Sending Professors to Teach Overseas

The Seminary of the Nations was established to take seminary level education to teachers and preachers around the globe. “Teaching the teachers” was the mission and over the 15+ years of its existence, it equipped local church leaders in over 40 countries.

In 2022, CMF was excited to revive Seminary of the Nations and provide a platform for US-based college faculty to receive funding to travel and teach leaders across the world who are taking the good news to their own cultures. Several professors have taken advantage of this unique opportunity.

One Professor’s Experience

Dr. Dave Cupery, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies at Manhattan Christian College, received Seminary of the Nations funding and this spring spent part of his sabbatical teaching leaders overseas. He poured into church planters, denominational leaders, and pastors from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Estonia to further equip them for ministry.

In Kenya, he taught “Cultural Anthropology” at Harvest Missionary College, a school started by Community Christian Church, a church network planted by CMF missionaries. He spent time with Maasai pastors and church planters as they shared stories about new churches reaching new communities. Some of the pastors, he reports, had multiplied their churches as many as 10 times! But as the Maasai culture changes with the impacts of globalization, his course was especially significant to churches wrestling with how to keep elements of their cultural identity and represent Christ well.

His time in Ethiopia was spent with pastors and church planters who are faithful servants but yearn for formal training. After teaching for a week at the CMF ministry training center, he and CMF missionary Travis Weeks drove 14 hours to a town called Gore where Dr. Cupery taught a two-day conference for 45 leaders from a cluster of eight young churches in and around Gore. He taught “Introduction to World Missions” and found that discussing ministry, based on Christ’s model, was a significant opportunity for them to learn from Scripture and one another.

The impact of learning from one another can be life changing. “In Ethiopia, one of the leaders in my training grew up as Muslim in a community with no believers,” Dr. Cupery shared. “Several years ago, at the end of Ramadan, he was praying and seeking God when he had a dream. In the dream, Jesus appeared to him and told him to find a specific white person (a missionary) who would tell him more about who he (Jesus) really was. This led to the leader finding a personal relationship with Jesus. Eventually, his family also believed. Now he is the pastor of a church of 20+ believers in his community.”

Travis especially appreciated Dr. Cupery’s focus on the breadth of the mission and reflected that “Church planters here are usually great at doing ministry with people in their own ethnic group, but it’s sort of rare to find a church planter that’s really driven to take the Gospel to other ethnic groups. Dave’s teaching, I believe, cast a vision for this kind of ministry and provided some practical knowledge that ministers could implement while doing cross cultural work.”

As part of a second trip, he taught “Developing Teams and Cooperative Ministry” and “Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue” at Baptist Union Seminary in Estonia where the students included key denominational influencers, pastors, church planters, and volunteers who carry key positions at their churches. After he finished teaching, he spent a few weeks continuing to have conversations with key influencers of churches around the country.

The experience was powerful for Dr. Cupery as well. “I’m so grateful that the Seminary of the Nations partnered with me in this unique season of ministry. The opportunity to learn and interact with these cultures was personally energizing and gave me a chance to learn much about their people groups. It was an honor to be able to teach and encourage these pastors, church planters, and evangelists.”

 The Future of the Seminary of the Nations

As part of our vision to send people from everywhere to everywhere, CMF hopes to expand the program so that faculty and institutions can apply for funds to bring scholars from other parts of the world to the US to teach seminars and intensive courses. We believe that faculty and institutions are healthier, more creative, and theologically sound when they are connected to God’s mission in other parts of the world and have relationships with Christians from other parts of the world.

If you have a heart to send faculty around the world to pour into local leaders or to receive scholars to edify and equip faculty and institutions in the US, we welcome your partnership. If you are a faculty member in need of travel funds or represent an institution that wants to bring a scholar to the US, we welcome you to apply.

• Email us at seminary@cmfi.org to start the discussion.
• Apply for funds to teach overseas or bring a scholar to the US.
• Give to Seminary of the Nations to equip church leaders across the globe!