GOALS

#1 The need for sermons to be given with clear relevance that arouses interest and is accurate is paramount. Therefore, I set the goal to prepare such structured Bible teachings in order to communicate the gospel effectively. I will do this by rightly dividing the word of truth and delivering teachings on the internet, video, print, and preaching and other forms.

Goal #2: Written communication of is important, so my goal is to use my mentor and the tools at DTS to develop the African Bible Center's course work in soteriology. Each week a lesson will be delivered to educate on the eternality of Christ’s offer of salvation.

Goal #3 : Sharpen my presentation skills. I recently taught in Little Rock Arkansas on the first question the New Testament asked a black man,  "Do you understand what you are reading?"  I received positive feedback after this message regarding the Ethiopian Eunuch. During the month of September at my mentor's church in Richardson, TX, I will teach on the subject of Blacks in the Bible (shown below). Afterwards, I wIll receive feedback on how to better improve my presentation skills.

STRATEGY 

I developed a Christian Education program that will have measureable tests to determine the success or its lack thereof quarterly. I will use tests to evaluate if the learning of students has progressed to a competent level in our area of focus, soteriology.

While under Dr. Autry I will be ministering weekly in Dallas at Our Calling Homeless center where I will also be critiqued on my delivery for clarity, relevance, interest, and accuracy by DTS graduate Brandon Wallace. I will devote 1 hour weekly to meet weekly with my mentor to report on what I taught, sermon preparation, lesson plan and discuss various ministry issue with Dr. Autry that may arise.

The artifacts of the teachings will be displayed below.

RESOURCES

I will  use white boards, Power point presentations as visual aids in my oral presentation of the gospel.

Secondly, I will commission an artist for stimulating artwork for Blacks in the Bible securing copyrights from him  or her. I intend to utilize my mentor as a consultant.

In regards to the African Bible College, ABC is staffed with volunteer Bible training leaders who lead the weekly training lessons that I will develop. I will email them these teachings and request updates on how the training classes are performing.

MEASUREMENTS

I will video   oral presentations and give them to my mentor to critique quarterly in order to adjust my  current level to attain proficient skill level.

By the end of this year, I will have the  book finished and published in hardback, softback, and as an e-book as financial able I will have it available in an audio version. Christ Community Course curriculum.

I developed a Christian Education program that will have measureable tests to determine the success or its lack thereof quarterly. I will use tests to evaluate if the learning of students has progressed to a competent level in our area of focus, soteriology.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

I deliver seminars on:

• Bible Prophecy
• Eternal Security
• Blacks in the Bible
• Types & Shadows in Scripture

Currently developing a course curriculm for the African Bible College

As I reflect on my desire to establish an evangelical Bible training school in Africa, I see my desire was very ambitious. A significant investment of my time was the chief requirement that I devoted to get the African Bible training center off the ground. In reflecting on my commitment to this project my goal was to strive to develop competency in all who attended in the art of evangelism so that our students will be equipped to handle tough and nuanced questions regarding the eternal security of the souls of born again believers. This was my chief aim and I planned to use quarterly tests to plot our students' competency in soteriology.

What I learned along the way is that people are concerned with other aspects of Christianity than soteriology and in order to keep their attention and well as attendance, i had to diversity to include subjects that were of  major concern to them that were relevant to their interests. Therefore, I had to expand my initial focus on soteriology to address such issues was Jesus God? Africa has a tradition of ancestor worship that has infiltrated some sects of Christianity there, so I had to address the topic on the issues of death.

In developing my competency as a public speaker, I developed PowerPoints, used white boards, handouts, and video recorded my performances and asked my mentor for feedback to develop my competency as an interesting speaker. I use the interactive questions called the dialectal method in my presentations. This engaged my audience and aroused their thinking on biblical issues due to the questions I posed.  Dr. Autry was very impressed with my method of delivery.



 Let There Be light Sunday School children

The summation of my experiece

My oral presentation skills, I found leave room for improvement. The session observed by Dr. Autry went extremely well.  However, I captured a sample on video when I opened up to questions where I seemed unprofessional by not having a computerized Bible to immediately summon the information on demand.  I thumbed through pages wasting valuable time.  Dr. Autry wanted me to be more limited in allowing questions only the subject at hand so I have ready access to those answers either from memory of from electronic access.   This would give me more creditability as a local authority on the subject being discussed. (The artifact is below is titled "Video sample at Christ Community Church...." (See video at 59 mnutes and11seconds) This shows where I changed the topic off the subject at hand of biblical black history to soteriology. Dr. Autry advised against such a sudden and drastic change to end on the plan of salvation. It needed to have a more graceful lead-in. 

The proverbial saying that experience is the best teacher rang true in my experience in establishing an African Bible training center.  Had I known the significant time required to develop, manage, and implement my proposal, I believe I would have chosen another  endeavor. Heading into this venture blind was the best thing for in my progress. My initial unforeseen roadblock was the dearth of students gaining students were harder than initially proposed by my Nigerian team leaders.  After its rocky start, my leaders found that those who they recruited to become teachers were not comprehending the lessons themselves.   It was then that they informed me that they stopped attempting to gain new students and that they themselves were going to be the first class of the African Bible Center. When I discovered that those who I appointed to be leaders needed this instruction themselves it was disconcerting but certainly proved to be essential in establishing a strong foundation for ABC. The students that they initially recruited travelled by foot for long distances to receive that weekly training that was held on Saturdays then travelled back at night to teach their church members in Sunday church services.

It was during the training of ABC's initial teachers that I discovered, by answering the questions that they were sending me, that I had to interweave other topics into the conversation regarding salvation. Here is an artifact of one of their questions they wanted answered.. Hence, you will see below some artifacts regarding Adam the first sinner who began in the dispensation of innocence. He was the one through whom death was brought into the earth through the power of sin because he violated God's law.  All these aspects, I felt had to be covered to give my teachers a strong foundation so that they would be capable of defending the Christian faith. 

After I submitted the lessons below for the first quarter of my teachers’ development training, I gave them the test and their team lead went over the answers in class and she related to me that they were so happy for having their understanding broadened.  I requested feedback during that first quarter about the difficulty of the lessons and I received the following feedback. Matthew Taiwo's feedback regarding ABC's lessons that I developed.  The materials appeared to be understandable according to this pastor's testimony.  After the first quarter, I requested the quarterly report and received the follow summary.  This is the report for the first quarter.   This reports show no students except for the six teachers who were learning the doctrine to be able to share this information with others.

 During the formation of the African Bible Center I was surprised at the infighting among my leaders. One had an issue of having a female in authority over him as principle of the Bible training center. Another has greed issues and is always vying to receive money for exploratory trips for the expansion of the training center.  The treasurer is wary of him and rebuffs his attempts to secure financing.  A new member joined and witnessed the infighting and he is emailing me regarding the organizational hierarchy and he refuses to submit the reports of how his teachings are progressing in his village because she is a woman. These were intercultural issues of which I was unaware.  After I gave my verdict of my support for her as the continuing principle of ABC then the issues regarding her position vanished.

In the second quarter, the six teachers who were taught during the first questions all demonstrated competency and began teaching the lessons to classes as small as 2 and as large as 7 using the same lessons in which they were trained.  Preparing the lessons in written form in the third semester became too time consuming,  I received an email from of the teachers that wanted me to get the lessons to  them by Thursday, so that he could take it to the city Friday to make printed copies for his students. I was sending it Friday so he was not able to make copies. I was behind on making the weekly lessons, so to compensate by making audio versions and sent them so the teachers so could hear them and prepare notes and teach their class from there notes.  In requesting the reports for how things were going in the third quarter the person who was to give me report quit then later returned with much apology (To see click  here.) I had to ask for this report from the principle who furnished it after must pressing but titled it an annual report but it is far to general and I will have to prepare structured questions to get the answers I seek.

 I have learned that managing from afar is stressful. I see how important it was for Paul to stay in constant contact with the churches that he was developing by giving written instructions to them. As Paul had to address the strife two women were having, I had to step in and mediate a truce between leading team members that was threatening to fracture this small organization.  I feel that ABC will take at least two more years to bring about the fruit that I desire but I was heartened when I went to Africa and held student recruiting sessions at the turn out of those interested. Also a pastor has joined and now is a teacher who has learned the doctrine and is teaching it to others.

Photo & Video Artifacts

Speaking engagement at Christ Community Church

Video sample  at Christ Community Church Topic The Curse of Ham  using  white board:

Video Sermon on Hebrews 10:14 on being the saved being "perfected forever" in God's sight by Christ's sacrifice

 PowerPoint Presentation The Secret of Sin

I commissioned a biblical artist to draw baby Moses in Africa's Nile   see finished product Baby Moses and African princess he also drew Adam's creation.  This visual aid assisted me in my Blacks in the Bible presentation  Adam the earth man .

Written Artifacts

 ABC Bible College Outline

• Here are the first 10 written lessons for the first quarter
• Lesson 1 Ye must be born again
• Lesson 2 There is none righteous yet only the righteous shall see God. Are you righteous?
• Lesson 3 Can your righteousness become unrighteousness?
• Lesson 4 By the righteousness of one the free gift of salvation came.
• Lesson 5 Do you have sin? 
• Lesson 6 Adam and Eve story revealed
• Lesson 7Can people see Chrsit in you? No!
• Lesson 8 The issues of death
• Lesson 9 Why did God give the Law
• Lesson 10 The seven dispensations for man
• TEST COVERING LESSONS 1 - 10 
• ANSWER KEY TO TEST 1 -