About CISF CISF Mission and Vision Why CISF Is Important Strategic Focus Insures Impactful Results How We Select CISF Scholars Meet Some CISF Scholars CISF Newletters How To Get Involved with CISF Contact Us

The Christian International Scholarship Foundation

Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

What is CISF?  The Christian International Scholarship Foundation (CISF) is a leadership-development initiative focused on identify and investing in the future national leaders of the Emerging World church.  We help fund the advanced theological education of those young men and women who are slated to be the presidents of denominations, the executive directors of relief organizations, the principals and senior faculty members of Bible Colleges and Seminaries and the authors of desperately needed theological books.  Our goal is to develop the leadership necessary to allow Emerging World churches to grow strong and fulfill their mission.

 

Why focus on the Emerging World? 

·       Because the church in the Emerging World is exploding. In 1800 only one percent of Christians were found in Africa, Asia or Latin America. In 1900 that number had climbed, but only to ten percent. But in the last one hundred years the number has skyrocketed. Today more than seventy percent of the Christians in the world are found outside the West, and those churches are now sending out more missionaries than the US and Europe combined. This is a reason to rejoice. 

• Because the church in the Emerging World needs leaders. The growth of the church in Africa, Asia and Latin America is worth celebrating, but it is also a cause of concern. Although the church is growing wide it is often not growing very deep. In many cases there is only one trained pastor for four or five churches – and this individual has no theological training. New Christians are not adequately nurtured in their faith. Consequently they do not grow to maturity.

 

• Because the challenges facing Emerging World church leaders are profound. Ministry in a fallen world is always a challenge, but the issues facing the leaders of the church in Africa, Asia and Latin America are often unique: extremes of rich and poor, the spread of Islam and Sharia law, corrupt and exploitive governments, female circumcision, ethnic and tribal conflict, famine, et al. We believe that the leaders of the church tomorrow need to be trained to find biblically-informed and culturally appropriate answers to special challenges they face.

 

 

Why focus on national leaders? If the church needs pastors, why not simply train pastors?   Our ultimate goal is to build strong local churches – ones where God’s Word is proclaimed in power, and kingdom values are modeled and spread. The question is, how do we best facilitate that.  It’s our belief that the key to strong churches is strong pastors. And the key to strong pastors is strong training. What does strong training look like? As important as nice classrooms are, the critical links in a future pastor’s training are the books they read and the men and women under whom they study. That is why we are focusing on educating the educators.  Our goal is to help those men and women who are called and gifted by God to lead Bible colleges and seminaries, serve as senior faculty at those institutions and also write the culturally relevant and theologically astute books that are needed. 

 

Why must leaders come to the West to study? Isn’t it cheaper for them to study in their home countries?  It is much cheaper and much better – which is the whole point. Our goal is to build up the faculty at leading evangelical institutions throughout the Emerging World so that it is possible for people to be adequately trained in their home country or continent. Right now that is not the case. We are only helping those who have exhausted their educational opportunities in their area, must travel to the West to get the training they need, and who have senior leadership positions waiting for them upon their return.

 

Are you exclusively focused on developing faculty?  No. But developing strong faculty at Bible Colleges and seminaries is not only an end in itself; it’s also a means to greater ends.

 

• We helped Salim Munayer complete a PhD at Oxford so that he could return as the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College.  He has done that – and continues to serve as Academic Dean – but additionally he has gone on to found Musalaha, a ministry of reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians and to write five books on the Middle East.

 

• We helped Jacob and Esther Kibor complete their degrees at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago and they went back to teach at Scott Theological College in Muchakos, Kenya. But Esther not only became the first African woman to join the faculty and Jacob not only went on to become the President of Scott and the Chairmen of the Board for ACTEA – The Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (the group that helps design the curriculum for all of the Bible Schools and seminaries in Africa) – but together they have been working to stop female circumcision. His doctoral studies focused on this problem.

 

• We helped Atul Aghamkar complete his doctoral studies at Fuller so that he could go back to India to teach. He is doing that at Union Biblical Seminary in Pune, but he is also setting up a center to reach Hindus with the Gospel.

 

• We helped David Kasali complete a Ph.D. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. After graduating he went back to Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology to teach New Testament but quickly became President of the school.  A school that is, in many ways, the premier African seminary on the continent and which will soon be able to offer doctoral studies itself – which will change our strategy completely.

 

• We helped Antonio Barro complete his degree at Fuller – this is a man who grew up in abject poverty in Brazil. His parents had to borrow clothes and books and pencils for him to go to school. At the age of three he was digging through the dump to find anything of value so his parents could sell it. (His mom and dad were loving and hard working people who had moved into Sao Paulo with no understanding of what they were going to find and ended up in the slums). Antonio made it through school and ended up at Fuller Seminary with $200 in his pockets. He found us and we started to help fund his studies. When he was finished he went back to Brazil to teach, but ended up starting a seminary – South American Theological Seminary in Lodrina Brazil. Which is not one of the fastest growing seminaries in South America. It’s expanded to three campuses. Additionally he planted a church and started a publishing house, translating theological works from English into Portuguese.

 

I could go on.  But my point is, while the faculty at US seminaries may not typically have broad ministries, the faculty of Emerging World schools often do.

 

How long has CISF been in existence? CISF was founded in California in 1984.  In 2004 we will celebrate twenty years of work. It’s our hope and prayer that within the next twenty we will complete our mission.  When it’s possible for men and women to receive all of their training in their home country or continent then it will not be necessary to bring them to the West.

 

Are there priority areas of the world that you are focused on?  Yes. The areas suffering the most critical need for national Christian leadership are: China, French-speaking Africa, English speaking Africa and Brazil. The rest of Latin America follows closely behind.

 

Are you against sending Western-based missionaries overseas to serve? Not at all! The church throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America grew because of the selfless mission work of many western-based men and women. We salute their work in the past and their on-going work in the future. But this is a new day and it does allow for new strategies.  We now have the wonderful opportunity of partnering with national leaders – men and women who fully understand the language and the culture in which they are ministering because it is their language and culture. 

 

What percentage of the money you raise goes to overhead and what percentage goes to help the leaders?  The members of the board cover 100 percent of our administrative expenses, allowing us to promise donors that one hundred percent of the money they give will go directly into scholarships.

 

I would like to study theology myself. Do I qualify?  Our mission is to help men and women from Emerging World countries who have exhausted their educational opportunities in their home country and continent and have senior leadership positions waiting for them upon their return home.  If you believe you meet these qualifications you are invited to contact us at info@cisf.org and request an application.  Please understand that the competition for an award is very keen. We regularly receive over 100 qualified requests. On average we are able to accept fewer than ten new students each year.

 

What degrees do you support? We are focused almost exclusively on doctoral studies in theological disciplines.  We do not support Masters Degrees or Doctorates of Ministry. We also do not support studies in non-theological fields.  

 

What countries are you working in?  We are currently supporting forty-four leaders from ?? different countries. We have over one hundred CISF Scholars who have returned to over 35 countries.

 

Do people really need a PhD? 

 

• Big heart and a big mind: Theological education is not without its detractors. But this misses the point. We are called to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, which means that the question is not between sending someone out to serve with a big heart or a big mind. But how do you send someone out with both.

 

• Level Four Leaders: A second way to understand the need for doctoral studies is based on the observations of the late Donald McGavern, a career missionary and leading thinker about mission strategy.  Dr. McGavern noted that for every one hundred new Christians in a region you need someone who can provide basic follow-up, offer assurance of salvation and help a new believer get established in a local church. He called these people level one leaders and suggested that they could be trained quite quickly through seminars and workshops.  He went on to note that for every 1,000 new believers you needed someone who could pastor a church. He called these people level two leaders and suggested that they would ideally have at least a college degree. He went on to suggest that for every 100,000 new Christians in a region you needed a level three leader. These men and women – often called Bishops – were expected to pastor the pastors and to be thinking strategically about an area.  Ideally level three leaders would have a Masters degree. Finally, McGavern noted that for every one million new Christians in a region you need a thought and opinion leader. Someone who can think biblically and strategically about the issues of the day and help provide senior leadership to the church. He noted that a person can have a PhD and not be a level four leader and that they can be a level four leader without having a PhD, but the best way to train these men and women is through doctoral studies.

 

• Practical Considerations: Additionally there are some very practical reasons for men and women to pursue theological studies. In most countries a government will not approve a seminary or Bible College that does not meet basic educational standards. These standards demand that some of the faculty have advanced degrees.  In some settings, such as Viet Nam, the formation of Bible Colleges are on hold pending the training of people recognized to lead them.

 

How many Level Four Leaders are required?  Our studies would indicate that in the year 2012 the Emerging World will be about 400 Level Four Leaders short.  This is fairly  encouraging news, because with the exception of the fact that 150 of those leaders need to be in China, it’s very possible to imagine how we could effectively close this gap.

 

Where do CISF scholars study?  Most of the students we help study at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California or at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School outside of Chicago. However we now have students studying at Trinity Theological College in Singapore, the China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong, the Oxford Center for Mission Studies in England, Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. We have had students at a number of other schools as well, including Harvard University, Dallas Theological Seminary, St. Andrews, Cambridge, et al.

 

What happens if a student completes their degree but then does not return home?  Our mission is to build up the national leadership of Emerging World countries, not deplete it, so we work very hard to ensure that our graduates return home. Leaders who apply for a grant from CISF make a commitment to return to their home country to serve for at least ten years following their graduation. During their annual review they re-sign their Scholar Covenant, thus recommitting to return upon graduation. If a leader fails to return home immediately upon completing their degree, or if they do not stay in their home country (or a surrounding country) for at least ten years following the completion of their studies, they are required to pay back their CISF grant.  To date we have helped over 100 leaders. At present six have not yet returned home. Three of these leaders are repaying their loans. Two graduated only to discover that the seminaries they were returning to – one in Myanmar and one in Ethiopia – were now unable to pay their salary, so they are raising support in advance of returning home. One has dropped out of his program due to personal reasons.

 

Who decides who will receive a CISF grant?  Our selection committee is chaired by Dr. Kerry Dearborn, who is a professor at Seattle Pacific University. Other members of that team include:

• Dr. Steve Hayner, the past president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the current professor of Mission and Evangelism at Columbia Theological Seminary.  
• Dr. Paul Pierson, the Dean Emeritus of Fuller School of World Missions
• Dr. Tite Tienou, the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

 

Does CISF cover all of the student’s expenses? No. Awards are typically for $10,000 per year and are renewable for approximately four years.  We partner with other groups – denominational leaders, Western seminaries, the national leaders from the scholar-leader’s home country and other foundations – to fund the students training.

 

 

©2003, Christian International Scholarship Foundation.