NEW YORK — I didn’t understand the words as the North Bronx Church of Christ sang in Twi, the native dialect of the Ghanaian immigrant congregation.
But the tune was the same as “At the Cross,” making the lyrics easy to translate in my mind.
“At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight. And now I am happy all the day!”
Audrey Jackson, The Christian Chronicle’s associate editor, and I visited North Bronx on a reporting trip focused on the diversity of New York City congregations.
On our short walk from the subway station, we passed families enjoying the pre-dusk breeze and drug dealers plying their trade under a darkening sky.
My pace quickened as we got closer to the church building.
A couple dances on the sidewalk outside the North Bronx Church of Christ.
“Welcome,” minister Paul Oppong said after meeting us at the door. “In our language, we say, ‘Akwaaba.’ Thank you for visiting us.”
He introduced us to church leaders, including George Asiedubah, Emmanuel Gyamfi, Frank Adjei and Alfred Koomson. We enjoyed saying hello, too, to Seth Kofi Amankwah, who works with the church’s media team.
Later, after Audrey went outside to take a few pictures, she had to ring a buzzer to come back inside. Security is crucial in this neighborhood.
Members of the North Bronx Church of Christ worship on a Wednesday night.
Ghanaian and U.S. flags adorn the front of the auditorium. Women in colorful, African-style dresses join their families in the bright red, cushioned seats.
A shiny pulpit emblazoned with the church’s modern logo and a communion table engraved with “This Do In Remembrance Of Me” sit between bouquets of pink, yellow and white flowers.
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Outside, neighbors played loud music and drank beer and whiskey at a curb as the congregation bowed in prayer.
“This place, there are a lot of drugs and other things,” Oppong said. “So that is New York for you.”
Men drink whiskey mixed with apple juice outside the doors of the North Bronx church.
The congregation works to feed hungry neighbors in the Bronx.
Even though North Bronx members normally worship in English, reaching non-Ghanaians with the Gospel is a major challenge, the preacher said. He praises God that the church was able to teach and baptize a French-speaking immigrant from Benin.
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The minister, 63, served in his native Ghana from 1985 to 2009 before immigrating to the U.S. with his wife, Diana Adobea, and three children, Walter, Clara and Ivan. The couple’s fourth child, 11-year-old Seth, was born in New York.
“It was a surprise,” Adobea said with a chuckle. “So we call him the pension baby.”
A child plays in the back pews of the North Bronx church during a Bible study.
Founded in 2015, the North Bronx church met for years in rented spaces used by secular groups for weeknight partying. But two years ago, the congregation purchased its own $1.5 million building where about 130 men, women and children gather for worship each Sunday. A Bronx branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses previously owned the facility.
“Indeed, the reason for the purchase was because our congregation felt it was improper to rent temporal spaces on Sunday mornings that were used in ways very disrespectful to the Lord,” Oppong told the Chronicle in 2021.
The congregation partnered with the Solomon Foundation, a nonprofit that helps Restoration Movement churches with loans and investments, to acquire its permanent home. North Bronx paid an initial down payment of $200,000. A Bronx branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses previously owned the building.
The North Bronx congregation gathers on the stage at the front of the auditorium.
Oppong showed us the baptistry that members keep ready to welcome new souls into the Lord’s body and the studio where he broadcasts live “NBC-TV” sermons via Facebook on Monday and Thursday nights. (That’s “North Bronx Church TV,” if you didn’t get it.)
The preacher’s wife and other church ladies offered us juice and fresh croissants prepared especially for our visit.
“We are going to sing in Twi so you can see the diversity,” Oppong told me before worship started.
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“Awesome,” I replied.
And it was.
After over an hour of singing and Bible study, Oppong invited me to the podium to share a few words. I did not have anything prepared to say, but I thanked the congregation for its kindness and warm welcome.
I noted that I had worshiped with the Nsawam Road Church of Christ in Accra, Ghana’s capital, during a 2009 reporting trip. I recalled my experience at a Ghanaian immigrant congregation in Amsterdam on that same trip.
The North Bronx church’s energy and love for Jesus could be seen in its full-throated praise and radiant smiles.
“When you worship in your native language, your spirit comes out,” Oppong said. “Everybody’s edified, and everybody understands everything.”
“When you worship in your native language, your spirit comes out. Everybody’s edified, and everybody understands everything.”
Amen.
At the same time, the connection between Christian brothers and sisters transcends any language barrier:
“At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight. And now I am happy all the day!”
My heart was full, my spirit lifted — and if I’m honest, my guard up — as we trekked back to the subway station.
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at [email protected].
