Growing a Seminary in Ethiopia:
a Triumph of Faith in an uneasy Odyssey, 1994-2024
About the Book
At the invitation of the Meserete Kristos Church, the author and his companion leave comfortable positions in Nairobi, Kenya, to assist in establishing a “Christian liberal arts college” in Ethiopia. They find a nation in abject poverty, slowly recovering from seventeen years of war and Marxist revolutionary misrule.
They find a nascent church, growing at 17% per annum among a deeply depressed and disillusioned population. Stripped of all her institutions and physical assets by the former Dergue regime, the liberated church was starting over. Opening a small Bible institute in 1994, the church envisioned it becoming a tertiary level college.
This autobiographical memoir is a missionary story of expatriate participants attempting to relate to an established church in a culture vastly different than their own. They find that assisting local leadership to achieve their goals can be challenging, especially when visions change, and disagreements arise.
It is a human story of cultural clashes, personality conflicts, misunderstandings, changing visions, adapting to changing external developments over a thirty-year period. It is a Christian story of “going the second mile,” of repentance, of forgiveness, of reconciliation. It is a faith story, of relying upon God, of God’s timing, of God’s faithfulness in protection and provision.
This is a success story; the small Bible institute becomes a seminary with thousands of graduates leading and blessing a vibrant growing church that is blessing the nation.
The events of this story took place in the environs of Addis Ababa and Bishoftu, Ethiopia, over a thirty-year period, between 1994 and 2024.
MK Bible Institute - First Diploma Class, Nov. 1994
MK Seminary Graduating Class May 2023
First rented campus - office & classroom
Emebet Mekonen, business manager, dean
Pastor Siyoum Gebretsadik, first Principal 1994-95
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
This fascinating, eye-witness account of the birth and development of the 30-year-old Meserete Kristos College/Seminary had me both laughing and crying! I flashed back to my own memories as a child of pioneer missionaries Chester and Sara Jane Wenger. In 1961 I attended The Bible Academy which helped shape the vision for a "Christian liberal arts college."
Now to have this priceless first-hand account of the birth pangs, the clashing visions, the pressing needs and marvelous provisions, the misunderstandings, course corrections, and irksome delays is both agonizing and exhilarating. I couldn't help but think of T.S. Eliot's line of poetry, "a hundred visions and revisions … " But that's what following the Spirit looks like. "The wind blows where it will … " Sometimes it feels like a hurricane. But God is building his church! —Jewel (Wenger) Showalter, Communications & Development, Rosedale Bible College
This autobiography, thoughtfully and carefully written, is clear, concise and coherent. Above all it is written with honesty and integrity. I can't hide that there were tearful nights as I read this work, grappling with the past in which I shared. In bringing my buried wounds to the surface, I found this reflection therapeutic. — Dr. Hailu Cherenet Biru, Pastor of Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church, Los Angeles
Stories of the phenomenal growth of the Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia over recent decades, inspire many of us with awe. The story of Meserete Kristos College (Seminary), however, is one of conflicting visions, leadership challenges, broken contracts, cost escalations, destabilizing decisions, demoralized faculty/staff and a string of relational heartaches. Yet remarkably, it is also a story worthy of awe—for the gritty determination against great odds, and the unbelievably hard work and unflagging faith of coworkers who persisted despite no end of reasons to give up.
Carl Hansen has accompanied the school since its birth and nearly every painstaking inch of growth since. He tells the story with gritty honesty, from his perspective. He does so with resilient love—acknowledging profound disappointments, yes, but also the extraordinary triumphs. Above all, the story relays the joy of seeing the wondrous gifts and ministries of the college’s many graduates who have become champions for the Gospel.
I highly recommend this well-told memoir. It illustrates the immense human cost required to bring an educational vision to reality, and the incredible rewards when vision, leadership, teamwork and resources coalesce. As a sobering account, it will require much soul searching about how best to build a mission-driven, sustainable institution, but it will also provide cause for great rejoicing as the faithfulness of God and God’s people is on full display. —Dr. Sara Wenger Shenk, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, president emerita
Burdened with Ethiopia's chronic political unrest, tribal warring, and abject poverty, the Meserete Kristos Church (Mennonite) emerged from the oppression of a failed communistic military dictatorship to find itself flooded with newcomers seeking answers to questions that Communism and the political Dergue had failed to satisfy. Rising to provide trained leaders to shepherd the masses, the church opened a tiny Bible Institute in 1994. Today, that institute has become a seminary with over five hundred students enrolled in its undergraduate and graduate programs.
In this well-written memoir, the author recounts from his personal experiences the thirty-year struggles and successes that resulted in establishing a seminary in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. This is a compelling story about Christian faith-in-action, which, against great odds, has already produced 2,357 seminary graduates who are making a positive difference in Ethiopia's society. — T. Ralph Syre, Ph.D., Professor, James Madison University (retired)
What a story, a heroic saga to establish a school of higher learning in Ethiopia by the Meserete Kristos Church. Planted with little more than a vision, a desperate need to train leaders, and courageous pioneers, 30 years later the school has a main campus, a couple of extension sites, and dozens of affiliated learning centers across the nation. But the story is not pretty. Bumps and bruises, delays and disappointments litter the ground. The original dream of an accredited college of the arts and sciences remains unrealized. Nonetheless, this is a story of unfailing hope and unlikely success. There at the planting, Carl Hansen tells a comprehensive and moving first-hand account over the years. Countless partners joined the pioneers to water, cultivate, fertilize, and prune the planting with creativity and faithfulness. No doubt about it: God has produced the resulting growth and a bountiful harvest for his kingdom. — Dr. Mark R. Wenger, LMC Bishop, and Faculty Mentor with Kairos University
“Something there is that does not love a wall." These words by the poet Robert Frost capture well the remarkable story of the Meserete Kristos College (now Seminary), that has helped shape the theological formation of several thousand church leaders in the fastest-growing Anabaptist church in the world. Told from the perspective of Carl E. Hansen, a long-term North American administrator, missionary, and advocate for the school, this narrative testifies to the patience, tenacity, and generosity that led to the formation of the Meserete Kristos Church’s seminary without flinching from the many conflicts, misunderstandings, and disappointments that were also part of the story. A welcome contribution to the growing field of global Anabaptist historiography. — Dr. John D. Roth, Project Director, Anabaptism at 500 (MennoMedia), Professor of History emeritus (Goshen College)