Gary Teja

Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Studies, Dean of Distance Education

B.A. (Western Michigan University, 1972), M.A. (Wheaton College Graduate School, 1984), Ph.D. (Michigan State University, 2003)

GTeja@kuyper.edu • 616.988.3663

Professor Teja began teaching at Kuyper College in January of 2006. Among the courses taught in the cross-cultural studies program are Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Gospel Communications, World Religions, Contemporary Understanding of Folk Religions and Church Planting and Development in the 21st Century. These courses and others prepare students for living and ministering in a global environment. Professor Teja recently completed 31 years having worked with World Missions, CRC Publications, SCORR (Synodical Committee on Race Relations) and Home Missions. He spent 16 of those years in Central America in church planting, theological education by extension, and as the distance education director for the Missiological Institute of the Americas. Professor Teja continues to serve on loan from Home Missions to Calvin Seminary as program director for the online M.A. in new church development and as Home Missions' consultant to its Southeast Asian ministries. He has taught extensively in Central America, Mexico, Belize, Cuba, Venezuela, as well as Puerto Rico and Bolivia. Professor Teja also developed and oversaw 45 Spanish-speaking church planter boot camps for the Church Multiplication Training Center (CMTC) in 10 countries, including the U.S.

"I see Kuyper College as a place where students have the opportunity of being exposed to a world that is becoming smaller each day due to massive migration, the Internet and cable news programs. Students learn how to live out their faith, combining academics with hands-on experience in different cultural settings, both here and overseas. Word and Deed are taught as integral to who we are as believers. In my classes I see my task as helping students become lifelong learners, equipped for flourishing in the world long after they leave campus. In this global environment that surrounds us, these learners will need to be able to understand other cultures and to minister to people who are different from themselves."

Dr. Teja is a twin, born in Vermont to a Spaniard from Castile and a New England Yankee. He came to Michigan in 1967 and attended Reformed Bible Institute. His hobbies are reading, traveling, hiking, kayaking and working on a 25-year restoration project on a 100-year old Victorian home in downtown Holland, Michigan. His wife, Jackie, was on the first STS team, and is executive director of the Lakeshore Pregnancy Center. Together they have two children and seven grandchildren.