Meserete Kristos Church, Ethiopia

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Meserete Kristos Church
Ethiopia: World Factbook, 2009
Location	Ethiopia
Contact Information	Group's Contact Information
Date Established	1948
Presiding Officer	Group's presiding officer
MWC Affiliated?	Yes
Number of Congregations	484 (2009)
Membership	172,299 (2009)

The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) is the primary Anabaptist-related group in Ethiopia. In 2009 MKC had 172,299 members in 484 congregations scattered across all 18 Administrative Regions of Ethiopia. In addition to the 484 official Meserete Kristos Church congregations, there are also 834 congregation planting centers. As of 2009, Meserete Kristos Church is the largest national Anabaptist conference in the world.

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History

Origins

In the beginning, before Meserete Kristos Church even existed, Mennonite missionaries entered Ethiopia in association with Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Relief Committee looking to bring relief to the country after Italian occupation. Since they weren't granted missionary status by the Ethiopian government, the early Mennonites in Ethiopia focused all of their energy into providing relief work. They brought a shipment of relief goods and acquired access to an old cotton gin building which they then converted into a local hospital. It wasn't until June 7th 1948 that Dorsa Mishler and Daniel Sensening, two mission representatives, obtained permission for permanent mission status from the government, transferring from their previous relief work. By 1950 the transfer of the mission from Mennonite Relief Committee to Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions was complete. Under their new status, mission work could expand into education and evangelism.

One Saturday night on June 16, 1951 a group of ten Ethiopian nationals planned to be the first group of believers baptized by Mennonite missionaries in the country. These ten men and women were from the "closed" area of Nazareth where missionaries were banned from proselytizing.  Therefore, the missionaries brought them to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, which was an "open" area.  The missionaries thought that since Addis Ababa was an "open" area, they could take the Nazareans to the capital under legal pretentions.  The ten Ethiopians were baptized and returned to Nazareth, however, the Nazareth governor found out about thier trip and scolded the missionaries for their actions.  There weren't any serious repurcutions but the missionaries were made to promise never to baptize people from any "closed" area ever again.  The Meserete Kristos Church today marks this date as the day when the church officially began, as they celebrated their fifty year Jubille in 2001.

Growth

From January 17-19, 1959 the first meeting between national lay leaders and Mennonite missionaries took place at a general council meeting in Nazareth.  This date signified the beginning of a series of steps to transfer church authority from the Mennonite missionaries to Ethiopian lay leaders.  Throughout the meetings, the lay leaders and missionaries discussed and developed a structure for the various congregations meeting on the missions.  The Ethiopian lay leaders eventually entirely took over the missions from Mennonite Central Committee and Eastern Mennonite Mission including the schools and hospitals in three stages. The first stage, implemented in 1962, allowed Ethiopian nationals to minister their local congregations in conjunction with the missionaries. Missionaries couldn't interfere with the administration unless they were elected by the congregations. The second phase began in 1964 to substitute nationals into different posts in mission run projects.  Another event that marked a major transistion point in the history of MKC occurred in 1964 when the former mission-directed organization was dissolved and the first church constitution was approved.  Finally, the third phase in 1965 meant Ethiopians who had been serving as assistants were appointed to the executive committee, while the missionaries themselves became assistants. It was also during these meetings that the title Meserete Kristos Church was proposed.  The term "Mennonite" was not included within the name of the church because it was decided that the term "Mennonite" had no significant local meaning and might connote a cult following because it was named after a man.

Heavenly Sunshine

In 1962, a group of young high school students from the Orthodox Church came to Dr. Rohrer Eshelman looking for a teacher to teach them english.  The doctor agreed to teach them english so long as they used the Gospel of John for their textbook.  Pretty soon the students became more interested in the gospel than in the english lessons.  Even though they recognized the scripture as possessing ultimate authority, these students wanted to stay within the Orthodox church because at the time evangelicals were associated with foreign missionaries.  With this in mind, they didn't join MKC but rather formed their own church which they called Semay Birhan or "Heavenly Sunshine".  MKC still maintained ties with these students and helped them whenever they could.  MKC sent some of their own members to assist with worship services and eventually helped bail Semay Birhan members from jail when they were arrested by the government for "unorthodox" worshiping.  Semay Birhan became a very charismatic group.  Members would join in mass prayer, cast out demons and speak in tongues.  As the original members graduated high school and pursued higher education, membership spread fast among  university students and the group continued to grow.  In 1966, the university group and Ethiopian members from the Finnish Mission Church began to meet together.  These two groups resolved to be united in one group and eventually settled on Mulu Wengel (Full Gospel) as the name for their new church.  In 1972 the government banned the Mulu Wengel church which outlawed meetings of any kind. Looking for a new group to call home, many members from the former Mulu Wengel church joined the Meserete Kristos church in 1974. As a result, the Meserete Kristos church is more pentecostal than many of its sister Mennonite churches.

Communist Influence

In 1982, the Marxist government confiscated all of Meserete Kristos' offices, worship buildings, bank accounts and physical property. While the church leaders were arrested, church members took it upon themselves to hold church services in private. There was always the constant risk of police raids so members communicated by word of mouth and the number of people per service was limited. The Meserete Kristos Church officially ceased to exist; however, the democratization process in 1992 initiated by the new government allowed the church to reemerge and obtain some of their lost property. This ten year period of underground activity didn't serve its intended purpose of decreasing church attendance, but rather signified a boom in church membership as numbers rose from 5,000 to 34,000 people.

Meserete Kristos College

In 1983, during the period when Meserete Kristos Church was underground, Yeshitila Mengistu, Kedir Dolchume, Tadesse Negawo, Siyum Gebretsadik and Shemelis Rega began to give informal leadership training. This informal training allowed various congregations to train elders and evangelists. In 1994, the Meserete Kristos Church Bible Institute (MKCBI) was founded in order to provide biblical training for pastors, evangelists and leaders within Ethiopia. In 1997, MKCBI was reorganized as the Meserete Kristos College. Today, Meserete Kristos College has been fundamental in addressing the constant need for church leadership as the church's population continues to expand rapidly. According to the Meserete Kristos College website, they currently offer three programs: "A two-year Diploma in Bible and Christian Ministries in the Amharic Language, a two-year Advanced Diploma in Bible and Christian Ministries, and a four-year Baccalaureate Degree in Bible and Christian Ministries in the English Language."

Contemporary Trends

Women in leadership roles

Annotated Bibliography

• Muktar, Bedru H. "Non-formal Theological Education: The Meserete Kristos Church Experience." Mission Focus 5 (1997): 23-46.

This article seeks to illustrate the incredible growth rates Meserete Kristos Church has experienced throughout the last few decades and how they have implemented a non-formal theological education program in order to accommodate this growth and expansion. Not only are their education programs constantly reevaluated, but administrative structures are also reorganized to meet the growing needs of the church.

• Shenk, Wilbert. "New Wineskins for New Wine: Toward a Post-Christendom Ecclesiology." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 29, no.2 (2005): 23-46.

This article argues that Christians should follow the gospels but should not follow a pre-prescribed form of church. Churches should be created with the understanding that local culture should shape the structure and form of the church.