Gordon-Conwell Courses Being Translated into Chinese

South Hamilton, MA—Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and CentriHall Inc., a Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based e-Learning service and content provider, are collaborating on the translation of the seminary’s Semlink distance learning courses into the Chinese language for distribution to Chinese seminaries and churches worldwide.

Under the terms of the alliance, CentriHall will initially translate and publish 10 Semlink courses in Old and New Testament, Theology, Church History and The Life of Jesus, working with translators in Israel, Taiwan, China and the U.S.

CentriHall will also work with Chinese seminaries and Christian Education institutions in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S. to develop turnkey solutions for facilitating implementation of online distance-learning programs. Participating seminaries will credential and administer the courses and mentor enrolled students.

The format of online courses enables students to listen to lectures in English and view PowerPoint slides along with subtitles in Chinese in real-time. “In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, because English is becoming mandatory, this approach is more authentic to people listening. In addition, the Chinese translation will also enable the learner to teach others in Chinese,” explains T.Y. Shen, CentriHall Executive Director.

According to Dr. C.B. Tan, President of Chinese Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan, many traditional books published by the Gordon-Conwell faculty have been translated into Chinese and widely used by Chinese Christian educational institutions. “We are very pleased to see that the Semlink material will be available to the Chinese Christians through the e-Learning System as a result of this partnership between CentriHall and Gordon-Conwell,” he says.

Semlink Director Dr. David Horn notes that the seminary’s distance education program currently provides 33 credit courses to on-campus students and learners around the world. In addition, the seminary’s Dimensions of the Faith program offers 10 of these courses at no charge to individuals and churches, and grants a Dimensions of the Faith certificate for completion of all 10 courses.

Out of 1.3 billion Chinese worldwide, Chinese Christians total more than 100 million. Chinese Christians are found in more than 100 countries across the globe, with the vast majority—90 million—living in mainland China. This number is projected to increase significantly, reaching a total conservatively estimated at 150 million by 2025. (Source: World Christian Database, Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, November 2003.)

“There is an urgency to train qualified workers to minister to this ever-increasing Chinese Christian population; however, there are not enough established Chinese seminaries to fulfill such demand,” says CentriHall President and Chairman Chikong Shue. “Most, if not all, of the Chinese seminaries and churches do not have the resources to initiate and maintain a technology-based training program.”

“We can now provide these institutions technology and service infrastructure solutions, and train them to take full advantage of our e-Learning services, such as interactive message boards, chat rooms, multimedia material to enrich course content, and the student monitoring and tracking capabilities of the learning management system.”

“The Chinese Language translation project offers significant opportunities for extending the seminary’s mission of preparing men and women for service to the Church worldwide,” says Gordon-Conwell President Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. “Students from many countries now use our English language courses, and individuals and churches from more than 35 countries have taken advantage of Dimensions of the Faith for personal and group Bible studies and Christian Education programming.

“CentriHall’s capabilities offer the potential for making available in many languages the same high quality courses that attract students to our three campuses. What we are doing in Chinese can easily be replicated in other languages, such as Russian, Korean and many more.”

About Gordon-Conwell
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary is a multi-denominational evangelical Protestant graduate school serving more than 2000 students on campuses in South Hamilton and Boston, Massachusetts, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Students on the three campuses represent 92 denominations and 22foreign countries. The seminary ranks 5th in size among all seminaries accredited by the Association of Theological Schools of the United States and Canada. Gordon-Conwell offers 19 degrees at the master’s and doctoral levels and has gained an international reputation for leading faculty in the areas of Biblical Studies, Ministry and Theology.

About CentriHall Inc.
CentriHall Inc. (http://www.centrihall.org) is a non-profit e-Learning service and content provider to the Chinese Christian community worldwide. Its mission is to make high-quality e-Learning services and content available to Chinese Christians anywhere in the world over the Internet and foster a virtual community among Chinese seminaries, churches, pastors and co-workers for better cooperation and understanding to fulfill the GreatCcommission for the Lord. For additional information, please contact CentriHall Inc., at info@centrihall.org.

Chelmsford, Massachusetts . . . September 1, 2003 . . . CentriHall Inc., a non-profit Chinese Christian education service provider, is pleased to announce that it has received the letter of determination from the Internal Revenue Services for recognition of exemption.  Under such determination, CentriHall is exempt from federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code as an organization described in section 501(c)(3).

CentriHall Inc. is a Chelmsford-based, e-Learning service and content provider to Chinese Christian community world-wide.  Its mission is to make high-quality e-Learning services and content available to Chinese Christians anywhere in the world over the Internet and foster a virtual community among Chinese Seminaries, Churches, pastors and co-workers for better corporation and understanding to fulfill the great commission for the Lord.
For additional information, please contact CentriHall Inc., at info@centrihall.org.