Mobilizing Christian scholars in secular African universities

A visionary organization equips them for effectiveness in public institutions

Some of the participants in “Program 500,” through which the Society of Christian Scholars seeks to train 500 Christian professors as “academic missionaries” in African universities.

If you were starting an organization for Christian scholars in secular universities, on what continent do you think you would find the greatest response?

If you guessed Africa, you must have cheated and read the headline. That wouldn’t have been my guess either, but the Society of Christian Scholars has had great impact on the African continent in its six years of existence.

On August 28–30, the Society held its third Africa-wide conference at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. About 70 Christian academics attended. The attendance would have been much greater if not for the extremely high cost of plane flights within Africa. About 200 African scholars participate regularly. Five countries—Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia—have their own national-level chapters.

The main theme of the Uganda conference was “Christian Scholarship and Africa’s Transformation: A Call to Action.” Mainly, the Society equips scholars to transform the world by integrating their faith with their research, teaching, and service activities. But this year’s conference demonstrated the organization’s maturity as its work gained recognition from church leaders, government, and media.

Here’s how Alexander Essien Timothy, who teaches at the University of Calabar, Nigeria and is a Society executive committee member, described the event:

This conference was unlike the previous ones, which have had participants almost entirely from academia. The Inspector General of Uganda’s government, a high-placed public servant, presented a paper that revealed a strong understanding of the integration of faith and vocation. A panel of Christian lawyers highlighted how their Christian faith has been leveraged in public service and advocacy. One of them was instrumental in the repealing of a law that unfairly targeted the underprivileged.

Another significant feature was the active participation of Ugandan church leadership, including Pentecostal and Anglican bishops. The Pentecostal bishop was expected to lead a devotional, but it turned out to be a lecture that demonstrated a profound application of the concept of a missional professor.

We have never before had the institutional support that we received in Uganda. The Vice Chancellor of Makerere University formally received Society leaders at a courtesy call and also attended the opening ceremony. Moreover, the chairman of the Makerere University Governing Council presented a keynote address.

The conference also gave us unprecedented publicity. A prominent Uganda tabloid had news of the conference on its front page. A week prior to the conference, a TV station interviewed some Uganda members of the Society. (You can find the interview on YouTube.)

Why does the Society of Christian Scholars appeal to African scholars? I don’t have a definitive answer, but I can speak for myself. My father was a Presbyterian minister, but I’d vowed that I wouldn’t walk that path because my father’s experiences on the job didn’t encourage me. He was frequently owed salaries. He was at the mercy of the presbytery, a body of ruling elders who administered the church and determined what and when a minister should be paid. I told myself that I must find a solid job so that if I decided to become a pastor, I’d be financially independent.

The Society has given me an opportunity to develop my ministry in academia. It has provided a network of Christian academics across continents that denominations cannot offer. There’s also a robust fellowship between Anglophone and Francophone scholars. The Society is uniting Africa in a way that even the African Union can’t.

My participation in the Society has reoriented me and given me renewed purpose. I recognize my calling as a university lecturer as just sacred and as significant as that of the clergy.

After the main conference, the Society held a training retreat for participants in its “Program 500” project. It is recruiting 500 Christian professors from across Africa to undergo five days of in-person training and five months of online follow-up on how to become academic missionaries.

The story of the Society of Christian Scholars dates back to Danny McCain, an incredibly productive professor who founded an organization now known as Global Scholars in 1986. McCain’s goal was to place Christian scholars at secular universities around the world. After finding that he liked the classroom better than being a CEO, McCain hired his replacement and remained in Nigeria, where he has spent over 30 years teaching theology at the University of Jos. Over time, Global Scholars became connected with indigenous Christian scholars in secular academia who wanted to form their own organization. Accordingly, they shifted their emphasis from placing North Americans worldwide to providing behind-the-scenes support for indigenous-driven activity. McCain was one of the keynote speakers as the Uganda conference.

The Society welcomes volunteer presenters, mentors, and experts who can critique members’ papers. I’ve served as its volunteer director of editorial services, so if you join the Society you can get up to three copyedits a year from me. If you’d like to help the Society in any way, write to me and I can connect you with the right person.