Providing missiological training for key Ethiopian church leaders
A historic Christian nation with its own ancient church tradition, Ethiopia today is experiencing both tremendous growth in the evangelical churches as well as the rapidly growing influence of Islam. Situated in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia borders on countries in vital need of relevant Christian witness such as Djibouti, Sudan and Somalia. With an evangelical population of around 15 million – and, according to the best statistical projectcions, due to grow to over 50 million by the middle of the century – the Ethiopian church is key to the future of the region.
For decades considered a destination for western missionaries, the Ethiopian church is now beginning to sense its responsibility in cross-cultural missions and potential as a sending nation. World Horizons is partnering with one of the large Ethiopian denominations, fruit of the revival of the last decades, to bring them training for this task.
This church is already actively sending workers into the unreached tribal areas of Ethiopia and has started to work beyond the country’s borders into neighbouring Sudan and countries of the Gulf. They plan to widen their area of activity to include the surrounding nations – some of the neediest that exist today – as God gives them opportunity, resources, and experienced personnel. We are helping the church to design and run training in cross-cultural issues to supplement the theological training and practical church-planting experience they already receive. This is coupled with training in business principles in order that churches can generate finance to support their workers.
One key element of this training is to give MA level training to key leaders. There is no specific missiological training at this level available in Ethiopia or Kenya, where most of their leaders have done theological training. We are thus offering two of their leaders each year the chance to participate in our UK based training, to give them cross-cultural experience in a training context, and during this time start a three year study programme giving them an MA in cross-cultural leadership from the University of Wales. We are looking for churches and people who would like to be involved in their training by adopting one of these students. Total costs for their studies are as follows:
- 8 months training in UK (September to May): £3,000
- travel to UK: £500
- insurance, visas, other costs: £500
- MA costs (3 years): £3,200
- Total cost first year: £5,000
- Total cost for two further years: £2,200
- Total cost for full study programme: £7,200
Together with money they are able to raise themselves, we are able to offer internal grants to each student which will cover just over half of this cost. Please consider a one-off gift or regular support to help cover the remaining costs (£3,600 per student). You can give online here, or contact our International Director Neil Rees through our International Office if you would like any other information or would like to explore other avenues of involvement. (Neil, who is overseeing this project, is also looking for those able to help with business training on the ground in Ethiopia.) You can also download a brochure to print or send to others (right-click and “Save As” to download a copy to your computer.)
