact, we are giving to pastors who are coming from deprived communities since its inceptions take home clothes, shoes and food items. The conference is basically funded by the members of the Pleasant Place Church and my University, The Almond Institute. Basically, these are the funding sources for iPlus 40. L.E - Are there any challenges as a host, this is obviously not a small conference. Any challenges you mind sharing? BISHOP - God has been good to us. I am surrounded by very faithful and loyal people who make sure that any challenge taking up, they take full responsibility for them. What we are working on now are the hostels that will host these pastors. Construction is still ongoing and we need to finish it by the 1st of May. Meaning we have about just 2 weeks to make sure everything is finished, so you can imagine the pressure. That is the only challenge at the moment. We know we will overcome it. L.E - Amen! Any expectations as host of iPlus40?

BISHOP - This year’s conference is going to be bigger that all the other years. My expectation, the theme for this year is “Outrunning horses!” My expectation is that there will be divine acceleration for the ministers who will be here. What they did in the last 10 years, they will do in one year when they leave this conference.

L.E - This is amazing! Bishop, your final words especially for those yet to register and those who are coming from Nigeria, Togo and all over Ghana for iPlus40? BISHOP - They should come with huge expectations. They will outrun horses.The hand of God will come upon them. I am expecting the manifest presence of God to come upon us and that is what I am expecting for them. L.E - Thank you so much for your time, Bishop. God bless you. BISHOP - Thank you very much for having me. This was a little interaction I had with the host of iPlus40 2017, Bishop Gideon Titi-Offei. You can register to be part of iPlus40 conference. God bless you as you participate.