• CHET satellite locations now include the following locations: San Diego 2 sites, Los Angeles 3 sights, Walnut Creek 1 site, Chicago Illinois 2 sites, Minneapolis Minnesota 1 site, La Villa Texas 1 site, Mexicali Mexico 1 site.
• Six hundred plus students are currently matriculating at CHET.
• CHET training aids students work in India. Melvin Ardon, CHET Bachelor of Christian Ministry Program student ministers in Nagaland northeast India province.
• CHET hires Rev. Dr. Manuel Valencia to serve as the new Dean/Faculty leader. His duties include overseeing the satellite sites, serving faculty and administrative tasks.
• President Ed Delgado is serving on a national commission formed by the Association of Theological Schools/ATS (the accrediting body that accredits all seminaries in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico) and the Association for Hispanic Theological Education/AETH to develop criteria for helping Latino Bible Institutes, like CHET, become affiliate members of the ATS. The ATS formed this commission because it recognizes the tremendous work that such Bible Institutes are doing among Latino communities and churches, a work that the ATS has failed to accomplish through its accredited seminaries.
• December 3, 2011, was Graduation Day for seventy four students from the Pre-Ministerial, Ministerial and Family Counseling Programs. Four scholarships were awarded to outstanding students. These came from two scholarship funds entrusted to CHET, the Eldon and Opal Johnson Scholarship Fund and the second by the Barney II Foundation Lyle and Rosie Stokes Servant Leadership Program.
• CHET has now graduated more than 800 individuals during its 21-year history.
• Approximately $40,660 of CHET’s annual income comes from individual donors with CHET subsidizing 70% of the student costs; this income is vital in training Hispanic pastors, church planter, counselors, teachers and lay leaders.
• CHET has inaugurated a new channel through which contributions can be received. Basically it allows donors to charge credit/debit cards (or E-check amounts) with the contributions they wish to make. Donors simply need to go to the CHET website, and then click on the tab for “Partnership Opportunities/Donate Now.”

Valencia’s duties include overseeing the satellite sites, serving faculty, and assisting with other administrative tasks.

Valencia brings a wealth of ministerial, academic, and managerial experience to the school. He planted Iglesia de la Gracia Covenant Church in Rialto, California, served a Presbyterian church, and did missionary work in Nicaragua.

He has been a professor at the Mexico Teachers College and San Pablo Seminary in Mexico City, and was an academic pedagogy assessor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He also has taught at CHET.

Valencia’s administrative work includes serving as the national project coordinator and facilitator of community development projects, as well as director of ecclesiastical relations and administrative service manager for World Vision Mexico.

Valencia is ordained with the Evangelical Covenant Church and holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, a graduate teacher diploma from the Evangelical Training Association, and has earned a law degree from the Universidad de Mexico.

CHET currently has enough money to fund the position for six months. It is seeking additional donations to make the job a permanent part-time position.

NOTE: This article was originally published on CovChurch.org through Covenant News Service.

CHET, an undergraduate Bible School with a focus on ministerial formation, is a subordinate organization of the Evangelical Covenant Church of America and is an affiliate of North Park University and Theological Seminary.

From our beginnings in 1989 with 15 students, CHET has grown to over 600 students in the Fall Quarter 2011. CHET graduates are actively serving as pastors, as church planters, counselors and as Christian Education teachers. Some have completed or are in process of completing graduate Master and Doctoral level seminary programs

CHET is located in the geographic heart of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, with satellites in California, Texas, Minnesota, Illinois and cities along the US/Mexico border.

At CHET we believe that theological education and ministerial formation belong to all members of the community of God. Some of our students are pastors, others have just begun their pilgrimage of faith; some are professionals, others have little schooling; some come from historical churches, others belong to new charismatic and Pentecostal movements. Our students, like the educational and administrative staff, are men and women committed to serving Christ.

The Commission’s overall goals is to formalize a process of certification that will promote and improve Bible Institute theological education in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada so that graduates function at a baccalaureate level, and are equipped to become leaders for the radical transformation of church and society; and to create and formalize accessible pathways to graduates wishing to continue their education beyond Bible Institutes. This while also assuring the caliber, theological foundation, and preparation of these future church leaders.

Those goals are met with all of CHET’s accredited programs; the Pre-Ministerial, the Ministerial, the Lay Family Counseling and the Bachelor in Christian Ministry Programs. Classes are taught by adjunct and staff professors who have earned Master through PhD degrees and are currently active in academic studies and training.

CHET satellite locations presently include San Diego, downtown Los Angeles, Wilmington, Upland, and Walnut Creek, all in California, as well as the Evangelical Covenant Church offices in Chicago. This fall a new CHET satellite opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota using the Minnehaha Academy. Plans to open a new Texas CHET satellite are currently in process in partnership with Pastor Allan Serrano of La Villa Texas and Midsouth Conference leadership. CHET teaching centers currently host over 600 students.

The relatively low and very attractive students cost is driven by an extremely efficient Central Campus staff consisting of 3.5 full time members (but critically needing 1.5 addition members.) This very lean team combined with significant volunteer support and student subsidies (currently seventy percent of the per student cost) make possible these attractive tuition and fees. The student subsidies come from the CHET general fund sustained by the financial support of dedicated CHET donors.

CHET’s ministry has always been the passion of many, some as teachers, some as administrators, and others as those concerned with supporting students in their stressful financial condition of work, study, and family. Currently hundreds of regular individual gifts supply eleven percent of the $369,665 CHET annual budget. But beyond that some individuals and organizations have provided special scholarships for students who have advanced in their theological training and are significantly involved in a service to their local church, their neighborhood or well beyond their neighborhood.

At the December 3 CHET graduation four scholarships were awarded to outstanding students.  These came from two scholarship funds entrusted to CHET. The first is the Eldon and Opal Johnson Scholarship Fund and the second has been initiated by the Barney II Foundation Servant Leadership Program. Both Funds help CHET students pay their tuition costs. The Eldon and Opal Johnson Scholarship Fund, honors the Johnsons who as former missionaries to Bolivia came back to Los Angeles and won the hearts and souls of hundreds of Spanish speaking immigrants to themselves and to our Lord Jesus Christ. Their first meeting in Los Angeles had three attendees, ten years later they left a Congregation of over 300 trained members. Their passion was evangelism and discipleship through disciplined teaching, a teaching that is now manifest in CHET.

The Barney II Foundation Servant Leadership Program is a unique double partnering program. The Foundation first makes available funds which must be matched by individual gifts. The matched funds under CHET’s administration are then given to students who have met the requirements of the Foundation. Responsibility for the second phase of the partnering scholarship is placed upon the student recipient; for the student gives 25% of their scholarship funds to a preferred service project or organization.

The fund established by the Barney II Foundation is named by the person or persons who supply matching funds. The fund under the control of CHET has been named The Lyle and Rosie Stokes Servant Leadership Program Scholarship named for founding CHET Board member and longtime friends and supporters, Lyle Stokes and his wife Rosie. At this year’s graduation three scholarships were awarded from this fund, each for $666.66.

The Lyle and Rosie Stokes Servant Leadership Program Scholarship

Benito Amaya who graduated from the Pre-Ministerial Course in 2010 is presently in the Ministerial Program pursuing the Bachelor of Christian Ministry Diploma. He with others started an organization named Blessed 2 Bless which has seen the need of feeding the hungry in his neighborhood and gathered churches and other interested organizations to provide food once a month with a hope to increase this to a daily food service. Benito noted that he would not be able to continue his education at CHET without the support of this Scholarship based on criteria that included his academic success, service to his church, and demonstrated leadership.

Briggid Marling Girón has graduated from the Pre-Ministerial program at CHET and is now enrolled in the Ministerial Program. Briggid has completed 952 hours of volunteer service at the Renuevo School, a private Christian School, where she assists students with their phonics, vocabulary words, reading, and math. She also performs administrative duties in the school office. Briggid’s ministry grew out of her description of a leader, “One who is willing to serve without complaining and just serves others with love and compassion not expecting anything back.”

Delfina Alemán is currently in the midst of the Pre-Ministerial Program at CHET. Her ministry is and has been through the church, Iglesia Getsemane in El Salvador. She with others send needed new and used clothing and shoes to those who live in marginalized areas in El Salvador. Through such a ministry it is then possible to communicate with the people presenting the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ and gaining them to their Savior. Delfina sees a leader as one who facilitates spiritual and material help for the community of persons in need of such help and through the church, counsels those brothers and sisters recently converted.

The Eldon and Opal Johnson Scholarship Fund

The CHET Eldon and Opal Johnson Scholarship Fund is to be given to, “A person professing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who is called to serve in the Kingdom of God as a church planter, a pastor, or a missionary.”

This once a year award was given at the 2011 CHET Graduation ceremony to Benito Amaya. Benito has ministered in Mexico, in the central part of the United States and California. There he has preached the Word of God in the streets and parks. He has also taken and distributed food to those he sees in need. His vision is to meet the needs of those children he has met who are alone and abandoned for whatever reason and then to gather together others from the body of Christ who are like-minded to help these needy children.

Congratulations go to the graduates and scholarship recipients for their hard work! Congratulations also go to those that make it possible for these students—the scholarship foundations and donors, the CHET staff and CHET professors all for the equipping of these fine leaders for the kingdom of God.

The Reverend Ed Delgado, CHET’s President points out that, “CHET’s entry doors are wide-spread to meet the very need that Dr. Gonzalez highlights and that CHET has been training such church leadership for the past twenty two years regardless of denomination or educational level. For we currently serve students in seventeen denominations from mainline, evangelical, Pentecostal and independent churches, students who call seventeen different countries home. Some students arrive with MBA’s and others come with little if any academic preparation.”

And CHET graduates, not unlike those students described by Gonzalez are now serving as ordained Covenant pastors, as church planters, as family counselors, and as Sunday school teachers.

CHET also prepares men and women whose goal is to earn post-graduate degrees from accredited schools that accept CHET’s Bachelor of Ministry Diploma. CHET graduates are being actively recruited to Master level programs at Fuller and Azusa Pacific Theological Seminary with eight CHET graduates registered there this fall.

In addition to thanking you I wanted to mention that CHET has inaugurated a new channel through which your contributions can reach us. Basically it allows you to charge your credit/debit card [or E-check account] with the contributions you wish to make. We realize that this may not be helpful to everyone but since it eliminates the need for you to write a check and expend postage we thought it might be of interest. And for CHET it credits our bank account directly eliminating our need to make a copy of your check, post these contributions by hand, deposit the check and then mail out receipts; this since a receipt will be sent to you immediately by email after your credit card contribution is received. So for many this has the potential of being a win-win situation.

If this seems attractive to you let me explain the steps in this new contribution channel. It starts by going to the CHET website, and then clicking on the tab for “Partnership Opportunities.” On the drop down menu, click “Donate Today.” In the box, “Donate to Centro Hispano de Estudios Teologicos”, click on that title. In the new window select your desired “Frequency of Giving”, the “Designation”, “Donation Amount” (Before entering the Donation Amount first clear that box), and type in any “Special Notes about your contribution.” Then click on “Add to Giving Cart”, fill out the “Account and Contact Info”, and click on “Continue Checkout.” Next enter your credit card data and continue checkout. The final step is to “Place Order. A receipt will then appear in your email in box.

As you can see these several steps are very similar to purchasing goods or services online and once your data is entered, subsequent contributions are simplified by use of your password.

We trust that this giving channel might be of interest, but if not, checks still work just fine.

Thanks again for being a partner in this significant ministry.

Sincerely in Christ Service,
Edward Fraijo Delgado
President