Our Ministries

Legacy Project

A fallen redwood gives life to the next generation.

Refocusing on Legacy

In 2018, after 35 years in Africa, we recognized that the Lord had ordained a new season for our family and ministry, a season in which ‘going forward’ meant ‘moving back’ to the USA.

In May 2018, we traveled to California to celebrate my daughter’s graduation from her ministry internship program. During a short visit to the redwood forests, I saw something that impacted me profoundly. A huge redwood, having reached the end of its life, had fallen sometime in the past. Growing on top of this fallen giant was a healthy young tree, its roots drawing life from its predecessor! As I marveled at this sight, the Lord ‘nudged’ me.  For a couple of years, I had sensed that the Lord wants me to increasingly focus on ‘legacy’ projects –  leader development and equipping processes, tools, and resources that will outlive me and continue to inspire, edify, equip, and encourage emerging Christian leaders all over the world after the Lord calls me home. Here before me was an outstanding natural example of this very process – one generation, now passed, providing a life-giving foundation to encourage the growth and development of the next.

As I wrestled with this in prayer, the Holy Spirit prompted me to read the story of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28. While meditating on this wonderful story, verse 15 jumped off the page. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”  When the Lord highlighted this verse, the issue was settled in my heart. I knew it was God’s plan to move our ministry base back to the USA and, in light of what he is leading us to do, this makes perfect sense. In addition, the entire LECM board has sensed for some time that this was in line with God’s purposes.  We now live in southeast Texas and are pursuing the fulfillment of God’s purposes.

Legacy Projects

In light of the direction in which the Lord Jesus seemed to be leading us, I asked myself an important question. What  ‘legacy projects’ will continue to facilitate growth and development among future generations of disciples and emerging leaders after I am gone?

Three specific focus areas came to mind.

1. A well-designed, systematic, cost-effective, web-based, resource-backed, multimedia, modular discipleship and leader equipping process that capitalizes on the rapidly increasing availability of the internet and smartphones in the Majority (nonwestern) World and targets undertrained Christian leaders who are unable to attend Bible school.

2. The creation and publication of books, ebooks, online articles, and multimedia resources that promote the maturing of God’s people and the development of emerging Christian leaders all over the world.

3. Continued involvement with SATS and other organizations committed to leader development in the majority world.

Please pray for us as we pursue the development of these projects.

SATS Project

sats-image-lecm-websiteAt this stage, LECM’s primary ministry focus is a joint project with South African Theological Seminary to design and facilitate an innovative, transformational, accredited leader development process for church-based leaders across Africa. SATS is a fully accredited distance learning institution with students in over 60 countries.  Offering programs from certificate to doctoral levels, the seminary seeks to develop leaders who are Bible-based, Christ-centered, and Spirit-led. Courses are facilitated online but feature interaction in a learning community,  meaningful reflection, and application to life and context. As part of the agreement, SATS is contributing theological courses and Dr. Bert Watson courses on leadership,  leader development, and discipleship. Though the goal is to develop an accredited two-year Higher Certificate in Christian Leadership, all courses developed for this program will also be available in the BTh and other certificate programs.

As currently envisioned, the Higher Certificate in Christian Leadership will include the following courses.

Core Curriculum

THE1120 Introduction to Theology

BIB1121 Interpreting the Bible

BIB1126 Bible Survey

PRA1124 Biblical Leadership

PRA1125 Practical Christian Leadership

DSC1121 Developing People in Christ

MIN1122 Designing a Developmental Process (supervised process)

MIN1123 Facilitating a Developmental Process (supervised process)

Electives

THE1122 Biblical Worldview

BIB1123 The Words and Works of Jesus

MIS1125 The Church: Mission, Strategy, and Structure

 

 

 

 

Workshops/Training

last-session-kenyaLECM offers the following interactive workshops and teaching series. Most leadership workshops require a full day. The discipleship and Bible teaching series involve 6-8 hours of teaching and interaction in four sessions.

  • Biblical Leadership
  • Leadership in the New Testament
  • Raising Up Leaders in the Local Church
  • To Be Like Jesus: A Call to Authenticity  (being converted into a book)
  • Life Management in Ministry
  • Growing in Christian Leadership (for local church members growing into leadership)
  • Sons Who Serve (The Five ‘S’s) – Sonship, Servanthood, Shepherding, Stewardship, and Spirit-enablement
  • Transformational Discipleship – Growing people Jesus style
  • Cornerstones (discipleship)
  • Great Passages of the Bible (advanced discipleship)
  • Deeper (advanced discipleship)

Four Part Bible Series

  • Galatians
  • Ephesians
  • Philippians
  • Colossians
  • 1 John

 

 

 

 

5 Minutes

five-minutesIn the near future, LECM plans to launch a YouTube-based, resource-backed, TED type teaching channel called “5 Minutes”.

The channel targets majority world leaders whose primary means of accessing training material is a smart phone. Research shows that, on the average, smart phone users in much of Africa  tend to limit viewing of video clips to about five minutes to avoid excessive data costs, hence the name “5 Minutes”.

Teaching and training series will be broken up into coherent, carefully edited five minute teaching segments,  accompanied by downloadable study guides for personal study and group facilitation.  The first series has been scripted and will soon enter production.

Over time, we hope that others will contribute relevant, well-presented content to the channel.

5 Minutes will be offered freely to emerging and existing leaders around the world. Viewers will be able to download or stream video content from the YouTube channel and download the study guides.