How to Establish a Church-centered
Bible School Using Lamad Curriculum

Dear Pastor or Leader in the Body of Christ,

Thank you for your interest in utilizing lamad curriculum to train your people. Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC is the number one developer of lamad curriculum with over 100 lamad courses to choose from. This curriculum is used by Christian Leadership University. Christian Leadership University will accept, toward degrees, lamad coursework that is completed by students you train in your church. For a full statement on transferability, please see www.cluonline.com/transfer.

Materials for you to overview may be downloaded free of charge. (See the booklet “How to Start a Bible School in Your Local Church”.)

Lamad – Real Life, Biblically-grounded, Revelation-based Learning

Real Life – Birthed from real life issues and taught from real life experiences.
Biblically-grounded – You see your life's experiences in the light of Scripture.
Revelation-based – God speaks to you in each and every learning experience.

The Lamad Educational Format Offers the Following Unique Emphases:

1. We value the principle of hiding the Word in our hearts (Ps. 119:11) so highly that we require CLU students to memorize a life-changing verse from the Bible in nearly every lesson of every course.
   
   
2. We value the principle of acting only according to the Father’s initiative (Jn. 5:30; 8:26; 14:10) so highly that we require CLU students to hear from God personally in every lesson, and to record what He is saying to them.
   
   
3. We value the principle of writing for ourselves a copy of Scripture (Deut. 17:18,19) so highly that we require our students to write out Scriptures in nearly every lesson.
   

Memorization of the Bible, hearing from the Holy Spirit and writing out Scriptures are central to CLU’s training process.

Settings for using this lamad curriculum

1. Individual spiritual growth
   
   The simplest use of these books, CDs and DVDs is for your own personal spiritual walk. Benefits include your continuing growth throughout your lifetime. You may select courses in areas in which God is asking you to grow at each specific point in your life. And since they have lamad application sections throughout, you will be internalizing the materials on a heart and spirit level, rather than just educating your mind.
   
   
2. Curriculum for a small group meeting
   
   Using these lamad-oriented training materials in a home group, Sunday school class or evening service will bring a spark of life because of the interactive manner in which the materials are designed. As you discuss the assigned “Application Questions” found in each chapter, group meetings become a sharing of revelations. Participants express what they have learned from their reading and personal applications during the previous week, allowing encouragement and feedback from the group and its shepherd.
   
   Answering these questions together in a group setting will cause participants to share how they are applying these lessons in their individual lives, and what God is speaking to them about the truths they are learning. By requiring each group member to do some homework, which includes asking the Lord to apply the truths being examined to their lives, your group sharing comes alive with the life of the Holy Spirit. No more boring lectures. No more sharing of ignorance where people respond without having first reflected deeply. Now you have a sharing of revelations and of Holy Spirit applications to group members' lives.
   
   The fact that each group member purchases a book and does some biblical meditation during the week deepens the learning experience of each individual. As a teacher, when I prepare for a class I know that I am learning much more than the students. By requiring every group member to read and apply a chapter each week, everyone in the group prepares and learns, not just the teacher.
   
   We all receive from a learning experience exactly what we put into it. Don't shortchange your group members. Require everyone in your gathering to complete weekly assignments in lamad-styled textbooks so that your entire group experiences profound spiritual growth.
   
   Some participants in the small group may simply work their way through the primary text. Others may want college credit and request a Christian Leadership University course syllabus. By completing the assignments required in the course syllabus, submitting this work for grading and paying the appropriate tuition, they become eligible to earn college credit.
   
   Students interested in earning CLU credits as they participate in a small group must complete the New Student Application Form at cluonline.com/apply, and contact CLU to order all remaining course materials. If five or more CLU students are taking the same CLU course together, they will automatically be offered a financial aid scholarship, which is $125 off the list price of a three-credit course. (Their cost will be $100 tuition per three-credit course plus the cost of course materials.)
   
   Your church can grow through cell multiplication. These materials come with teacher's guides and often with Spirit-anointed videos. Once group members have completed the materials themselves, they can start a cell group, teaching what they have learned. This deepens their own learning experience while imparting these life-changing truths to others. These materials are full of the life of God and easily passed from one spiritual generation to the next.
   
   
3. Church-centered Bible school curriculum
   
   Many churches are hungering for a down-to-earth, practical, Spirit-anointed discipleship training program which they can use to instruct their own people. We have it. Churches can utilize the curriculum of Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC and Christian Leadership University to train their people. See "Category 12 – How to Start a Church-centered Bible School" for more information concerning the content of the program available. You may obtain an Operations Manual that guides you in getting started offering college-level courses which can be applied toward accredited degrees within a church-centered Bible school. Order it today!
   
   Pastors, when you take your leaders with you as you minister, letting them watch you counsel, preach, prepare, pray, heal the sick and cast out demons, and combine this lifestyle training with a Spirit-anointed curriculum, you will quickly raise up leaders in the same manner as Jesus did when He discipled the Twelve. Make it your purpose to do this with twelve members of your congregation, and watch your church explode as these twelve turn and do the same with twelve, and so on. This curriculum is easily transferable, and when you couple it with the real hands-on learning of watching and helping you minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, you will be participating in fulfilling the Great Commission of discipling all nations.
   

Start-up Steps and Costs for Bible Schools:

1. Please provide Lamad Curriculum Developers LLC, cwg@cwgministries.org, with the following information: The name of your church and Bible school (or college) with address, phone, fax and email. Include names and contact information for the President and Dean of the school. You may list in this letter the names of home group leaders and current and prospective faculty members of your church-centered Bible school or college. These individuals will then be eligible to enroll in two key CLU courses at a $125 discount on each. (Further details.)
   
   
2. Bible schools are offered a 20% discount on all books, cassettes, and videos copyrighted by Mark and Patti Virkler. Please order the Operations Manual ($69.95). It will be a great help to you and answer many of your questions.
   
   
3. A CD-ROM of the more than 100 currently available course syllabi may be purchased for $900. Individual syllabi may also be purchased for $25 each. (These are the discounted prices.) Each syllabus is 20-60 pages in length and lays out the 12-week course in a detailed, lesson-by-lesson manner. Once purchased, they may be freely reproduced for the students of your Bible school, Bible college, university or seminary. The copyright information on these course syllabi must be left on when you reproduce them for distribution to students.
   
   
4. A “Core Pack” may be purchased for the discounted price of $1800, and includes all the materials for 31 of our most popular courses.
   

Overview of the Syllabi on CD-ROM

Overview of the “Core Curriculum Pack”

Bible Knowledge (13 courses)

BIB 101 Pentateuch
BIB 102 United Kingdom
BIB 103 Divided Kingdom
BIB 104 Poetry Books
BIB 105 Major Prophets
BIB 106 Life of Christ
BIB 107 Acts and Epistles
BIB 108 Epistles and Revelation
THE 120 Foundational Experiences
THE 121 The Law and the Spirit
THE 310 The Bible Speaks to Contemporary Issues
BIB 390 Bible Research Methods

Life in the Spirit (8 courses)

THE 101 The Basics of Christianity
REN 103 Communion With God
REN 204 Naturally Supernatural
COU 202 Counseled by God
COU 301 Prayers That Heal the Heart
REN 206 Increasing the Anointing
WOR 101 Believer’s Worship I
REN 310 Wisdom Through Dream Interpretation

Life Skills (4 courses)

BUS 102 Fulfill Your Financial Destiny
HEA 102 Take Charge of Your Health
COU 203 Cornerstones of Communication
COU 305 Parenting for Success

Leadership Skills (6 courses)

LEA 103 Gifted to Succeed!
LEA 205 Creating Your Mission Statement
LEA 310 Apprenticed to Leadership
LEA 321 Visionary Leadership
LEA 201 Creative Problem Solving
MIN310 Experiencing God in the Small Group

Understandings

1. The course syllabi developed by Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC and utilized by Christian Leadership University can be purchased and used by any school, college, university, church, home church, or home cell group. Once you have purchased the initial Course Syllabi CD ROM for $900, you may purchase an annual update CD ROM for just $50. This update will have all currently available courses including any corrections made to previous course syllabi, and all newly created course syllabi.
   
   
2. CLU will accept students with transcripts according to the stated policy at www.cluonline.com/transfer. Schools should instruct their students to go to this website to learn of transferability options.
   
   As you will note in CLU's transferability statement, CLU only accepts courses with earned grades of “A” or “B”. You may therefore want to require (as CLU does) that all coursework be “A” or “B” quality. If it is not, the student's work is returned to him to redo.
   
   There is no guesswork about what will be on these lamad tests. The course syllabi tell the student on page one what the “academic objectives” are. These are what they must memorize for the weekly self-check tests, the mid-term and the final. This is what will be on them. Nothing else. We believe we know what is important to memorize in order to assist the students in internalizing the course so they can easily experience it. We tell them to memorize this and we test them to ensure that they do. There is no mystery involved in the testing.
   
   A final note: We recommend that the weekly self-check tests be completed and graded by the students at home, and that you save classtime for dynamic discussions of how everyone is integrating the material into their lifestyles. You want classes to be a place where Spirit-life is transmitted, not where routine tests are taken.
   
   
3. A student may complete some of his work in another learning institution. When he transfers into CLU to complete his degree, he must:
   
   
   1. Complete a New Student Application form at www.cluonline.com/apply
      
      
   2. Request that his previous school send a copy of his transcript to CLU. He will be charged a transcript transfer fee ranging from $25 – $75 depending on the number of credits received. (When you forward a transcript to CLU for a student, it is to contain the student's name and address, birth date, social security number if applicable, course titles, and grades received. It must be signed by a school official, and accompanied with the statement that all work required in the course syllabi was required of and completed by the student.)
      
      
   3. Complete a minimum of one course directly with CLU for each degree being received.
      
      
   4. Fully understand CLU's transfer policy as stated at www.cluonline.com/transfer. ALL completed courses for which the course syllabus is copyrighted by CWG Ministries or Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC will be accepted by transcript, without limitation to the number of credits being transferred, provided all work required in the course syllabus was completed and an “A” or a “B” was earned on the course. In addition, a minimum of one course per degree is required to be taken directly with CLU. Limits apply when transferring courses not copyrighted by CWG Ministries or Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC. See www.cluonline.com/transfer for details.
      
      
   5. Submit a $75 graduation fee, which covers the cost of preparing and providing a beautiful CLU degree.
      
      
4. What can be said in your printed literature about transferability to CLU?
   
   This is a legal question and extremely touchy.
   
   Each state is authorized to oversee all learning institutions that advertise that they are offering degrees, OR programs that lead toward degrees, within their state. Each state has its own rulings, which you should take the time to familiarize yourself with by calling your state Higher Education Department and asking for the laws concerning religious exemption degrees. You must work within the laws of your state, or you and your school can be sued and closed down. If you need assistance obtaining a phone number for this department, you may call us at 716-681-4896.
   
   Generally, states have taken control over the use of the words “college, university, seminary, credit and degree”. You cannot use these words in print without permission from your state education department, or an exemption from it, which affirms you are exempt from licensure because you only offer religious degrees. Even then, they will have restrictions as to what you can offer and what you can say.
   
   Following is a suggestion of what may be legal for you to put in your printed material.
   
   

   Various colleges will accept a transcript from “name of your church school”. Check www.cluonline.com/transfer for details. Note: “name of your church school” utilizes course syllabi that are produced and copyrighted by Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC, thus ensuring transferability into Christian Leadership University.
   

   
   Christian Leadership University and Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC will take no responsibility whatsoever in seeing that you comply with your state laws. This is entirely your responsibility. Make sure you operate within the law.
   
   
5. You should include in your brochures and catalogs a statement about how unique and special your curriculum is. This is the strength of your school, and is what sets you apart from other educational opportunities. CLU intends to promote “Lamad Education” aggressively, nationally and internationally, so recognition of this style of learning emerges and a hunger for it is placed in every Christian's heart. Following is a suggestion of what you might want to print.
   
   Lamad – Real Life, Biblically-grounded, Revelation-based Learning
   
   Real Life – Birthed from real life issues and taught from real life experiences.
   Biblically-grounded – You see your life's experiences in the light of Scripture.
   Revelation-based – God speaks to you in each and every learning experience.
   
   
6. Instructors and home group leaders of courses developed by Lamad Curriculum Developers, LLC are asked to prepare themselves to teach using the lamad method of learning by personally taking two specific CLU courses. CLU's uniqueness is that the voice and vision of God are central to each course, and that the lamad method of training is used. To equip instructors in these two areas, CLU is discounting the $225 tuition to only $100 per course. Material costs are approximately $75 per course. Shipping is extra.
   
   REN103 Communion With God
   Discover the revelatory use of vision and journaling as part of hearing God's voice. Participants record what God is speaking to them each day. This is the heartbeat of CLU, and is required of all students and instructors.
   
   MIN310 Experiencing God in the Small Group
   This course trains faculty in the Hebrew or lamad approach to education, which is CLU's instructional approach. This is very different from the Greek and Western approach to education.
   
   It is critical that your church offer these two courses to your instructors as part of their preparation to teach lamad curriculum. You may do weekend seminars if you choose, followed up by your faculty completing all the work for both courses over the next three to six months. They may take the courses with you or with CLU. Our preference is that they take them with CLU at the discounted price we are offering. This enables us to establish a level of quality in your instructors' ability to transmit Spirit-life in the classroom. This teaching style is very different from the traditional methodologies we have experienced in the past, and it needs to be learned. Make this a priority, to ensure the success and quality of your school. Your instructors will not become CLU instructors, but they will have taken the training that CLU instructors are required to take.
   
   Also, you may order as many copies as you want of the Lamad Faculty Handbook ($9.95 each). This presents the standards and requirements of Lamad instructors. Essentially, they need to be apt to teach, be living expressions of what they are teaching, and able to impart Spirit-life in the classroom.
   

Pastors, Instructors and Leaders – Become lifelong learners yourselves!

Life Experience Portfolio

You can start your school off with a Communion With God weekend seminar!

We stand by to assist you

Please give us a call so we can discuss any questions you may have (1-800-466-6961 or 716-652-6990) or email me at drvirkler@cluonline.com. We are here to serve the local church. Our desire is to put resources in your hands that can help you provide a Spirit-anointed training program for your church and community.

Sincerely,
Mark Virkler, Ph.D.
President
Communion With God Ministries
Christian Leadership University

The preceding represents the new policies of Christian Leadership University, revised and effective as of 5-12-09. The policies stated herein supersede any conflicting information found in the Operations Manual or any previous communications.