Christopher is a New Testament scholar and is President of ScholarLeaders International, a ministry that exists to encourage and enable theological leaders from the Majority World for the Global Church. He is married to Michelle, and they are parents to Judah, Asher, and Zoe.
Currently living in North Carolina, the Hays family moved back to the US after Christopher served for eight years as a missional professor at the Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia in the city of Medellín. As an academic, his publication list includes 40 scholarly essays and six books, including Renouncing Everything (Paulist) and When the Son of Man Didn’t Come (Eerdmans). His scholarly translation work spans Latin, Greek, Spanish, and German.
Christopher believes that all truth is God’s truth, and that Christian scholarship exists in service of the Church. Thus, during his time in Colombia, he was the creator and director of Fe y Desplazamiento. This project fuses Christian theology with social-scientific research in order to develop curricula to mobilize Colombian Christian churches to foster the holistic recovery of victims of Colombia’s violent conflict.
Prior to becoming a missionary in Latin America, he worked as a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter a the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn and as a British Academy Postdoctoral University Fellow at the University of Oxford. He holds degrees in Ancient Languages, Biblical Exegesis, Theological Studies, and New Testament studies (BA, MA, MA, Wheaton College; DPhil, University of Oxford).
Christopher joined the Cook Board in June 2022. He serves on the Ministry Advancement and New Business Committees.