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Consider the fact that the President of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) grew up in a family that practiced Confucianism and ancestor worship, and that MWC's Vice President was raised a Muslim. What makes a leader in the Mennonite world today? Apparently not the length -- or the entanglement -- of one's roots in a Mennonite family tree.      Bedru Hussein of Ethiopia, now in his fourth year as Vice President of Mennonite World Conference, carries three striking qualities -- a giant stillness that is almost tangible, a view of leadership that bears consideration, and a coming-to-Christ that one might be tempted to call an accident.      "My parents were very ardent Muslims," he explains. And so they raised him to be as well. From them he learned that what one believes, one lives. "My parents were very pious; they held monthly religious meetings in our home. My father was also recruited as a soldier."      Believing that their son was securely fixed in their Muslim faith, Bedru's parents sent him at the age of five to an Orthodox priests' school so would have a better education. "There I was introduced to the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments." Somewhere between his Muslim upbringing and his brush with Christianity, Bedru remembers that "I began to want to thank God. And there was a low voice that I heard, urging me to keep the Ten Commandments."      One day on the playground during recess, a handful of paper fragments swirled over 13-year-old Bedru's feet. One of the torn papers particularly attracted his attention. "On it, in English, was part of the rich young ruler's story. Who is Jesus, I began to wonder. My classmates tried to explain a lot to me, but they couldn't seem to answer that question to my satisfaction."      Despite the displeasure of his family, Bedru continued his curiosity about Christianity through his teen years and into his university training. A Billy Graham film and University Christian Students' Fellowship brought him to a confession of Christian faith in 1966 when he was 18.      "I was part of the Ethiopian revival; the Lord was raising up Christians at that time. But hand-in-hand with that action was another by a group of students who were forming a Communist party. The two movements grew simultaneously."

Finding the Evangelists      Among its variety of degree and certificate programs, Meserete Kristos College offers one course that allows a trial run at mission work. Persons enroll in a six-week on-campus "One-Year-for-Christ" orientation. When they've completed that training, they go to "their various sponsoring churches to begin a one-year program of voluntary service for the Lord as evangelists.      "It will be a year of apprenticing, learning, and self-discovery. Their ministry will be evaluated, and, if their gifts are evident and if their efforts bear fruit, they will be appointed as full-time evangelists. If there is little fruit and their gifts seem to be elsewhere, they will move on to explore other careers" (Meserete Kristos College Newsletter, March, 2001).      Bedru reports that more than 300 young people have gone through the program, and that more than three-fourths of them have gone into church service.

A Developing View of Leadership
     From the beginning of his involvement with the Christian church, Bedru and his Christian compatriots realized that the work of the church could not be left primarily in the hands of a few select leaders. There were too many demands, too many needs, too many expectations. Teachers of the gospel were needed on university campuses where interest in a new approach to life was at a peak. But teachers were also in demand throughout the entire country where the church was growing and spreading. "When both students and faculty returned to their homes, they needed well-prepared churches to join," observes Bedru.
     Education has been his burden ever since. "Not all pastoral gifts can be in one person," he states emphatically. "The only way the church can grow is to involve all lay members." But preparation of church members has not been left to chance among Ethiopian Mennonites, with whom Bedru affiliated after he was hired as a teacher by a Mennonite high school in 1976.
     Not only was he an instructor in biology for six years in that school, but he began teaching "apologetics, especially to young people of Mennonite and other denominations." In that mix of professional and religious activity, Bedru demonstrated an ideal that has become a hallmark of the Meserete Kristos Church (MKC). "Members participate in every aspect of church life. Wherever an MKC member goes, he or she becomes a leader," Bedru explains. "It's part of the culture of our church life.
     "We believe in team leadership. And we believe in freeing the lay members. They are all 'priests'; each has a gift."
     The exercise of those gifts, however, is not left to chance. A careful system is in place to nudge members toward the areas where they can be most useful. Bedru, who acknowledges that his own abilities and experience lie in administration and teaching, helped to hatch the methods for involving everyone in particular responsibilities within the church.
     After 13 years as a biology teacher in one church school and two government schools, Bedru spent seven years as Executive Secretary of the Meserete Kristos Church. The experience as a church executive made him face the Ethiopian Mennonites' desperate need for trained pastors and leaders. In 1994, the Meserete Kristos College opened about 25 miles outside Addis Ababa, on the slope of a hillside where the city is fast approaching. At this point, courses are offered at a variety of levels in biblical and theological studies, especially for pastors and evangelists. The college's master plan calls for developing a Liberal Arts program, offering degrees in science, business administration, computer technology, nursing, and pharmacology.
     The formation of this major institution prompted Bedru himself to head back to school, this time in North America. In the fall of 1997, he said goodbye to his wife, Kelemework Belete, and his four half-grown children and enrolled in Eastern Mennonite Seminary's three-year Master of Divinity program. His studies "shaped my conceptualization of things, not just to go forward, but to see in all directions. I wanted to be introduced to the tools of theology and to add a level to what I had already experienced in the church."
     Bedru is now back in Ethiopia, appointed as Associate Principal of the Meserete Kristos College and teaching courses in leadership, administration, and missions.
     Leaders who leave their country for extended training in another culture, and then return home, have to deal with re-entry. So, too, do their home communities. Bedru spent most of each summer in Ethiopia while he was studying in the States for three years, and he and his family established regular times for a monthly phone call during the school year. But the strain can't be completely avoided. "Some persons may be hesitant; they may think I'm liberal for having studied in the States. But my convictions are the same, although my approach may now be somewhat different," he comments.

Ethiopian Mennonites Train Other Christians, Too
     The college is being noticed by other Christian groups. "We have some students from the Coptic Orthodox renewal movement," says Bedru. "We train them to return to their own churches." But MK College doesn't hide its particular emphases. "We have a peace stand. And that is part of our training for everyone. But we don't take sheep from other churches. We urge those leaders to stay in their churches. We can't make the whole church MKC!"
     Nor does he want to. He speaks of a "laxity" within the MKC and of an effort on the part of leadership to have membership and attendance requirements become more vigorous. "We have an open meeting on Sunday and cell group meetings once a week. Those who don't attend are followed up on."
     Bedru's years in North America gave him a close view of the Anabaptist-Mennonite churches there. "There is an individualistic attitude, but also a pluralistic attitude," he reflects. "People seem to think 'maybe this idea is good and that idea is good, and Jesus is one of many options.'
     "Church work is put heavily on the pastor. People are too busy to develop relationships. Pastors are kept on the move; people want something new; they seem to want entertainers rather than serious Bible teachers."

The Pastor's Proper Part
     He speaks softly but with firm conviction about what he believes are appropriate ways for the church to accomplish its tasks. "I think the Lord has given people to the church -- and each has a gift -- and they are all needed. A pastor can't have them all. A pastor can mobilize these gifts.
     "Pastors should present themselves to God; ask to sense the peoples' hearts; look for people who can be leaders; spend time with them; discover the Bible together; fellowship together; train the laity; fast and pray together; involve all in church life. The pastor's task is to mobilize." It is a theme with him.
     "Pastors ought to engage members in a meaningful way so they can experience the visiting of the Spirit." This Ethiopian leader explains the energy and boldness of his faith as a result of his "exposure to the baptism of the Holy Spirit." But he also thinks like an executive. "Too often there is no connection between seminary teaching -- and congregations. People without a calling come to seminary. They can't quote scriptures, but they come because they have the mental capacity. For some it's a profession. They market themselves in seminary.
     "If churches want to grow, they need to mentor young people from their congregations, visit them when they go away to school or work, bond with them, call them back to leadership."
     The strategy appears to be working. "The majority of our members are young people. We attract a lot of college students. We have a minister in Addis who cares for members who are in college. Every year we have 30-40 college students who become church leaders. "

A Practical Proposal
     When he's not deep into educational strategizing, Bedru dreams about Anabaptist-Mennonite churches from scattered places around the globe having intentional and meaningful interchange. "Why not have training institutes where Anabaptist-Mennonites from the Southern hemisphere and the Northern hemisphere come together to work at practical theology -- living, working, praying, studying, doing research together. That kind of training would keep the Anabaptist identity clear, especially as we would study together. It would help to focus our identity.
     "How about sending North American seminary profs to satellite training centers around the world for short periods of time? That would certainly enrich their teaching when they return home.
     "We're hoping that our Bible college can begin accepting students from North America. And I'm also working on having Eastern Mennonite Seminary [in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA] professors come to Ethiopia to teach on their sabbaticals. If they do, their lives will be different; their teaching will be changed.
     "We need the North, and the North needs the South. We can talk to each other when we get together in big meetings, but doing together brings changes of attitude; it strengthens the bond in all directions."

His Essential Practices
     How does Bedru maintain his energy and faith when resources lag so mercilessly behind the needs in Ethiopia? Those who have been his roommates at Mennonite World Conference meetings comment about his consistent discipline of rising early for several hours of prayer each morning. "I have prayer time for myself alone in the morning and before I go to bed. I read the Scriptures," he says simply. "Almost every day I get a message about what I should think about that day."
     The Ethiopian Mennonites, and the global Anabaptist-Mennonite family, are the richer for having Bedru among them -- with his broad worldview and his passion for mentoring all church members.

-- Phyllis Pellman Good, Lancaster, PA, U.S., is assistant editor of Courier.