CCTB News

New Executive Committee

2012-02-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and colleagues,

Greetings from the CCTB!

I wish to let you know that we had a good Council meeting at the College on last Saturday (11 February) following an election to the Executive Committee. The following persons have been elected to the various positions shown against their names:

1. Chairman: Rev. Pastor Alvin P. Bhakta

2. Vice Chairman: Rev. Ashim Baroi

3. Treasurer: Rev. Nathan Sukamal Biswas

4. Member: Mr. Stephenson Suiting

5. Member: Rev. Shourobh Pholia

6. Member: Rev. Liton Mrong

7. Advisor: Mrs. Cindy Meyer

8. Advisor: Dr. Kris Prenger

9. Advisor: Rev. Waldemar Lies

We request your prayer support just as ever for us all for continuing the transforming and equipping ministry for God’s people in this country, especially for the above-mentioned Executive Committee and their leadership. While saying this I also wish to register our grateful thanks to Mr. Stephen Baroi, Rev. Shourobh Pholia, Major Milon Dias (respectively our former Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer) and Rev. Jason P. Das and Rev. Utpal Saha (EC Members),and Dr. Mark Pietroni and Mrs. Susan Osborne (Advisors) for all their committed service during the past years.

Finally, we ask your prayers for the MA course now going on with 8 students.

With thanks and best regards,

Martin

Annual Council-2011

2012-02-12T19:08:00.001-08:00

Faculty Opening

2012-01-31T21:08:00.001-08:00

Tutor Seminar-2012

2012-01-30T00:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who made the 2012 Tutor's Seminar a success. Over 70 tutors and faculty attended.

Prayer Request & Thanks Giving

2012-01-23T19:03:00.000-08:00

Dear colleagues and friends,

Warm greetings in our Lord from CCTB!

Please join us in thanking the Lord for the fact that with His blessing life in the college began smoothly well in the New Year.

I thought that I could share with you few things and ask for your prayer support.

We are pleased to welcome back Rev. Richard and Mrs.Sally Smith, who went back home in New Zealand for a short holiday. They had a nice time with their children, and were also able to visit friends and relatives. We thank the Lord for their being with us back for the ministries at the College. We pray that they will smoothly settle back to life in Bangladesh.

Let me add here some other items for special prayers:

1. TEE Deans and Tutors Seminar to be held on 24-26 January where we expect up to 50 Deans and Tutors to attend. Pray for Rev. Smith and Rev. Philip Sarkar having particular responsibilities for this important annual activity.

2. Rev. Geff Bos, our Academic Dean, as he returns tomorrow from Chiang Mai,Thailand after attending the CRWM Annual Retreat.

3. Mr. Karnes Rema (70+), father of Deacon Wailes Rangsa, our Faculty member. Mr. Rema has been suffering from serious health problems (paralysis) as well as senile decay including

bed sores.

4. Executive Committee meeting to be held on 28 January, and also the Council meeting scheduled for 11 February

5. We also ask for your prayers for the MA course starting 2 February. It is expected that we will have 8 male students (all non-B.Th and from diverse backgrounds).Please pray for Rev. Gary Larson as he conducts this.

With your prayer support and God's guidance we can achieve great results in our ministries.

I personally very much look forward to meeting each one of you at certains points and ocassion as appropriate. Please pray for me and my family too as I am settling down to things at the college gradually.

With best regards and all good wishes,

Introducing CCTB New Principal

2012-01-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

The message of Christmas

2012-01-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

The message of Christmas

Photo: Jeremy Mayes/ Getty ImagesMartin AdhikaryPrincipal CCTB

Christmas reminds us that through incarnation the Eternal Word of God came to dwell with his creation as a human person in history and human culture, and to share with human experience so that man may come to get back his true glory and dignity. The eternal sinless Christ identified with sinful man.

This is the testimony to the eternal Logos, the Word and Wisdom of God about Himself: "The Lord brought me forth as the first of His works before His deeds of old. I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there was no ocean, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before He made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep His command, and when He marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at His side.” (Proverbs 8:22-30).

Christmas speaks of this mystery beyond human comprehension. Christmas is a time of wonder about God's unique way of dealing with man and his sin. This is the timeless central message about God's outreaching love and unmerited grace for man with the universal call for response to that divine love and grace to be manifested in a new kind of attitude to God and man. Norman Wesley Brooks aptly remarked thus: “Christmas is forever, not for just one day; for loving, sharing, giving are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel in some box upon a shelf. The good you do for others is the good you do to yourself."

Christmas invites us to a life of faith, hope and love. By giving us His Son, God has not only shown but has also given us the model of selfless giving for others. Christ calls us to live this life and calling in our daily life, in our mundane as well as extraordinary affairs. Christianity has essentially a holistic message covering every aspects of life. There can be no dichotomy between what is holy and what is profane as such. True sense of holiness has to be holistic. Everything is within the purpose of the Creator. Everything has a meaning. God is concerned with every human person. French Journalist Raoul Fullereau observed: "Today all problems are universal. Only a universal spirit can encompass them, understand them, resolve them." Christmas exhorts us to have that sense of holism and universalism. Everything in this life is integrated.

We live in a world where greed and pride, horror and hatred, destruction and delusion, communalism and sectarianism seem to be so overpowering that human values continue to be sacrificed. Jesus Christ came to the world to give supreme value and dignity to man. But even with all the sublime teachings and injunctions of religions we see so many devilish things that man is doing to man. Religious fanaticism, bigotry and fundamentalism have also been besetting problems in the world.

In spite of all the glorious achievements of science and technology and use of the fertile imagination of mankind there is sectarian use of religion. Due to human greed for power, wealth and name and fame modern scientific and technological advancement has given us a culture which virtually makes human beings slaves to science and technology. Ethical values continue to erode. Advanced technology and secular morality push man to many morally and ethically questionable practices like genetic engineering, transplan-tation of animal organs into human body, abortion, half-abortion, euthanasia, test-tube babies, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, cloning, etc. There has been awful progress in militarisation, weaponry, in devices for killing man.

Undue intervention by rich nations in the internal affairs of the poor ones hinders the promotion of democracy in those countries. The web of globalisation appears to be a new way of economic colonisation of the developing countries by the technologically advanced nations. Globalisation, materialism, and consumerism have compelled the poor countries to enter into unhealthy business relations with the rich ones. Much of the earth's resources are being abused to feed those gods of materialism and consumerism.

People need to repent for the abuse of wealth and power. "Repentance" is a key-word in the Bible. This means change of one's hearts and attitude towards God, towards God's work -- His Creation. It is a complete turn-about from our worldly ways of greed, lust and pride, and helps to lead a godly life. The meaning of "repentance" is so deep and personal that John Calvin, a great theological thinker of the 16th century Church Reformation in Europe, said about it: "Unless our hearts are harder than iron, the remembrance of the great love Christ has shown us by submitting to death for our sake is bound to make us devote ourselves entirely to him."

We need to change if we wish to devote to and love God and His Creation. Mankind is in great need of healing and renewal: healing of its wounds, renewal of our relationships with God, within ourselves, with other people and also with all other creations apart from man.

Christmas comes every year with the cardinal message of grace and peace from a loving God with the challenge for change. So let it be true for us as we continue to live and celebrate.

Xmas Greetings for All

2011-12-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

2011-12-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

Position Opening

2011-11-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

2011-11-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

Some TEE Students and Tutors

2011-11-14T21:46:00.000-08:00

2011-11-07T20:01:00.001-08:00

CCTB

It is our pleasure to inform you that this year CCTB is going to publish the fifth issue of the annual magazine "Prapti". The theme of this year's issue will be "The work of the Church," based on Matthew 9:37, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."

We would like to invite you to be a part of it. You may introduce the program, products. activities and mission-vision of your organizat...See More

CCTB - College of Christian Theology Bangladesh

www.cctb.org.bd

An interdenominational Bible College serving the churches of Bangladesh since 1968.

TEE Group Visite (Barisal)

2011-10-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

TLT Seminar September 11, 2011

2011-10-10T03:10:00.000-07:00

Newsletter July-September-2011

2011-10-05T03:07:00.001-07:00

CCTB Newsletter July-September (English) 2011

Upcoming Events

2011-09-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

TEE (Theological Education by Extention) Promotional Seminar

2011-09-17T01:33:00.000-07:00

10 September 2011 TEE Promotional Seminar was organized by CCTB in CCTB Campus. 25 Participants in various denomination attended to the seminar.

In the mentioned seminar all the participant realized that TEE education is very very important for the church members for their spiritual development.
They also suggest that in future the TEE promotional seminar should be organized in different areas so that the mentioned are church members can realize the benefit of TEE Program.
They also suggest that a long time plan should be
taken to increase the TEE Education.

Benifits of TEE Program

2011-08-20T00:50:00.001-07:00

Flood in CCTB

2011-08-18T03:02:00.001-07:00

Advertisement of MA Program

2011-08-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

BTH Students are Working

2011-08-08T01:59:00.000-07:00

CCTB Day 2011

2011-08-02T03:16:00.001-07:00

CONFERMENT OF M.A. DEGREE

2011-07-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

What is TEE in Bangladesh?

2011-07-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

CCTB’s TEE is one of the longest standing and best methods for theological training and growth in Bangladesh. TEE stands for Theological Education by Extension. TEE is CCTB’s main program, averaging around 500 or more participants per year. TEE programs work so effectively in Bangladesh because the students can study within their own web of relationships. Rather than traveling for a theological education, they can study within their contexts of family, work, church, and ministry.

Theological Education by Extension (TEE)

2011-07-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Theological Education by Extension is an education system that permits people to study theology without leaving their homes and communities. By staying in their own communities full time ministers can further their education without leaving the church they serve. TEE also enables students to keep commitments to their families and communities.

Through TEE students are able to immediately apply the lessons learned in the context of their local rural and often poor environment. By learning in their own environment the student has an immediate tie between what he/she is learning and real life ministry.

Academic Programs

2011-07-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Diploma in Christian Ministry (DipCM)

The Diploma of Christian Ministry is a 12 TEE course program to equip students with the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Through these courses the student will become familiarized with the Bible, the essential doctrines of Protestant Christianity and the methods of ministry available to the committed Christian. Through the weekly meetings with the course tutor and other learners the student will be helped to acquire the attitudes and skills needed to be salt and light in their communities.

Diploma of Theology (DipTh)

The goal of the Diploma of Theology is to prepare a student for _____. The DipTh is an eight TEE course program built upon the DipCM. The DipTh program will provide the student with deeper knowledge of God, Christ, the Word and Salvation History.

Bachelors of Theology (BTh)

Master of Arts in Christian Studies

What We Believe

2011-07-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

The Affiliated Members of the CCTB have come together for the purpose of training men and women for service in the Church in Bangladesh. These organizations represent a variety of theological traditions, yet are united in the task of assisting the Church in this country to proclaim to all people the good news of the salvation brought by God and Lord Jesus Christ, and to maintain the faith of the Church in the true, eternal, sovereign and merciful God, perfect in unity, existing internally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe we can only do this as we acknowledge the authority of the Holy Spirit and seek His guidance to lead us into His truth and to empower us to live in His light and do His work.

We acknowledge our particular responsibility to the people of Bangladesh, for we believe that it is in Christ alone that they and all people can be brought to salvation. He is the culmination and perfection of God’s revelation to mankind and through His divine nature, His incarnation as true man, His perfect life, sacrificial death on the Cross of Calvary, His bodily resurrection, ascension, eternal priesthood and reign. He is the only Savior. He alone can restore fallen people to their full stature and dignity, showing forth the image of God in which they were created, and freeing them from condemnation and power of sin to which they are otherwise enslaved.

We believe that thus transformed, we are called to be the “salt and the light” of human society, but that our final hope in not of this world, but in Christ’s final judgment and the eternal inheritance kept by Christ for His people.

We acknowledge the particular need of the constant and diligent study of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We accept their supreme authority as the rule of faith and as containing all that is necessary for salvation, recognizing that the Scripture once given, needs to be continually interpreted and applied to our present situation.

The Church is by definition the Body of Christ, Christ being the Head. Apart from this the College does not insist on any definition of the form of the church, nut we all accept the character of our nature and vocation as ~a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light”.

We believe that God gives individuals spiritual gifts for leadership and service for the Church, and that the College has a particular calling to assist in the training and development of these gifts.

Values, Vision, Mission

2011-07-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

VALUES :

Commitment to biblical truth that is applied individually and as communities(Spiritual formation, engagement with contemporary issues, applied theological learning and research)

Unity in diversity in the body of Christ

Evangelistic proclamation and social transformation

(Servant leadership, stewardship of God’s resources, engagement with contextual theology)

Accessible excellent education

VISION :

"People brought to faith, growing together in Christ-likeness, serving their communities in Bangladesh, so that lives and communities are restored and God's Kingdom is established."

MISSION :

“Equipping men and women through theological training,

mentoring, and practical ministry to be servant leaders and scholar saints acting as salt and light amongst their communities.”

Welcome to CCTB!

2011-07-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Members of the CCTB have come together for the purpose of training men and women for service in the Church in Bangladesh. These organizations represent a variety of theological traditions, yet are united in the task of assisting the Church in this country to proclaim to all people the good news of the salvation brought by God and Lord Jesus Christ, and to maintain the faith of the Church in the true, eternal, sovereign and merciful God, perfect in unity, existing eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe we can only do this as we acknowledge the authority of the Holy Spirit and seek His guidance to lead us into His truth and to empower us to live in His light and do His work.