Living in Ghana in the 1970s, Kingsley Kwayisi’s mother was young, vulnerable … and pregnant. Afraid and overwhelmed, she ran away from home and tried to abort the child. When she was unable to end the pregnancy, she returned home and gave birth to Kwayisi.
He grew up calling his grandmother “Mama,” and calling his mother “Sister.”
Only later did he learn the truth. But over time, he came to see a purpose flowing from his story.
“It dawned on me that I was saved from abortion to help other people who are vulnerable to find safe environments or safe families to belong to,” Kwayisi explained.
He has served as a pastor and youth pastor for 15 years and is passionate about helping vulnerable children and teenagers find a sense of identity and belonging. He wants these youth to know that “God cares for them, that it doesn’t matter how they were born, and it doesn’t even matter the challenges they face.”
Kwayisi has led his church into this type of counter-cultural ministry with approximately 200 youth and their families, holding together both “gospel proclamation” and “gospel demonstration.”
“It’s a tension we’re going to hold between social justice and preaching the gospel,” explained Kwayisi. “A gospel that cannot transform the society, a gospel that cannot change people, is not a gospel enough. It must change our hearts, must transform our minds and must empower our hands to be able to do the good works which God ordained for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
This holistic commitment to both holiness and helpfulness is at the core of how Kwayisi views faithfulness for a church. “Pure religion to a church is about making room for the other, the other that doesn’t look like them, to care about them and to stand with them for justice.”
The Pure Religion Project, CAFO’s church ministry initiative, aims to inspire and equip God’s people to live out the “pure religion” described in the book of James and invited throughout Scripture through resources, supportive community and ongoing connection and coaching.
