by Dr. Daryl McCarthy
C. S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian scholars in the twentieth-century, exemplified the commitment that all Christian academicians should hold. It was widely accepted that one of the major reasons Lewis was never offered a chair at Oxford, despite his preeminent qualifications, was that the other professors thought he was, as one person said, “so committed to what he himself called ‘hot-gospelling,’” that he could not be a good professor.
International Institute for Christian Studies (IICS) is an academic organization with a missional vision. This means we are committed both to the intrinsic value of scholarship—and to fulfilling the Great Commission—since Christ is to be acknowledged as Lord by every person in the world. We seek to find academicians and professionals who love Jesus so much they deeply desire to introduce others to Him and they’re willing to go to another country to live and teach. However—and this is an important distinction—we don’t teach in order to evangelize. Teaching is not a “cover” to get into a country to do our “real” ministry. For IICS, teaching is our real ministry. We teach because that is our calling—teaching physics, literature, philosophy, plant genetics, linguistics, law—the whole range of disciplines. And as we teach, we seek opportunities to introduce others to Christ and to disciple young believers. This is what makes IICS an association of academicians who think and live missionally.
We are not committed to what might be called “mere evangelism” that leads individuals to a quick head-nod to the claims of the Gospel and then rushes off to save the next lost person. Our mission is to see lives transformed by Christ, and to train leaders who think and live Christianly. This mission is fulfilled in the deepest sense by leading students and faculty to know Christ personally (which is where mere evangelism often stops), then discipling them as they grow in the faith, and mentoring them as they learn to live and think with a full-orbed Christian worldview, submitting every detail of their lives to the Lordship of Christ.
The Bible calls us to total evangelism—soul, body, and mind. As John Stott said in his classic, Your Mind Matters, “We must address the whole person (mind, heart and will) with the whole Gospel…Our objective is to win a total man for a total Christ, and this will require the full consent of his mind and heart and will.”
IICS Teaching Fellows do not accept a dichotomy between serious scholarship and fervent evangelism. C. S. Lewis enjoyed quoting General Booth’s remark to Rudyard Kipling, “Young man, if I could win one soul for God by playing the tambourine with my toes, I’d do it.” John Wain, who often heard Lewis make this statement, reflected, “Lewis did plenty of playing the tambourine with his toes, to the distress of some of the refined souls by whom he was surrounded at Oxford.” When he spoke to a group of theology students he warned, “Woe to you if you do not evangelize.”
For more than 23 years, IICS professors have been effectively introducing students and faculty to Christ and then discipling them as they mature in their walk with God. IICS teaching fellows are uniquely able to disciple and follow up with new believers. As professors, they are at a university long-term, usually for several years. As professors, they are respected and they have credibility with students. We are grateful for the countless individuals who have been introduced to Christ and then mentored in their faith by IICS Teaching Fellows.
