Building a Sustainable Ministry

00:01
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Bible translation is really at the center of that expansion, and people really get excited because they have got God’s word in their language. 

00:21
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m rich Verdowski. 

00:27
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. We’re so glad you’re joining us today. Have you gotten a chance to subscribe yet? If not, we recommend it. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or on audible, and you can hear the latest if you’re listening on lbt.org. Leave us some feedback by sending an email to info@lbt.org that’s right, when you. 

00:50
Rich Rudowske
Subscribe, you work smarter and not harder. The essentially translatable podcast just shows up in your feed instead of having to go hunt for, right, em? 

00:57
Emily Wilson
Oh, yeah, it’s worth it. 

00:59
Rich Rudowske
So what are we doing today? 

01:01
Emily Wilson
So today’s episode we’re featuring Dr. Brook Ayele, and he was recorded on Rich’s recent visit to Ethiopia earlier this year. So rich, tell us about that recent visit. 

01:12
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, were in Ethiopia in late February. Beautiful time of year to be there. Dr. Brook is the president of the seminary, and the seminary is under construction massively. There’s all kinds of construction work going one of which is a building that Lutheran Bible translators is building in partnership with the seminary to house a Bachelor of Theology program that will train students to work in entry level and then higher level consulting Bible translation work in Ethiopia and around the world. So it was really cool to go see that and to sit in Brooke’s office. You’ll hear that’s where we are, that we are in an office in a city with lots of construction noise going on, with also, technically speaking, one microphone and observing social distance. So not necessarily our usual sound standards, but we hope that it still comes through for you. 

02:04
Rich Rudowske
I also want to mention that Dr. Brooke talks a little bit about the charismatic movement and just want to highlight, without going too deep into it here, that there’s not like a one to one correlation between what we think of here in the United States of the charismatic movement of the are some differences. If you have questions about that or would like to talk with me more about that, I would love that. Send me an email at info@lbt.org Dr. Brukayali serves as president of the Makani Su seminary in Adasababa, Ethiopia, which is the flagship pastoral training college of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Makanijesus, the largest lutheran church body in the world. He earned his master’s degree in theology from the Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Adisababa and his PhD in theology from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. 

02:56
Emily Wilson
Well, having met Dr. Bruca a couple of times, I’m really looking forward to what he has to say, sharing a little bit about the updates with the building project and just overall what’s happening in Ethiopia. So enjoy today’s episode. 

03:15
Speaker 4
We are here with Reverend Dr. Brook Ayeli, president of the Makani SuS Seminary, the flagship training institution of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church. McCannie Sus, the largest lutheran church body in the world with well over 10 million members and sustained double digit percentage annual growth over the past decade. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Brooke. 

03:34
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Thank you very much. Thank you having me. 

03:36
Speaker 4
So tell us a little bit about why Lutheranism has spread so effectively in Ethiopia that the mechaniasis church is the largest lutheran church in the world. 

03:47
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes, that is true. In the last vision, in the last 60 years, the growth is extremely tremendous. And I would say there are two reasons. One is the divine cause, it’s God’s will. We can’t simply justify. But I believe that God is doing some extraordinary things here. So I can just simply say it’s a divine effect. And on the other hand, of course there is human effect. I have been asked this several times. It’s a package of several different things. And if I enumerate a number of them, Lutheranism in particular, on all other evangelicals, Protestantism minitiab is the same. One is because they’re all involved in lame ministry. Lame ministry is very strong and that’s connected to university student movement. So the young generation is very keen to evangelism and spreading God’s word. So the Lame ministry part is very effective. 

04:55
Dr. Bruk Ayele
The other thing is of course missionaries came here with commitment of giving their lives. So 100 years ago, 90 years ago, 150 years ago, a number of missionaries from different parts of the world, especially from Sweden and Germany and Norway, as they are preaching the good news, they were murdered, they passed away, they marched. So God is really working through that blood. And the commitment was very high from the missionary side. The other thing is, one thing very unique to ethiopian evangelicalism and Lutheranism is using vernaculars. Ethiopia has Ethiopian Orthodox Tahiro Church for the last 2000 years and always the language alien to the people. So everything is occupied by the clergy and the lady did not have any access of the scriptures. 

05:59
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And this is for sure one major factor for fast growth of evangelicalism that the Bible, both the Bible and the worship are accessible in vernaculars. Yes. Bible translation is really at the center of that expansion. And people really get excited because they have got God’s word in their language. So that is one very clear point. The other thing is charismatic movement. In the late, early sixty s and until the very significant charismatic movement, where all evangelicals embraced it and mechanics, the lutheran church embraced that, there was a very sound debate and discussion and mechanics took that it’s biblical and we have to embrace it. With all the precautions, so many papers, many studies were made use and abuse of spiritual gifts and so on. So we did that cautiously, but we accepted the charismatic movement. So that is another major area. 

07:06
Dr. Bruk Ayele
The other thing is the involvement, the very intentional involvement of the youth. The youth are still active in mystery and they are at the forefront of bringing the good news. So that is one major point, I would say. So these are, I would say major areas of the reason why we are expanding. You can add some more. Theological education has its role. Double involvement, I would say double involvement of women in local level has its own role. Yeah. So it’s collectively, it’s not just one specific thing, but it’s very collective, even though some are very outstanding. Sure. 

07:53
Speaker 4
The Makana Jesus Church is known for a holistic ministry, and caring for the body and the soul is part of what I’ve heard many times being here. 

08:02
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes, thank you, rich. I’m saying this from top of my mind. 

08:08
Speaker 4
Yeah, sure, absolutely. 

08:08
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Holistic ministry. Exactly. Holistic ministry is one major reason, definitely. Even today, many people come to Christ because we bring both the Bible and something. The people are very needy in different parts of the country, and we bring water and we bring physical water, and we bring spiritual water integrated together. And that is, in fact, definitely one major reason. 

08:40
Speaker 4
Absolutely. So tell us some about your background, how you got involved in ministry, and your pathway to becoming the president here of the Makana Yezu seminary. 

08:48
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yeah, that’s a very long story. But to make it very short, I graduated from Aboba University. I born and grew up in a lutheran family. Of course, I grew with very strong lutheran tradition. And when I come to the university student movement ignited me again. That was very strong. When we came together at the university, were together, and that is a time. One more thing I forget from the previous one is persecution of the communist regime. Persecution really contributed significantly for the growth. And I myself, after graduation, I was sent to the northern part of Ethiopia, where both the orthodox church and the communist regime, both of them are extremely alien to evangelical Christianity and Lutheranism. So I was persecuted there. I was a government school teacher. 

09:43
Dr. Bruk Ayele
In fact, when we go out for jobs, the university student movement commissions us to be ministers, lay ministers. And I have got that commission from there and I begot to preach the good news. As a teacher I work for the government, but in the meantime I just preached the good news and I was put in jail, I was tortured, I had lots of death traits several times. And this story is the same for many Ethiopians of that time. And that really helped us to be more and more bold in bringing the good news. So I just got a call of full time minister. As I was serving there, I just planted church where I was teaching in three towns, in Alamata and in Oppo, 30 km away from Alamata and in Korama as well, in both sides. 

10:47
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Now there were no evangelical Christians that this is 30 years back and now there are four big congregations only in Alamata where I was, and I’m ordained in that church three years ago. So from there I came back to my home area at Rame and that synagogue sent me to join the seminary. The seminary retained me here and I was a teacher. Then I became the dean of theology department. And then there is a joint school of Makaniyesus and Karijote Baptist Church. They have their own seminary and Makani seminary and they call it etc. Evangelical Theological College. The two institutions jointly established a graduate school of ethiopian graduate school of theology. And some faculty from both schools were called to join that school. And I was included in that faculty development plan. And seven of us were sent for phd studies. 

11:52
Dr. Bruk Ayele
I went to South Africa for my phd and I did my phd, come back in Eli 2015 and I become program leader at x for the master’s program and postgraduate diploma. And from there McKinneyesus Church called me to be the president of the seminary in its twelveth council 2016. I was not ready at that time to come here, but because that was God’s will, I have accepted the call. And I’m just watching around here that God is miraculously really working a lot of things at that atom against seminary. 

12:33
Speaker 4
So tell us some about the seminary, its programs, the number of graduates. I think a lot of our listeners will think of a seminary as a specific institution that’s only for training of pastors. That’s of course a major part of what you do here. But tell us a little bit more about the seminary. 

12:49
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes. McKinney Seminary has three different colleges, college of Theological Studies. As any other seminary, it’s purely focusing on theological studies. And we have monumental leadership college, originally intended to help congregational leaders, parish leaders, senior leaders, church leaders. Almost all mechanical Jesus leaders come from mechanical seminary, graduates of mechanical seminary, and they do not have that professional leadership and accounting skills. So in order to empower them, these leadership departments was established in 1995. Since then it’s producing leaders, accountants, managers. So we have both at bachelor level and now we have master’s degree in organizational leadership. We have master’s of business administration in that college. And we have a school of music and media. 

13:47
Dr. Bruk Ayele
This is something really helped again for the growth of the church, that the youth is attracted with music and songs, hymns that is really part of the charismatic movement and more than the preaching God’s word reached out through songs. Yes. So in every congregation, every youth should be a member of a choir. So that has not been supported by professional study and so on. So the church has opened a music school and now recently we added up media school together. So School of Music and Media working together mechanizes has launched a year and a half ago mechanisms television. So that television is run by our graduates from media school. Yes, it is very wide. And when we come to theological studies, yes, we have regular theological studies at bachelor’s level and also at master’s level. We are envisioning to begin phd hopefully soon. 

14:52
Dr. Bruk Ayele
But in the meantime, in 1995, the diploma programs were decentralized to regional seminaries. Now we have four regional seminaries under supervision of mechanical seminary, which are offering bachelor’s degree in theology. And there are other about, now there are about ten new seminaries at diploma level. Also wanted to grow to bachelor’s level because the need is still growing more and more. So, yeah, mechanics seminary is much more than just simply traditional theological studies. So we have that wider disciplines as well. 

15:32
Speaker 4
And so just to get a picture of the size of the school, how many students are enrolled and how many graduates in general. 

15:39
Dr. Bruk Ayele
I mean, for example, this year we have nearly 900 students graduated from all fields, okay, that includes about 600 of them are from management, the leadership college, okay, while about 300 or nearly 400 are from theology and about 40 are from music school. But besides that, we have this distance education in theology. We have theological education by extension at certificate and diploma level. The number I said earlier is not part of this major graduation because the te graduation and of course the school is where the students are, so graduating also where the students are, so we do not put that number part of this one. So it has its own number. So every year in that field, both certificate and diploma level, we have more than 400 graduates every year. 

16:38
Rich Rudowske
Okay, very good. 

16:40
Speaker 4
So we’re in the third year of a unique partnership between Lutheran Bible translators and the McCannie Jesus Seminary and the church body, the EEcMy. Talk some about what is unique about this partnership on the seminary side. The Bible translation program. 

16:54
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes, Bible transition was part of the vision of McKenna seminary at some point, but were not able to implement it. Another college, EPC evangelical theology College, they have begun that program. They failed. Another college at X also. We have tried, we failed. But again, here in Ethiopia, we have more than 86 languages and we have about 25 Bible translation projects, but we do not have any training center. There are no professional Bible translators, and the work of translation is very huge. And Mechanicsus, as part of its central mission, involved in all her history for more than 150 years, Bible translation at the center of its mission and ministry. But we never did that. Formal training for our translators, and it’s more traditional. 

17:58
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And now the vision is wider than that because of our different partners, mechanisms wants to go out from Ethiopia, not only Ethiopia, also in Africa. We want to reach out. We have launched international Mission society some twelve years ago. And part of that mission, from the model of Mechanizer’s history, is bringing the good news to someone in their heart language. So if our missionaries are Bible translators as well, we believe that mission will be very effective. So our missionaries should be Bible translators with other mission intention as well. So for all that wider mission and vision, we should really prepare ministers, pastoral ministers, with Bible translation expertise and capacity. And LVT director Mike was here four years ago. We have good discussion and our mission and vision crossed to one another, and were excited about it. 

19:08
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And with Lutheran Bible translators, we just immediately launched this program, which is very amazing. And the response from seniors, the response from churches was very high. And it’s one of very vibrant programs we launched so far. I would say that is one area. The other thing is its plan for sustainability, both for the training and for the future ministry that we work together on how this will be sustainable, that income should be generated from here, so that the program will impact generations to come. So the planning itself is very wise, I would say very brilliant. And we brought this kind of proposal for others. People were reluctant to do it, but LBT was very courageous to work with us in this big project. And of course, this is the largest project at the moment at McKenzie Seminary. 

20:13
Dr. Bruk Ayele
That really boosts the entire ministry and training at the seminary as well. In that way, really, this partnership is very unique. 

20:21
Speaker 4
Yeah, and I was walking on the road yesterday, seeing the building that’s part of this program, which is huge. So let’s just fill our listeners in. Why is a building part of the plan? 

20:34
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes, I tried to mention earlier, it’s all about sustainability. We want this program self supporting, sustainable program. The building will generate income. Now our students at bachelor’s level. And then in a year’s time, we will be launching the master’s level. And then the income generated from the building will support the scholarship. And in just ten years time, fully the scholarship will come up from the income generated from this building. This is a building not only for Bible translation, it’s a model for all other programs we are envisioning. We are envisioning other programs up to phd. We are envisioning big research center. We have Christian Muslim relationship and evangelism department. We have meteorology, we are beginning meteorology department. All these departments, all our visions need some kind of adequate and sustainable income. 

21:37
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And we have already proved that this building and the partnership between Mys and LBC for the Bible translation program is definitely sustainable and it’s a model for others as well. So in that sense, the meaning of this building is very huge. But even more than that, mechanism seminary has a huge piece of land in Addis, which a huge resource and underdeveloped. And indirectly, this building has a huge meaning for the overall image of mechanizeus mechanism seminary and the community we are serving around. So the meaning of the building, the implication is very huge. Yeah. 

22:18
Speaker 4
And as you mentioned, the hoped for results as graduates from this program then will be sent by the church into Ethiopia, but then ultimately into the world to share the gospel and to be ministers and to translate the Bible as needed. Yeah, just an amazing vision. It’s a privilege to be part of and to share in that work around the world. I just want to talk a little bit about then what motivates you as the president of the Seminary? What’s the role of faith or the Bible in your life as you work to do this, to share with others? 

22:52
Dr. Bruk Ayele
But how about for you, the Bible as Lutheran and as a charismatic ethiopian evangelical? The Bible is at the center of our lives. It’s the Bible that really instrumental, the main reason for our growth. And we hold it all the time. And many people level us as we are Biblicists. We read the Bible and we live the Bible and the Bible is the word of God is really at the center of my personal life. Before I come to the seminary, while I was graduates of the university, and teaching at the government school. The major weapon, my best friend, is the Bible. I cannot stay a day without the Bible. And these prayer groups and Bible study groups which I didn’t mention earlier, are also part of the reason for the growth of evangelicalism in Ethiopia. Protestantism and of course Lutheranism. 

23:54
Dr. Bruk Ayele
We always have a word, a verse to share among us. And more than what it meant then we always go for its application. What does it mean today to me is the core part. And every day we read the Bible. In fact people see the Bible sometimes as something unique, power, even for everything, even the physical Bible itself is highly revered. It has its own background. Why it is so. But the place of the Bible, both the written word and the word in our hearts has very unique place. And that is why of course I’m a New Testament teacher. I really like teaching New Testament and the Bible and the scripture not only to me, for ethiopian evangelicals is at the center absolutely of their faith. 

24:52
Speaker 4
And yeah, what gives you joy in your work as you go about your tasks here? 

24:57
Dr. Bruk Ayele
To be a president at a seminary is a very tiresome and burdensome, very hectic work. But I’m always happy here serving the Lord, looking into preparing so many young enthusiastic ministers in different fields, in music and media, in theology who are really eager to go out with lots of passion. I’m preparing those kind of passionate, eager young generation so I can see the future of the church in Ethiopia and beyond is there already. So my joy is that this church is growing, african church is growing and the growth will expand to other parts of the world. So we are making the future of the church. So the hope is huge. 

25:49
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And I believe that with the work we do here, God will bring this ministry around the world and the word post christian age will be changed in other parts of the world as well. We have begin to see that in different western world that our ministers, our graduates with not especially higher level theological education, but with their commitment and passion, they are bringing the goodness to many. That gives me real joy. 

26:23
Speaker 4
So what are some of the challenges that you’re currently experiencing here at the seminary in general? And yeah, our listeners know that we seem like we have to talk about Covid-19 every episode too. So what are some of the challenges you faced in the last year particularly? 

26:37
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yeah, Covid is a challenge at the moment, but it’s a very minor challenge. It’s very temporary challenge and we have to adjust and readjust to the COVID challenge. Yes, it was very heartbreaking to see, to interrupt the whole teaching learning process in March last year. Yes, it affected us a lot. But now we are coming back again. We are overcoming the problems with God’s grace. Of course, as we talk today here, a new challenge has come to our seminary and students. A number of students have got positive and get some students panicking and so on. Okay, so these are challenge, I would say these are very temporary challenges, sure. But my serious, larger challenge is our inability to bring more committed, enthusiastic young generation, young would be ministers only because of lack of resource. 

27:38
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Still, whenever we call for admission, huge number of students would want to come here and join the seminary. And they want to be ministers at different. The need is very huge. I don’t think we will have that opportunity after a decade because of lack of resource. In fact, because of lack of academic competence of some of them, they do not have the chance to be enrolled at a seminary and fail to fulfill their ministry ambition and so on. So we are much behind. We are very much limited in bringing more young, passionate ministers to the seminary and prepare for ministry. As much as I’m very happy about what we are doing now, I’m very much sad that we could not do as much as we could have done because of lack of resource and infrastructure. 

28:48
Speaker 4
Okay. Yeah, definitely matters to keep in prayer. The Lord can provide as he will and through his people. What do you think that the church in the west can learn from Lutherans in Ethiopia? 

29:03
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Yes, that’s also a very good question. Faith. We ethiopian Christians, I would say, as Luther would say, faith is much prior than reason. So we believe, just we believe. But I would say in the western world, reason knowingly or unknowingly. In their subconscious, they give priority to reason. Reasoning out things, I think affected their strong faith. This is my perception. So we believe and we give whatever we have. And we, of course, intentionally work on the young generation and we embrace, with all its noise, we embrace charismatic movement. It has its own difficulties. It’s noisy, there are misuse and so on, but we dare to get into it. It’s very subjective. If you are open to the work of the spirit, you never know how the spirit works. We can’t control the spirit. 

30:17
Dr. Bruk Ayele
So I would encourage people to experience the work of the spirit, charismatic movement, and of course, to get back to the Bible, to read the Bible and follow what it says and uplift their spiritual life more than very much professional, reasonable ways. 

30:40
Speaker 4
Okay, very good. What scripture do you have to encourage our listeners? 

30:47
Dr. Bruk Ayele
As I became a president of the seminary, honestly speaking, God is surprising me every day. Lots of miracles in many ways I’m looking to it and at the moment my favorite text is Ephesians chapter three, verse 28 21. That God will do in us much more than we ask and think. And God’s intention to do in us is much more than we think. So our part is just to be humble and believe in that. And if we move forward according to his call, I trust we will witness his miraculous deeds every day. So let’s be humble, humbly surrender ourselves to God and we can see, we can witness his miraculous works every day. 

31:47
Speaker 4
Absolutely. Well, how can we pray for you? As we think about the work here in Ethiopia and especially at the seminary. 

31:55
Dr. Bruk Ayele
We believe in prayers. And what I’ve said earlier is God listens to prayers and there are lots of things we need your prayer support. We need prayers for the ministry of Makaniyesu’s church. Yes, with the members of more than 10 million. But the ministers, the pastors and evangelists are by far much fewer than the church needs. Just for the comparison of our listeners, the 10 million members are in more than 13,000 congregations. 

32:41
Speaker 4
Okay. 

32:42
Dr. Bruk Ayele
About 9000 fully pledged congregations. And we say congregations with less than 50 members. We do not say congregation. These are preaching places, okay? But anyway they are pulpits. So we have about 4000 preaching places which are growing to be congregations and nearly 99,000 congregations. So we have more than 13,000 pulpits every Sunday. But we have less than 5000 pastors. So our pastors are mobile, you can imagine. And we are graduating only hundred in all the regional seminars and this one at bachelor level we are about 120 graduates every year. We have about 200 diploma graduates every year. So the number of ministers are much below than the need. And the congregations are still by now growing fast. Our congregations are engaged in local ministry intensively. So the preaching place, planting churches is their priority aims. It’s moving that way. 

34:03
Dr. Bruk Ayele
So we are not able to address the need for ministers. And I just want our listeners to pray for not only the quality but also the quantity. We need more ministers so that we are able to produce and prepare more in number than we do now. In the meantime, the quality issue, because it’s spreading and without much good teaching, we say the level of our members is very shallow. We criticize it’s shallow, but it’s because we don’t have pastors, enough pastors, the number. So please pray for us that we can reach out. We can be able to produce as many ministers as possible for this. This is one major area in a broader sense for Mekani Yesus. At the moment there are different challenges in the country. We are preparing for election and that has huge implication on our ministry as well. 

35:14
Dr. Bruk Ayele
And there are some internal disturbances here and there. So lift our country in your prayers. In Makaniyesu seminary, we don’t have yet full funding for our building. We are still raising funds with LBT and please pray for that. We are looking for more funds for another building for student scholarship. Overall, this is mainly for Bible translation, but there are other fields which we really want to raise a fund for another building to income generation and of course pray for me personally, it seems I’m too much stretched in many ways, but God’s grace is always there. God is amazing me for my health, my family. These areas I want you to support in your prayers. 

36:08
Speaker 4
Absolutely. It’s a privilege to partner with you in ministry. Brooke, thanks for being on our podcast today. 

36:13
Dr. Bruk Ayele
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. 

36:19
Emily Wilson
Wow. Isn’t he a mover and a shaker? And just what a story to tell. Dr. Ruka Yele and all of the members of the McCannie Su seminary hard at work. It’s just incredible to see all of the things that they’re doing for God’s mission. 

36:35
Rich Rudowske
It’s so true. And one of the things you don’t hear on the audio is with this episode, we actually had our very first studio audience, and Dr. Chris Pluger, who’s a new missionary with LBT, who’s going to be going to Ethiopia, was there with me in the room. And after were done recording, he was so fired up about what heard and the work he’ll be doing. So it was just a really encouraging conversation and just a lot of great stuff going on in Ethiopia that’s so awesome. 

37:02
Emily Wilson
And I just love how he gives the glory to God in the middle of all of like, yeah, you know, there’s the work of man, but that it’s God doing this and he’s at work in and through his word. And that’s why we’re so excited to be in this partnership. 

37:18
Rich Rudowske
Absolutely. And the work of God is the thread that weaves through every place you see growth like this. It’s God’s mission and God at work. 

37:26
Speaker 4
And we’re so thankful to be in. 

37:27
Rich Rudowske
Partnership with the McCannie Su seminary. To learn how you can put God’s word in their hands, visit lbt.org slash my seminary. That’s lbt.org slash myseminary. 

37:39
Speaker 4
Thank you for listening to the essentially. 

37:41
Rich Rudowske
Translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast@lbt.org slash podcast or subscribe on audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible translators social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s word in their hands. The essentially translatable podcast is produced and edited by Andrew Olson and distributed by Sarah Lyons. Executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rotelwald. Music written and performed by Rob White. I’m Rich Friedowski. So long for now.