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“The Nigerian Church is maturing,” Dr. George Janvier says excitedly. “When the early SIM missionaries came to Nigeria, they had to start with literacy classes. Then they set up secondary schools, Bible colleges, and finally, seminaries. The PhD program is the final link in the education chain. The Nigerian Church has a number of PhDs, but all of them were trained in the West.” Dr. Janvier teaches at Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS), which is the Nigerian seminary that SIM is most closely associated with.
Western education has excellent quality, but there is a high price tag attached. When Nigerians study in the West, they are exposed to Western teaching styles and issues. Nigerian Christians face different concerns than those from North America or Europe. Instead of studying postmodernism, homosexuality, bioethics, and the Iraq War, they need to learn to handle questions about polygamy, persecution, marriage, finance, corruption, and AIDS. Studying in the West is also inconvenient because of visas, finance, and family separation--students’ families often remain in Nigeria.
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