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.
“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 …
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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 …
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“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 …
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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 …
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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). …
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“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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Fifteen years ago, Athena Gorospe gave a devotional in which she called her audience – wealthy American Christians – to be downwardly mobile. That morning in Pasadena, she argued that we should recover “Jesus’s concern for the marginalized, the invisible people.” Athena has dedicated herself to this plea – and to practicing what she preaches …
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Last month, Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Silence opened in theaters, invoking difficult questions among Christians regarding what it means to have faith. It spurs me to reflect on how Japanese Christians have perceived suffering, and how we as believers are called to respond to this inevitability. In many cultures, suffering and weakness are rarely discussed. When people do …
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But then I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. Psalm 77:11 (NLT) When I returned to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia two years ago, I could barely recognize my hometown. Between my doctoral studies and work in Nairobi, Kenya, I had been away for almost ten years. So …
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Suffering is the daily lot of many of the world’s Christians, particularly those in Western Africa. Unfortunately, churches give little heed to this reality in most Sunday services. Behind this lies a barely concealed apprehension Christians have with regard to the proper stance to adopt toward suffering. In the following reflection, I explore lamentation as …
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Introduction Since 9/11, hardly a day goes by without some religiously motivated act of extremism. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, religious extremism worldwide claims nearly 100,000 Christian lives annually. Since the 1980s, Sunni Islamic extremism has been on the rise in Pakistan, where the tiny Christian …
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