Previous | Next 

Toronto, Ont.
Church planter for Love Toronto found

Carol, Dan, (fr: l-r) Yohannis, Zoe, Azeb Sileshi

“Love Toronto”, the Key City Initiative of the Canadian Conference Board of Evangelism, has found its first church planter.

Dan and Carol Sileshi will be working in a multicultural setting.

Dan is originally from Ethiopia; Carol is from Ghana. They have three children, Azeb, 16,Yohannis, 13, and Zoe, 7.

He has a certificate in biblical studies from Yehiwet Brihan Bible Seminary, Addis Ababa, a diploma in theology from Nairobi Pentecostal Bible College in Nairobi, Kenya, a Ph.D. in Christian education from Faith Bible College (in conjunction with Evangelical Theological Seminary in Maryland and Trinity Christian College in Dallas, Texas), Lagos, Nigeria and a Ph.D. in psychological Christian counselling from International Institute of Theology in Glendale, Ariz.

Dan came to the Lord in 1971 through the ministry of Meserete Kristos Church, a Mennonite congregation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He states that while studying the Bible he felt called to the ministry.

“My desires changed from wanting to study medicine to share what I was learning about the Lord with others. It became clear that there was a call of God upon my life to preach His Word.”

Before moving to Canada in 1996, he worked for 15 years with Christian Pentecostal Mission in Lagos, Nigeria, as senior pastor, international missions director and principal of its Bible seminary. During this period, the seminary trained 4000 students as pastors, evangelists and church workers for all over Nigeria. Over 300 new churches were planted in Lagos and other parts of the country. They range in membership from several hundred to 9000 or more.

Besides pastoring and training pastors, Sileshi was active as a motivational speaker and is a respected Bible expositor. His ministry has taken him across Africa, North America, Europe and parts of the Far East.

Following some unstable conditions in Nigeria, Sileshi came to Toronto and felt called by God to plant a church. In 1997, he began Koinonia Worship Centre, an English-speaking multicultural church with an average attendance of 100 located near the Don Valley Parkway. Sileshi also operates a private Christian counselling service and speaks on the “Hour of Koinonia” television program airing on Vision TV.

The Sileshis also are leading a Bible study outreach in Whitby, part of the Greater Toronto Area. Koinonia Worship Centre holds a Saturday evening prayer meeting for people of Ethiopian descent and is exploring the possibility of starting an Ethiopian church plant in the Amharic language. Sileshi estimates that between 25,000 and 30,000 Ethiopians live in Toronto. Only a small percentage of these are known to be part of a local church.

Sileshi states, “We estimate that over the past eight years more than 7900 Ethiopian Christian refugees moved to Toronto from Greece, Sudan, Italy, Kenya, Djibouri, South Africa and Ethiopia. It is not clear, however, what happened to the commitment of these Christians after they settled here. Koinoina Worship Centre’s vision concerning these unchurched people is to reach out to them and seek to help them to re-establish their Christian witness.”

The “Love Toronto” initiative, a partnership of the Board of Evangelism and the Ontario MB Conference, has a goal to establish five healthy, reproducing churches in five years.

 – pjw

Previous | Next 

Last modified March 7, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.