Scott, a small business owner from the state of Illinois in the U.S., wasn’t raised in the kindest of homes. After six years of moving in and out of foster care, he found permanent housing at the age of 14 at a home for boys that was operated by the state. Just before he turned 18, after he almost lost his hope, Scott found a secure job as a drug dealer in Chicago and began his independence into adulthood. All the while, the embers of desire for a first chance in life harassed his consciousness. 

  

 

Biblical worldview, transformation, and discipleship are three things Scott’s story has in common with TEN3’s purpose. 

 

“We see African churches overcoming the severe challenges they currently face and emerging as world leaders in education and the spread of the Gospel,” is TEN3’s vision. It is generally acknowledged that education will be a key factor in bringing about change and African churches are stepping up to the plate. Yet, to truly provide hope for Africa, education must foster transformation by renewing minds through Christ. Similar to Scott’s story, knowledge coupled with godliness can give Africans the wherewithal to transform one community at a time, breaking the bonds of poverty, sickness, xenophobia, and political chaos.

 

Boil down to the nuts and bolts of education and two components yoke together: curriculum and administrative operations. Naturally, schools are irrelevant without curriculum. At the same time, they cannot function without administration. However, in the context of fostering transformational education systems, it’s important to add two words: effective and upright. 

 

Anyone who has ever traveled to a different country knows that a lot of things seem, well, different—different routines, traditions, needs. Often, differences shift from town to town, village to village, city to city. What is effective in one community might not work well in another. It has been TEN3’s experience that educational materials are not immune to this. 

 

One educational scenario is for TEN3 to arrive in Nigeria this summer with all the answers about curriculum development, imposing a standard of “this is how to do it” with modest regard to what is effective in each community. However, this isn’t necessarily effective and it’s neither the heart of TEN3. 

 

George Cail, TEN3’s chief operating officer, explains, “This is the vision that TEN3 has: to see the church in Africa developing her own educational system.” He continues,  “A system that will be built on a biblical worldview and one that is infused with a living web of discipleship relationships, people helping others to develop that close relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in that relationship in all that they do.” Watch TEN3: Explained.

 

For the past two years, TEN3 has been working to develop educational materials requested by African leaders, materials that offer a sense of where to start but also leave enough room for African leaders to complete the writing on their own and make the materials effective according to their respective communities. Furthermore, African leaders have asked they also be taught how to teach others to do the same. This is discipleship at its finest!

 

Similar to writing curriculum that is effective within the uniqueness of individual communities, implementing and running the organization of a school is also not immune to the need to consider differences in culture. Circumstantial and environmental challenges are many and varied depending on where you are in Africa. Africans are quite aware of how these variables often influence day-to-day operations of any type of organization and have requested training in applying a biblical worldview to administrative practices, as well.

 

The 2010 Curriculum for Africa workshops in Nigeria this summer is the venue where the discipleship of these requested materials will begin. Each component, writing (and teaching others to write) effective curriculum and operating upright administrative practices, will be the focus. Africans from over seven different countries are planning to attend so they can return to their communities and begin applying what they learned. These workshops will also nurture our ongoing, long-term commitment to developing transformational educational systems.

 

From a big city in Illinois to a small village somewhere in the African bush, it’s difficult to dispute the connection between biblical worldview, transformation, and discipleship. Because of the nature of cultural differences, it’s reasonable to expect that the connection might look different circumstantially. At the same time, there is truth that holds it all together—who do you say He is?