Sunday, November 6, 2011

Partnership across cultures

This week my wife and I attended an event sponsored by Overseas Council of Australia who support theological education in the majority world. [There are sister organisations in the UK, USA, and New Zealand]. The speaker was Elie Haddad, President of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon.

There are many reasons why I support OCA. Briefly, in the West we are very rich, both financially and in terms of Christian resources [full time paid pastors, buildings, theological colleges, books, Bible translations, ....]. We should share these resources. The best (and cheapest) way to provide theological education for pastors and church planters is in their own culture. We should support indigenous workers rather then sending (at great expensive) Westerners who come with significant cultural baggage.
A clear statement of this argument is on the South Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) web site.

The OCA website is highly informative and contains material I consider essential such as annual reports, financial statements, and details of the board of directors.

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