In 2008, after 12 years of serving as a youth/young adult pastor in both Habesha and American contexts, The Lord gave me a vision for developing and deploying young adult leaders in the Ethiopian/Eritrean communities.  Engage Ministries was conceived in 2008 with the aim of implementing a 3-fold strategy designed to inspire, equip, and deploy a unique generation that I call “Hybrids” - Descendants of the Ethiopian/Eritrean diaspora, and raised in the West long enough to assimilate it’s cultural paradigm. Merriam-Webster defines “hybrid” as, “a person whose background is a blend of two diverse cultures or traditions”, which perfectly identifies this unique demographic of young people. 

 

Throughout the biblical narrative, we see an unusual number of characters who fit this profile play significant roles in the unfolding of God’s purposes in the earth, including Moses, Joshua, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Ruth, Paul, among others.  Without stretching the argument too much, and for the sake of conciseness, I have a strong, yet reasonable conviction that a generation able to seamlessly traverse between East and West, is uniquely poised to make a significant contribution to the work God is doing in the earth today.  The advents of technological advances like the internet and social media within an ever-increasingly interconnected global marketplace have only served to heighten the potency of Hybrids, given the right tools, support, and opportunity.

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In March of 2009, we launched the first Fusion conference, where over 160 young adults gathered at Estes Park in Colorado for a 4-day encounter with God, in pursuit of the discovering and pursuing their purpose.  A few months later, I took a number of those young adults to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a 3-wk mission trip.  Shortly thereafter, I launched the 3rd component of the vision, CORE - an online ministry training platform, where I instructed young adults in foundational biblical courses, i.e. Systematic Theology, Hermeneutics, etc.  I continued this strategy for the subsequent 10yrs with significant fruit in the form of pastors, youth pastors, young adult pastors, children’s pastors, missionaries, humanitarian workers…leaders and influencers in multiple spheres.  

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The past 24 years of laboring in this field has confirmed one premonition that I’ve had from the very beginning…namely that, “young people need a cause, and that the cause needs young people!” I have observed that the most effective means to engage and effectively deploy young people is by helping them bridge the gap between their sense of purpose and the call to a great adventure - the Great Commission.