Our First Ethiopian PC Graduation
An update from Josh Pannell, Dean of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia…
Since our inception as a church, Michael Granger (our lead pastor) and I have been eager to begin training Ethiopian men for pastoral ministry, which is why this update excites me so much. Our first class of the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College just graduated! This is a massive answer to prayer, and I am grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness.
In the past 12 months, these men went to over 1000 hours of classes, read over 12,000 pages, and wrote over 250 pages in final assignments. They completed a year in seminary Greek and sentence diagramed 1 John 1 in Greek. In addition to this, they attended weekly elders meetings, conducted membership interviews, taught Sunday School classes, sat in on biblical counseling meetings, and preached on Sunday mornings. Not an easy year, but so very rewarding!
I could tell you amazing stories from all of these brothers (they are indeed a gift from the Lord!). Allow me to introduce you to just a few of them:
Mohammed (Back Row, Far Right): Mohammed (not his actual name) is a Somali believer. Somalis are 99.9% Muslim. He’s a walking miracle! He has been imprisoned 14 times for preaching the gospel. He has a current ministry organizing Somali believers into churches and mobilizing evangelistic efforts toward Muslims. He desires to continue to help strengthen the Somali church in Addis and eventually return to Somalia with a partner to establish healthy Somali churches.
Amani (Back Row, Third From the Left): Amani gave up a promising career at Ethiopian Airlines to invest fully in our church and pastors college, and invest fully he has! In addition to our studies, Amani has preached twice at Trinity Fellowship and assisted Michael regularly in counseling meetings. Amani is a gifted preacher and a compassionate counselor. He hopes to lead a church plant out of Trinity Fellowship in the upcoming years.
Sammy (Back Row, Far Left): Sammy is one of our brightest. He desires to pursue further theological studies and is already applying for MtH programs. After that, he hopes to teach at our pastors college so that he might invest in the future pastors of Ethiopia long-term.
Yeabtsega (Front Row, Second from the Left): Yeabtsega is also sharp theologically. He won our Academic Award after graduating with a 3.99 GPA. He desires both to church plant and to start a theological training center among unreached people groups in the Horn of Africa.
AB (Back Row, Second from the Left): AB won our Leadership Award at graduation after the students agreed he demonstrated the greatest degree of Christ-like leadership throughout the year. AB is a talented musician and has served as our worship leader at Trinity Fellowship since it began. TFPC has greatly strengthened him both in his theology and pastoral gifting. In addition to continuing to lead worship on Sundays, AB wants to produce gospel-centered music in Amharic (the local language). His goal is to write songs that are easily singable in church and so impact the Ethiopian church at large.
God is doing something unique here in Addis Ababa, and it’s incredible to see him so clearly at work. We’re already looking forward to the 2023-2024 TFPC class, and I pray that we will still be sending out pastors to plant and strengthen churches hundreds of years from now.
Please note that Josh Pannell is fully funded by overseas support in these endeavours, as a traditional missionary, and is presently looking to raise support to cover expenses for the next two years. If you’d like to hear more about this, and potentially support the Pannell family with a gift, then please click here.