Why is the Meserete Kristos Church the fastest-growing Mennonite church?
Ethiopia is a multiethnic, multireligious and multilingual nation with more than 120 million people, the second most populated country in Africa. Located in northeast Africa, Ethiopia is a landlocked country.
European powers did not colonize Ethiopia. However, internal conflicts tore the country apart and broke it up along ethnic, religious and geographical lines. The civil wars crushed the economy of the country. Ethnic and religious conflicts damaged the social ties among diverse people groups and increased fear; intolerance and revenge are part of the life of the people. Some people think of poverty, war and family as the symbols of Ethiopia.
Yet people who lost hope get a sense of meaning and direction for their lives when they turn to the Creator of Heaven and Earth. When people believe in Jesus Christ, they not only receive the hope of eternal life but also a new lens of looking at their difficult circumstances to devise better coping mechanisms.
Our understanding of church growth
The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) understands church growth in two dimensions.
First, church growth is a numerical increase of church members. Congregations are expected to add new believers every year as was practiced in the early church (Acts 2:47).
The second aspect is that the church’s growth is seen in the maturity of the spiritual life of believers. Believers who bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and follow the foosteps of Christ bring about positive influence in society. When people share the gospel with others through their practices in life, the possibility of people responding positively to the message increases.
The spiritual growth of individual believers and the growth of the church correlate.
Strategies for church growth
In the following pages, we will describe the 10 strategies/principles that helped MKC to grow fast in the post-Communist era (1991-2024).
1. Fervent prayers
MKC has used prayer as a spiritual weapon to overcome the power of the devil and free people from the bondage of sins. In prayers, we speak to God and listen as God speaks to us.
In all MKC congregations, prayer teams are praying for the church’s ministry, according to the topics they are given. The teams pray for the church to overcome the power of evil that holds people from hearing and believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are night-long prayer meetings of all members at the local church level. Full-time ministers spend significant time in prayers. Church leaders pray before business meetings. Believers pray believing that God is listening to them and responding to their prayers according to his will.
At MKC Head Office, a national prayer team meets every month for a day to pray for God to help the church reach out to the unreached people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Many congregations pray for the salvation of people through the gospel of Jesus Christ using different approaches.
Some local congregations pray for unreached people groups during Sunday services. For instance, Tabour MKC in Hawassa city in the southern part of Ethiopia prepared posters of several ethnic groups, and each week, the poster of one of the ethnic groups is posted on the front stage of the church. The whole congregation prays for that ethnic group for 5-10 minutes.
2. Calling new people to believe in Jesus
“Dear preacher, when you finish your sermon, don’t forget to invite new people to accept the Lord.”
In every local MKC congregation, following the sermon of the Sunday service, the preacher calls new people to accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord. MKC believes that the Holy Spirit touches the hearts of people and convicts of their sins to repent and believe in Jesus. Therefore, preachers are vessels for the Holy Spirit to work.
Many new people believe in Jesus every Sunday. The congregation takes these new believers to the prayer room to pray for them. The evangelists take their physical address and telephone number to follow up. Then, they join the new believers’ class to learn basic Christian doctrines. When baptized, the evangelism department hands them to the pastoral department to provide appropriate pastoral ministry services.
It should be noted that calling people from the pulpit without having nonbelievers in the church is meaningless. Congregations remind members to invite and bring their friends, family members or colleagues to the Sunday service.
Pastor Deneke Hussein, General Secretary of Southern Ethiopia MKC Region, cites a recent encounter: after Sunday service, he went outside and saw a sad woman. He sensed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to talk to the woman. He greeted her and asked, “ You look unhappy, what happened?” The woman replied, “I was desperate about life and came to the church to hear God’s Word. I heard the message and was encouraged. However, no one talked to me.”
Pastor Deneke realized that the preacher did not invite people to come forward to accept Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord. He took her to the prayer room and formally asked her to accept Christ. The woman accepted Christ, was prayed for and connected to the evangelist of the congregation for further follow up.
One pastor from western Ethiopia says: “After a preacher has preached the gospel in a place where many people have gathered, not calling people who want to believe in the Lord Jesus is like planting a seed and refusing to harvest the fruit after it has ripened.”
3. Remaining small and growing
MKC’s policy states that a congregation with more than 1 000 members should be divided into two small congregations.1 From a practical point of view, small churches (with members below 1 000) can provide effective services to their members. Church members also know each other and can have a meaningful fellowship.
A mother church nurtures the new offspring church to become a full-fledged congregation. Then both the mother church and the offspring church continue to grow to bear other new congregations.
Pastor Sebrela Kedir, the MKC’s pastoral ministry department director says that when congregations have large membership, they cannot provide appropriate pastoral services to the members and mobilize all members towards a shared goal. “A pastor can feed and protect the flock well when the number is reasonable. If the church’s size is big, some members are astrayed.
“By keeping the size reasonable, MKC grows in quality and quantity. Disciples of Christ share the gospel with others faithfully,” he says.
4. The responsibility to share the gospel
Anyone who tasted Jesus is good should tell others what he/she tasted.
MKC states clearly that the church exists to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people and make them Christ’s disciples. MKC’s Constitution mentions the participation of church members in the holistic ministry of the church by serving the church in the spiritual gifts given to him/ her, prayers, professional advice/consulting, labour, wisdom and financial contributions.2
Before they become church members through water baptism, new believers are given lessons on what the church expects from them once they become full members.
One of the topics discussed is the concept of bringing other people to believe in Christ. The new believers are expected to lead others to Christ as someone led them to Christ. The church encourages them to share the goodness of Jesus they experienced in their lives with other people. Telling what Jesus has done for them to other people does not require having theological training.
5. Implementing a contextually relevant strategic plan
Across all MKC, now people speak the same language: Agenda 2819 is our priority.
In the strategic plan MKC prepared and implemented in 2022, the church laid out the roadmap to sustain the growth of the church. The mission of the church was revised to indicate MKC as a missional/ evangelistic church. It says, “MKC exists to preach the gospel to all people and make them disciples of Jesus Christ.”3
hurch members, the church prepared presentations on Matthew 28:19 ‚Äì Agenda 2819, and awareness creation sessions were conducted in all MKC regions. This reignited the church leaders and members to focus on preaching the gospel and bringing people to believe in Jesus Christ. MKC’s president devoted substantial time to getting this message to all MKC congregations to achieve the goals.
The strategic plan also set specific indicators to track the progress of the church toward achieving 10% annual growth of members. The strategic plan has made the church mobilize resources to achieve the set goals. Above all, the church’s leaders realized they exist to preach the gospel and make those who believe the disciples of Christ.
Pastor Dessu Abebe, the General Secretary of Nekemte MKC Region, said the direction set by the strategic plan is very relevant. He read the strategic plan repeatedly to internalize it because if it is not implemented, the region will fail.
“I called the lead pastors and the elders’ council chairperson of all local churches in my region for three days of training on the strategic plan. I tried my best to help them understand.” He stressed the training alone was not enough to understand fully.
When he meets with the lead pastors during quarterly review sessions, he refreshes the strategic plan and listens to understand their challenges, concerns and successes. Pastor Dessu admitted that the strategic plan is tough and demands a lot of work. Two of the lead pastors in his region resigned because they recognized that they did not have the competence to implement the strategic plan.
The Nekemte MKC Region was able to identify districts where there were no MKC congregations. “We planted churches in three of those districts. We have not thought that way before. The strategic plan guided us where we should focus.”
“The strategic plan helped us to see the bigger picture of where MKC is heading and our specific role as a local church,” said Pastor Shambel Genene, the lead pastor of Asella MKC. The church was engaged in Muslim evangelism even before the strategic plan was introduced. Now, “We aligned our evangelistic activities with the strategic plan of the church to contribute our shares to achieve the common goals.”
6. Ordaining evangelists in congregations
Every MKC local church must have at least one evangelist devoted to preaching God’s Word and leading people to faith in Jesus Christ.
Two decades ago, evangelists engaged in the work of a pastor. MKC revised the ministry guideline to release the pastoral work from the evangelist and focus on evangelism. An evangelist in a congregation shares the good news of Jesus Christ with people to be a model. He/she is also responsible for motivating and equipping church members to participate actively in evangelism and planting new churches. He/she reports his/her evangelistic ministry accomplishments to the lead pastor and the elders’ council quarterly.
Ayalew Balcha is a graduate of Meserete Kristos Seminary and an ordained evangelist at Akaki MKC. He stated that congregations need evangelists to proclaim the gospel to non-believers. He coordinates the evangelistic ministry of the local church and mobilizes the congregation for evangelism.
He has an evangelistic team – an action group – that goes every month on the streets and goes village to village and shares the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone they meet.
Last year, 19 new believers who came to the faith in this manner were baptized and became church members. “We are praying and working hard to win more souls for Christ this year,” he said.
7. Mobilizing resources locally
“Our resources are the people we have in the church.”
Most of the MKC members are not rich people. We have several congregations in rural areas where they engage in subsistence farming. Due to climate change, conflicts, traditional farming style, inadequate access to improved seeds and fertilizers, and other factors, they cannot improve their income.
Most of them are hardworking peasants who contribute to the services of the church through tithes, offerings, special gifts and love gifts. They are poor but generous enough to support the ministry of the church.
Employees and business people who have regular income pay their tithes monthly.
Local churches also collect offerings for evangelism and the mission of the church. In some congregations, Bible study groups organized by the church contribute money to the Mission Funds of MKC.
Birru Robele, one of the prominent leaders of MKC, collects monthly contributions of his Bible study group members and gives them to Misrak Addis Ababa congregation. It supports more than 130 church planters in different parts of the country on a monthly salary of about US$50.00.
Some people cannot continue their jobs after believing in Jesus Christ because those jobs are incompatible with the teachings of the Bible. These people include women who engage in prostitution and engage in the production and sale of local alcoholic drinks. Rehabilitating and changing their incomegenerating means demands money.
Pastor Bekele Bajira, the lead pastor of Bordi Nekemte MKC, said that three commercial sex workers came to the Lord through the evangelistic campaign. They completed the basic Christian teaching and were baptized. Later, the women told him that they did not have food because they stopped their former work. When Pastor Bekele shared their stories with the congregation, members contributed money that was enough to help them start other small businesses.
If we present genuinely the needs to be addressed to advance the cause of the gospel, believers are willing to give what they have,” said Pastor Bekele.
8. Using the language of the people
MKC’s policy states that the gospel should be preached and taught in the people’s language. Since the purpose of the church is to help people hear the gospel, believe in Christ, and become his disciples, it preaches and teaches the word of God in the language people prefer. People usually open their hearts when they hear the gospel in their language.
In a society where the issue of language is sensitive, letting people learn the gospel in their language helps them not associate church ministries with politics.
MKC prepares and avails evangelistic and discipleship materials in various languages. We encourages believers who have a sense of call for ministry to be multilingual. Knowing several languages opens the door for ministry and church planting in various cultures.
Pastor Firew Lemma, education and training department of MKC Head Office, recently travelled to Tigray, northern Ethiopia, to teach church leaders. Having learned the language from his family, he greeted the participants in Tigriegna and observed their warm, welcoming facial expressions. They were surprised that he spoke their language.
Speaking the language of the people we serve is essential to communicate the gospel clearly and to develop good relationships, said Pasor Firew.
9. Placing church planters in unchurched communities
“Till the land with the oxen from that area.”
MKC recruits, trains and places church planters within their own culture. Since the church planters recognize the culture and have already established connections, they can easily share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people. MKC assigns church planters in several contexts: strongly Orthodox, Muslim and traditional beliefs. Wendimu W/Mariam, the mission coordinator at MKC Head Office, said that the church planters in the context where traditional beliefs and practices are predominant plant more churches than those in other contexts. In communities practicing traditional beliefs, if the prominent leader comes to Christ, many of the community members follow and believe in Christ.
In that context, “Our church planters pray and work to lead the community gatekeepers to Christ. Once they come to Jesus, leading others to Christ is easy,” said Wendimu.
10. Following the lead of the Holy Spirit
MKC teaches about the Holy Spirit and that believers should be empowered to live a victorious Christian life and witness for Christ. The church encourages believers to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s will in their lives. The full-time ministers and church leaders pray for believers to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In the mission field, the dependence of the church planters on following the guidance of the Holy Spirit makes a difference in their efforts.
Church planters who pray for the sick and share God’s Word as per the guidance of the Spirit lead more people to Christ than those who do not practice these things. When the gospel is preached/ shared with power (demonstrated by the healing of the sick, recovery of mental health, release from the fear of the evil spirits, and the feeling of God’s presence), people tend to believe in the gospel.
This is different from some TV miracle workers. MKC does not organize healing conferences but events to preach the word of God. There, the Holy Spirit does things according to God’s will.
Church planters do not focus on the miracles, but on helping people understand the gospel. The miracles occur when they pray for the needs of the people. God confirms the power of the gospel by liberating people from whatever bondage hinders them from experiencing what God plans for their lives.
In conclusion, God is uniquely drawing people into God’s kingdom amid intense political, social and economic upheaval in the nation.
The growth of the Meserete Kristos Church is a good indication that the conditions on earth do not prevent the expansion of God’s kingdom. The scale and depth of the problem in our context could have destroyed the church. The evil forces trying to create obstacles to the gospel on earth have not succeeded. The wise God used the multifaced sufferings to lead multitudes to his kingdom.
God is doing his work. We, the children of God, must take the gospel to people. We can participate in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by contributing our money, labour, knowledge, time, talents and whatever we have as our number one agenda.
The main reason for the growth of MKC is that we made the Great Commission our top priority and give what we have for the cause.
Footnotes
1. MKC Constitution Part II, Article 11(2), 2022
2. MKC Constitution Part II, Article 10(1), 2022, page 8.
3. MKC Strategic Plan 2022-2026.
