Help Evan Crain Fulfill His Calling in Theology

Dear friends,

In a matter of weeks, I was both accepted Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford to study theology for a year and laid off. It has been a journey!

I’m now over 11 years into my career. After many diverse adventures in strategy and operations leadership within all sectors, I have increasingly grown to the love the Word and Christ’s church. I taught myself biblical exposition and now teach in a class at my church. I will officiate my first wedding this year. And I’ve wrestled with deeper issues and applied theology to many subjects in conversation, writing, and teaching.

Particularly, I have engaged in the Faith-Driven movement, beginning with capturing the essence of the movement in my MBA dissertation. Over time, I developed a passion for discerning and applying the Christian worldview to fundamentally upend the wisdom of the world as to the purposes, design, and methods of organizations.

After hundreds – if not thousands – of conversations with leaders and innovators in the movement, I began to sense a “holy discontent.” I’ve seen amazing – herculean – efforts by so many to apply the worldview to redeem individual practices and set up the scaffolding for something more. But I often hear frustration as well - "this is great but how do I actually apply this?" Misconceptions - "let's stop giving to charity because they're wasteful and only use sustainable revenue models." And finally, gaps, which challenge the “b-school” way of thinking but don’t offer a rigorous alternative.

I delight in chatting with individuals to apply the worldview to their specific situations, but we always reach a point where it seems like there is something more, we can sense it, but there just isn’t the language for it. So, I developed a doctoral research topic to articulate a sense for this unknown theological imperative for the Faith-Driven movement to evolve and flourish titled The Church Within: Restoring God's Intentions for Organizations. I intend to take a top-down approach to develop a theological understanding of restored organizations, centered on the question of "what were God's intentions for organizations without the constraints of sin?” This would then reveal how organizations are an expression of the Church with special purposes and governance, and finally, Lord willing, lead me to design an implementable system for restored organizations (of all types).

The first step is to develop the academic theology skills through this 9-month, full time taught course before discerning further steps for this research subject. However, the program is beyond my means, so I am raising USD 105k (GBP 81k = tuition + estimated expenses). If you feel led to invest in advancing Christian theology for organizations, would you consider a gift of any amount, or would your organization consider sponsoring me if my direction is aligned to your mission? I will share how to give below.

I do not yet fully understand where God is leading me through this season – will this result in a new vocation? Will I continue through the PhD? Will this be a temporary stop before exercising this “holy discontent outside of my vocation? Something else entirely? As I discern his leading, here are my early notions of how Oxford might help advance my ability to live out God’s leading as I engage with leaders (government, nonprofit, business, investors/philanthropists, etc.), academicians, and pastors to act on this holy discontent:

• Advancing my intellectual skills to wrestle with deeper issues and apply theology to challenging and practical subjects. I share below graduate-level essays as examples in which I have previously applied theology in this way.

• Improving my biblical exposition to equip Christian leaders to apply theology to their domains and develop critical thinking, leadership, and strategy skills. I share links below to recordings of my recent teachings at church as examples of this skill. (From the Living Stones class at College Park Church)

• Expanding a community of global thinkers and leaders through Oxford, as it is a natural geographic and orthodox theological bridge, and utilizing my leadership and relationship skills to advance the movement of those called to restore organizations from within.

If you’d like to learn more, I am glad to speak with you! I also appreciate prayer and encouragement for discerning God’s leading. And, if anyone comes to mind who may be interested in sponsoring this program, I’d love to know!

Best regards,

Evan Crain

www.linkedin.com/in/evanpcrain

Funding information: I will track all gifts here on GoFundMe. For informal gifts, please contribute via the following preferred methods: Venmo | PayPal | Zelle – please request my email address | Check – please request my address. I am glad to explore with you other methods with tax efficiencies and accountability. I will return all gifts if I am unsuccessful.