Seminario ESEPA is an Evangelical university located in one of the most politically and economically stable countries in Latin America, Costa Rica (San José). As a theological institution we prepare pastors, Christian educators, and missionaries from all over Latin America, including Spain, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Our student body represents some 70 denominations.Our faculty members come from Latin America, Europe and the United States; many of our professors hold PhDs (Cambridge and Aberdeen for example).
Seminario ESEPA offers Bachelor’s degrees in Pastoral Ministry, Christian Education and Cross-Cultural Ministry, as well as Master’s degrees in Bible and Theology. ESEPA also has two extension programs (rural Costa Rica and Cuba) for those who are unable to take course at our main campus. We are also presently developing a distance education program where students can take course via the Internet.
What do you teach at the seminary?
I am a professor of New Testament and teach (in Spanish) courses such as Introduction to the New Testament, the Book of Acts, Koine (Biblical) Greek, The Gospel of Mark, the Letters of Paul, and Hermeneutics (Interpreting the Bible). Most of my teaching is done in San José, but I also teach in Cuba.
Why do you have to raise support to teach at the seminary?
The average pastor in Costa Rica only makes about $172 a month, and only one out of three has completed high school. This is the condition of evangelical leadership in the most politically and economically stable country in Latin America! Church leaders desire and need theological training but are limited by economic obstacles. Therefore, in an attempt to make theological education accessible to Latin American church leaders tuition is kept low. At this time all funds raised by tuition are dedicated to emerging Latin American leadership within the seminary. ESEPA’s strategy is to compliment Latin American leadership with key missionary personnel who will help fulfill the long-term goals of ESEPA. This is a positive development. Just a few years ago, churches and individual donors supported all of the professors at the seminary. Now, however, ESEPA has six full-time salaried Latin American faculty members. ESEPA is steadily moving towards the end goal of becoming a self-supported, authentically Latin American institute.
What is your vision for your ministry at Seminario ESEPA? What do you hope to see accomplished while you are down here?
Seminario ESEPA is a special place. We get some wonderful students from all over Latin America; students who are change agents; students who either will have or who already have a powerful influence in there respective countries; students who will be planting churches, equipping and mobilizing missionaries, making disciples, counseling, writing books, and guarding the faith for years to come. I get two to four years to be a part of their lives; two to four years to shape the way they think about God, life, and ministry, to model leadership, to encourage, stimulate, challenge and mobilize. What do I want to see accomplished while I am at Seminario ESEPA? Below are few of things that the Lord has placed on my heart with regard to ministering at Seminario ESEPA.
With the help of the Lord I want to:
1. Help students to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the Gospel and its relevance for all of life. I feel that my primary task as a teacher is to clearly explain the full content of the gospel and how it is to daily impact the way we relate to God and others; to encourage and challenge my students to daily express faith in the truths of the gospel--especially by my own example and personal experience (Rom.12:1-2; Col. 2:6; 3:15).
2. Motivate, equip and moblize Latins to go to the Muslim World and the 10/40 window.
3. Stimulate thought and challenge existing paradigms. I am called to develop and challenge the life of the mind, and am called especially to help students learn to analyze and synthesize information, to encourage imagination, curiosity and carrying things out to their logical conclusions (Mt. 22:37). However, it is not enough to train them in rigorous thinking, by word and example I must also encourage students to train their own hearts to love God and His truth, and to diligently apply
God's word to their lives (Prov. 4:23; James 1:22-25; Mt. 21-27; Prov. 3:4-5; Ezra 7:10).4. Give students practical skills for studying the Bible and communicating its message in concrete and powerful ways.
5. Model godly leadership--servant leadership.
6. Motivate, mobilize and equip church planters to saturate Latin America and the ends of the earth with a church for every neighborhood, giving them a vision for how they can use their skills, gifts and desires to edify the church, and establishing over the course of time a deep-seeded, biblical understanding of the nature of the church and our place in this world as disciples of Jesus.
7. Illustrate the importance and relevance of Biblical backgrounds for understanding the Bible, and for effectively communicating its message more concretely.
In short, I want to be involved in shaping and transforming the Latin American worldview to one that is consistent with God's view of the world. Seminario ESEPA recognizes that the gospel has a long way to go in Costa Rica and Latin America (and in the United States for that matter). Despite amazing growth in the twentieth century, the mission is not accomplished in Latin America. In fact, in many ways it has just begun. For the mission according to Jesus is not simply to evangelize a continent, but rather to make disciples of that continent, disciples who in turn will makes disciples in the whole world. Thus, for Seminario ESEPA to truly be strategic, its theological education will have to aid in making disciples who will make disciples of all the nations. For Seminario ESEPA to truly facilitate and maximize its objective it will need to work at showing how Christianity touches the very core of one’s belief. Said in another way, Seminario ESEPA will be most strategic in fulfilling the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20) when its faculty successfully transform the worldview of the change agents sitting in their classrooms to a worldview that honors and glorifies God, to a worldview that satisfactorily and profoundly touches the often unspoken, secret assumptions and values held by many. Latin culture will be transformed only as its Christian leaders are transformed. To impact the worldview of one student at Seminario ESEPA is to possibly have an impact upon thousands of Costa Ricans, some who will in turn be missionaries, pastors, and evangelists. And because Seminario ESEPA is made up of some five hundred students from fourteen different Spanish speaking countries who represent some forty different denominations the multiplication effect is hard to fathom. In the end, of course, I expect my worldview to be transformed in the process of teaching as my students and the Latin culture point out my false beliefs, assumptions and hopes and call me to live according to the truth and hope of the gospel.
Can you tell me more about United World Mission?
United World Mission(www.uwm.org) has a wonderful and unique vision. They hope to see reproducing churches established in every neighborhood of the world! Every missionary they appoint, whether they be well diggers, youth pastors, evangelists, relief workers, or seminary professors all work within in their context to equip local churches to multiply themselves and establish new churches. As an agency they are very strategic in placing their missionaries, making sure that they are not doing anything that nationals can do, and always working to enable the local church to fulfill its calling.
United World Mission is a faith-supported mission and all its missionaries are responsible for raising their own funds.
How long will you stay in Costa Rica?
Until we work ourselves out of a job! We want to serve ESEPA in becoming a Latin American institute that is able to accomplish the vision that God has set for it. In order for that to happen, however, it needs key missionary personnel to help in strategic areas of development. ESEPA has the unique task of equipping the church leader who has little or no formal education, as well as enabling some to carry out deeper research of the Bible at the M.A. and Ph.D. level. ESEPA has recently started their M.A. program in New Testament and will very soon be offering M.A.s in Old Testament and Theology. Their long-term goal is to be one of the first evangelical seminaries in Latin America to offer a Ph.D. to its own people, in its own context. This would enable called and gifted scholars, denominational leaders, mission agencies directors, etc. to stay in their own context and wrestle with the particular problems of their culture, rather than come to the United States or the United Kingdom and wrestle with our problems.
In order to make this happen ESEPA needs Ph.D. trained professors to teach at the M.A. and Ph.D. level. The problem is that not many Ph.D. trained professors can or want to move to another country, learn a new language and live on support. Our long-term goal and the hope of ESEPA leadership is that we (the Liebengoods) would teach undergraduates at ESEPA for three to four years, then work on and complete a Ph.D. (which would take about three years) with the view of returning to ESEPA to teach at the M.A. and Ph.D. level. When a sufficient number of Latin scholars have been raised up, our job will be done and we will move on to whatever God calls us to.
Does Latin America really need seminary -trained leaders?
At the beginning of the 1900s there were about 250,000 known Evangelical Christians in all of Latin America. That number has grown to about 60 million today, most of the growth occurring in the past forty years. But while millions are coming to Christ there has been a vast need to disciple and equip these believers, in part because the majority of Latin American evangelical congregations are led by pastors with little or no formal theological training. There are several consequences to this. One is that there have been damaging theological heresies that have spread due to a lack of knowledge and discernment. As well, Christians have experienced very little life transformation because they aren’t hearing God’s Word and integrating it into their lives.
The value of training leaders with seminary and Ph.D. degrees is the enormous multiplication factor. One seminary trained pastor, or M.A. trained leader, or Ph.D. trained professor can have an impact on literally hundreds, even thousands of people. They become equipped, and in turn equip others to equip! They can write books on subjects that are relevant to their culture. Think about some of the great books and resources that you have been blessed with over your Christian life. For the most part, those kinds of resources have not been produced by Latin Americans to Latin Americans. ESEPA can help change that.
I have been reading a book recently that has highlighted the need for seminary-trained leaders in Latin America, The Next Christendom: The coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins. The author’s primary thesis is that Christianity is literally “going south”. By the year 2025 the largest concentration of Christians will be found in Africa and South America, the latter estimated to be around 640 million (roughly equal to the current population of the United States). Jenkins also projects that if current trends keep up, only one in five Christians will be of European or US descent by the year 2050. Jenkins conclusion is that for better or for worse, this new geographic shift will play a critical role in world affairs and may radically change the nature and look of Christianity from an empirical viewpoint. If recent studies are true that estimate that only 3-5% of the pastors of the largest churches in Latin America (i.e. the churches with the most influence theologically and culturally) have any theological training, I can’t help but wonder what kind of Christianity will be reflected in Latin America if we don’t see a significant number of pastors and Christian leaders trained in the study and application of God’s Word.
What will Marietta’s ministry be?
My primary ministry will be to our children, Chloe (7), Caleb (5) and Caedmon (3). I’m excited to see what doors God opens as we simply live life and make new friends in Costa Rica. As well, I look forward to supporting Kelly and ESEPA in every way that I can. This has been a dream for Kelly and me, and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.
How can we contribute to your ministry?
If our strategic ministry of preparing Latin American pastors and missionaries is something you would like to partner in please contact us at kellydliebengood@hotmail.com.
If you would like to send in a contribution you can write a check to United World Mission and send it to:
Please attach a separate note indicating that the funds are for Kelly and Marietta Liebengood.United World MissionPO Box 1667Monument, CO 80132-1667
To find out more about United World Mission log on to www.uwm.org.
What will our giving cover?
There are three categories of funds we need to raise. The first is our living expenses, which will be reflected in a salary. This covers rent, utilities, groceries, and educating our children. Along with our salary we need to raise the funds that will be needed to do the ministry. This would include such things as travel expenses and office supplies. The third category would include things like health insurance, life insurance and a pension plan. All contributions to United World Mission are tax-deductible.
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