"All I Have is Christ"

An update from Josh Pannell, Dean of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia…

Trinity Fellowship is growing because God is faithful to build His church, and in His wisdom, He's chosen to gather those often shunned by society to be recipients of his saving grace. Indeed, as I look out at our members on Sunday morning, I’m reminded that we're a church of outcasts. I absolutely love that because this is precisely what the first followers of Jesus looked like. Men and women who truly know what it means to say “all I have is Christ” because they have left everything to follow him.

Many of our members come from backgrounds in mainstream prosperity gospel churches, and have now found a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ at Trinity Fellowship. One woman, deeply entrenched in the prosperity gospel and battling severe depression, was tormented by the sound of multiple voices in her head. But during one of our services, as the gospel was preached, all those voices silenced, replaced by one singular, clear and gentle voice. It called her by name and urged, "it's time to stop running." That day, as she embraced Jesus Christ, she found deliverance from her mental anguish and, more importantly, the chains of sin. That evening, she eagerly shared her testimony and the gospel with her siblings and cousins. To our joy, they too embraced Christ, which eventually led to the conversion of their parents as well.

Another man became an outcast even in his own family for choosing the true gospel over the prosperity gospel. After coming to believe the genuine gospel, he made the decision to leave his prosperity gospel church and join Trinity Fellowship. His wife, however, believed that moving away from the prosperity gospel meant forfeiting God’s blessings. This man tried to share the gospel with his wife, but tensions only grew. After heart-wrenching counselling sessions with us, she decided to divorce him, believing she'd be closer to God's favor without him. He remains with us, a testament to his sacrifice for the gospel.

Beyond a prosperity gospel background, we have other members who have left their former lives to embrace Jesus Christ. We have those from multi-generational Ethiopian Orthodox families, families once at the forefront of persecuting Protestants. Yet, in a divine twist, now their children find solace in the very Jesus their families once persecuted. Similarly, Muslim converts, now shunned by their own communities, find community with us. A man who joined Trinity Fellowship was recently stoned for his faith in Christ, leading to an 80% hearing loss. He now desires to join our pastors college so that he can more effectively share the gospel with those who sought to kill him.

Another member who had her roots in animism shared with us that her grandmother, a practicing witch doctor, killed this member’s mother through voodoo. In the midst of such darkness, she discovered the redemptive power of Christ. Truly, God’s saving grace knows no bounds!

Another group of social outcasts are the secular music artists in Addis. The Protestant church in Ethiopia has historically shunned secular music, labelling it sinful. We've been privileged to see a growing number of Christian secular artists finding a home at Trinity Fellowship.

Along with these wonderful stories of conversions, we baptized 11 new converts this past May. This gathering of social outcasts, bound by a single faith in the true Gospel, paints a beautiful portrait of the saving mercy of Jesus Christ.

This growth has been a wonderful blessing but has also brought with it new challenges. Our current meeting space can fit only 200 chairs, many of which have been purchased through the faithful tithes of our members. In our recent Sundays, our gatherings have been so large that every chair is full and around 15-20 people find themselves sitting on the floor in the back. And so, we’ve been on the hunt for a new building for the past several months.

There’s no Zillow.com here in Addis, so looking for a building means hopping in a car, driving around, and asking, “has anyone checked that one yet?” It’s exhausting and time consuming, but we’re so grateful to see our members and pastoral interns step up and spend entire weeks dedicated solely to searching for a new meeting location. One of our biggest challenges when looking for a building in the past was that most of the real estate in Addis is owned by Muslims, who are unwilling to rent to Christians, and that continues to be a challenge. We’ve experienced everything from outright refusals, to requests that we pay $12,000 USD per month for rent.

After several months of searching we found a movie theater with the capacity to seat 600 people, and we were told that the owner, though Muslim, was interested in renting to us. It seemed as though the Lord was orchestrating everything perfectly. The theater was equipped with a projector, sound systems, and a Sunday rental option that fit within our budget. However, after the owner visited one of our church services, he pulled out of the agreement last minute after seeing our strong emphasis on the blood of Christ during our preaching.

Amid these challenges, God has opened another door. We're currently in conversations about a potential meeting spot that can hold about 500 individuals. This building is owned by Lutherans, so we’ve been more hopeful from the beginning. While our conversations are progressing at what one might call "the pace of Ethiopia," which means things are moving a tad slower than we're accustomed to, we remain hopeful. We're optimistic that by the end of the year, we'll be worshiping in this new space.

As we walk this path, we deeply covet your prayers. Please intercede for us that this lease process may finalize smoothly, that we would find favor in the eyes of our potential landlords, and that this space might be a home for us for the foreseeable future, until God guides us to a permanent location.