NEWS RELEASE – VANCOUVER, CANADA – ELO is pleased to announce that N.T. Wright, a world-renowned biblical expert, has been confirmed as an adjunct instructor in the “Entrepreneurial Leaders Programme” (ELP) from August 14th to 20th, 2022.

Dr. Richard Goossen, Chairman, ELO, stated that “the goal of the ELP has been to create the world’s leading executive education programme for Christian marketplace leaders by offering a great cohort, unmatched environment, curated offering, and outstanding presenters.  The addition of N.T. Wright adds to a world-class faculty that is unmatched.”

N.T. Wright is a world authority on the apostle Paul. He is the author of over 80 academic and lay-level books such as Surprised by Hope, The Day the Revolution Began, and Paul: A Biography.  N.T. Wright is much in demand as a lecturer around the world. 

Being both one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and a popular author, he has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air.  He is the author of the bestselling For Everyone commentary series and the New Testament for Everyone Bible translation.  

One aspect of N.T. Wright’s work has been to address the call of Christian leadership for today’s world and that Christian leaders, in church and business, are desperately needed to positively impact our culture.

N.T. Wright’s approach to gospel leadership for today’s world is articulated in his book, God in Public:  How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today, and in more recent writings and teaching.  We should “do God in public.”  But how?  There are many examples.  Wright says that while it is rarely reported, it is being done: “Something like three quarters of all those who do volunteer work in the hundreds of organizations that enable British society to flourish do so from a more or less explicit base of faith” [11].

N.T. Wright notes that in tomorrow’s world we need “the voices of those who are doing God in public, who have thought through the issues of the day in the light of the gospel of Jesus, and who can address them, like Paul, with courage and compelling wisdom” [12].  Religion is perceived by many as an outdated, dangerous noise on the surface of a culture, and for practical purposes, whether good or ill, it is best to ignore it.

N.T. Wright explains that his “suggestion here is that it is time to turn the page, to start a new chapter, to sketch a different and more integrated worldview and to live from within it.  The idea of a ‘secular’ society, with ‘religion’ either privatized or marginalized, simply won’t do” [145].  We need to articulate and live by “a worldview in which faith and public life are appropriately integrated” [145].

Further, he states that integration “should be our new goal, our contemporary telos” [146].  N.T. Wright highlights that “it takes courage to pursue this agenda because there are plenty of people around, including those with media platforms, and many in politics, for whom any attempt to re-integrate faith and public life is anathema” [146].

Christians are to do good works to all people (Galatians 6:10), rather than society’s view that the place of the Christian faith is to impose standards on everyone else [161].  N.T. Wright comments: “It is telling that, in the early centuries of church history, the Christian bishops gained a reputation in the wider world for being the champions of the poor” [163].

N.T. Wright’s challenge for believers: “You are the light of the world, said Jesus.  You are the salt of the earth.  He was announcing a programme yet to be completed.  He was inviting his hearers, then and now, to join him in making it happen.  This is what it looks like when Christian faith is doing its job within the public life of today’s and tomorrow’s world” [166-7]. 

The Oxford ELP cohort in August 2022 will have the opportunity to delve into more details and engage in Q&A with respect to the gospel leadership required for today’s world.  The quality of the cohort, the atmosphere of The University of Oxford, the curricular focus, and the quality of instruction will surely lead to a life-impacting experience.  There is no better place than the Oxford ELP to join a community of world-changing difference-makers.

To learn more about the ELP and to apply, click HERE