Spring 2025 Newsletter

The SL newsletter is your best source for keeping up with all that is going on in our global fellowship of theological leaders. We’ve also created a PDF download option for you to be able to access this new resource when you’re not online.

A Note from Dr. Christopher M. Hays, President of Scholar Leaders

In Psalm 104:30, the Psalmist sings, “When you send your Spirit, [all things] are created, and you renew the face of the earth.” Christians around the world are celebrating Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit on the Church. There is a longing for new creation, which this Holy Spirit begins in the ruins of the world marred by sin.

(Top Photo: John Jusu and David Ngariuya, both are graduates of the Leader Studies program. Read about Dr. Jusu’s most recent publication here.)

Scholars in our fellowship have stood in wasted places and asked, “Will new creation happen here?” In Ukraine, in the shell of a seminary library burned by Russian soldiers. In Palestine, in the rubble of an ancient church. In Myanmar, in the ruins of an earthquake that adds to the violence of a war. Yet, “the Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth.”

At Scholar Leaders, we are often blown around by winds of the Spirit into new ventures, new risks, and new ways to partner with our friends in the Global Church. You’re going to hear about some of that Spiritual work in this Spring Newsletter. You’ll read about the launch of a new Network of Christian-Muslim Study Centers. A new resource we’re launching that will enhance theological libraries for underserved students. And, yes, a new podcast. It’s a place where Majority World theologians can speak to each other and to our US listeners about their stories, the problems they are facing, and where the Spirit is renewing them with endurance and hope.

Investing in SETECA

Investing in SETECA, Shaping Latin America’s Theological Future

This May, the Central American Theological Seminary (SETECA) in Guatemala received a pallet of over 1,000 post-graduate theological books through our Theological Book Network program. This shipment was carefully curated to meet doctoral-level needs, and it will enable SETECA to launch the first evangelical PhD program in Biblical Studies in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

This milestone will ripple far beyond one institution as it will allow Latin American theological leaders to pursue doctoral studies in their own cultural context and language.

The impact of this achievement is also the fruit of years of collaborative investment. Scholar Leaders has walked closely with SETECA through multiple initiatives:

Through our Leader Studies program, we had the privilege of supporting Nelson Morales (Dean of SETECA, Professor of New Testament), Sofía Quintanilla (Vice Rector, Professor of Old Testament), and Gerardo Corpeño (Professor of Old Testament) during their PhD studies.
We are also scholarshipping Dayrin Cardona, a promising young instructor at SETECA, in the collaborative Duke Global Women’s ThM Fellowship.
Sofía Quintanilla is a member of the current Women’s Peer Leader Forum cohort, in which she receives professional development and peer mentoring.
Sofía also contributes to No More, an initiative addressing sexual abuse in seminaries.
SETECA also participated in the VSI process in 2023-2024, during which they highlighted their ambition to develop the first evangelical PhD program in Biblical Studies in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
And we are working with Rector Paul Branch to establish a new regional accrediting association for Spanish-speaking Latin America.

This story captures how our strategy works in practice: PhD scholarships forge long-term relationships with theological leaders. Then, through initiatives like VSI, TBN, the Women’s Peer Leader Forum, and No More, we support institutions they serve and strengthen the theological ecosystem across entire regions.

We invite you to watch this thank-you video from SETECA and celebrate with us. Because of your support, our global partners are better equipped to teach, lead, and serve the Church in their contexts. Thank you for being a part of this journey.

Introducing BiblioTech

Introducing BiblioTech: A Digital Library for Majority World Theological Schools

We’re excited to introduce BiblioTech, a new digital theological library designed to serve seminaries and theological schools across the Majority World.

Over the years, as we’ve partnered with leaders and institutions around the globe, one challenge has remained consistent: the lack of access to high-quality academic resources. For many schools, building and maintaining a theological library is simply unaffordable. Limited local publishing infrastructure and language barriers often make access even more difficult.

BiblioTech is a direct response to these challenges – an innovative, scalable, and cost-effective platform that delivers top-tier theological resources to institutions that need them most.

“BiblioTech is more than a product,” said Marcos Orison, VP for Strategic Initiatives at Scholar Leaders. “It’s a collaborative solution to one of the most pressing challenges in theological education today. Our mission is to resource schools across the Majority World with the tools they need to thrive – academically, spiritually, and missionally.”

What BiblioTech Offers

BiblioTech opens new possibilities for theological schools by providing:

High-quality Theological Resources: A carefully curated collection of texts from respected publishers like Baker, Eerdmans, Langham, and more, as well as journals published by Majority World institutions, highlighting glocalscholarship.
Built-in Translation Capabilities: Readers can engage content in their preferred language, expanding accessibility and comprehension.
Sustainable, Affordable Access: For less than the cost of a single new book per student, institutions can offer their communities a rich, ever-growing digital library.
A Pathway toward Accreditation Standards for Online and Remote Learners: Many accrediting agencies require institutions to provide access to robust library resources. BiblioTech helps meet this standard, ensuring students and faculty are well resourced.

A Growing Community of Interest

On May 15, we hosted our first virtual informational session introducing BiblioTech. Over 200 theological leaders registered, representing schools from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. The enthusiastic response confirmed the deep need and strong interest in a solution like BiblioTech. A second session is scheduled for June 5 to continue the conversation.

BiblioTech reflects Scholar Leaders’ long-standing commitment to strengthening theological education in the Majority World through practical, sustainable innovation. We’re excited to see how this platform will resource the next generation of Christian leaders.

Learn more at bibliotechsl.com

Ministry Feature:
A New Vision for Christian-Muslim Relations Comes to Life

What if you lived in a country where most of your neighbors were of a different religion than you? It might change the way you talk with them, or how you buy groceries, or what neighborhood you live in. It would certainly put an emphasis on what you can do together as neighbors and how you understand your differences.

Introducing Faith on the Road

We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of Faith on the Road, a new podcast by Scholar Leaders, premiering July 1^st!

This podcast will help the Church respond to some of the world’s most urgent contemporary challenges –war, interreligious dialogue, creation care, climate change, trauma, abuse – by engaging some of the most brilliant theological leaders from around the globe. These are scholars who live their theology on the front lines of the world’s suffering, driven by the love of God and guided by the insights of Scripture.

To kick things off, we released a special pre-launch episode:

“Doing Theology in a War Zone (Ukraine), with Dr. Ivan Rusyn.”

Dr. Rusyn, president of Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary, shares what it means to lead a seminary during war, the hard questions theology must confront in a crisis, and the cost of faithful Christian witness.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and follow to hear more from those shaping the global Church.

New & Upcoming Publications by SL Fellowship Members

Chinyere Priest, Felicia, Verena Schafroth, and Marilyn Naidoo, eds. Empowering Voices: African Women in Theological Education. Langham Global Library, 2025.

Through biblical, theological, and experiential insights, the contributors examine gender dynamics in theological education and church life, emphasizing the need to empower women’s leadership and to collaboratively redefine gender roles and relations within African Christian contexts.

This edited volume includes contributions from:

John Jusu, a missionary of the Association of Evangelicals in African and the current Africa Regional Director for Overseas Council. Scholar Leaders supported John during his PhD in Educational Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, USA.
David Kirwa Tarus, Leader Studies graduate and current executive director of the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA).

Isaac, Munther. Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2025.

“I am not a politician. I am a theologian by training and a pastor to multiple churches, and, for me, speaking about Gaza is primarily a pastoral mandate.”

Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian theologian who serves as pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour. He also directs the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice as well as the Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. Scholar Leaders supported him for his PhD studies at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies.

Horton, Michael S., Elizabeth W. Mburu, and Justin S. Holcomb, eds. Prophet, Priest, and King: Christology in Global Perspective. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2025.

This collaborative volume brings together leading Majority World scholars to explore Christ’s identity through his roles as prophet, priest, and king. Drawing on diverse global perspectives, it offers a unified yet contextualized Christology that deepens the church’s shared understanding of Jesus and affirms the global, catholic nature of Christian faith.

It includes contributions from:

Nelson Morales Fredes, dean and professor of Bible and Bible Exegesis at the Central American Theological Seminary in Guatemala. Scholar Leaders had the privilege of supporting Nelson during his PhD studies in New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, USA.
Wageeh Mikhail, Scholar Leaders’ Director of Engagement with Islam and director of the Network of Centers for Christian-Muslim Relations (NCCMR). He has published and spoken widely on medieval Arab Christianity. Scholar Leaders supported Wageeh for his PhD in Arab Christian Theology at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Sebahene, Alfred, ed. Faith and Public Life: Rethinking Church in the 21^st Century. Langham Global Library, 2025.

This edited volume gathers global Christian voices to reflect on the Church’s public witness amid shifting cultural, social, and missional realities. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by hope the essays call for renewed engagement with the world –one that embraces Christ’s reconciling love and reimagines the Church’s role in advancing justice, faith, and transformation in today’s complex contexts.

It features contributions from several SL fellowship members, including:

Current Leader Studies scholar and co-leader of the IFES Latin America Logos & Cosmos Initiative, Alejandra Ortiz;
Sunday Bobai Agang, Leader Studies graduate and associate professor of Ethics, Theology, and Public Policy at ECWA Theological Seminary in Kagoro, Nigeria;
Eva Wong Suk Kyun, director of the Malaysia Pentecostal Research Centre and member of the Women’s Peer Leader Forum;
and David Kirwa Tarus, Leader Studies graduate and current executive director of the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA).

Coming later this year:

Munayer, John S. and Samuel S. Munayer, eds. The Cross and the Olive Tree: Cultivating Palestinian Theology amid Gaza. Orbis Books, 2025.

Publication Date: September 24

This multivocal volume brings together Palestinian theologians from Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Diaspora to reflect on the meaning of Christian theology for Palestinian life today. The contributors aim to bear witness to a Gospel that resists death and seeks the flourishing of life. Preorder your copy here.

John S. Munayer, co-editor of the volume, is the Director of International Engagement at the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue. A current Leader Studies scholar, he is pursuing a PhD in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Syniy, Valentyn. Serving God Under Siege: How War Transformed a Ukrainian Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2025.

Publication Date: October 9

When Russia invaded Ukraine, a seminary president led his students and faculty to safety and kept their mission alive. Part memoir, part wartime theology, part call to courage – this is essential reading for anyone who refuses to look away from the cost of faithfulness in a broken world. Preorder your copy today here.

Valentyn Syniy has served as the president of Tavriski Christian Institute (TCI), a participating institution in the Vital Sustainability Initiative (VSI), since 2006. Scholar Leaders supported Valentyn for his PhD in Theology of Leadership at Dragomanov National Pedagogical University.

Scholar Leaders in the Spotlight: Stories Others Are Telling

Over the past few months, several leading platforms have featured stories on our work – that of cultivating Majority World theological leaders for the global Church and building an ecosystem that sustainably resources theological institutions serving in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.

In a recent Publishers Weekly article, “Sending Scholarly Works to Far-Flung Seminaries,” Theological Book Network is featured for its long-standing work distributing physical theological books to seminaries across the Global South. The article concludes with a look toward the future of global theological access, highlighting BiblioTech as a complementary digital solution poised to expand this vital work.

Christianity Today offers a closer look at BiblioTech in “Can an E-Book App Address a Theological Resources Gap?” The article captures how BiblioTech seeks to be a strategic, scalable, and affordable way for Majority World seminaries to access high-quality theological resources. At the heart of this project are relationships –with schools, leaders, and publishers – who believe robust theological education should be accessible to all.

The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) also featured the work of the Theological Book Network in their blog post, “A Second Life for Your Library’s Books.” The piece celebrates how, through strategic partnerships and careful management, TBN bridges resource gaps, enabling Majority World institutions to strengthen their academic programs and serve their communities with excellence.

Finally, our Executive Vice President, Evan Hunter, joined “Biblical Higher Ed Talk” to share firsthand what it has meant to walk alongside theological leaders and seminaries in Ukraine amid the ongoing war. His reflections offer a moving glimpse into the courage and faithfulness of Christian communities determined to lead and serve, even in the face of unspeakable violence.

We’re grateful that these stories –so often shaped quietly behind the scenes– are now reaching wider audiences. And we’re even more grateful to continue walking alongside the leaders who make them possible.

Thank you, Friends of Scholar Leaders

MAKE YOUR GIFT NOW

Francis Matthew, an Indian PhD student we support, shared this message with us after submitting his dissertation.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Scholar Leaders for their generous and consistent support throughout my PhD journey. I consider it a blessing to be funded by SL, to meet other SL scholars along the way, and to be impacted by their lives and research.”

By supporting Scholar Leaders, you equip us to invest in Francis, and many others, for strategic kingdom work around the world. In a time when some ministries are pulling back, we’re pressing forward to stand side-by-side with our Majority World partners.

We need your help to continue this courageous and prophetic work because the world needs more theologically-driven impact, not less. Please consider a financial gift to Scholar Leaders—of any size—to support students like Francis, and the many other projects you’ve read about in this Spring Newsletter.