Pastor Paul Knudson

Come Over to Ethiopia and Help Us!

August 28, 2013 By Faith

Have you ever felt called to mission work overseas? The Augustana District is sending a delegation to Ethiopia to develop a partnership in mission with the Tabor Congregation in the southern city of Hawassa.

This mission trip is scheduled for January 9-19 and is intended to be a time for us to be inspired for witness by this dynamic community of Christians as we determine how we can walk with them in their mission. Read full information about this mission trip, and find an application form here.

Pastor Paul Knudson from Faith Lutheran Church is coordinating the trip and would love for one or two from Faith Lutheran to join him and several others on this mission venture. Applications for the trip are due by Sept. 15. Speak with Pastor Paul if you have interest in exploring this opportunity. 320-587-2093, [email protected].

Members from the Tabor Congregation in Ethiopia.

A conversation with Pastor Paul Knudson

July 10, 2012 By Faith

Pastor Paul Knudson from Faith Lutheran is the most recent guest on the Conversation Hub, a podcast created by one of Faith’s worship leaders, Marc Vaillancourt.

The conversation, is titled “Pastor Paul Knudson on the Church and Mission Work,” and comes on the heels of Paul’s recent mission trip to Ethiopia. Paul and Marc discuss Paul’s journey as a pastor, the state of the church in the western world and a few other topics.

You can listen to the full conversation by clicking here.

A Journey Ends, a Partnership Begins

June 6, 2012 By Faith

My journey to Ethiopia created life-long memories. If this trip was for personal inspiration, it would likely be but a fading memory by now. That, however, was never the reason I gave time and treasure to travel over 7,000 miles to a distant land.

This journey for me came from a sense of calling by God to give some form of leadership to an ever-so-important future partnership with one of this world’s fastest growing churches. The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), from its beginning in 1959 with 20,000 members until today with over 5.8 million members, has had a passion for reaching the lost for Jesus Christ. Their witness has always reached out to the poor and needy by addressing the needs of body and soul. They without apology have led with an evangelical witness calling people to faith in Jesus Christ.

For many years the EECMY was in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but the actions of the ELCA in its 2009 decision to support the ordination of gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships was a tipping point. In fact, for years this Ethiopian Church was not finding a partner in the ELCA that shared their deep commitment to bear witness to the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for all people. When the EECMY formally cut ties with the ELCA, they stepped out in faith that brothers and sisters in Christ in the Lutheran world wide family would stand with them in new partnerships.

To develop a new partnership was the reason why some twenty-five of us from Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and the North American Lutheran Church journeyed to this distant land. It became clear from our eleven days with them that this would be a two-way partnership. Their clear witness empowered by the Holy Spirit humbled and inspired us, while their needs for our help were also shared and are many.

My personal role is one of seeking to provide informal leadership in developing multiple networks of partnerships. One of them will be a partnership between the Augustana District of LCMC, of which Faith Lutheran Church is a leading congregation, and the Central Synod of EECMY.

You can expect to hear more about this in the months ahead. Please feel free to contact me. I will be more than happy to share the story, pictures and how our Lord may be calling us to yet another time of bold witness.

Written by Pastor Paul Knudson. Pastor Paul is a part-time pastor at Faith Lutheran Church and a board member on the Augustana District Board of World Missions.

Pastor Paul with others he traveled with in Ethiopia April 2012.

Call Waiting

March 28, 2012 By Faith

Faith Lutheran’s Pastor Paul Knudson supplied us with this month’s Pastor’s Page article about his upcoming travel to Ethiopia:

“Come over to Ethiopia and help us.” This call to us from the General Secretary of a vibrant, fast growing, 5.8 million member Ethiopian church was in some ways an unusual call. Indeed this national church body, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), filled with the Spirit, centered in Jesus Christ and anchored in God’s Word, is a People of God we need to ask to come and help us. The EECMY has added a half million members in the last two years alone. I know of no church body in any nation that has accomplished this! We need their help to bring a passion for Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered evangelical outreach back to Western Churches. The days of one way assistance are past. Nevertheless, this body of fellow believers is asking for our help.

This being said, representatives from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Cameroon, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark and other nations are coming together for mutual encouragement in an International Mission and Theological Conference from April 21-26 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

I am thrilled with the opportunity to join with Christian leaders from all these nations to explore the partnership God has in store for us as we walk together and seek to respond to this Macedonian call. I will be traveling to Ethiopia with representatives of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). We leave on April 18 and return April 30.

The EECMY, having severed ties with the ELCA, is looking to the international Lutheran community for help in preparing their pastors and evangelists for the many challenges they are facing in their fast-changing world. They recognize their need for being grounded in sound doctrine, Biblical knowledge and other leadership tools. Worshipping, learning together and simply spending time in substantive conversations over these days will prepare us all for effective responsiveness to their call for leadership development.

We in the Augustana District and our Board of World Missions in particular are playing a specific role leading up to this conference. For us to learn of the needs it will be important to have many pastors and evangelists from the EECMY to be able to come. To this end we are inviting anyone interested and able to respond to send one of these leaders to the conference. Your gift of $60 will send one of these indigenous leaders. To date we have received gifts enabling over 50 to attend.

I would covet your prayers for this event and that I might learn much. I look forward to reporting back to you upon returning.

In Christ,

Pastor Paul Knudson

Come Over to Ethiopia and Help Us!

A conversation with Pastor Paul Knudson

You can listen to the full conversation by clicking here.

A Journey Ends, a Partnership Begins

Call Waiting

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