News

from Jan/Feb 2016

Ara Badalian

“I didn’t know anything about Christianity, except that I was a Christian,” says Ara Badalian, now pastor of a vibrant church in the heart of Baghdad.

from Nov/Dec 2015

Nelson Morales

Overrun with gang violence, drug trade, poverty, and religious and political scandals, Guatemala might seem like a challenging context in which to spread the gospel. Yet Nelson Morales, professor of New Testament and Greek at the Theological Seminary of Central America (SETECA), says the most noticeable thing about the Central American country is its openness to spirituality.

from Sept/Oct 2015

Seble Denneque

Few churches can trace their history directly to a passage of Scripture like Ethiopian Christians can.

from May/June 2015

Jules Martinez

During high school, Jules Martinez, now a pastor and theology professor, sought answers about the spiritual world. Living on the north coast of Puerto Rico, the Martinez family were “cultural Catholics,” and some practiced Santeria, which Martinez describes as “a combination of Caribbean spiritism and Catholicism.”

From Mar/Apr 2015

Jacob Cherian

The South Asian peninsula (or Indian subcontinent) is one of the most religiously conflicted and densely populated parts of the world. Dominated by India, the peninsula also includes Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and parts of Pakistan.

from Jan/Feb 2015

David Kasali

Few people would consider opening a university in the middle of a war zone—and David Kasali, a Congolese pastor and academic, was an unlikely candidate to undertake such an effort. Kasali’s father was one of the first people to accept the gospel in their area of Congo, but the young Kasali rejected his father’s urging to become a minister, telling him, “I love the Lord, but he doesn’t pay very well.” Instead, Kasali studied education at the University of Congo and began networking in the business world.

from Nov/Dec 2014

Andrey Kravstev

Andrey Kravtsev, like many who grew up in the Soviet Union in the 80s, was educated in atheism and nationalism. At age 19, he witnessed the decline of the Soviet Union and the revelation of government crimes against the people, many of which were exposed by Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, or “openness.”

2018 ScholarLeader of the Year

You Are Human When You Serve Others: Emiola Nihinlola

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 …

Lal Senanayake

Developing a Christian Worldview: Understanding Suffering and God’s Character

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 …

2017 ScholarLeader of the Year

From the Margins, For the Margins: Athena Gorospe

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 …

Kei Hiramatsu

The Silence of God: Beyond Triumphalism

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 …

Seblewongel Denneque

Focus on What is Working: Moving from Despair to Hope

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 …

Raymond Ayayee in Ghana

My service has been in the area of missions and transformation, as well as missions in pluralistic religious contexts (Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions). In my 16 years of missions experience in Ghana, I have observed a phenomenal response to the gospel, as is common in some other sub-Saharan African countries. Operation World reports that “from 1900 to 2010, [African] Christian numbers grew from 9.1% of the population to 48.8%, and from 7.5 million to 504 million.”

Philipo Mafuja Magwano in Tanzania

For me, pray for God’s wisdom in my new role as Bishop of the Mwanza Diocese, good health, and networking with different people worldwide to enhance the ministry in the Mwanza Diocese. I need partners for working together on church leadership empowerment, evangelism and outreach ministries, youth ministry, women’s and children’s ministries, retired pastors’ ministry, etc. Even though my diocese has 550 churches, only 200 pastors have been fully trained in Bible schools. Over 300 pastors have not received training due to the inability to pay school fees.

Anwar Berhe in Ethiopia

The Evangelical Theological College (ETC) is preparing to launch its MA program in Christian-Muslim Relations in August 2020. This will be the first and only graduate program, in the Horn of Africa, that focuses on Islamic Studies. Please pray for the provision of necessary resources, and wisdom for us during the student recruitment process and as we identify adjunct lecturers for the program.