Gudina Tumsa understood that missions played a crucial role in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Chirst and he gives them credit for this in his writings. His value for the missions comes from his understanding that the missions and donors have had significant impact on the development and evangelstic work that is necessary for a holistic approach in Churches who did not have the capability to do it themselves: This is seen when he presents reasoning his reasoning to reject moratorium, “The most convincing argument, however, is that the ECMY needs the continuing assistance of sister churches around the world, both in funds and personnel, because of the development and evangelsitic tasks which the church must continue.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.49).  According to Oyvind M. Eide writes that Gudina acknowledged that the Churches in the third world are dependent on missions to complete the responsibility that God has given to the Church, “Qes Gudina acknowledged the dependence and need for the EECMY to keep in contact with the missions in order to share resources.” (Life and Ministry Pg.58). Gudina himself acknowledged that a lot of the Church work in Ethiopia and even the EECMY’s work had been done through the aid of missions.  

Although Gudina did value and believe in missions. He believed that missions had to evolve and become or integrate into an indgenious church. He believed this was necessary because he felt that the locals had to feel in touch with the worship of the Lord, he wanted the local people to have a sense of ownership over how they worshiped. Gudina came to this conclusion by  studying and understanding that missions played a vital role in bringing the gospel into Ethiopia. But in his research he also found that the most rapid and reliable Church growth or revival in Ethiopia occured when the missions had to leave due to Italian occupation in WWII. His research is seen in this quote, “The departure of foreign missions due to World War II may be considered one of the contributing factors to the spread of the gospel in the country.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.132). This is when Gudina’s understanding of the importance of a contextualized gospel kicked in. He came to the conclusion that the departure of the missions left the indgeinous believers without their “support system”. So the believers had to come up with their own understanding of the faith–They no longer had a teacher to instruct them– So the believers had to turn to the Bible which on the topic of contextualization says in Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,tribe,people and language, standing before the Lamb…”. As the believers turned to the Bible this led to major growth of the faith. According to Gudina, based on the highest authority (The Word of God) the believers were able to contextualize the Gospel and form a sense of ownership, “The missionaries, to whom they used to look to draw advice, counseling and assistance, were, so to speak, replaced by the Bible. The only authority to appeal to on ethical questions in the absence of missionaries was the Bible.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.132).  Gudina writes on how the believers contextualized the Gospel in this quote, “It is significant to note that the revival movements developed some type of indgenous pattern. The missions used to teach Western melodies. Now that was seen as a matter of the past, and the revival movements started making use of primitive indigenous melodies, whereby the believers were helped to feel at home with the message proclaimed to them.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.133).  We see that Gudina’s research came to the conclusion that the leaving of the missions, the adoption of the Bible as a leading force, led the believers in Italian occupied Ethiopia to find a supplement of growth in their own understanding of the gospel.``It is significant to note that the revival movements developed some type of indgenous pattern. The missions used to teach Western melodies. Now that was seen as a matter of the past, and the revival movements started making use of primitive indigenous melodies, whereby the believers were helped to feel at home with the message proclaimed to them.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.133) 

To understand Gudina’s writings on missions we must know the context of the time the missions were working in Africa. This was during the colonial and post colonial era and many of the missions took on a similar attitude to their home countries, and that was an attitude of “paternalism” or “colonialism.” Gudina was influenced by the heavy pan-African movement at that time, as can be seen in his desire to develop an African theology, and that theology was affected by the experiences that all Afircan’s were experiencing through colonialism and underdevelopment. Gudina saw this in the Church based on his belief that the Church cannot be separated from its surroundings. “This kind of paternalistic, colonial attitude can never be tolerated, can never be accepted.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.109). This quote shows how Gudina related the events going on between Western Countries and Africa to relationships of the Western Churches and African Churches. Gudina specifically wrote this when he was referring to how MAH, a German mission, was trying to tell the ECMY how to interpret their own constitution on an issue related to a synod of the ECMY. Gudina strongly disagreed with this and addressed the Western missions in the way they thought of the third world Churches as immature. Because of this, Gudina rebuked the MAH saying, “The MAH did not act only against the law of the Country, the MAH acted contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution of The ECMY.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.104). As for the third world countries Gudina gave them this message, “As I have stated already, we would not like to be, we can never be, an agent for rich missions organizations, donor agencies and churches. Let it be clear to all that the ECMY is not an agent to carry out policies and decisions taken in Europe or America, nor is the ECMY willing to fulfill the purpose of international organizations, which appears to be contrary to what she holds to be right. We want to be ourselves.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.109). Addressing that the Churches should be a paradigm, and set an example for how African governments should respond to Western pressure.

 In conclusion, Gudina did not only identify the problems that the Church was facing in relation to missions and donors, but he also presented solutions, for both the Church and the nation. And for both the solution was “self-reliance”. In the case of the Church Gudina advocated for self-reliance but interdependence with the universal Church. Gudina writes about how self-reliance should be approached, while maintaining the biblical understanding of the body of Christ. “Chirstian responsibility demands that we should march towards self-reliance in a planned manner, while at the same time maintaining Chirstian integrity.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.64). For the nation Gudina understood that nationalism and sovereignty were of utmost importance. Gudina understood that a nation's independence was necessary for that nation to be seen as equal to other nations. His opinion on the self-reliance in a nation is made clear when he wrote, “Independence is a legitimate national political aim.” (Witness and Discipleship Pg.49). Gudina was able to apply his theological understanding of a situation at a Church and National level. Showing his ability for deep thought and showing that the Church is directly affected by its surroundings. And that society can be modeled after the Church, if the Church does minister in a Biblical and holistic approach.