July 4, 2012

September 10-12, 2012.

This will be MUCH BIGGER than we had thought.  Please PRAY for a GREAT result!

The bottom line is that it could solve lots of problems:

1. Developing 1,600 TCMII students from even more countries faster and less expensively.
2. Making some geographical barriers “go away.”
3. Saving lots of resources by offering training more flexibly than currently offered.
4. Drawing less attention to students from restricted-access countries.
5. Utilizing more international faculty for much less cost.
6. Utilizing more student-support personnel for much less cost.
7. Saving SIGNIFICANTLY on travel costs for students, faculty, and translators.

Achieving some of our 2016 Great Commission Initiative goals more quickly.

In my twenty-two years with TCMII, I have noticed a pattern in God’s leading.  We prayerfully research and envision the direction we believe He is leading us.  After deliberation and discussion, we commit ourselves to a plan. Then He often moves us forward more quickly and creatively than we had envisioned.  Usually with significant savings!!

After setting out the Great Commission Initiative earlier this year, God again put something on our radar screen that could be a “game changer.”

In April 2012 at the North Central Accrediting Association annual meeting in Chicago, we officially decided to move forward with an idea that came from our new accreditation liaison.  Submit a substantive change request to be approved for distance delivery programs.  With the help of several consultants, staff, and friends we have worked hard to write and officially submit this request as part of our self-study documents for the HLC September re-accreditation visit in Austria.

If approved as part of our re-accreditation process, it will be a “game changer.”  It will mean that many TCMII required courses could be offered completely online.  These tend to be the more “information intensive” courses.  The more practical, ministry-focused courses could continue to have a discipleship “face-to-face” component.  But by using better delivery methods, these could be more creatively delivered to maximize the mentoring.

Our goal for the Great Commission Initiative remains – 2,000 students and graduates actively discipling 4,000 more, and together serving at least 100,000 others to reach their churches, countries, and cultures for Christ.  This new opportunity can move that goal forward more efficiently than a more traditional delivery model will be able to do.

So PLEASE PRAY with us for this upcoming visit.  The documents are done.  The team is assigned.  The distance proposal has been submitted.  If approved, God will have again moved us forward faster and much more cost effectively than we could have imagined.  STAY TUNED!!!
 

                                         Grateful again to Him and to you,

                                         Tony Twist, President