Global Leadership Development

Baptist Theological Seminary

Cuba

Brief History

The seminary in Santiago Cuba was started to train students in the Eastern side of the island. As a result of the political changes starting in the early 1960s, travel was restricted and travel funds were very scarce. This made the work of this seminary even more crucial. As is true of the rest of the island, in the last 15 years Cuban Baptists have been experiencing genuine spiritual revival. In the Eastern Baptist Convention alone, over 5,000 house churches have been started. Counting the congregations with a church building this gives Baptists in this region 5,700 congregations with only 250 Baptist pastors which gives them a ratio of one pastor for every 22 congregations. This makes the training of Baptist people for ministry absolutely essential.

Projects Involving a Champion Church/Partner

E

The pastor and staff of the Champion Church could teach intensive (week-long) courses at this seminary

E

Teams from the Champion Church could be involved in evangelism, disciplesip and ministry activities along with seminary students

E

Work teams from the Champion Church could be involved in renovation of classrooms and improvement of the campus facilities

Projects Related to Faculty Development

E

The Champion Church could provide scholarships for the professors of this seminary to enroll in online and virtual Masters and Doctoral programs that enable them to continue to teach while elevating their academic level

E

The Champion Church could provide financial resources for the seminary to hold workshops for the seminary professors and staff.

Projects Related to Students

In light of the fact that the average salary in Cuba is less than $25.00 dollars a month, seminary students could benefit greatly from scholarships that would help with their tuition which the seminary has already made enormous efforts to keep as low as possible
One of the greatest needs the seminary faces is that of feeding the students. Due to the scarcity of food in Cuba, students are totally dependent on whatever meals the seminary can provide. Funds to enable the seminary to purchase food can go a long way toward meeting this need.
Some of the scholarships to students can be connected with church planting efforts thus benefitting the students as well as the National Convention.The Champion Church could provide financial resources for the seminary to hold workshops for the seminary professors and staff.

Projects Related to the Campus

E

Funds that enable the seminary to purchase laptop computers, data projectors, video cameras could make it possible for the seminary to offer online and virtual courses thus reaching many more students with their training

E

Funds and expertise to enable the seminary to plant high-yield vegetable gardens could go a long way toward supplementing the daily diet which consists mainly of rice and beans.

E

In collaboration with Southwestern Seminary, Trinity Academic can make available to this Seminary an electronic portal that will enable the seminary to offer online courses, virtual courses and an untold number of library resources to the students. A Champion Church can assist by providing the initial cost of installing this system and the very affordable cost to maintain thus saving the Seminary thousands of dollars in equipment and local personnel to maintain it.

Projects Related to the Seminary Extensions

This seminary now has 10 extensions which they are using to train people who cannot travel to the central campus to be trained.
Funds to help the seminary professors travel to and from the extensions could be very helpful.
Laptop computers and data projectors could be very helpful in these extensions.

Eddy Gonzalez

President

Email: eddygr@yahoo.es

Phone Number: 011-53-5338-8377