In the News: Christianity Today Highlights APU’s Role in Hispanic Theology Partnership

Christianity Today recently highlighted the “consortium” for Hispanic theology education created by a partnership between Azusa Pacific University, Life Pacific University (LPU), and the Latin American Bible Institute (LABI). This partnership to build a broad path to theological education for Hispanic students was made possible by a $4,999,904 grant from the Lilly Endowment.

“To receive this grant from the Lilly Endowment gives us a five-year runway to help create these systems,” said Bobby Duke, APU’s interim associate provost. “Five years from now, my thought is that we will have created a kind of a theological consortium here in Southern California around Hispanic theology and Spanish-speaking pastoral training in ways that, without the seed money, we may not have just had the ability to do.”

APU, LPU, and LABI are currently all Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). They provide expanded resources for Hispanic students, who make up at least a quarter of the full-time equivalent enrollment.

The three colleges have previously shared lecturers and event resources, but the grant represents an opportunity to dream bigger, Duke said. “A lot of this is using these next five years to kind of reimagine what theological education can look like when people work together,” he said.

Read the full Christianity Today article.