Sharing the Gospel, The Good News of Jesus Christ, is the primary purpose of Ethiopian Christian Ministries. To date, 98 churches have been planted in Ethiopia. Each church is self-sustaining -- after one year of support from our ministry, each member's tithes fund the hiring of a pastor and securing a location for worship.

Each of our churches embrace common congregational values. Congregational values are those uncompromising principles that will guide congregations through good times and bad. The values we hold to are:

Worship - Gathering together joyfully, reverently and faithfully to praise God.

Discipleship - Growing in the grace of Christ through prayer, study, and doing God’s will in all things.

Fellowship - Sharing together and serving one another as a nurturing and expanding community of God’s love.

Witness - Proclaiming by word and deed the good news of God’s salvation, and supporting those in like mission.

Ministry - Working for God’s justice, mercy and peace in the church, the community and in all creation.

Stewardship - Giving boldly of and managing wisely God’s spiritual and material gifts through sacrificial service.

By any standard, the success of planting churches in Ethiopia over the last 14 years under the leadership and supervision of Benyamen Yusuf has been phenomenal. Beny believed that if he could support a church planter for a year, a sufficient number of new converts could be gathered and the church could be self-supporting. The first several individuals that Beny employed were paid out of his own personal salary. Beginning in Harar, his home town, 48 was the number of

people Beny felt it would take for the new church to be able to stand on its own. The church planter was paid $100.00 per month. The goal was met by the grace and power of God at work calling people to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and the church planting ministry has grown steadily ever since.

Today there are 97 churches all over the country, with a total membership surpassing 13,000. A recent church conference drew 2,000 participants. In late September, the 98th new church was begun with, for the first time, a woman pastor. Now collectively called From the Heart Church Ministries, in May of 2004 Beny was surprised and humbled by the leadership of the churches when they voted to make him the “Overseer” of the entire group.

In only one instance was a new church planting project unsuccessful. When asked what has been the most important thing that he has learned about church planting over the years, Beny responded that it has been hard to screen people, to find those who really have a call and are not just looking to be employed.