Texas Center for Biblical Training (TCBT)
Mission Statement
2 Timothy 2:1,2, "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also."
Vision
TCBT provides access to a comprehensive Bible training curriculum for Christians who have limited access to a local church teaching ministry, or who wish to study subjects that are not currently being taught by their pastor-teacher.
Strategy
Missionaries on the foreign field, nationals in many countries, and people in North America who live far from Bible-teaching churches, have the common problem of lack of access to expository Bible teaching.
The TCBT strategy is:
Compile a large, comprehensive library of Bible teaching materials that will meet the academic needs for Christians who want to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Develop a graded curriculum of course work that will help direct Christians through the steps in Christian growth.
Provide for distribution of courses and lessons to students, by the Internet and other means.
Correspond with students, record their progress with lessons and examinations, and manage the records associated with their studies.
Issue certificates to students for completion of course work and unit studies.
The Curriculum
TCBT Web Site: https://www.gracenotes.online
The TCBT curriculum has been developed specifically using four interrelated components of Bible instruction:
Bible Analysis (exegesis, hermeneutics, and exposition). The process of dissecting a passage of Scripture into its component parts (vocabulary, syntax, grammar) in order to learn as well as possible the meaning (interpretation) of passages.
Topical Development (categorization). The process of determining the meaning of words and concepts found in a passage of scripture by searching the whole Bible for explanations and illustrations of the subject under study.
Historical Study (isagogics). The process of studying (1) the social history of the people and cultures in the context of the Bible passage, (2) the language history of the text as it was used colloquially in the time in which it was written, and (3) to learn how the text was applied to the people living in that time and place.
Correlation of Categorical Doctrine – This involves the gathering together of groups of related expositional and doctrinal studies that deal with specific areas of application.
The TCBT curriculum contains the following components:
Bible Studies – Exposition and Categorical Doctrine
Verse by verse expositional studies of many books of the Bible.
Studies of categorical Bible doctrines regarding salvation, stability in the Christian way of life, and all phases of a Christian’s growth in Christ.
Old Testament survey, New Testament survey, Life of Christ, Acts and Life/Epistles of Paul.
Historical Studies
Survey of Ancient History (early times to Byzantine Empire)
Old Testament History and history of major mid-Eastern world powers - Egypt, Assyria, Sumer, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Hittites, Greece, Rome
History of Judea
History of the Jewish religion and practices; the Temple at the time of Christ
The Life of Paul the Apostle
Implementing the Strategy
Organizing the Curriculum
TCBT studies are organized into a graded curriculum, roughly corresponding to the things a Christian must learn in order to make progress in the Christian life such as:
Orientation to the Christian Life
While very little information is needed to become a Christian, it takes a great deal of Bible reading and study to learn all the things which are part of a Christian’s position in Christ and the Plan of God for the believer. There are many things to be understood about what God the Father has provided for each believer at the time of salvation.
A partial list:
· Who is God? What are His attributes (essence)? What has He provided for us in grace?
· What does the Holy Spirit do for a person at the time of salvation?
· What does it mean to be “in Christ”? And what are the advantages?
· What is our inheritance in Christ?
· What are the spiritual blessings spoken of in Ephesians 3? Where are they; and how does a person take advantage of them.
· What do these salvation words mean: redemption, propitiation, atonement, justification, mercy seat, eternal life, imputation, grace, sanctification, forgiveness, saint, resurrection, throne of grace, volition, adoption, chastisement, confession of sin, spirituality and carnality, judgment seat, and many others.
Stability in the Christian Life
After a person begins to learn the fundamentals of Christian living, he learns that growth in Christ will lead to stability in all parts of his life. The Christian needs to learn how to make important life decisions and solve problems using the wisdom found in the Word of God. Doctrines important for this understanding include:
Occupation with Christ
Sin and Confession of Sin
Union with Christ (Positional Truth)
The Local Church and the Body of Christ
Armor of God
Authority
Faith-Rest
Edification
Grace Provision
Legalism; and many more.
Edification
Edification actually begins when a new Christian first picks up his Bible and starts reading, attending Bible teaching, and participating in a church’s training ministry. Edification is a life-long process; a Christian is commanded to “grow in grace”, continuously advancing in spiritual understanding.
Production – Witness and Ministry
A person can witness for Christ right after being saved; so “production” can really begin right away. However, study is required for a Christian to be prepared for ministry to the unsaved, or a teaching ministry to believers.
Grace Notes verse-by-verse courses, and the doctrinal and historical studies, are good resources for training in witnessing and teaching. When a believer begins to teach, in home classes, Sunday School, or even from the pulpit, Grace Notes has materials that can be used in lesson preparation.
Course Development and Organization of Units
To make available a TCBT course for a book of the Bible, a full set of expository notes for that book is provided, including the categorical doctrine and historical materials which accompany the book study.
When TCBT started (1995), there were complete notes for Titus, Ruth, and Ephesians, and partial notes for Romans and other books. There were also fully written out notes for the topical and historical studies that would accompany the book studies. In teaching home Bible classes, distributed these notes were distributed to give people extra materials to study and to have makeup materials for those who had to miss classes.
In later years, other pastor-teachers made their expository materials available for TCBT distribution, so that now, after several years, we have book studies for 55 books of the Bible, and more than 500 doctrinal and historical studies in support.
Developing a Course
There are several steps in creating a course:
A Bible book study is divided into a discrete number of lessons. For example, Titus and Ruth are 10 lessons each; Acts is divided into 70 lessons, in four courses; Romans, Mark, Luke, etc. are one lesson per chapter.
The same is done for historical studies that become courses. For example, Alfred Edersheim’s Old Testament History has been made into a 20-lesson course, with quizzes.The categorical and historical studies that are to accompany each lesson are chosen.
Lesson documents are created that hold the expositional, categorical, and historical teaching.
Quiz questions are written for the lesson; they are included in the lesson document. The number of questions varies from 10 to 20, depending on depth of the material.
A PDF file of the lesson is created. This is included in the email message sent to students.
Using Microsoft Outlook, a message file (.msg) which has the lesson instructions, the quiz, and the attached PDF file is created.
To date, there are more than 115 courses being distributed; these are organized into twelve (12) Units, with more than 20 courses being electives.
LINK: https://www.gracenotes.online/course-catalog
Units of Study
A Grace Notes Unit is roughly equivalent to a semester in Bible college. A Unit has six or seven courses, each of which would be equivalent to three to five semester hours of work. Unit I, for example, has courses in Titus, Ruth, Doctrine, History, and Foundations of Bible Study.
Certificates
Students earn certificates for completing studies. We send a Completion Certificate when a student completes a course. When a student completes a complete Unit, we send a Unit Certificate. A Bible Teaching Associate diploma is sent to those who complete Units I, II, III, and IV. A Senior Bible Instructor diploma is given for completing Units I to VIII, and a Master of Biblical Instruction diploma is for completing everything from Unit I to XII.
Distribution
We send lessons to everyone who requests them. We have sent lessons to more than 7,000 people, in more than 120 countries. To date (July 11, 2022) we have issued 482,000+ certificates of completion, unit certificates, and diplomas, to more than 44,000 individuals. The process is this:
The first lesson of a course, with quiz, is sent to the student by email.
The student studies the attached lesson file, then answers the quiz questions that are included with the email, by clicking Reply and typing the answers.
We evaluate the student’s response, then send the next lesson.
This exchange continues until the student submits the final lesson of the course.
We send a printed certificate of completion by email, as a PDF; then the first lesson of the next course is sent by email. Students are allowed to study several courses at a time.
Results - TCBT Training
We put to practical use the vision and strategy described here by organizing and conducting year-round Bible training centers in several countries in Africa: Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique in particular.
Pastor Training Classes
To implement this Vision and Strategy, we spent several years training pastors to be Bible teachers. The TCBT courses are the basic curriculum for this training. To date we have established 135 training centers, in 107 communities in the ten provinces of Zambia, in central and southern Malawi, and in Mozambique. Each training center is led by one of our qualified instructors.
There are 7,470 pastors and church leaders attending these weekly classes; of these 4,650 are pastors of local churches. Now, more than 3,650 of the pastors under training have qualified to conduct the Grace Notes classes in local secondary schools, and some of them have already been assigned and begun teaching.
TCBT Studies in Secondary Schools
Almost all of the TCBT instructors also conduct Bible classes in local secondary schools.
To date, there are active Bible classes in 202 secondary schools. Some of the instructors hold classes in more than one school. This number is dynamic; we are adding more schools almost every week.
There are now 33,714 young people, ages 17 to 23, with an average of 194 in each school. They study the same Grace Notes courses as do the adults who are in training.
The Classes of 2019, in 108 schools, have now left school. There were 18,303 pupils in those schools. Of those, 16,014 completed Grace Notes Units I and II during their two years of classes.
For a more detailed description of the development of the pastor training and high school classes in Africa, ask for the Grace Notes document “History of the TCBT Ministry in Africa”.