Ghana native reaches across racial barriers to lead mostly white church

Pastor Emmanuel Ofori-Atta sits with his wife Rebecca, son Samuel, 21, and daughter Emmanuella, 14, prior to his ordination service Jan. 17.
BP photo

Ghana native reaches across racial barriers to lead mostly white church

By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press

Winford Smith remembers when, as chairman of the pastor search team for First Baptist Church, he realized the group needed to make a change.

The team had agreed beforehand that whoever served as interim pastor would not be a candidate. However, the man who had been preaching each Sunday stood out from others in consideration.

“It was his consistency in the Word, how he preached Scripture from cover to cover,” said Smith, who is also chairman of the church’s deacons. “He supported his sermon from references throughout the Bible. He loved the church and loved doing God’s work. It was obvious.”

“Our team had been meeting for about a year and a half, but no one jumped out at us,” said Carol Clark, a longtime church member also serving on the search team. “But when we heard him preach, his face was just shining with the love of Christ. We’d fallen in love with him and how he presented God’s word. There was something there our congregation had never heard.”

Distinctly different

Yes, depending on your point of view, Emmanuel Ofori-Atta stood out at First Baptist Church in Stockbridge, a city of 30,000 south of Atlanta. First Baptist’s congregation — traditional and aging — was undeniably white.

Ofori-Atta — a native of Ghana — was undeniably black.

Yet those were not the details that stood out for the search team.

Ofori-Atta’s background prepared him for working within a large group. His late father, Emmanuel Adu, was a king in the west African nation’s Eastern Region, which contains more than 500,000 people. King Emmanuel had 44 children among six wives, 12 of them with Ofori-Atta’s mother.

Large family

“We grew up in a 66-bedroom house,” he told the Henry County Times after being called as First Baptist’s pastor Aug. 2 of last year. “We had a lot of maidservants. Because we were such a large family, my dad didn’t shop from a regular store. He ordered his food from the store in large quantities. For example, he would buy a whole cow and hire someone to prepare it, and divide the meat among the wives for their children.”

The day Ofori-Atta was born began with his mother unaware she was pregnant and complaining of a stomachache. It took seven hours after Emmanuel’s birth and another round of heavy stomach pain to realize there was another baby boy. By virtue of being a twin, “Atta” would accompany his name as well as the recognition that he was the “senior” twin. Ofori is the name of the doctor who delivered them both.

Madam Hannah Padiki, who died in 2016 at 103 years old, would dedicate her twin boys to the Lord.

“It was so we could be a blessing to the world, to serve God and God’s people,” Ofori-Atta said. “She was a very disciplined woman of prayer. My discipleship came from her.”

Ofori-Atta credits his mother’s godly influence in leading him to become a pastor and his twin brother’s leadership in the music ministry of an evangelistic church in London.

Path to U.S.

After living with his brother in London, Ofori-Atta moved to the United States to work at a Wells Fargo Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. He later transferred to another branch in Stockbridge and eventually become pastor of International Bible Church, which met on First Baptist’s campus.

International Bible Church is a majority Filipino church that had never had an African pastor. Nevertheless, Ofori-Atta built a strong relationship with the congregation, and when First Baptist’s pastor of 24 years, Steve Murrell, retired, Ofori-Atta was asked to serve as the interim pastor. He accepted, and a mentoring relationship developed between him and Murrell.

“First Baptist knew Emmanuel fairly well because of joint services they would have with IBC,” said Ray Gentry, associational missions strategist for Southside Baptist Network. “Steve would meet with Emmanuel about once a month. It was a good connection.”

Gentry and others took part in Ofori-Atta’s ordination service Jan. 17. “He’s a very good preacher and doing a wonderful job,” Gentry said. “After that ordination council meeting, the deacons were unanimously impressed with their pastor.”

Ofori-Atta was slated to be voted in as the church’s pastor last spring. Due to COVID-19, however, the vote was postponed until summer.

“There’s a beautiful spirit among our members from his leadership,” Clark said. “We can’t wait to get back together each week to hear his message.”

“The wonderful people of First Baptist have experienced what the Lord can do when the church begins to look at the heart of God,” said Ofori–Atta. “It’s allowed me to be part of such a wonderful, historic church that has been part of this community for centuries.”

Like many areas, Stockbridge is changing, Smith, the deacon chairman, said.

“Our neighborhood, city and county are becoming more diverse,” he said.