State of the local church in Ethiopia?

Hello my name is Abraham and I am from Eritrea and meet the recovery overseas. I will not mind posting an introduction later in detail but I was wondering how is the current situation of the local church in Ethiopia? I know a brother who use to be in the local church in Ethiopia and he told me that there was huge turmoil or something like this (probably in Addis). He said that there was a big problem and the turmoil was devestating.

What happened to the local church in Ethiopia? Did the issue start in Addis?

Lastly is the local church growing or declining in Ethiopia at this point in time? I have a hard time believing Ethiopia would accept the ministry due to huge belief difference. I talked to this brother over 1 year ago so this issue was before that conversation at the time. Thank you for your time.

[aron]

In a 2017 article, Nigel Tomes cites an article -Yi Liu, “Globalization of Chinese Christianity:,” Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 30(1) (April, 2016) p. 108 - and says

Originally Posted by Nigel Tomes

Dr. Liu reports that “there are 1,500 [LSM Local Church believers] in Ghana, 800 in Nigeria, and 200 in South Africa.” Is that all? No other African countries are listed. Plus the number for Ghana (1,500) is highly suspect. The grand total for the whole continent of Africa is 2,500 Local Church members! Global data indicate there are 487M Christians in Africa.

Interesting that the 2016 article doesn't list LSM-affiliated Christians in Ethiopia. A casual search on the internet shows a video from the Full Time Training in Addis. First frames says, "Started August 2016, 24 males 6 females". So if there were 30 full time trainees in the video dated July 2017, how could a scholarly article from 2016 say there were no LSM-affiliated Christians? And how could Tomes overlook this? Seems like he didn't do any independent search, to see how many people in Africa are affiliated w LSM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLSv6uz3eig

Another website is

https://livingtohim.com/2018/06/urge...pe-and-africa/

And says "The church life in Ethiopia began with 50 college students in Addis Ababa in 2001, and has since grown to 350 saints in Addis Ababa, as well as over 20 other localities where saints are meeting throughout the country. In addition, a Full-time Pursuing training began in August 2016, and by the end of June, 58 saints will have passed through at least one year of training."

Not sure why Nigel Tomes wouldn't have tried to get better numbers than the article cited, if that's the subject of his paper.

Elsewhere in the article he says

Originally Posted by Nigel Tomes

“Blessing in the 1st generation, Organization in the 2nd,...Degradation in the 3rd”—W. Nee

Watchman Nee had remarkable acumen. One example was his identification of a repeating cycle of restoration/ degradation in Christian history. Watchman Nee observed a pattern that:

“A person receives much grace and blessing from the Lord...After his generation passes away, the second generation remains somewhat good. But...men...say, ‘...We should form an organization to carry on and maintain this grace.’ By the second or third generation, organization comes in...They believe that God is the Giver of grace, but they do not believe that God is also the Preserver of grace...As a result, human... ways and means are introduced in an effort to maintain the blessing...This cycle repeats itself: blessing in the first generation, organization in the 2nd generation, and degradation in the 3rd generation.”

Watchman Nee saw this pattern in Protestant Christianity and identified its fatal flaw.

When the Lord's Recovery sent emissaries to Africa, or when native Ethiopians got hold literature on "the way of recovery", it was already the third generation. There was no first generation in Ethiopia, or even a second. There was the intrusion of an organization purporting to serve the vision of the first generation. I find the irony in that Nee and the Little Flock were formed to throw off the imperialist yoke of the West, then 100 years later it's offshoot forms the spear-tip of imperialism in other countries.

The troubles that followed in Ethiopia were therefore on a compressed timeline, and as guest 'green' says, "The turmoil was devastating". There's the initial lure of the spirit and life, which to some degree may actually have blessed the first generation, but now the charisma is long gone. There is merely a corporation, a business, a number of bureaucrats coming in and selling products and services. That they shout and punch the air as they sell, is irrelevant.

Thank you brother Aaron. With all this information you provided I have to say that I am confused on the information I have from you and the saints. I have not had first hand experience of the local church in Ethiopia.

But saints always say that the local church is growing fast in Ethiopia and there is lots of energy. They also say they are constructing full time training in Ethiopia. Why are they doing all this for what you describe as a dying generation? Also I have heard that the ministry has a lot of negativity in Ethiopia due to the writings of Lee. So with the negative view of the ministry as well what you are telling me- why does the saints always make the growth in Ethiopia look so positive.

They always say they want to send full timers over there and expand the church but I have a hard time believing that they could freely expand. Cause everywhere they go people will know in due time the teachings of the Local church and the people will resist and they will only have small number total in the end.

Everything seems so confusing for me- I think the leaders in the local church might be purposely lying of the state of the local church in Ethiopia to drag more full timers over there or there is information I am missing that makes all of this confusing without it. Thank you for your time brother Aaron.

[aron]

There's a Chinese-language website called "Church News" and there's a page in it on February 2021 on North Africa, and Egypt.

https://churchnews.info/tag/africa/

Then there's a link to a website called The Lords Move to Africa

https://lmafrica.org and the Ethiopia page is dated from February 2020. Their datum:

No of churches: 5
No of saints in church life: 1500
No of saints attending table meeting: 500