Hear from Global Christian leaders about opportunities and challenges facing the Global Church, and read stories about how these leaders — especially the ScholarLeader of the Year — are meeting those challenges.
Over my years of graduate work and missionary service, I have been cobbling together a picture of Luke the Evangelist. It is slow going. The historical data is sparse. Unlike the Apostle Paul, whose personality and biography are easily identifiable on the surface of his epistles, Luke keeps himself mostly off the page. Still, with …
read more
The Ethiopian Orthodox catechetical tradition, which has been developing since the 15th century, is expressed through “The Five Pillars of the Mystery” or “Amstu Aemade Mistrate.” The pillars include the Holy Trinity, Incarnation, Baptism, Eucharist, and Resurrection. In a commentary on this creed, known as “Tselote-Haymanot,” the meaning of the resurrection is articulated as follows: …
read more
We rattled along the road to a centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a rickety Japanese van. The latest hits on the U.S. charts blared on the stereo. We shouted in a mix of Hindi, Urdu, English, Nepali, and Ladakhi, trying to be heard over the racket of the music and the van bouncing over the …
read more
It is six o’clock on a Friday morning in Bethlehem. The sky is breathtakingly clear. The bright sun has risen, but the streets are still quiet. I acknowledge afresh how blessed I am that I can see, across the skyline, the Church of the Nativity – the site traditionally considered to be Jesus’s birthplace – …
read more
In April 1994, one of the most violent episodes in modern history took place in Rwanda. In 100 days, over 800,000 people were massacred, many of them with machetes. Journalist Ana Pais reported, “Those who survived the genocide… agree that the hostile rhetoric used for years by the ruling ethnic group, the Hutus, against the …
read more
“God defeats Satan, evil, and sin through suffering. Is that not the case in Jesus’s acceptance of the most shaming and cruel death of his day? He triumphed over the ultimate enemy precisely by surrendering to it,” Elizabeth Sendek writes in Christianity Today (2010). Rather than conquer suffering by escaping it, Christians conquer suffering by …
read more
Editor’s Note: The following essay presents meditations from Taras Dyatlik that he originally posted as bite-sized pieces on Facebook in January and February 2021. A Ukrainian with long experience in the eastern area now occupied by Russia, Taras knows firsthand about pain. He has lost family and friends to violence yet rejects the bitterness that …
read more
“In suffering, we discover a new space – a space in which God is present,” says Dr. Yohanna Katanacho. As a Palestinian Israeli Evangelical, Yohanna knows this firsthand: “In the Middle East, we think that we are completely abandoned. It’s not true. God is with us.” Yohanna’s story is one of God’s power to transform …
read more
The coronavirus pandemic has not spared even a remote place like Nagaland in northeast India, where Oriental Theological Seminary (OTS) is located. When India’s government announced a lightning lockdown on March 23, 2020, millions of migrant workers suddenly left large cities for their hometowns. Those from Nagaland who were either studying or earning a living …
read more
In English, “sanctuary” means both “place of worship” and “place of refuge” – a double meaning that many Majority World seminaries live out. During COVID-19, several Majority World seminaries housed students trapped by lockdowns. Sudanese students in Lebanon were ten minutes from the airport when it closed; they returned to Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (VSI). …
read more
“We experienced the gift of lamentation,” David Kasali says, remembering the “Great African War” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). When it began, David was working in Kenya as Vice Chancellor (President) of Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST). He had rescued NEGST, uniting a fractured faculty and rebuilding finances and facilities. But …
read more
Seble’s* little girl Bamlak is happy that her mother is home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At age 6, a week is a very, very long time. Bamlak wants to know why Seble has been away, and the photos on her mom’s phone help to tell the story. ”You see all these ladies here? They are …
read more
In 1988, Antonio Barro began a Doctorate in Missiology at Fuller Theological Seminary. On his scholarship application to ScholarLeaders, he wrote, “The church [in Brazil] is [awakening] for missions…. The preparation that we get… gives us confidence in developing our own ministry.” Over thirty years later, Antonio’s PhD, supported by ScholarLeaders, has yielded the “hundredfold” fruit of …
read more
Decisive Leadership In 2016, Emiola Nihinlola gathered the staff of Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary (NBTS) in Ogbomosho, Nigeria. They had just finished months of planning alongside the ScholarLeaders Vital SustainAbility team to create a strategy for strengthening NBTS. Just one facet of that strategy – a solar energy project – would take over two years to …
read more
On Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019, Muslim suicide bombers killed 258 people in my country, Sri Lanka. Afterward, some Christians were terrified, asking, “How do we plan future services?” Others called for retaliation. In fact, in mid-May, mobs attacked mosques. My first prayer was that, even in fear and anger, the Church would be a community …
read more