From the first moment that Apollos walked into the synagogue in Ephesus, everyone could see his talent.  He was highly intelligent.  He was comfortable and confident in front of people.  His words were powerful and clear.  Best of all, he quickly proved himself to be a very committed and dedicated Christian.  Everyone could see that he had the talent and ability to be an ideal leader in the church.  All he really needed was a little extra training. 

Fortunately, there were teachers there in Ephesus who were ready and willing to give Apollos the training that he needed.  We read about it in the 18^th chapter of the Book of Acts:  “A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man and well versed in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. He spoke with burning zeal and taught the facts about Jesus accurately, although he knew only the baptism of John.  He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:24-26 EHV).

Identify and train.  Right from the beginning, the New Testament Christian church has worked to identify those who have the God-given talent and ability to serve as leaders in the church.  Then they train those men and women to do the work that God is calling them to do.

In the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE), our brothers and sisters in Christ have identified four people who appear to have the talent and the Christian dedication to serve as leaders in the church.  They have identified two young men, Ephrem Kebede Getachew and Cherinet Demeke Lemma, as possible future pastors.  They envision a young woman, Blen Berhanu Merka, as a future teacher and a program administrator for the new nursery school that the LCE is planning to open.  In addition to these three, there is Stephen Lam, a Nuer man from the Gambella region in western Ethiopia.  Stephen has been identified as a possible future pastor and teacher to the thousands of Sudanese Christians who are living in the Gambella refugee camps.

Clearly, all four of these have been blessed with spiritual gifts from God the Holy Spirit.  Their pastor, Rev. Kebede, often refers to them as “our brilliant scholars” or as “promising young men and women.”  All four of have demonstrated their Christian character and their commitment to Christ.  All they really need is a little extra training.

So where does that training come from?

Most of it will come from the LCE’s one and only ordained pastor, Rev. Kebede Getachew Yigezu.  Pastor Kebede teaches the vast majority of the courses at the LCE’s worker training school, Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary.  But that’s a huge job!  It’s much too big for just one person to do well, especially when we remember that Pastor Kebede must also be the spiritual shepherd to the LCE’s five congregations.

The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia and the WELS One Africa Team have agreed to collaborate and work together in the training of these students.  Pastor Kebede will still teach the majority of the courses, but missionaries from the WELS One Africa Team and teachers from the WELS Pastoral Studies Institute will also teach selected courses.  These classes will be taught online via Zoom.  Missionary John Roebke has begun teaching the first of these online courses beginning in May 2021. He is breaking new ground with many firsts – the first time he is teaching the Lutheran Confessions, the first time he is using Google Classroom to organize the assignments, and the first time that Maor students are using Zoom.

In Acts 18, Aquila and Priscilla identified Apollos as a potential spiritual leader for the church.  And after they had trained him, that’s exactly what Apollos would become.  “He provided much help to those who had become believers by grace” (Acts 18:27). 

Today we thank God that he has provided many qualified men and women to study for the public ministry.  May God make every one of them a blessing for his church.

Missionary Mark Panning lives in Malawi and is the OAT Liaison to the LCE

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

This week’s post is written by Rev. Brad Wordell, a member of the faculty of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s Pastoral Studies Institute. He also serves as the liaison between the Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR) and One Africa Team. As our mission efforts continue to bear fruit in Africa, the CICR plays a vital role in establishing formal relations between church bodies on the continent and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

During this Easter season, we might say that the CICR stands for Christ Is Certainly Risen. It is true! Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! Our Savior is risen indeed!

His resurrection changes everything for us. Because our Savior lives, we live. We have life (peace and fellowship with God and the privilege of serving him) now and in the world to come. And our holy, Christian faith seeks to be active—in worship, in the proclamation of the Lord’s name, and in love to him and the people around us. What a blessed life we have! All praise be to our Triune God!

The members of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod are heirs of the Lutheran Reformation. We believe that the Bible is the only source of faith and doctrine (sola scriptura), that sinful mankind is saved by faith in Jesus and not by good works (sola fide), and that everything we have is a gift from our gracious God in heaven (sola gratia). We believe God has determined the times and places that we should live, and that it is his will that we proclaim his name among the nations. We believe that God works through the means of grace—the gospel in the Word, in Holy Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper—to create, preserve, and strengthen our faith, and to produce in us the fruits of faith. We believe that the Lutheran Confessions as recorded in the Book of Concord of 1580 are a faithful exposition of the Word of God. We rejoice that like-minded Lutherans are singing Hallelujah to the Lord all around the world, and we rejoice in this blessed fellowship as we wait for the glorious return of our Savior.

The WELS enjoys this blessed fellowship of doctrine and practice with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) in the States, and with more than 35 church bodies around the world in the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC).

In order to extend and conserve the true doctrine and practice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod through its Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR) keeps itself informed on doctrinal trends in other church bodies. This commission, made up of ten members and four advisory members, serves under the Conference of Presidents and represents the synod in doctrinal discussions with other church bodies who are, or are not, in fellowship with the synod, in order to “extend and conserve the true doctrine and practice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.” 

To accomplish this the CICR keeps itself informed on the doctrinal trends in other church bodies and works to preserve and strengthen the bonds of fellowship with church bodies with which there is complete unity of doctrine and practice. Additionally, the CICR seeks to extend the bond of confessional fellowship with other church bodies where such unity becomes apparent and to offer testimony and assistance to groups which show a desire to grow in their understanding of evangelical Lutheran doctrine and practice.

On the continent of Africa, the CICR does its work in collaboration with the One Africa Team. As a member of the CICR, I am pleased also to be a part of the One Africa Team. In 2017 we rejoiced as the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) joined our fellowship, and in 2019 we rejoiced as the LCMC-Kenya joined our fellowship. May the Lord continue to guide and bless us all! May the good and gracious will of the Lord be done in us and through us! May His name be hallowed! May His kingdom come!

Rev. Bradley Wordell lives in Mequon, Wisconsin

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

የሱስ እረኛዬ የሚመራኝ

በሕይወት ጎዳና የሚወስደኝ

እርሱን አገኘሁት የማይተወኝ

ጓደኛ ዘመድ ሲከዳኝ

(English translation)

Jesus, my Shepherd

The One who guides me on the way of life

He found me who never leaves me

While all my friends and relatives deny me.

Christianity’s roots run deep in Ethiopia, yet the Gospel is struggling to make purchase on this rocky soil. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church enjoys a privileged position in society, and the pews are filled at the high festival days – but the people are told that their salvation is an ongoing process and not a completed fact. Many large Protestant churches of the charismatic variety are also gathering many converts through promises of prosperity and healing to those who are worthy.

The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) was registered with the Ethiopian government in 2013 by Dr. Kebede Getachew Yigezu and 56 founding members. By the grace of God, the LCE opened Maor (Hebrew for “light”) Lutheran Theological Seminary as a Christ-centered, Bible-based and Reformation-driven confessional Lutheran theological seminary, which is authorized to offer bachelors and masters degrees and also doctorate programs. In 2017 the LCE and the WELS declared fellowship and since then have been collaborating to advance the Gospel in Ethiopia.

Last December, the LCE held its 6^th annual General Assembly meeting in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. The delegates who had gathered gave thanks to God for the many blessings he had poured out on their small but dedicated church body over the past year. One of those blessings was the third historic graduation of students from Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary on October 27, 2019. The ceremony took place in the midst of political unrest that Ethiopia was experiencing at the time. (https://wels.net/unrest-in-ethiopia-affects-wels-sister-churches/)

Delegates also gave thanks to God for the construction of a new five-story multi-purpose building on the campus of Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary. Thanks to the oversight of LCE Assistant Deaconess Werknesh Negash Degefa and Brother Wondirad Balcha WoldeSemayat and the generosity of WELS donors the building reached the finishing stage in one year’s time. It is the LCE’s ardent prayer that this new building will help bring the Gospel light to the people of Ethiopia.

The LCE also celebrated its partnership with WELS Multi-Language Productions, which hosted an Africa region workshop in Lusaka last summer. Dr. Ernst Wendland, who has served WELS World Missions for over 50 years and also participated in translating the Bible into the Chichewa language, shared his considerable experience and insight into the translation process. Using that knowledge, the LCE was able to translate the evangelism tract, “God’s Great Exchange” into the Amharic language.

In an email Dr. Kebede writes, “We were surprised that getting the right wordings with the right meaning in our language for words like “Exchange” in the literary context of the tract on “God’s Great Exchange” was not easy. Indeed,  the lessons we received at the MLP Translation Workshop and  Publication Expo under the instruction of Professor Ernst Wendland in Lusaka have helped Brother Shambel and me a lot to lead our team so that we reached at the best translation which  communicates the right meaning clearly both theologically and linguistically.” The LCE sent the translated Amharic text side by side with the English text to WELS MLP graphic design artist Michele Pfeifer, who completed the final layout.  

Looking ahead to the future, one of the most pressing tasks the LCE faces is to renew their church body’s registration with the Ethiopian government. The current registration was good for six years (2013-2019). Please pray that God continues to let the light of the Gospel shine in Ethiopia through the work of the LCE and Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa