Vision
Help ensure that the Gospel is presented in the power of the Holy Spirit with cultural

relevance and sensitivity to all peoples, especially in non-evangelized nations.

Strategy
Emphasize the "how" of evangelism.

Target credible and competent business, professional and religious leaders from strategic areas, including countries closed to traditional missionary endeavors.

Select faculty, primarily from Asia, Africa and Latin America, who are experts with continuously fresh "hands-on" experience in evangelism.

Require faculty members to develop their own innovative, culturally relevant materials within the curriculum guidelines.

Employ highly interactive and catalytic teaching-learning methods.

Motivate leaders to advance the skills of others within the community of believers by transferring what they have learned. This multiplier effect produces exponential growth in the evangelization process.

Prepare leaders to develop ministry resources in their own countries using Biblical principles of stewardship.

In 1934 God called a ten-year-old boy to missions. In response to that calling, the boy, John Edmund Haggai, later founded Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership. He did so in the conviction that the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ remains valid and viable:Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

After extended visits to Asia in the 1960s, Haggai came to bedrock conclusions that would govern both the concept and the organizational structure of Haggai Institute. Chief among these conclusions was a certainty that while the Gospel message remains unchanging and unchangeable, the methods used to communicate that message in the field of global missions needed to be revised. In particular, Haggai asserted, the methods regarded as normative by most Western mission organizations were incapable of delivering what the Great Commission required — for the following reasons:

NUMERICAL LIMITATION: It would take several million foreign missionaries to accomplish the task of world evangelism.

SKEWED DISTRIBUTION: Western missionaries are not arranged geographically in proportion to need. Probably no more than a quarter of active mission personnel are placed in Asia, which nevertheless has more than 60 percent of the world’s population.

VISA RESTRICTIONS: Large numbers of those who need to hear the Gospel live in countries which are closed to Western missionaries—among them the world’s two largest nations, India and the People’s Republic of China. In many cases these restrictions result from a rejection of Westernization in an increasingly fragmented world, and not from a rejection of Jesus. Nevertheless the trend renders conventional missionary methods ineffective.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES: The Indian saint Sadhu Sundar Singh said in 1922, “If you are going to give the Water of Life to an Indian, give it to him in an Indian cup.” Despite a heavy investment in language-learning and cultural assimilation, Western missionaries go into another nation as strangers and foreigners. They cannot, in a full sense, “stand alongside” those they preach to, nor can they free themselves from whatever associations their nationality will carry for local people.

FINANCIAL LIMITATIONS: Supporting overseas mission personnel is expensive. Even if every country granted visas for missionaries, current missions budgets could never support a force large enough to evangelize the globe.

Against this background, the assumptions implicit in the Corporation’s approach to world mission can be summarized as follows:

Our Lord’s command is His oath that the command can be obeyed. It is inconceivable that the Lord commissions His people to failure and mocks them with impossibility.

The most effective missionary force is one that already belongs within a given culture — namely; one composed of a country’s own nationals. They enjoy an acceptance not granted to foreigners. They know the language. They do not need visas or furloughs. And because they understand the culture, they are uniquely equipped under the Holy Spirit to develop rational, biblically-sound approaches to indigenous cultural challenges—the caste system, polygamy, ancestor worship, dietary prohibitions, etc.

As a rule, the best use of mission funds will not be to support Westerners evangelizing overseas, but to enable the nationals themselves, of a given country, to evangelize more effectively.

Studies of the methods of the Apostle Paul reveal that in spreading the Gospel around the Roman Empire, he emphasized self-government, self-support, and self-propagation.

Haggai Institute itself has two principal purposes:

To equip qualified Christian leaders to effectively evangelize their own people and train other national Christians to do the same.

To promote understanding among Christians of different cultures so as to help unify and strengthen the Church worldwide for the task of evangelism.

These goals must be understood with reference to the following clarifications:

Leaders include both clergy and laity. Those selected for training will already have demonstrated leadership capacity in their own church or profession, and be committed to proclaim the Gospel without compromise and without offense, other than the offense of the Gospel itself.

The emphasis in training lies on the “how” of evangelism—the methods by which evangelism may be undertaken more effectively.

By “evangelism” is meant the proclamation of the preexistence, incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is understood that God meets people of all ages and both genders in the totality of their need through salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only way to Heaven.

It is not the business of Haggai Institute to bring influence to bear on social, political or economic matters, although it is recognized that evangelism is the key to the improvement of society. This can be shown in such movements as the abolition of slavery, the free hospital movement, prison reform, and the founding of orphanages, which were the result of effective evangelism during the spiritual revival in 18th century England.

Haggai Institute should not impose Western ways of thinking. Its programs must be free of Western presuppositions and agendas, its materials be produced in the nations it seeks to serve, its faculty be drawn predominantly from the nations it seeks to serve.

Haggai Institute does not teach leadership for leadership’s sake, but only for the purpose of accomplishing the task of world evangelism.

Haggai Institute exists solely for evangelism, and does not provide training for vocational, academic, research or any other purposes.

Haggai Institute is exclusively religious and is built exclusively on religious tenets contained in the Holy Scripture, which is God’s Word, the Bible.

8. H.I. HAS NO GENDER BIAS.  H.I. trains men and women, promoting evangelism in the social and professional networks of both genders.H.I. 

9. HAS A TRACK RECORD OF MIDDLE EAST SEMINARS. Our Middle East seminars are unique in the Christian global community. Who else is training nationals from Qatar , Sudan , Syria , Iraq , Somalia , or the U.A.E.?H.I. 

10. STRESSES PROFESSIONAL, NOT JUST PASTORAL LEADERSHIP. In many cultures, the only people who can share Christ effectively are local professionals active in the workplace. Most H.I. alumni are lay members, not pastors, and are thus optimally placed for evangelism.

11. H.I. GIVES RELEVANT, PRACTICAL TRAINING. H.I provides effective tools for communicating the Gospel, by training indigenous Christian leaders in the "how" of evangelism. At H.I., we sharpen their vision through goal setting, and help them convey their vision by becoming more effective communicators.

12. H.I. CAN POINT TO RESULTS. The effects of H.I.’s work are quantifiable. We know how many leaders have been trained, and the quality of that training. We also get extensive and accurate feedback from alumni engaged in frontline mission work.

13. H.I. FOCUSES ON CHILDREN AS WELL AS ADULTS. Many H.I. alumni are involved in children’s ministries, directly impacting future leaders.

14. H.I. FOCUSES ON SOCIAL CHANGE. H.I. graduates develop programs to improve the spiritual, economic, and welfare situations of their people. These alumni lay the foundations for lasting geopolitical stability.

15. H.I. FACULTY MEMBERS ARE  SPECIALISTS. Haggai Institute’s faculty and alumni have in-depth knowledge of Islam and the Islamic dogma that pervades extremist Islamic movements throughout the world. They have first-hand experience in dealing with radical followers of Islam. 

16. H.I.’S WORTH IS PROVEN BY ISLAMIC OPPOSITION.  Of the hundreds of ministries operating in the Middle East , we are one of only thirteen identified by a major Islamic organization as a significant threat to Islam.

17. H.I. DOES NOT CONFUSE AMERICAN INTERESTS WITH GOD’S PRIORITIES. H.I. distinguishes clearly between the interests of the West and the needs of humanity. These may overlap, but are often different. H.I. is not the agent of any government, and respects the sovereignty of all nations recognized by the global community.

18. H.I. HAS NO ECCLESIASTICAL AGENDA.  While other global mission organizations often force their own patterns of belief, administration and behavior on others, our alumni are free to conduct their ministries as they see fit.

19. H.I. IS FOCUSED ON OBEYING THE GREAT COMMISSION. Training in leadership and evangelism serves one purpose only – obedience to Christ’s last command: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-19)

20. H.I. IS FOCUSED ON PREVENTION, NOT CURE.  It is beautiful to see citizens of the United States — and others across the world — willing to donate money to New York City, to the victims and their families. H.I. is committed to changing the world in a way that will prevent another September 11.

21. H.I. DOES NOT COMPROMISE THE BASICS OF THE GOSPEL.  H.I. does not present Christianity and Islam as both equally valid. Our basis has always been, and will continue to be, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, and of the Bible, God’s Word. “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

22. H.I. GIVES THE RIGHT EXAMPLE TO INDIGENOUS MISSION GROUPS.  Some countries, often identified with the West, have begun to replicate the old-fashioned missionary model. South Korea, Brazil and Singapore are sending missionaries to other parts of the world. This can be counter-productive. In times of tension, especially, mission is best done by local believers — not by foreign missionaries. H.I. exemplifies the right approach.

23. AT H.I., WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. H.I. has never resorted to slick PR or hard sell. There are no gimmicks or tricks — H.I. is Biblically based in its philosophy, approach and practice. 

24. H.I. OPERATES AT A TIME OF UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY.  We are not in a spiritual recession but rather a spiritual boom economy. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to maximize the return on His investment in us.