Project Description
The pre-1990 period Ethiopia was characterized by a repressive communist regime that deprived Evangelical Christians their rights to exercise their faith. Churches faced sever persecution and their activities were limited to underground and home-based worship. Many Evangelical Christians fled the country through every available route. Through all these times of trial, churches
around the world stood insolidarity with Ethiopian believers, remembering them with their prayers and also providing them with financial and material support. The 1990s saw the crumbling of communist ideologies across the world, resulting in unprecedented and far reaching socio-economic, political and cultural changes. These winds of change swept our country Ethiopia too, leading to a regime change in 1991 from repressive communist system to a democratic and free economic system. This divine and historic incident irreversibly changed the spiritual landscape in the country, wide opening the door for evangelism unseenin its long history. It became possible to openly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the different nationalities, tribes and language groups. The era of underground worship come to an end and churches grew in membership, local churches and geographic coverage. A numberof new churches were established in a short period of time, notable among these was the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Church. In the wake of government change in Ethiopia in 1991, Ethiopian Evangelical Christians who have been residing in neighbouring Kenya established the Addis Ababa Bible College in 1995 under the umbrella of the Assemblies of God Church. After years of prayer and preparation, these Ethiopian returnees established the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Church (Ye-Ethiopia Gubae Egziabher Church) at the Ethiopian Conference Center in August 1996. It was a time when the hunger for God by men and women, young and old from all walks of life engulfed the country. Church membership grew exponentially beyond everyone’s expectations. Hundreds of new converts flocked every Sunday and discipleship classes were packed to capacity all the time. The three thousand capacity conference center couldn’t accommodate the whole congregation anymore for Sunday services. The Sunday worship grew to three services, two services in the morning and one in the afternoon. In addition the mid-week service on Wednesday and a teaching service on Saturday were introduced to cope with the growing number and spiritual needs of believers. While work was being done tirelessly at the main Church at the conference center, new local churches were being planted in Addis and regional towns. The extraordinarily fast growth in the Church triggered the need for constructing a worship center that is conveniently located in the center of the City, having enough space to accommodate at least ten thousand believers at once, and has necessary facilities such as children’s services, sufficient parking, audiovisual and publicising centers, offices for charity and development work and the theology school. The then leadership worked tirelessly to secure land and construct a convention center that could solve the Church’s problem forever. By the grace of God, the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Church secured a total of 19,268m2 land on a lease basis in downtown Addis, Lideta Sub City, sufficient to undertake construction of the Convention Center as well as an eight storey multi-purpose building. The total project cost is estimated at ETB 360 million (USD19 million)
Significance of the Project
Construction of the planned convention center and multi-purpose building will have a number of benefits to the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Church in particular and Evangelical Churches in Ethiopia in General. Some ofthe benefits are briefly presented as follows:
It will be a land mark
Some three decades ago church buildings and other properties were nationalized by the state and turned in to offices in order to eliminate organized religion in the county. However, the last twenty years saw massive growth in evangelical Christianity in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 housing and population census of Ethiopia, out of a total population of 80 million, Evangelical Christians constituted about 18%. Despite this huge growth in number,many of the churches conduct their services in rented buildings which are becoming more expensive and usually not convenient. The construction of the convention Center will be a testament to God’s intervention and mercy to his people by bringing out His Church from the shadow to a place where everyone could see.The Convention Center will serve as a testimony to Evangelical Churches around the world that their prayers are answered. Accessible to believers and creates huge opportunity for evangelism
The Lideta Area where the convention center is to be built is one of the oldest parts of the City. The Addis Ababa City Administration has been undertaking land development projects in the area in the last couple of years. The whole area has been transformed from a shantyslum in to a modern high rise condominium apartment. At the end ofthe development project, there will be tens of thousands of new households. Furthermore, the area is located in the center of the City making it easy for believers to come and worship from all directions. The Construction of the convention center will not only make it a convenient worship center for believers in the vicinity, but also create a huge opportunity to the Church to reach out to unbelieversin and around the Lideta area. Convenient for Crusades and National Prayer Meetings
Ethiopian Evangelical Churches have very limited options for spacious conference centers. The National Stadium, the Exhibition Center and the Millennium Hall are frequently used for crusades, prayer and worship by evangelical Christians in Addis Ababa. As these places are not constructed for church services they are inconvenient in terms of security, seating arrangement, sound systems, sound interferences, etc. In addition, Churches pay exorbitant fees because these are the only places that can accommodate more than 5,000 people. The construction of the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Convention Center will solve the severe lack of convenient worship center for mass gathering at affordable fee. An alternative conference center
Addis Ababa is the diplomatic capital of Africa and hosts the fourth largest diplomatic mission in the world. The City is the seat of the African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa.There are also a number of international agencies and offices of regional and continental bodies. Conference tourism is growing fast and Addis is becoming the preferred destination. As a result, the City is now frequently described as center for conference tourism in Africa. The construction of the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Convention Center will contribute in solving the shortage of conference centers in the country by hosting meetings whose agendas do not contradict with the Church’s mission and statement of faith. Share company business model is expanding in the country recently. Banks,Insurance Companies, Cement Industries, Agro-processing and Real Estates that are organized in the form of Share Company have thousands of shareholders. They are legally required to conduct annual shareholder’s meetings. Meeting halls with a capacity of 10,000 and more are in short supply in Addis Ababa. Some of such meetings could be conducted at the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Convention Center. The income generated from such services could be used in evangelism, aid and development work. The Number of students graduating from public and private higher education institutions is increasing from time to time. The problem of big meeting halls for conducting graduation ceremonies is more critical in Addis Ababa where the largest numbers of tertiary level students are concentrated. The convention center could be one of the best options for private higher education institutions to conduct their graduation ceremony. Enables the Church to undertake Aid and Development work efficiently
The Ethiopian Assemblies of God Aid and Development Association is the development wing of the Church’s mission engaged in helping people with the principle of reaching the soul and feeding the body and mind. Since its establishment in the year 2000, the Association has been working to fulfill the great commission by integrating the mission of the Church with the needs of the poor and destitute segment of the community. Currently, the Association operates through rented buildings. The Construction of the convention center and multi-purpose eight storey building will create an environment where the Aid and Development work is undertaken efficiently, enabling it to offer its best to its beneficiaries. Training and Education
The Addis Ababa Bible College is a subsidiary of the Ethiopian Assemblies of God Church. Currently the college offers Bachelors’ degree indifferent fields to evangelical believers. The school will commence offering Masters Programs in near future. The completion of the convention center and building project will enable the college to increase its capacity and meet the growing demand for theology courses both within and outside the church. Furthermore, the facility could be used to offer short term trainings for fulltime servants working across the country. Audiovisual and Publications Center
In this age of information technology, traditional approaches where spiritual life depended only on attending Sunday services is unsustainable. Sermons, songs, book and other spiritual resources are made accessible to those in need wherever they are though the Internet and Satellite Television. Such services demand a high quality audiovisual production, printing and publication capacity. The convention Center under construction will
