Institute for Studies in Asian Church & Culture

The Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC) is a non-stock, non-profit research and training organization that for more than four decades has been specializing in development, missiology and cross-cultural studies aimed at social transformation within the Asian context.

It has been a major influence in moving evangelical churches towards understanding the relationship of the gospel to culture and a deeper commitment to the poor. As a development organization, it has accompanied and empowered grassroots communities in their journey towards social and spiritual transformation.

Its advocacy for good governance has led ISACC to organize and provide leadership for the evangelical presence in the People Power revolution in 1986. Since then, it has been a growing voice for justice and social responsibility. ISACC through its advocacy and educative programs has raised a critical mass of professionals, artists, pastors, theologians and church leaders who are socially aware and engaged in integrating God’s Word into the analysis of complex issues in the public square.

ISACC has an International Board of Reference, a local governing Board and a corporate membership that serves as its community of accountability. It has a resource pool of about 20 Fellows and friends from academic, cultural and social development circles here and abroad who provide cross-cultural inputs, theological and social science expertise, and spiritual guidance into its work.

Brief History

ISACC was established in July 1978 in response to the historical crisis posed by the experience of authoritarianism in the Philippines. Through more than four decades of political advocacy, research, popular education and development work, it has evolved into a major influence in moving evangelical church communities towards a deeper commitment to the poor, with a reputation for creative advocacy campaigns and effective service, solidarity and empowerment among the grassroots communities it has served.

ISACC’s long years of advocacy culminated in its mobilizing of church communities at the height of resistance to the Marcos regime. It organized Konfes (Konsensiya ng Febrero Siete), a coalition of some Namfrel volunteers and a network of Protestant churches which served as center of evangelical presence at the barricades during the February 1986 ‘People Power’ uprising.

Some of its notable advocacies were its participation in the long campaign for the dismantling of US military bases in the country; the push for agrarian reform; and the national campaign for Jubilee 2000, an international movement for debt cancellation and relief for poor countries. It also organized the country campaign of the Micah Challenge, a movement among the global Micah Network organizations to end poverty and push for the UN Millennium Development Goals.

ISACC is also known for its promotion of cultural awareness through artistic productions and training in cross-cultural issues. Its encouragement of indigenous liturgical music has contributed towards enlarging this body of work, moving it towards becoming a richer, more popular and accessible tradition.

These We Believe, These We Work For

We Believe That Jesus Is Lord of All Life

The gospel is for the whole person. Witness to it has both verbal and visible dimensions as expressed in prophetic proclamation of the Word as well as in the Spirit’s work of transformation in the life of individuals and of nations. We believe that Christ is King, not just over the church, but over nations and peoples. His kingdom makes no distinction between the secular and the sacred; he rules over all life.

For this reason we commit ourselves as people of the Kingdom to advancing the rule of God in our national life. We seek to bring governance of our society closer to the original purposes of God. We work towards making every thought captive to obey Christ, articulating biblical perspectives on social issues and subjecting scholarship, ideologies, media, the arts and all other expressions of our intellectual and imaginative life to the scrutiny of the Word.

Through these we hope to see a nation walking after God’s ways, its culture and life systems increasingly transformed by the values of the kingdom and the Creator’s revealed will for human social life.

We Believe That Witness Must Be Sensitive to Cultural Context

God in Jesus rooted himself in a particular culture and people. Following the pattern of the incarnation, we seek to speak sensitively, according to a people’s ways of thinking and feeling, and in a way that truly brings good news to the places where people fear and hurt.

With this conviction, we work towards seeing the church increasingly rooted in Filipino and other Asian cultures. We wish to see our theology and witness shaped by both the Word as text and culture as context. We long to see the churches speaking relevantly to the needs of our own people, and in doing so inspire other Asian churches into what it means to root the power and uniqueness of Jesus and the Word in a plurality of great spiritual traditions.

Towards this end, we encourage fresh theological reflection and development of models of witness and a liturgical tradition that affirm and enrich our culture.

We Believe That God in His Righteousness Is on the Side of the Poor

While all, rich and poor, are sinners and need forgiveness, not all are victims of injustice. Power is usually on the side of the oppressor, weakness is often the lot of the poor. While we are told not to be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit and follow justice and justice alone, the prophets also tell us that God’s love is particularly focused on the poor.

Conscious of this particularity, we seek to empower the poor, increasing their capacity for stewardship or the management and control of their resources and communities under God. We work and pray for a church that is increasingly socially aware, in her lifestyle and witness, conscious of the poor who are ever before us. We commit ourselves to becoming a voice to the voiceless, upholding the cause of the poor wherever their rights are trampled.

These we believe, these we work for. May the strength and love of God empower us to do the best that we believe, able to keep faith in the face of our struggle against evil powers because of our hope in the Kingdom that has come, is at work in our midst in the present, and will fully come to pass in the future.

Leadership & Governance

Board of Trustees

• Chairman: Ruth S. Callanta

• Vice-Chairman: Florinda T. Juarez

• Secretary: Julieta C. Mallari, Ph.D.

• Treasurer: Wilmina R. Lara, Ph.D.

• Members: Rev. Stephen O. Gualberto • Leni S. Juarez, Ph.D

President & Founder

Melba P. Maggay, Ph.D.

International Board of Reference

Dr. Miriam Adeney (USA) • Rev. Pedro Q. Arana (Peru) • Rev. Goh Keat Peng (Malaysia) • Rev. Darrel W. Johnson (USA) • Dr. Andrew Kirk (UK) • Dr. Wing Tai Leung (Hong Kong) • Dr. Wayan Mastra (Indonesia) • Rev. Eric J. Miller (USA) • David Thomas Bussau, AM (Australia)

Recognition

• Distinguished Evangelical Award in the field of church studies and culture, by the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, 1995

• ‘Faithful Teaching, Heavenly Wisdom,’ presented by Breakthrough, Hong Kong, 2008 in ISACC’s 30th Anniversary

• Leadership of the Evangelical presence during the People Power revolution of 1986 by the Center for Transformation, Asian Theological Seminary

Linkages

ISACC maintains a fairly wide network of relationships with individuals and organizations of similar concerns, both local and international.

Its solidarity network ranges from the Micah Global network, an alliance of about 800 faith-based development organizations worldwide, and NGOs like the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Faith-based Coalition Against Immoral Debt, the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), to ecumenical initiatives like People’s Choice Movement (PCM) and Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP).

Internationally, it has had historical links with academic and mission organizations like the International Fellowship of Mission Theologians (INFEMIT), Life and Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; the Center for the Study of Religion and Development in the Netherlands; Centre for the Study of World Christianity in Edinburgh University, Scotland; the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity; Breakthrough in Hong Kong; the Latin American Theological Fraternity; Akrofi Christaller in Ghana; Kairos Centre in Malaysia; Evangelicals for Social Action, Fuller Theological Seminary in the US; Langham Partnership, World Association of Christian Communicators and All Nations Christian College in the UK; Regent College in Canada; and World Vision International.