The main objective of this study was to investigate the practices and contributions of traditional church education for adult literacy, specifically Zema education in the three selected Ethiopian orthodox tewahido churches in Bahir Dar city. For understanding the study mixed method research design was with convergent parallel design was followed. To achieve the purpose of the study all three churches Zema education teachers, 90 learners and three leaders were included in the study by using comprehensive sampling, simple random sampling, and purposive sampling technique respectively. Open ended questionnaire, observation, semi- structured interview and document analysis were employed for data collection. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and word by word narrations. The obtained results implies the practices of Zema educations in gubae bet learners learn usually by themselves, and sometimes through peer leading group under the tree shade. The student relationships are very strong, also, the finding revealed that some of the principles of adult learning are applied in Zema bet education like practical oriented, motivation to learn, self directed learning etc. The finding also revealed that the major contributions of Zema educations are: improving literacy skill and learners are learning problem solving skill, self defiance skill, leadership skill, skill of writing different poem. The study also found lack of food, lack of suitable learning places, lack of residual house, lack of materials, lack of awareness creation about the contributions of Zema education for adult literacy, lack of supported stakeholders as the major challenges facing traditional church education in general and Zema education in particular. Based on the finding, it is recommended that the government should build a teaching-learning center like modern education to resolve the lack of teaching –learning places; the government, private agency and non-government organizations should support Zema learners by funding financially and providing learning materials and considering the contributions of church education ministry of education should give attention and recognize traditional church education as one basic education centers for adults.