GHAFES @ 60: Still Here. Still Needed

Why GHAFES Remains Indispensable in a Generation Full of Campus Churches

An article by Nana Kojo Aboagye Obeng & Franklin Eleblu

Picture five students sitting around a table in a common room in one of the halls at the University of Ghana. One is Presbyterian. One is Anglican. Three are from modern charismatic churches. They have come from different towns, different worship styles, and different church cultures. For some of them, this experience is the first time they have sat under leadership from outside their own tradition.

In this room, denominational differences are not the starting point. The first question is, “What does this passage say, and what does it mean for how we live?”

This is a GHAFES Bible study. This is the GHAFES story!

Here, denominational differences are not flattened but submitted to Scripture. Students are trained to handle the Word with care, to examine their assumptions, and to grow in theological clarity. The result is not confusion but maturity: believers who are both grounded in their home churches and have a broader vision of the body of Christ.

By the time these five students graduate, they will carry with them a formation that complements rather than competes with their home churches: a deep-rootedness in truth, coupled with a broad-hearted unity across the body of Christ. GHAFES does not take them away from the church. It returns them to it, better prepared to serve faithfully, think clearly, and contribute meaningfully.

A Ministry Built for the University, Not Around It

GHAFES, the Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a movement affiliated with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), was not established to compete with churches. It was established to serve the university, which is one of the most strategic and underserved mission fields in any society. The university is where future doctors, lawyers, engineers, politicians, journalists, and teachers are formed. This is where we test, question, and either deepen or discard worldviews. Getting the gospel and a Christian mind into that space and equipping students to remain faithful within it is a task that requires a focused, specialised ministry.

Churches do extraordinary work. But a church’s calling is broad: to gather, worship, pastor, and serve an entire community across every stage of life. The university campus, with its unique intellectual pressures, its culture of critical inquiry, and its transient student population, calls for something more targeted. GHAFES exists to provide exactly that.

What GHAFES Actually Does

There is a difference between a student who attends Christian gatherings and a student who has been formed as a disciple. GHAFES is in the business of the second. Its aim is not to add another event to a student’s calendar but to shape the kind of person they become: someone who understands the gospel deeply, lives it out intentionally, and is ready to pass it on to others.

This formation takes place through structured, student-led fellowship. In addition to the important work done by churches and other campus ministries, GHAFES places intentional responsibility in the hands of students themselves. Students lead outreaches, facilitate Bible studies, and are trained to counsel and disciple their peers. Staff and associates staff serve as coaches and equippers, not as the primary actors. The result is a community of young Christians who are not spectators in their own spiritual formation but active participants in it.

But “student-led” in GHAFES is not merely a matter of assigning titles. Many campus fellowships, including those attached to churches, have student officers and leadership structures. What distinguishes GHAFES is its deliberate and structured investment in preparing students to carry those responsibilities well. Through its National Leadership Conference and other dedicated training platforms, student leaders are taught the substance of Christian leadership: how to shepherd a fellowship, how to plan and execute outreach, how to facilitate Bible study, how to handle conflict, and how to model accountability. Leadership in GHAFES is not assumed or inherited. It is taught, practised, evaluated, and passed on. The student who chairs a fellowship has been prepared for the role, not merely elected to it. This commitment to forming leaders, rather than simply appointing them, is one of the things that makes the GHAFES experience distinctive and enduring.

One of the tools that makes this process possible is the Christlike Discipleship Family (CDF), a structured framework that takes students from new faith through to mature, reproducing discipleship. It is intentional, progressive, and built for the university season of life. The goal is not simply to retain students in Christian fellowship until they graduate. The goal is to release them into the world and into their churches as people who know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to live it out wherever God places them.

A Gift to the Church, Not a Rival to It

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about GHAFES is this: the students it forms are not taken away from the church. They are given back to it, better equipped.

This point must be made clearly because it is sometimes misunderstood: GHAFES does not ask students to leave their churches. It never has. Students remain committed members of their home congregations, across all denominations, even as they participate in GHAFES. GHAFES is not a church and does not position itself as one. It is a training ground that operates alongside the church, not in competition with it. Its aim is not to draw students away but to return them more rooted, more grounded, and better equipped to serve Christ in their churches.

What, then, does that formation produce?

A student who has spent two or three years in GHAFES is not the same. They have learned to handle Scripture with care, to think clearly about their faith, and to live it out in the realities of life. They have led others, submitted to accountability, and practised the disciplines of the Christian life. When they return to their churches, they do not come back as spectators but as servants and contributors. They are the teachers, the emerging leaders, the lay preachers, and small group leaders who will strengthen the church for years to come.

Churches that encourage their student members to be active in GHAFES are not losing those students. They are investing in them.

Transforming the Campus, Transforming the Nation

GHAFES operates from a conviction that has guided IFES movements globally for decades: change the university, and you change the world. This is not a slogan. It is a missiological strategy grounded in the reality that the university is where the ideas that govern society are formed.

GHAFES, therefore, does not limit its attention to personal faith and private piety. It equips students to bring their Christian worldview into their disciplines, research, conversations with faculty, and engagement with public life. Through its leadership networks, students are specifically prepared to carry their faith into the political, legal, medical, business, and educational spheres of Ghana’s national life. This is discipleship that takes seriously the command to be salt and light, not only in the church building but in the university hall, the courtroom, the hospital ward, and the parliament.

Sixty Years of Faithful Labour

GHAFES turns sixty this year. Across six decades, thousands of students have passed through its fellowships, been shaped by its discipleship, and gone on to serve Ghana and the world in virtually every field imaginable. Across our universities, in our hospitals, our courts, our boardrooms, and our pulpits, there are men and women whose Christian formation owes something to the faithful, quiet, and consistent work of GHAFES.

That legacy is not accidental. It is the fruit of a ministry that understood its assignment and stayed true to it, even as the landscape around it changed. Churches have come to campus. New fellowships have multiplied. Technologies have transformed how students learn and communicate. And yet, the need for a non-denominational, intellectually serious, student-led movement that trains disciples for both church and society has not diminished. If anything, in a world of increasing complexity and competing worldviews, it has grown.

An Invitation

If you are a student on a tertiary campus in Ghana, GHAFES is for you, regardless of your denomination or which campus church you attend. Come and be trained. Come and be stretched. Come and discover what it means to follow Christ not only in the sanctuary but in the seminar room, the laboratory, and the public square.

If you are a church leader, consider GHAFES a partner in your students’ formation. Encourage your young people to engage. The investment will return to you multiplied.

If you are an alumnus who was shaped by GHAFES, consider giving back through mentorship, through partnership, and through prayer. The next generation of students needs the kind of support you once received.

GHAFES is not simply still here; it is still needed. And for as long as universities in Ghana are shaping the minds that will shape the nation, GHAFES will remain a vital part of how those minds are formed for Christ and for His church.

Join the 60 Years Celebration

We are 60. We are here. We are needed.