As much as I enjoyed visiting places, my trip to Hawassa, Ethiopia, wasn’t for the hotel or the coffee or even the flight reviews…it was to fellowship with pastors and help equip them to better lead their churches. As invariably happens on these ministry trips, I was immensely encouraged and heartened by the faith and dedication of these ministers and learned quite a bit myself.
The Real Reason I Went To Ethiopia
While I shared a photo essay, resort review, and coffee review, most of my time in Hawassa was spent with pastors, both teaching and being taught. The point of my trip was to meet with pastors serving in the vicinity of Hawassa and Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley. Protestant churches in Ethiopia are growing, but as I see it, there are a lot of tares among the wheat.
Over several days, my team presented several topics on biblical hermeneutics and pastoral care. The Bible can be a frustrating codex and has been the source of great debate over its meaning and how to correctly interpret it. Ultimately, this matters. For Christians, understanding the Bible is essential to understanding God Himself.
This wasn’t evangelizing those who were not Christians but helping those who are Christians in a place where resources we take for granted (like internet, commentaries, and other books) are much scarcer. It was a precious time becuase, as I saw in Kenya and South Africa too, these dear men are doing the best they have to lead others, most while working full-time jobs.
Some came from great distances and made great sacrifices to join us. It was my first time teaching through a translator; Theophilus did a wonderful job translating my English into Amharic.
I don’t mean to sound cliché, but it was incredibly refreshing to spend time with these pastors and especially to attend church on Sunday: a vibrant experience filled with loving people who seem so much more content and happy than we Americans and Europeans, despite having so much less from a worldly perspective. Indeed, it was a reminder that money may make this world go around, but the love, hospitality, and faith of these fine people was enviable and that all the money in the world does not produce a content heart.
I hesitate to write about this because it usually evokes a number of strong opinions, condemning me as a colonizer or telling me I’m missing the mark when it comes to what Jesus actually wanted. And while not denigrating building schools, hospitals, or water purification plants, Jesus did say, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
But I was truly blessed on this trip and it was a joy to get to know many dear brothers and sisters in Christ and it was another stark reminder of the Apostle Paul’s absolutely revolutionary claim in his letter to the Galatians:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
And speaking very personally, the Bible warns in James 3:1:
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
Getting up and trying to explain biblical doctrine or even recount stories from my own life is a very serious undertaking.
The world is full of shysters who hawk false gospels, like the health, wealth, and prosperity movement that claims that God wants you to be materially wealthy and if you’re not rich and healthy, it’s because your faith isn’t strong enough. What horrendous heresy and a burdensome yoke that is placed on people. It’s a huge problem in Ethiopia and across Africa.
But that verse in James is a warning to every person who claims to speak the word of God that you better practice what you preach and not cause anyone to stumble. May God help me in that endeavor!
Next, I’ll review the flight back to Addis Ababa and talk about my time there, which was quite interesting.
“The world is full of shysters who hawk false gospels, like the health, wealth, and prosperity movement that claims that God wants you to be materially wealthy and if you’re not rich and healthy, it’s because your faith isn’t strong enough.”
Ick, Joel Osteen, Ick.
Osteen and Lakeland Church is clearly a prosperity gospel group (they got a $4.4 million PPP loan, really?); yet, still, it’s not as egregious as Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar (private jets), Eddie Long, Randy & Paula White, for their lavish personal spending. It’s wild that basically the only person convicted of misappropriating funds or defrauding donors was Jim Bakker back in 1989. There’ve been Senate investigations, but, our elected representatives have been sheepish in holding corrupt religious leaders and their organizations accountable in recent years. Why these folks should still enjoy tax-exempt status is beyond me, if they’re going to enrich themselves personally in these excessive ways. When the ‘adults’ are back in-charge, there really should be bi-partisan legislation to address this.
Agree that Osteen is not nearly as bad as Copeland/Dollar/Duplantis, but that’s like saying Rubio isn’t as bad as Trump…
Well said.
Rubio is not as bad as Trump. Yet, we’re basically going into a war of choice (like Iraq) but to Venezuela because of neo-cons like Rubio, who, simply because he’s a Cuban who left Cuba, hates Venezuela, because he sees their regime as having propped up Castro. Not that far off from the Sunni-Shia, KSA-Iran, dichotomy over there, but more over economic policy (yet, all dictatorships, in the end, anyway, eh?)
I see that I’m apparently asking for too much. Shall I bring up E. Asia and E. Europe, too? Russia-Ukraine, PROC-ROC, etc. Yeah, let’s do colonialism Europe-Africa while we’re at it too, and how ‘religion’ is mixed in with all of this, like a CIA/KGB psyop.
Would sure be nice if we could have relatively fair systems of self-governance and open economies with appropriate guardrails to prevent monopolization, enable worker rights and consumer protections… respect each others sovereignty, reasonable property and human rights, etc.
Or, just some more ‘holy wars’ and fatwahs. Yeah, probably that, no?
Wow, Matt, that’s a powerful story and experience. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
The core of Christ’s teachings were “love thy neighbor”; “love of enemies”; “welcoming the stranger”; “do to others whatever you would have them do to you”; and “forgiveness” through humility and service. We all can embrace those teachings in our daily lives, regardless of ‘official’ membership in any particular organization.
However, it’s not just in Ethiopia or Africa, this “health, wealth, and prosperity” heresy has infected US religious organizations as well. The marriage of evangelical and partisan churches in the US are an abomination to Christ’s teachings as well.