Ascribe And Declare seeks to fulfill the Great Commission, Great Commandments, and Cultural Mandate in Ethiopia by preaching the Word of God, teaching them how to obey Christ in every area of life, and caring for people’s physical needs—thus, attending to the whole person—primarily through training pastors to lead, feed, know, and protect their sheep and teaching their flocks to take dominion for Christ in all areas of life and society.
Our holistic ministry vision is rooted in the biblical conviction that God’s Kingdom extends over all things spiritual and physical. Evangelism is not done at the expense of good works, rather they are two sides of the same coin. As a family, we are heeding our King’s call to take dominion of every sphere on earth for Christ. We believe the Christian mandates are more than spiritual and encompass all of life—from the heart outward to society and ultimately affecting all things. We believe that, because the Messiah has authority over the earth (not Satan) and the Spirit has come, the gospel will succeed in the world and God’s glory will extend throughout the earth as the water covers the seas.
Our mission aligns with Disciple Nations Alliance’s foundational truths. You really should read them. They are really good. 🙂
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Our goal is not mere knowledge. But knowledge that penetrates the heart and produces abundant life in God’s people. These trained pastors are then equipped to lead, feed, care for, and protect their flocks or be sent out all over Ethiopia as local missionaries to their own people.
Our goal is to write and translate small contextualized materials into local languages that will help literate leaders train their flocks in the whole counsel of God so they can obey all that Christ commanded in every area of life. Oromo and Tigray pastors have almost zero access to profitable Christian literature to aid them in discipleship and sermon prep. Literature is also vital in preserving culture and language.
Ministry is not always efficient or strategic. Sometimes, we just get our hands dirty, literally, to love people. Sit with them, pray for them, provide for them, help them, eat with them, educate them, and share the love of Christ with them. The gospel is the key to human flourishing and God’s kingdom is the grounds.
Our goal is not just to proclaim Christ to these people and then abandon them. Our aim is to plant missionaries and pastors among these groups that will stay for the long haul and disciple them how to truly live out all that Christ commanded them for God’s glory and their good.
Come out to the wilderness, the place where God tests and trains his people. Our heart is to encourage people to join God’s work among the nations; at home or in a foreign land. While here, they can grow in their faith and knowledge of themselves and God’s Word. Ethiopia is fertile ground for discovering ways God can use you in his Kingdom and participating in ministry at the same time. (Launching in 2025)
The Bible is filled with military metaphors because God’s Kingdom advances and functions in similar ways. There must be people at home working to fund the efforts, sending their sons and daughters, training to go into battle. There must be a plethora of support teams running communications, feeding and clothing the troops, managing logistics. There there are troops that wage war, win skirmishes, take dominion.
So, we believe Christians should go to tough places (hot deserts, sweaty jungles, hostile people groups), but go wisely. Armies do not advance by sending a small group of snipers on a ten-year covert mission to take out a battalion deep into enemy territory alone. They would fail. Likewise, in general, the average missionary family ought not run haphazardly into isolated and stifling places, out-numbered ten million to one, where they toil for 20 years with no fruit and eventually burn out only to come off the field with PTSD. Of course, there is a place for sniper teams, but they must be highly trained and deployed strategically. Soldiers do not live in the battle zone alone long-term and the average missionary cannot thrive there either. Their families suffer, they suffer, and the locals suffer all due to a lack of missionary preparation and wisdom. This is preventable to a large degree.
Rather, nations are discipled slowly through collective advancement. We believe in sending more missionaries in teams to less-reached places near the front lines but where they still have Christian support and resources. Set up barracks, boot camps, and field hospitals in safe “reached” zones, yet strategically close to the “unreached” battle zones. Thus, our missionaries can be educated, equipped, and supported for entrenchment in a foreign land on the field. They have a place where their families can thrive while they work with other local believers to infiltrate enemy territory. The national people make the best missionaries.
As a body, we must begin thinking about the long game. Advancing together slowly could spare much heartache and unfruitful toil and potentially increase the fruit of our collective labors.
Ethiopia is not a “reached” land (despite what some people group maps say). There are roughly 38 unreached people groups in Ethiopia, some of them populated in the millions. These lost people are in desperate need of missionaries who bring the gospel and establish strong churches. Ethiopia is strategic to the advancement of the Kingdom into North Africa because it lays directly on the 10/40 window.
The following are reasons we consider Ethiopia to be a highly strategic place for us to live and work out of.
Since Christianity is expanding in Ethiopia, along with its population, kingdom impact here will only grow—and so, the need for theological education will continue to increase. The Protestant church is rapidly expanding, but overrun with the Prosperity Gospel, the church is a mile wide and an inch deep. The Ethiopian Protestant evangelical church is vulnerable and needs solid training so it is not engulfed by competing theologies like the prosperity anti-gospel or even other religions like Islam. Less-reached places are ideal for theological education since it is most needed in places where the gospel is present yet weak. Teaching pastors in these burgeoning locations is safe and fruitful. We can then send out trained local pastors and leaders into the outlying areas as missionaries to their own people, and people with fewer barriers than white folks.
The southern border of the 10/40 window cuts Ethiopia in half. Although man-made lines do not determine where God is or is not working, it does correlate with a current reality. Even granting Carlson and Clark’s stance on ethnos, the large majority of the population is “unreached potential.” Though Protestant Christianity in Ethiopia is expanding, it is still only around 18% and those people groups are largely in the southern region and concentrated in the capital city, Addis Ababa. The north and east are almost entirely unreached. Plus, Ethiopia is bordered by nations such as Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and the Sudans.
In Ethiopia, nearly 80 people groups have less than 10% Evangelical believers and 38 are entirely “unreached.”
According to Joshua Project, there are 129 people groups in Ethiopia and although most are labeled Christian they are predominantly Orthodox. Furthermore, there still remain nearly 80 groups that have less than 10% Protestant evangelical believers, with 38 being entirely “unreached.” This leaves 96.4 million people in need of gospel witness, and thus, theological education.
As missionaries, we know that numbers are deceiving and unreliable. But I would argue that often on the ground it is far worse since these numbers are subject to error and can only track “professing” Christians. Regardless of the Joshua Project’s accuracy, Ethiopia is perfectly situated for the strategic expansion of Christianity to closed and unreached peoples—internally and externally. Its proximity to Somalia and northern Africa provides unlimited potential for scouting new sites in “closed” areas on the ground that are inaccessible otherwise. Our heart is not only to train local church leaders/pastors but to train up indigenous long-term missionaries to carry the gospel to locations our white skin is unable to inhabit.
Ethiopia is in desperate need of the gospel in every area—spiritually, physically, economically, mentally, and socially. Between the training opportunities and social needs, the ministry potential is unlimited. In fact, rather than trying to keep busy, one must put Sabbath rests in place and guard family time. If a person is looking to hit the ground running, look no further.
Africans are culturally friendly. And over time, my family has developed deep and wide relationships with many people here in Ethiopia. Having firmly established (and delightful) relationships with the local church leaders and several denominations is essential. If one relationship ends for any reason, there is still potential for growth because our ministry is not dependent on one person for its viability. In other words, the risk of losing our work in Ethiopia is slim to none because of the current and potential friendships.
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'”