BATA West Africa

The Baptist Academy for Theology in Africa is taking registrations for the launch of their program in May 2010.  This program has been five years in the making.  It will service the countries of Ghana, Togo, Liberia with a view to expansion throughout West and Central Africa.
 
 

  ITE - South Africa Forum

RSA Theological Education Forum 2010-03-03  

Read the full summary of the forum.           View the preliminary Model.pdf 

Current development as of August 2010:

“In an effort to move ahead with Theological education in Southern Africa, a group of like-minded individuals have established the ADAPT committee. This committee is an independent task team mandated with the task of helping local schools become sustainable and accredited ventures. Until now, the committee has been working on the parameters for partnership as well as discovering and seeking new kinds of partnerships around the country. In mid-August the committee will meet again to discuss how schools like ours could be accredited and how to move forward with this. Please continue to pray for this group as we move ahead.”   - Darryl Meekins, Durban, South Africa            

 

  ITE - Caribbean Forum

Theological Educators from the Caribbean met in Harrisburg, PA in August to discuss how they can develop greater levels of collaboration.   A second meeting is planned for January 23, 2010.  
 
 

   May 2009 Conference Report 

ABWE ITE hosted an international conference for theological educators 25-29 May 2009.  
Titled Theological Education in Action: Integrating the Academy, Marketplace, and Church, this stimulating conference brought together educators from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Central America and Asia.

Dr. Michael Loftis, president of ABWE, opened the conference with a challenge to be the type of educators who can make a difference in the world.  He asked the participants to think about two questions.  The first was,  “Of all the teachers you have had, who really impacted your life?”  The second was more telling.  “Of the hundreds of students I have taught, which would say I really impacted their lives?”   He then posed some questions that were to be asked of the education the audience received and more importantly of the education they were offering to others.  The questions were:  1) Did I learn the value of priorities?  2) Did I learn to value humility over notoriety?  3) Did I learn the value of endurance?  4) Did I learn the value of integrity?  5) Did I learn the value of community?  6) Did I learn to embrace failure?       Hear Dr. Loftis' address.

Dr. James Plueddemann, Director of Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, spent over eighteen hours leading the conference through a consideration of various leadership and education models.  At the center of these interactive sessions was the consideration of his two-rail fence model of education.  The top rail represents the content or cognitive information students need to know, the bottom rail represents their lived  experience.  In this model, gifted educators set up experiences whereby the two rails are connected by fence posts which bring the cognitive and the experiential together.    The participants also considered the challenges involved in preparing people for leadership in cross-cultural educational environments.  It was suggested that a key may lie in having a vision that is general enough to accommodate various cultural factors, a realistic assessment of the situation and dynamic action goals that move people from the current situation closer to the vision. 

Dr. David Livermore is Director of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.   His sessions unpacked issues relating to cultural intelligence.  He startled  the audience with the results of research done into the effectiveness of short term mission trips. The data indicates there is little long term benefit from such trips.   Against this discouraging backdrop, he demonstrated how increasing the cultural intelligence of short term mission workers and teachers could dramatically increase their effectiveness.   He left the group with tools they could use to prepare short term educators for ministry in new cultures. 

The conference concluded with the formation of two task teams.  One will plan the next ITE Convention, the other will do research on accreditation.

     Notes and audio recordings from the sessions are available on the Resources > Seminars page.