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Sending Disciples into the Marketplace

February 20, 2019
Dr. Nelson Ahilijah, president of Ghana Christian University College, wants professors to disciple students to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their communities—no matter their profession or program of study.

Dr. Nelson Ahilijah, president of Ghana Christian University College, wants professors to disciple students to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their communities—no matter their profession or program of study.

Resonate Global Mission

Sitting in a school desk and taking an exam isn’t an everyday thing for a university president, but that’s what Dr. Nelson Ahilijah did.

Ahilijah, the president of Ghana Christian University College, is one of many leaders who trained in Ghana recently with Discipling Marketplace Leaders (DML), an international ministry that focuses on bridging the gap between the marketplace and Christ by teaching people to do their work for God’s glory.

“Too often churches are trying to get people into the building rather than releasing them to be the church Monday through Sunday. . . . Our work can be an act of worship throughout the week,” said Renita Reed-Thomson, DML’s founder and international coordinator, who serves as a missionary with Resonate Global Mission.

Reed-Thomson equips and empowers pastors, business owners, and other leaders like Ahilijah to make disciples in the marketplace.

“[Ahilijah] has believed ‘business as mission’ is critical for the church,” said Reed-Thomson, “but he felt that he lacked the strategic tools to help make it a reality.”

So Ahilijah joined Reed-Thomson for DML’s “Training of Trainers.” Reed-Thomson equipped him with the tools essential for training others in empowering, equipping, encouraging, and discipling business owners -- starting in the university college’s classrooms.

“If the principles taught in the DML curriculum were to be taught in schools . . . as well as churches, there would be a huge impact in closing the gap that exists between the sacred and the secular,” said Ahilijah. That conviction is why he sat for the training and the exam (which he passed).

Now Ahilijah has a vision for teaching DML principles in his university college’s classrooms. He wants professors to disciple students to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their communities -- no matter their profession or program of study.

“The message of DML is not a new or hidden truth,” said Reed-Thomson. “It is simply a forgotten truth. This becomes obvious as we watch the responses of pastors, [who] look at the Bible through a different lens. The new lens sees God has created us to do business and has used business people throughout the Old and New Testament to further his kingdom.”