Jaison and Jessy joined the faculty of the New India Bible Seminary (NIBS) in 1987 and 1992 respectively. Over their years as educators, leaders, and administrators, they began to recognize a deep need for revival and revision in the training programs at the seminary. They were looking for life transformation in their students, but their efforts were somehow falling short. “If there is no meaning, if it is only a university degree, what's the use of theological training?” Jaison asked.

“We were disappointed, because there was criticism from the church that our current theological graduates were not serving the ministries of the church. They were critical in their approach toward the local pastors, the Bible, and even to God, because they were always looking to their reason more than to faith. Religiosity was there, but spirituality was lacking.”

To address these issues, they decided to pursue further PhD work in theological education (particularly focused on practical theology). After completing their PhDs, they returned to serve at NIBS, where Jaison assumed the role of principal, and Jessy that of director of research and advancement. Throughout this time, they had the opportunity to observe students and faculty up close, and thus became familiar with the specific issues and struggles they faced in applying their theological learning practically in their lives.

They began to experience a deep sense of “holy dissatisfaction” with the way things were. Jessy began to ask, “How can we really see people get transformed?” But this wasn’t the only question.

“Are we really accomplishing what we are called and expected to do? Because when God gives us students for two or three years in our hands, and they struggle with their own life situations, their financial struggles, their calling, their vision – we just teach them so many subjects! Is that enough? How transformed are the faculty members, and are there missing links between the teaching and the learning?”

They also identified a deep gap between the expectations of students, churches and seminary teachers. Jaison elaborates,

“The teachers are trying their best to make students into intellectual giants and to fill their hearts with all kinds of philosophies and theories. The students wanted to become a great preacher like their role models. The churches are looking for men of prayer, integrity, truth, sincerity – a person with character. So we were looking for ways to bring some reformation into theological education.”

Then, in 2010, a training opportunity with LeaderSource arose. “God is always connecting the right people at the right time!”

Jessy joined the director of NIBS and faculty members from various church and community backgrounds in Delhi for the training to see if they could find answers to some of their concerns. The ConneXions Model offered a non-formal path to transformation through the Christ-centered goal of the 5Cs (Christ, Community, Calling, Character, and Competencies) and the holistic process of the Four Dynamics, or 4Ds (spiritual, relational, experiential, and instructional).

The ConneXions Model was inspiring to Jessy and the other leaders at NIBS, and exactly what they wanted for their students. However, implementing it within the context of formal education seemed like an impossible task.

“I heard people saying … this [non-formal methodology] is not possible. It is humanly not possible to spend that much time and effort on individual transformation. Everybody is already overburdened, trying to accomplish a robust, meaningful course of study.”

They all agreed, however, that holistic transformation was worth pursuing in whatever capacity they could. This was where the journey started. The leaders of NIBS invited LeaderSource to run several sessions with them on knowing God and servanthood. They also asked them to look at their curriculum and offer advice.

Malcolm Webber and Robert Walter, senior trainer at LeaderSource, presented the model and showed them how to apply it to their context, but it was up to NIBS to revise the seminary’s curriculum for the faculty. The challenge of initiating a non-formal, lifestyle leader development program in a formal, fully-structured setting loomed large.

“We were in an academic, tightly-run institution. Accreditation has its own hours and minutes, everything must be precise, and there is no place to bring in anything new. The philosophy is good, but things were not going to work.”

Despite the structural requirements of curriculum, syllabi, and exams – the elements of formal education – the entire faculty and management of the seminary were wholeheartedly on board with the vision. They began a curriculum overhaul during their summer faculty formation seminars.

“We started it off with an in-house, self-initiated experiment. But we were actually using some of the insights and models of LeaderSource, particularly the 5Cs and 4Ds, in an interactive session. Every faculty member at that time had gone through Malcolm's and Robert’s teaching, and we took them through several sessions so that they could experience [implementing it in their syllabi].”

Over several years of training, Jaison and Jessy took every faculty member through their curriculum to determine where they could tighten up areas of overlap, making room to apply the 5Cs and 4Ds in the students’ practical ministry training.

“We were already doing transformative stuff in different ways as much as we could. But then bringing that into a classroom setting and creating this awareness of how human lives are transformed, how Christ is deeply formed in a person, and how our entire life is formed and reformed and transformed by the Word of God … Is it possible, rather than simply teaching subjects, to bring God's Word into everything?”

This process of integrating God’s Word into every aspect of the academic program at NIBS took years to accomplish. They sent faculty to the mission fields and ministries where their graduates were working five years after they had left the seminary in order to evaluate what graduates were doing now and what they wished they had learned in Bible college. With this research in hand, they began to retool every course to have a transformative goal and a holistic process. They also connected with local churches to bring pastors and mentors into the process, “because if we are not building the churches, what's the use of theological training?”

One of the ways they engaged students more holistically without adding more classes was through small groups. Instead of relying on chapel services with primarily instructional input from preachers, the small groups included Four-Dynamic elements that built the students holistically. They were a mix of old and young, men and women, and different language groups from across India.

They integrated the relational dynamic by sharing testimonies and making space for the students to tell their personal stories and pray for one another. The faculty and staff members who joined the groups not only built stronger relationships with the students, but were able to engage on a deeper level and understand their unique needs. They implemented creative themes, active learning opportunities, and service projects into the small groups. They ate together, fellowshipped together, and worshipped and prayed together. In this way all 5Cs were built strongly through a simple, time-efficient, Four-Dynamic program.

NIBS also began to immediately connect incoming students with local churches. Instead of asking for financial investment in students, they initiated ministry partnerships for mentoring and intercession. Students were given the chance to lead alongside and under the supervision of current church leaders, who in turn showed them what real-life ministry looked like. As relationships developed, mature believers from the churches began inviting students into their homes and connecting on a deeper level. “They needed to see what is happening in a church,” said Jessy. “They needed to experience love in a faith community.” In turn, the churches caught the vision for building the next generation to share Christ and make disciples in areas like northern India and Nepal.

Every year, NIBS invited all of the pastors and their wives to the seminary for an entire day devoted to prayer. Afterward, they served a big meal to everyone and celebrated the work of God in the students and churches. “It was like bringing church into the seminary and then sitting and praying together for the nation's need,” Jessy recounted. “That collaboration is what we are looking for – bringing different people together and sharing our passion for God's mission in collaborative ways.”

Jaison noted that the institutional approach to educating students was lacking in this sort of collaboration and life experience, and the lack showed when graduates started ministry in real-world contexts.

“In the traditional model, we accept the students while they are quite young, maybe 18 years old. Then they are walled in within the four walls of seminaries. They can't experience what is happening in the church or in real life. Then after four years like this, they are going out just like a broiler chicken! They don't know what to do, because they only have philosophies and theories. They do not understand the problems of normal, modern life, only the problems developed in 17^th-century Germany and England. So [in applying these models] we are trying to connect it with actual life.”

The ConneXions Model offered faculty at NIBS ample opportunity to build the spiritual life and practical skills of their students, and it provided them with flexibility to pursue the sort of training that was most essential.

The students weren’t the only ones impacted.

“Whatever we do with the students will not be effective if faculty do not take the journey alongside. … It was made a requirement, not an option. Faculty were sent with the students to the mission field in the summer, minimum one month, to go with them and do what they do. And it actually changed the mindset of faculty members from a classroom, hierarchical model to a teamwork model.

They received ample opportunity to be with the students, to see the real contextual challenges that our students were going through. This was a life-changing experience, not only for the students, but for the faculty as well.”

Jaison recently used this same lifestyle discipleship, boots-on-the-ground approach in villages in Nepal to great effect, challenging the seminary professors to modify their teaching style to be effective on the grassroots level.

“This is the kind of change that we need to bring in. Until the faculty are thrown into ground-level ministry, it is very unlikely that they are going to see themselves. Unless they see themselves, they cannot change themselves and adapt to the needs.”

In 2015, in collaboration with Dr. Paul Cornelius of Asia Theological Association (ATA), they published their first totally revised curriculum book with the Four Dynamics clearly outlined for all faculty. The following year, they invited Malcolm to share the vision for holistic theological education with 120 institutions accredited by ATA. Jaison and Jessy shared the results of their work in this setting, including how they integrated LeaderSource’s models.

“We said, this is only a model for this college [NIBS]. But whoever wants to learn more, we are here to help you. We highlighted that every context is different, every institution's culture is different. Your purpose may be different! Don't simply copy anything. Just create and ideate, and then make it useful for people. Every single person is important for God's vision!”

One of the results of the revolution in higher education at NIBS is the ongoing dialogue between formal and non-formal theological education happening across the globe. For instance, the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) recently brought in non-formal theological educators, leaders, and ministry trainers to their global conference. Jessy is a board member at ICETE, and is looking forward to expanded collaboration between formal and non-formal ministry partners.

“Why does a seminary exist? That is the question. Is it an independent entity? It doesn't have life. It doesn't have sustainability. It has to have roots in the real community where people live. So how can that happen?”

Jaison and Jessy are already seeing the fruit of their labor. They have reduced the gap of expectation between the churches and seminaries; graduates are more focused on knowing God and connecting with the communities they serve. For example, a dozen or so graduates of NIBS are currently working with great effectiveness in Nepal. One of these graduates, who was the first Christian from a village in the interior of Nepal, returned to that village after his holistic training at NIBS. Now, by God’s power and through this graduate’s work in the village, 200 new believers have come to Christ and started a church there! Jaison was able to go and baptize several of these new believers – the disciples of his disciple.

In 2022, Jaison and Jessy moved on from NIBS to pursue broader ministry serving partner seminaries with Mesa Global and ATA across South Asia. Today, they are seeking to make transformative theological education the standard for trainers, seminaries, and accreditation organizations across the globe.

“The purpose is to take training to the people who are not able to access it and who have never had the opportunity to undergo training, so that they can continue in evangelism and church planting [without having to leave the mission field]. Most of the churches in these regions do not have trained pastors or leaders to lead them. So we are collaborating with like-minded, passionate ministries who have contextual training content. And we are working alongside people, strengthening them and encouraging them to develop their own content.”

Jaison and Jessy are passionate about what has been their heart from the beginning: to bring students, faculty, and churches closer to God and to each other through holistic theological training, “to see this collaboration happening and working for the Kingdom's flourishing in every church!”