THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS IN MATTHEW 25:14–30

BY ESAYAS EMENE ENICHA (REV.)

The other most important contribution of Rev. Gudina was the memorandum that he had formulated to ponder the challenges of the church during his time. The memorandum has fifteen issues in it, and later on it was ratified at the general assembly in Najjoo in April 1976 25 One of the issues raised in the memorandum was about the policy of self-reliance. It was expressed by the term moratorium which refers to the “temporary withdrawal of resources and expatriate personnel in order to give churches time to find their identity as they make efforts to depend solely on their own resources in personnel and finance, thereby attaining self-reliance”. 26 Based on this initiative, in May 1974, the All African Conference of Churches had recommended to member churches a moratorium in Africa. It described the option as ‘the only potent means to grips with being ourselves’; by that time, moratorium was a burning issue in ecumenical circles. 27

From a theological point of view, moratorium supports that as the body of Jesus Christ, the resources available to any particular church are to be used by all other churches whenever there is a need. 28 Such sharing of resources is a manifestation of the interdependence of Christians (1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2Cor. 8:1-7). 29 But the moratorium contends the problem of the continued presence and influence of the missionaries; and the ongoing funding to the church in all aspects of its work was a problem for the identity of the church.30

Thus, instead of a speedy withdrawal from external funding and personnel, Rev. Gudina proposed a long-term plan with gradual reduction of foreign personnel and financial support (alternative for moratorium).31 He suggested concrete steps for how the EECMY, starting from 1976 to 1996, could be a self-supporting church in 20 years’ time.32

Rev. Gudina also fully recognized the importance of educating congregations through an emphasis on ‘stewardship’ to more fully financially support the work of the church at the synod and at the national level.33 This means congregations are intended to

25 Ibid., 119

26 Megersa Guta. “Church and society: Lectures and Responses second missiological seminar 2003 of on the life and ministry of Gudina Tumsa” page 134 in the legacy of the Rev. Gudina Tumsa and the challenges of self-reliance in the EECMY.

Edited by the Gudina Tumsa foundation, Addis Ababa, 2010.

27 Eide., 123-124

28 Megersa., 136

29 Ibid., 130-131

30 Eide…124

31 Ibid

32 Eide…124, Megersa …136-137

33 Ibid…139 play a vital role in carrying out the work of the synod and the central administration. Accordingly, the congregation is the fundamental unit and the main center of the church; pastors and evangelists should not be employed by the synods, but by the congregations. Governance of Bible schools was also intended to be supported by the congregations.34

Though Rev. Gudina was killed by the revolutionary regime on 29 July 1979, the EECMY general assemblies as well as the executive committees continued dealing with the matter and made decisions to teach the congregations, so that they should carry out both the spiritual, the economic, and social activities in the community. Of course, there have been some results in the church structures, however, as per Rev. Megeres’s evaluation, the achievement is insufficient because of lack of proper follow up from the central administration of the church and the reluctance of the synod presidents (bishops) to implement the policy.35 There is also high resistance from congregations in implementing the policy decision to work towards the holistic approach, which I know because I have dedicated a lot of work to the matter as the synod president. Thus, following the termination and decline of external funds from mission partners, EECMY faced a critical economic crisis.

1.3. USE YOUR TALENTS IN THE ETHIOPIAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH MEKANE YESUS, SOUTH WEST SYNOD

Based on the holistic theology of Rev. Gudina, EECMY had initiated the Synods to teach the congregations under their leadership a holistic theology for more than four decades, and SWS had made various decisions and had given trainings for the congregation leaders to take the responsibility of evangelistic work and community development. But the result was insufficient. The congregations in the SWS were hesitant to play a vital role; rather they looked for financial support from abroad. Thus, it is believed that congregations developed the dependency syndrome.

For the SWS, it was shocking when the grants came to an end. Previously, the grants had emanated from outside countries to the central office, then to the Synod, to the parishes, and to the congregations. Thus, following the termination of the funds, frustration, discouragement, and difficulties were experienced, especially at the synod level. Even, some structures of the synod were locked, employees deducted (outreach office, Chris-

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS IN MATTHEW 25:14–30

BY ESAYAS EMENE ENICHA (REV.)

tian education office, & communication sections were closed), benefits for the workers were very low and sometimes the synod was not able to pay workers’ monthly salary.

While SWS was struggling and teaching the congregations to come out of this situation, the project called “USE YOUR TALENTS: the congregation as primary development agent” was introduced in 2013. ‘Use your Talents’ started in the Malagasy Lutheran Church (MLC or FLM). From 2002 to 2007, a manner of working based on experience from congregations and their development committees laid the foundation for what gradually became a movement and an approach to development work within church settings. In 2007, the committees realized that the best way to describe the movement was with the Parable of the Talents in Matt. 25:14-30.36 In the policy document of 2005, the Malagasy church expresses that development should start from the grassroots, where people get together and seek to solve their own problems. Based on the parable in Matthew 25, the vision of ‘Use Your Talents’ is: To stimulate and support everyone in the church to use his or her talents to build a better Madagascar.37

Sigurd Haus, the project leader of Use Your Talents Knowledge Development Project, defines the notion of ‘Use Your Talents’ as follows:

The essence of ‘use your talents’ is to start at the congregation and to go into the community – using what we have here and now. The goal is, first and foremost, to fulfill God’s commandment to “love your neighbor”. Use your talents is about how congregations can work to fulfill the commandment. It is about how congregations can fulfill their holistic ministries.38

‘Use your Talents’ is an asset-based development approach as complementary to need-based development approach. It promotes inward looking rather than outward looking, and it takes the grassroots initiatives as base and any external support to be thought of should be geared towards stimulating the internal initiatives.39

36 Sigurd Haus. “Use Your Talents knowledge Development Project.” Page 18 in Use Your Talents: the congregation as primary development agent. Edited by Sigurd Haus. Oslo: Digni, Arbins, 2017.

37 Ibid., 18.

38 Ibid

39 Galunde Waketa, the presentation on Use Your Talents, 17-19 September 2015, Addis Ababa.

As shown above, the Use Your Talents approach is based on the biblical text of Mathew 25:14-30. It highlights that congregations have members with God-given talents. By briefing the use of talents according to Matthew, the approach tries to describe the biblical meaning and purpose of the talent, so that congregations should look to what they have and reconsider the role of the church in transforming the spiritual, social, and economic situation of the community.

I have been involved in the Use Your Talents project since 2013, and I have observed that Matthew 25:14-30 is accepted as the basis of the project. Moreover, I have experienced that the congregations are active in evangelization but unenthusiastic in fulfilling the physical needs of humans (caring for sick, feeding the hungry, and so forth). Therefore, I wanted to do an exegesis of the text with the purpose of finding out its mean in context, and to analyze how the text is understood and applied in the SWS congregations. This book aims to present a proper use of talents, so that congregations can enhance their involvement in addressing human physical needs by using their talents.

1.4. THE HOLISTIC THEOLOGY OF REV. GUDINA TUMSA AND USE YOUR TALENTS MOVEMENT

The holistic theology of Rev. Gudina Tumsa was about serving the whole person. He worked on the interrelation between proclamation and human development. Practically, he was so concerned for the self-reliance of the church and against the dependence of the church on foreign funding and personnel and envisioned the church as independent within 20 years. According to his view, congregations could play a vital role in supporting EECMY structures instead of relying on external aid. Likewise, Rev. Gudina challenged the partners of EECMY regarding the imbalance between financial support for development compared to evangelism. Significantly, he also promoted the moratorium, which refers to withdrawal of the church from foreign funding and personnel, which became an ecumenical agenda. He also promoted justice, dignity, and the role of the church in community development, though the education and health centers of the church were taken by the communist regime of Ethiopia. As I already mentioned, less attention had been given to the vision of Rev. Gudina by the of EECMY leadership; thus, economic crises continued until the failure of some structures of the work.