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THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS IN MATTHEW 25:14–30
BY ESAYAS EMENE ENICHA (REV.)
the local church. It is nothing less than the obedient response of the church to both the Great commandment and Great commission. This definition of development is thus a view of holistic ministry.”12
1.2.
As I mentioned above, the struggle among Western Christians to preserve the holistic nature of the church was to advocate for the view that churches have the calling to serve the body and the soul of the person, without dichotomy. In some of the Lutheran churches in Africa, such as those who had been evangelized by mission partners, economic dependence is the other issue which made it more difficult to keep the holistic nature of the church.13 Initially, these churches were dependent on foreign funds for their physical needs and evangelistic work; as a result Christian responsibility was regarded as preaching the gospel for the souls while a sense of economic dependence on foreign funds had grown.
As one of the Lutheran churches in Africa, the EECMY was founded by the joint effort of missionaries and indigenous people. However, in the beginning, Evangelistic and development work were fully expensed by donors.14 According to Dr. Ø yvind M. Eide, in 1971 the EECMY structure with its synods, central administration and appointment of pastors with a fixed salary scale, created new and heavy demands on finance and increased dependence on funds from abroad.15 In 1973, there were 380 missioners working in EECMY, and this made the church to a large extent dependent on skilled personnel from abroad.16 As Eide argues, at that time the church may be said to be indigenous as far as the experience of faith was concerned. When it came to the question of organization, salaries of employees, service, and finance, however, the dependence on foreign agencies was a disturbing fact.17
In order to reverse this situation, EECMY prepared a mission document to verify its real concerns and needs, entitled ‘On the Interrelation between Proclamation of the
12 Moffitt, “The local church and Development”, 237.
13 I have visited some of the Lutheran churches in Africa.
14 Esayas Emene. “Becoming Self-Reliant: Experience of South West Synod in Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.” Page 98 in Use Your Talents: the congregation as primary development agent. Edited by Sigurd Haus. Oslo: Digni, Arbins, 2017.
15 Øyvind M. Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia: The growth and persecution of the Mekane Yesus Church 1974-1985 (Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Press, 2000), 67.
16 Ibid
17 Ibid, 68.
Gospel and Human Development.’18 In this document, one of the burning issues raised was the question of dependency. The EECMY realized that the life of the church was determined by outside factors. It therefore had to plan for less dependence on foreign funding and personnel.19
This mission document also contests the biased service among the mission and church agencies which was evident by that time. The mission and church agencies disproportionately financially assisted development programs as compared with evangelism work. Accordingly, the EECMY resolved that the church had to be equally involved in development and evangelism work. 20 As a first step, the document “On the Interrelation between Proclamation of the Gospel and Human Development” was published. This led to a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation on proclamation and human development, held in Nairobi in 1974, where Rev. Gudina Tumsa, the General Secretary of EECMY, expounded on the theological perspective underlying the EECMY letter in an address to the consultation, entitled “Serving the whole man”. 21
Rev. Gudina was a pioneer in articulating the holistic approach, and he exerted effort to resolve the dependency problems of the church, and to make the church a voice for the oppressed in communist Ethiopia. In 1974, at the beginning of the socialist era, EECMY responded with a clear stance that the church works for truth, human equality, and dignity based on the word of God.22 Regarding the social responsibility of the church, in March 1975, Rev. Gudina came up with “The pastoral letter: the EECMY in the Ethiopian Revolution” which stated the position of the church on the communist regime. Hence, the church was willing to go a long way in actively participating in the attempt to advance the well-being of the people. The ministry of EECMY to serve the human physical need was obstructed when the government issued its declaration on the economic policy of socialist Ethiopia which stated that the government itself was to provide education and health services for the people,23 and then, by 1975, the education and health centers owned by the church had been transferred to the government. However, the executive committee of EECMY at the same time affirmed the wish of the church to continue its contributions towards nation building and community development. 24
(p.325)
19 Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia, 123.
20 Ibid., 68.
21 Ibid., 69
22 Ibid., 116
23 Ibid., 122
24 Ibid., 123