After 63 years training leaders abroad, TCM is now developing effective workers for disciple-making movements through U.S. Cohorts
TCM’s initials have stayed the same since its founding in 1957, even as the words those letters represent have continued to change (from “Toronto Christian Mission” to “Taking Christ to Millions” to “Training Christians for Ministry”). TCM has discipled and trained international Christian leaders primarily at and through its TCM International Institute facilities at Haus Edelweiss in Austria, a property it purchased in 1971.
Making a Difference in the U.S.
Until recently, TCM’s focus has exclusively been directed toward other parts of the world. In the last few years, however, the organization has begun directing some of its focus toward making a difference in the United States.
Much of TCM’s support during its existence has been through American churches. And so, while TCM has been widely known in the United States, it had never directed any of its educational efforts toward training up Christian ministers here.
That began to change in 2016, when TCM’s board of directors approved a new vision statement: “That every nation will have effective leaders of disciple-making movements impacting their churches, cultures, and countries for Christ.”
It is not surprising that after that statement was adopted, the Lord began opening more doors outside of TCM’s historic geographic region of Canada, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union/Russia.
TCM’s leadership prayed and fasted, and finally they asked where the Lord wanted TCM to go next. Because of all the faithful prayer and financial supporting relationships, the United States came to the top of the list.
“When we asked the international faculty what they thought about teaching in the States,” said Dr. Tony Twist, TCM’s longtime president, “their response was, ‘Brother Tony, the Americans have been very good to us. If there is anything we can do to help, we would be honored.’”
Discussions with supporting churches in the United States began later that year. The development of a stateside program has followed TCM’s long-established, cross-cultural, relationship-based, “start small, fail small” expansion process. In January 2018, a beta-test cohort began coursework to earn a Certificate of Discipleship. Modest tuition costs, along with startup grants, helped to ensure no funds were diverted from global expansion to fund the U.S. program, and that no TCM students incur any debt. Southland and Southeast Christian churches in Lexington and Louisville, respectively, provided grants to support the initiative.
The first U.S. cohort included staff and members from these partner churches: Christ’s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Arizona; Traders Point Christian Church, Whitestown, Indiana; Lebanon (Indiana) Christian Church; and Harpeth (Tennessee) Christian Church. In 2019, a second cohort began that included members from Connection Pointe Christian Church, Brownstown, Indiana, which is using the TCM program as a key feature in its development of emerging leaders.
Solving American Church Problems
“I remember thinking when I heard the vision of TCM, if every [church] in America would encourage their staff to go through this discipleship material, perhaps many problems in the American church could be solved,” said John Dickerson, lead pastor of Connection Pointe.
As with every nation, the United States needs prayerful, faithful, disciple-making leaders whose heart’s desire is to gratefully serve the Lord. Recently, many of America’s traditional, faith-based institutions have struggled under cultural, political, and economic pressures. Overall enrollment at such institutions has declined, and two Christian church colleges closed in the past year. Schools are constantly trying to adapt. That is appropriate, because the type of ministry training needed by Christian leaders today has changed.
“In the current state of evangelical necessity,” Dickerson wrote in his book, The Great Evangelical Recession, “churches and ministries need leaders who affirm the essential doctrines of Christianity, especially the authority of Scripture, and those who have the practical training needed to minister in today’s culture.”
At the same time, the trend toward distance delivery of online education has placed even more pressure on traditional ministry training models.
“Today, 40 percent of all ATS students are online or offsite,” Tom Tanner, director of accreditation at the Association of Theological Schools, wrote in 2018. Then, referring to a 2017 study by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education—published as (Not) Being There: Online Distance Theological Education—Tanner wrote, “[The] study . . . affirms the value of formation that occurs in community, but increasingly the community of choice for many theological students is the one where they are already living and serving—in their own ministries, workplaces, and social/family settings.”
Meeting the New Educational Challenges
The Holy Spirit has been positioning TCM to meet the new challenges. The majority of TCM’s curriculum is delivered in hybrid format through a “high-tech/high-touch” process so that students do not have to leave their families, ministries, or workplaces.
Currently, 85 percent of the coursework is done via distance delivery, with the remaining 15 percent completed in a seminar retreat setting. TCM’s Master of Arts program provides the flexibility to take four years of classes from home while developing new friendships and still working and serving locally. The classes are taught by faculty from all over the world. The Certificate of Discipleship may be earned over a two-year period, with all courses fitting neatly into the MA curriculum.
TCM currently has four cohorts of U.S. students studying from home for these degrees. Interest continues to build for this program, and TCM is positioned for ongoing expansion. TCM is continuing to start additional cohorts this year, primarily from current TCM partner relationships. Beginning in January 2021, students from all over the United States can join cohorts throughout the year.
Churches and other Christian ministries in every nation need benches of well-trained leaders of disciple-making movements. We need effective workers for the harvest who prayerfully and faithfully love, trust, and follow Jesus.
This remains the vision and calling of the TCM International Institute.
If you are interested in learning more, or becoming a student, connect with Ryan Akers at [email protected] or visit www.tcmi.org and www.tcmi.edu.
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