Last week 500 people involved in theological education came from around the world to Panama for the ICETE 2018 Consultation. ICETE is an international body of 9 regional evangelical accrediting organisations, that exist to develop theological education and support theological institutions. The focus of the triennial gathering was the sacred-secular divide in theological education. The theme was selected following a collaborative project between the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) and Langham Partnership that brought theological educators around the world to assess and evaluate the problem of the sacred-secular divide in their respective institutions, its manifestation in local churches in their contexts and what can be done to combat this erroneous thinking and practice.
Langham Publishing Book Table
Langham Publishing has been working with ICETE to publish books focusing on theological education for educators, administrators and academic leaders in the ICETE Series. It was in this capacity that Langham Publishing was invited to the consultation to showcase this series and the other Majority World theology we have published, and we gave special priority to titles that address areas relating to the sacred-secular divide. 24 boxes and 3 suitcases of books, consisting of over 100 separate titles in English, French and Spanish, were taken to the consultation just outside Panama City, and only a handful of titles were left after 4 days of busy browsing and buying at the book table. The event definitely provided by far the best sales Langham has had at any of the conferences it has attended, but the most valuable thing was that so many attendees and people buying the books were from the Majority World or ministering in Majority World contexts. The heart of Langham Publishing, just like everything in Langham Partnership, is to equip a new generation of Bible teachers in the Majority World, so to have so many theological educators from the Majority World at the event, expressing interest in our publications and buying them, was wonderful to see.
Fellowship & Networking
What was also wonderful to see was the number of people connected to Langham Partnership at the consultation. Current and former Langham staff from programme teams and fundraising teams, Langham Scholars, Langham Publishing authors and contributors, Langham Preaching participants, facilitators and coordinators, staff from Langham Literature member colleges — every part of Langham was represented in some way. And meeting and spending time with each other face to face, sometimes for the first time, was not only very fruitful and productive but also a taste of heaven. Indeed, the whole consultation had a flavour of Revelation 7:9 with so many nations, tribes, peoples and tongues represented. Many attendees reported that the most valuable thing from the event was meeting with people and discussing the issues of the sacred-secular divide and theological education. The ICETE team had also prioritised such opportunities with lots of opportunity scheduled for in depth discussion and earnest prayer in plenary sessions after the main presentations, smaller workshops and seminars, organised group excursions, and fellowship and networking.
Prize Winners
During the event participants had the chance to sign up to Langham Publishing News emails and enter a prize draw with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes.
The winners were:
1st Prize:
David Samuel
All 174 titles published in English by Langham Publishing
2nd Prize:
Debbie Colvin, UK
All 58 titles in Langham Monographs imprint
3rd Prize:
Jhon Flores, Guatemala
All 14 titles in Global Perspectives Series
To see what generated all the excitement over our books, take a look at our latest imprint catalogue to see our full English publication list.