Orthodox Lutherans on the Frontlines of Advancing the Gospel

Rev. John Lomperis is Director of Education and Development for Petros Network

Amidst Lutheranism’s many recent challenges, we must celebrate where faithful Lutherans continue making a great difference for Jesus Christ. 

The world’s largest, reportedly fastest-growing Lutheran denomination is the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY).  Its membership of 12 million is roughly twice as large as all American Lutherans and many more than all Lutherans in the historic strongholds of Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Iceland, and Latvia combined. The EECMY, also known as the Mekane Yesus Church, is in full communion with the North American Lutheran Church, and hosted the 2018 Global Confessional & Missional Lutheran Forum, where leaders of the EECMY, NALC, Lutheran CORE, and other faithful Lutheran bodies developed a declaration of shared orthodox Lutheran faith.

Meanwhile, Petros Network has developed a proven methodology of working with theologically orthodox Protestant denominations in Ethiopia to train and equip their church planters to make disciples and establish denominationally connected, financially self-sustaining congregations, entirely in “unreached” areas.  These are often places where people have never heard the Gospel.  On average, these new churches each plant 2.5 additional “second-generation” new congregations within a few years. 

Petros Network has launched some 200 church planters with the EECMY, one of our strongest early partners.  Together, we are seeing many members of Ethiopia’s large Muslim population come to Christ and become Lutherans.  Some Mekane Yesus church planters are themselves former Muslims.  One of this partnership’s female church planters, Kutebe, lost everything when she left Islam.  But she boldly spread the Gospel in a very difficult location, dominated by Islam and devastated by civil conflict, so that her Lutheran church plant grew from zero to 18 baptized members within just two years! 

The Mekane Yesus Church requires all of its church planters to affirm standard Lutheran doctrine (the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds plus the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, Book of Concord, and Martin Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms). 

Bringing the Gospel into long-unreached areas means working in contexts of extreme poverty, malnutrition, isolation, and civil unrest.  Petros Network’s holistic approach alleviates both spiritual and physical poverty.  Through sustainably productive gardens and livestock projects, church planters are trained to multiply food security and income, training others and transforming entire communities.  For example, one Mekane Yesus church planter has led neighbors to start 16 new community gardens, through which 14 men, 18 women, and 11 children are now being trained in sustainable farming practices.  With the Mekane Yesus Church and other partners, Petros Network has trained over 17,622 individuals in sustainable farming, bringing holistic uplift that ripples through impoverished villages.

Church planters work in close connection with Petros Network’s humanitarian initiatives bringing micro-economic development, sustainable agriculture, health care, clean water, and provision for children in areas of desperate need.  One EECMY church planter helped establish a benevolent association to provide for elderly neighbors who often have no means of support.  One Petros Network women’s economic empowerment program meets in a church of the EECMY’s North-Central Ethiopia Synod.  This program benefits the whole community by equipping and training women to start successful small businesses so that they can sustainably provide for their families.  While there was much distress over the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently pulling back from this impoverished border region, Petros Network has remained there with our Mekane Yesus and other partners. 

The EECMY has further suffered severe financial limitations after its faith-filled decision to break longstanding ties with the national leadership of the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), over these former partners’ unrepentantly liberalized approach to Scriptural authority and marriage. 

Despite many challenges, our Mekane Yesus brothers and sisters remain eager to make the most of what resources are available to continue spreading the love of Jesus and growing confessional Lutheranism among some of the poorest, remotest corners of the planet.  As they pursue their holy mission, they welcome greater connections with North American Lutherans who have remained orthodox. 

Rev. Wagnew Andarge shares that the aforementioned North-Central Synod, of which he is president, “is profoundly grateful for our partnership with Petros Network, which has been instrumental in helping us to advance God’s Kingdom and make disciples among unreached people groups,” but that “a great need remains, especially among those who have not yet heard the Good News, including many Muslims and practitioners of traditional religions.” 

To learn more about the Mekane Yesus Church’s fruitful partnership with Petros Network and how you can get connected, please visit www.petrosnetwork.org/Lutheran