EAST Mission Hub & The Educational Mandate

Fulfilling the Educational Mandate of Equipping Christ-like leaders for the Great Commission through the Mission Hub

The move to our new permanent campus, EAST Mission Hub, this year is a significant milestone in the history of EAST. With this new campus, it propels us forward in fulfilling our educational mandate of equipping Christ-like servant leaders for the Great Commission.

Transformational Community

Having everything under one roof provides an excellent opportunity for us to foster a strong and vibrant community. If you have taken a class at EAST before, you will certainly agree with me that you will not just come to a class and leave quietly, and nobody knows you. This is not the kind of learning environment you will get at EAST.

The moment you step into EAST campus, you will be attracted to the warm fellowship at the EAST lounge. Not only does the ambience make you relax and feel like home, it is the openness in interaction with fellow students and staff that engages the heart, sharpens the mind, and transforms the way we live out God’s calling in our lives.

Cross-Cultural Learning Environment

With our campus location and demographics of our student body and faculty, we get to engage people from different cultures and walks of life. The cross-cultural emphasis is pretty much a distinctive of EAST. These cross-cultural engagements not only expand our contextual and worldview awareness, it also equips us to be relevant in bringing the Gospel to our target audience thus helping to fulfil the Great Commission.

Life Mentoring

Besides the community and cross-cultural learning environment, another distinctive of EAST is our emphasis on life-on-life mentoring. All our students are part of a mentoring group led by our faculty throughout their entire studies with us. Through the fellowship and encouragement that take place in these mentoring groups, personal real-life issues are being addressed. By addressing these heart issues, students see the importance of “guarding their hearts, for everything we do flows from it”. Using different relational mentoring tools, they are able to relate with others better and can use these tools in their future ministry context. The new campus provides a safe and conducive environment for these life-on-life mentoring to flourish.

Digital Frontier

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted the education sector. The accelerated usage of digital media and platforms for e-learning have challenged the way in which theological education is being done. Now, with our in-house studio and dedicated Zoom rooms at our new campus, it enabled us to produce e-resources for our online courses. These help to expand our scope by serving our students not only locally but also overseas through our EAST Extension Centres (EECs). We can continue to fulfil our mission to develop Christ-like servant leaders for the Great Commission in East Asia and beyond. This is truly a mission hub as the heart of EAST is the mission to equip the labourers who bring the gospel to the lost.

The above article is part of a series on the impact of EAST Mission Hub on our vision, mission, strategy, education, and ministry effectiveness of the EAST community and beyond. This article is written by Rev Liong Kwok Wai, an EAST Resident Faculty and the Dean of Academics.