Community churches highly rely upon this Indian seminary for leaders

Shalom Bible Seminary (SBS) in Nagaland, India, was established in 1996 to raise leaders to strengthen the Church and help fulfill the Great Commission. The fairly new interdenominational school and OC partner has already had 66 graduates. The school’s early years saw students from only a few communities in Nagaland; now countries like Myanmar, Nepal and other states in India are represented. SBS offers Bachelor of Theology degrees, and Master of Divinity degrees began in 2006 with the program’s first five graduates this past June.

Nagaland is India’s gateway to all the Southeast Asian countries. As a country whose population is predominantly Hindu, India offers challenges and opportunities to SBS for evangelistic and missionary work. However, Christianity is the predominant religion (90%) in Nagaland, making it one of three Christian majority states in India. Despite this dominance, a leadership crisis exists in most local churches due to the lack of theologically training personnel. Churches look to SBS with great expectation to raise servant leaders and missionaries for the ongoing ministry of Christ, and various churches and groups repeatedly seek out SBS faculty and students for preaching, teaching and the music ministry.

SBS courses are regularly revised to address contextual needs. This year, courses on HIV/AIDS and children/youth ministry were introduced at the Master’s level to prepare students for the ministries in which many serve after graduation.

Faculty scholar Ketouseno Iralu says there is an alarming trend of youth dropping out of churches in Nagaland, believed to stem from the nature of training received by youth leaders. Ketouseno says her “involvement in Christian higher education through SBS is crucial in equipping future pastors and leaders to understand and address the needs of youth.”