Ebed-Melech Institute (EMI) is an autonomous faith-based (FB) Christian Mission Organization devoted to promoting Christian mission work and objective analysis of strategic issues affecting international promotion and practice of the Christian faith in the African Church context.
EMI is a unique African Christian Mission and development think-tank, focussing on critical Christian mission issues and their relationship to spiritual, social an economic development in Africa. Through examination of the African Church realities and experiences, EMI will formulate practical mission and development strategies that will outline ways in which the church in Africa can tackle major spiritual, social and economic challenges.
It is a church mission support agency - a Para-church organisation primarily concerned with the need to offer supportive services to missionary sending churches, mission agencies, and missionaries themselves in terms of frontier mission information, mission mobilisation, support raising and member care. EMI is a Christian initiative whcih is independent of any one church denomination or religious group. Its independence shall be safeguarded by Christian Board members who shall adhere to EMI's statement of faith, and who shall be responsible for matters of policy and fund-raising. In its operations EMI will corroborate and partner with Evangelical churches and other Evangelical Christian mission agencies for the sake of maximising and fulfilling its vision.
The name Ebed-Melech is taken from Jeremiah 38 and 39. It is the name of an African believer (Ebed-Melech the Cushite). According to the Bible Ebed-Melech was a Cushite officer at the court of King Zedekiah; a godly man who interceded on behalf of Jeremiah when the prophet was thrown in a pit and was sent by the king with thirty men to rescue the prophet from the pit. For his faith and trust in God, Ebed-Melech was assured of safety in the general overthrow of Zedekiah by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 39:15-18).
Naming the organisation after him serves as a historical reminder of Africa's involvement in God's work even long before the missionary movement was born in Europe and America. The name is also a reminder that the Gospel did not come to Africa by missionaries only, but by the Africans themselves such as Ebed-Melech and other African Biblical characters.
Core Values:
- Rely on the provision of God for creativity and innovation
- Stand on Biblical truth and values
- Like-minded partnerships and team ministry
- Display a servant attitude - in serving each other and the body of Christ
Vision:
Change the landscape of African missions from being objects of mission to being subjects of missions.
Mission:
To stimulate evangelical churches to engage in developing mission minded churches that should take the evangelisation of the remaining unreached peoples in Africa and beyond as their primary focus of ministry.
