New board member/alumnus has a great view of CIU

When Ken Katayama looks out the windows of Crossover Global, he sees the campus of his alma mater, Columbia International University, where he serves as one of the newest members of the school’s board of trustees.

But as president of Crossover Global, Katayama, who graduated twice from CIU in 2011 and 2021, has many opportunities to see a lot more of the world than his office view. One of his most recent trips on behalf of Crossover Global, a church planting organization, was to Thailand and the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission on Global Consultation where the organizational structure of Crossover was a case study. Over 170 participants from 33 nations engaged in numerous conversations during the four-day consultation.

Crossover Global’s mission is to see God glorified by providing gospel access through the planting of multiplying churches among unreached people groups. It was founded in 1987 by CIU Chancellor Dr. Bill Jones and Adjunct Professor and alumnus Dr. Joao Mordomo with five ministry bases located in Brazil, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia and the United States.

Katayama, who is of Japanese heritage, but raised in Brazil, says developing strategic relationships with those five Crossover Global ministry bases is key to their missions approach, which is what they shared with their colleagues gathered in Thailand.

“We’ve realized that strategic alignment is an art, not a process,” Katayama said in an interview from a visitation room at Crossover Global where an artistic outline of the world takes up a good portion of one wall.

And he says the key to the strategic alignment is Kingdom relationships.

“You can’t have strategic alignment if you are not friends with each other,” Katayama said of his  Crossover Global co-workers. “We trust each other. We want to work on this together. We are in this together, therefore we are aligned to the mission.”

In addition, Katayama says organizational culture makes all the difference.   

“I can only create a great collaborative effort on our team if the organizational structure empowers me to do that. It’s how we behave (and) what we believe that allows us to collaborate with each other.”

With a drive for finding the most strategic ways to get the gospel to the least reached, Katayama looks across the street to CIU and its core value of World Evangelization. He desires as an alumnus and board member, to help the school maintain its mission to “educate people from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the message of Christ.”  

“I hope CIU will continue to equip people that have a vision (and) a biblical understanding of the unfinished task,” Katayama said. “That is my prayer.”

CIU is celebrating 100 years of its mission to “educate people from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the message of Christ.” The university consistently ranks among the Top Regional Universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report, as well as a Best Value Regional University in the South. Apply now or request information on enrollment by contacting Admissions at (803) 807-5024 or admissions@ciu.edu.