our values

1. CHRISTIAN VALUES FOR NATION-BUILDING -- Because Jesus Christ is Lord of all the earth, His teachings and values have relevance for every area of life in Africa today. We seek to break out of the confines of privatization and explore the implications of the Word of God for all of life. We look to prepare leaders who will participate in the strengthening of the economic and political systems in their nations. We seek to nurture African "statesman" who will be distinguished by the compelling wisdom of their solutions for the complexities of African society.

2. EVANGELICAL SCHOLARSHIP -- ISAR was created by NEGST to provide an environment in which Christians committed to historic, orthodox Christian beliefs could engage in scholarly research. The central convictions of the "evangelical" community are the complete truthfulness of the Bible as the written Word of God and the pivotal significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, representing the decisive redemptive initiative of God for the salvation of the world. Leaders will explore the depths of meaning to be found in these central doctrines of the evangelical faith and seek to articulate the implications of God´s ultimate self-disclosure for every sphere of contemporary African experience.

3. INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES -- Because the God of the Bible is Creator of all things and because Jesus Christ is Redeemer and reigning Lord of all of Creation, the scope of Christian research and analysis must not be limited. The values and wisdom of the Christian worldview must be articulated as they inform every sphere of knowledge. Leaders will be equipped to do interdisciplinary research in order to articulate the insights and imperatives of Scripture as they impact every dimension of African experience. The finest scholars from various fields of study must come together to forge syntheses which are thoroughly Christian and at the same time based on rigorous research.

4. RESEARCH AND WRITING -- The continued maturing of the African Christian movement requires the creation of written resources to nourish minds and hearts. This literature must come from the "pens" and computers of African scholars. Wise, godly African teachers and researchers must produce a whole new corpus of Christian literature in order to address the challenges of being disciples of Jesus in the new millennium. We need a new generation of African Luthers and Calvins, and Wesleys and Edwards. We must raise up an African "Martin Luther King, Jr." and an African who can do for the next millennium what another African, St. Augustine, did for the prior era.

5. SERVING THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH -- Christian scholarship must not be an end in itself. The final measurement of the authenticity of the work of a Christian scholar is that his or her work reflect in its ethos "the mind of Christ". This mind and attitude is one which "loves the Church" enough to "give himself up for her". We do not seek to create an elitist class which disdains the messiness of the real stuff of discipleship, but one which follows in the footsteps of the Master. In light of His incarnation, Christian scholarship must serve His "little flock".

6. LEARNING RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY -- There has been much written about the contemporary "information explosion". Effective leaders know how to utilize the best information available. Thus far, most African Christian leaders have not had access to the technology required to benefit from the explosion of knowledge. In most cases the reasons are economic. We seek to prepare "world-class" leaders and therefore we must provide means for these leaders to gain access to the wealth of information available today. We hope to create a situation in which evangelical leaders are distinguished by their high level of awareness of the most significant and current information possible.