The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

Coffee and Faith "The café serves Impact Coffee, a free-trade coffee from a village in Ethiopia. Two teenagers from inner city West Palm Beach run the company and split the profits between their ministry—Urban Youth Impact—and medical supplies they provide for high schools in the Ethiopian village. Just as the café is unconventional, so are the services. No one preaches a sermon. “We have discussions, a sort of the rabbinical form of teaching, so that we can have two-way communication,” says Black. Read More . NOTE: We would like to hear if Urban Youth Impact is still working with high schools in Ethiopia and if so, where in Ethiopia. Interesting that 'social impact coffee' ( here and here ) has gained some ground over the years. It is time someone did a thorough study of the impact!  

“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” [Gospel of Luke 18:1-8]

Pearl of Great Price The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Gospel of Matthew 13: 45

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ [I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”] Luke 18:10-14

Death of the Church By Mitiku Adisu Theology as a rational inquiry into the nature of God and his relationship to the world is an evolving science. Theologians are a breed apart (mostly men) whose theologizing is often reflective of their own socio-cultural milieu. The 1960s in Europe and North America were heady days when protesting against the church became fashionable and the ferment of the "God is dead" movement was at full throttle. Paradoxically, the cry petered out into charismatic and evangelical movements, albeit in their varied configurations. Nietzsche, the son of an evangelical Lutheran minister who uttered "God is dead," has been dead for over a century (in 1900 of madness). God, on the other hand, has never been more alive!  The discussion of the present and future may be turning toward ferreting out a "theology of extinction." "Extinction" is one attempt to find out why and how churches were emptied out in places like North Af