I was born in Ethiopia where lived until I was 12 years old. In 1991, I moved to Embarrass, MN where I attended Babbitt/Embarrass high school graduating in 1997. I continued my education at the University of Wisconsin-Superior graduating in 2002 with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management and International Business. After college, I worked for Walgreens as a manager. I earned my Master of Divinity from Luther in 2009. I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministry with the concentration on Leadership in Preaching & Pastoral Ministry at Denver Seminary. I hope to complete my studies in May of 2018.
I married my wife Hana in 2007, and we have four young children, Kaiyo, Deybi, Kobii, and Liben. I was ordained a pastor in the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. My first call was as a part-time pastor at Maranatha Free Lutheran Church in Spring Lake Park, MN. While in Spring Lake Park, I also worked as a supervisor at a thrift store owned by ARC. In September 2011, I joined the pastoral staff of Faith Lutheran as an Assistant Pastor of Youth and family. I accepted all pastoral responsibilities here at Faith in September 2012. I describe myself as theologically conservative and orthodox. I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God’s will for salvation, and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.
For fun, I like spending time with my beautiful wife and four children. I like reading spiritual books, playing basketball and going for a run.
Opening Worship
October 2, 2016 • Pr. Ebassa Berhanu
Keynote Speaker #1 – Part One
October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. As of fall 2015, Stetzer co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets. He also serves the teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, a multi-cultural megachurch in Miami, Florida.
Keynote Speaker #1 – Part Two
October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. As of fall 2015, Stetzer co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets. He also serves the teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, a multi-cultural megachurch in Miami, Florida.
Keynote Speaker #2 – Part One
October 4, 2016 • Dr. Mark Granquist
Mark A. Granquist is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Luther Seminary, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this he taught in the Religion Department at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (1992-2000) and at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota (2000-2007). Granquist has served in parish ministry or Lutheran higher education since his ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 1988. He was pastor of youth and education at Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN from 1988-1992 and has served several times as an interim pastor in local congregations. A 1979 graduate of St Olaf College, Granquist received his M. Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1984 and his Ph D degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1992. He serves as the editor of the Luther Seminary journal Word & World and of the Journal of the Lutheran Historical Conference, and has been active with the journal Lutheran Quarterly. His publications include Lutherans in America: A New History (Fortress Press, 2014), Scandinavian Pietists: Spiritual Writings from 19th-century Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (Classics of Western Spirituality, 2015), and The Augustana Story: Shaping Lutheran Identity in North America, (Fortress, 2008). He is one of the editors of the Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions (Baker Academic), which will be published in 2016, and the author of many book chapters, articles and essays, especially on the history of Lutherans in North America.