Global Leadership Development

Baptist Theological Seminary

Santa Clara Cuba

Brief History

After the political change in Cuba it became very difficult for people to travel from one region of the island to another one. With a Baptist Seminary in each end of the island (Havana and Santiago) the Baptist leaders in the middle of the island decided to start a seminary in Santa Clara. This seminary has operated in a church for many years and has been instrumental in training a very over 400 persons for the work of the ministry during the last decade. The seminary currently has around 50 students in the central campus and 20 in three extensions in adjacent cities.

Projects Involving a Champion Church/Partner

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The pastors of Champion Churches could be involved in teaching intensive (week-long) courses and/or workshops for the students as well as pastors

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

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Of the 23, professors at the seminary 9 work fulltime and 14 are adjunct professors. Especially among the adjunct professors there is a need for them to elevate their academic level.

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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.

Some of the scholarships to students can be connected with church planting efforts thus benefitting the students as well as the National Convention.

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 virmal courses thus reaching many more students with their training.

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

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This seminary now has 3 extensions which they are using to train people who cannot travel to the central campus to be trained.

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Funds to help the seminary professors travel to and from the extensions could be very helpful.

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Laptop computers and data projectors could be very helpful in these extensions

E

Despite all the challenges, Cuban Baptists are experiencing genuine revival. In the last 8 years, more than 12,000 house churches have been established in addition to over 600 churches with their own buildings. The need to train pastors is desperate since they have only 1 pastor for every 15 congregations.

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A Champion Church can be used of the Lord to contribute greatly to keep the revival going.

Felix Gonzalez

President

Email: romulofelixglez@gmail.com