Click here or click on the black box that says “DEERING DYER” above and you will be directed to my online resume. Thank you for your interest.

Communication Goal

Stated Goal: The student is able to persuade others with respect to biblical  and theological truth through oral, written, and electronic media.

This goal involves me being able to communicate and persuade other in biblical and theological truth through teaching. My audience will be primarily adults in varying venues. In order to sharpen and develop my teaching abilities in the following contexts:

One-On-One

Through one-on-one training of residents.

Staff and Congregational

I will take advantage of every opportunity to teach at pastor retreats, ABFs, and pulpit filling at various campuses.

General Public

I will also be building the Saturate Movement website which will contain materials with the intent to persuade (mission and vision statements, doctrinal statements, assessment tools and white papers).

Strategy

One-On-One

Taking each resident through a custom residency program based on his competency.

Staff and Congregational

Staff: Speak in a break-out session at the Pastor’s retreat on the Spiritual Life.

Congregational: Preach on how God conforms us into Christlikeness in times of suffering. Also taking opportunity to fill pulpits as needed.

General Public

Writing doctrinal statements, mission & vision statements and white papers for the Saturate Website and the public launch of a church planting podcast.

Resources

I will have the input and access to all the campus pastors in the Chapel network of churches to help me develop a detailed outline for customizing a church planting residency curriculum.

I will utilize resources from my spiritual life and spiritual formation classes at DTS in my retreat talk.

I will utilize my own life experience in view of biblical text for my sermon in January.

I will depend on the Chapel IT department to help me with the website

Measurement

One-On-One resident training will be done as needed over a 12-18 month period.

Staff: December 4, 2017

Congregational: July, 2018

Website: Updated February 28, 2018 and re-launch August, 2018.

Artifacts List (with accompanying reflection statement)

• Sermon: “A Church That Loves”– This sermon was preached at all five Chapel campuses (a total of 3000-4000 people) in July and August. The link is from Sunday, July 15 at the Akron Campus.
• The Saturate Movement Website – This website was updated to include sermons that cast the vision for the Saturate Movement and updated doctrinal distinctives. A complete overhaul of the site will take place in August.
• Chin-up Church Planter Podcast – Is a podcast created by Chapel.Life church planters for the encouragement of church planters everywhere. This podcast is designed to help church planters remain faithful to their work – especially when it gets hard and lonely by sharing ideas and encouragement from guys who have been there and are in the middle of it.

Learning Reflection

Lifelong Development Statement

Cultural Engagement Goals

Stated Goal:

“The student models servant leadership and equips others in a God-given direction through Christ-like character, leadership capability, and love.”

The imperative we hear as student at Dallas Theological Seminary is “Teach Truth, Love Well. This is essential in servant leadership and my ministry should never be just about teaching, but also serving out of love for the equipping, edification and the spiritual formation of the church and those whom I’m charged to shepherd.

In order to provide an environment for church planting residents to thrive, I seek to accomplish the following:

1. I will be work closely with church planting residents in order to help them reach their objective of completing their residency and plant their church campus.
2. I will also be recruiting new residents to ensure that we constantly have residents in the pipeline to meet our objective of planting 10 churches in 10 years.
3. My desire is to see residents to not only grow in knowledge of church planting, but to grow closer to the Lord.

Strategy

I will:

1. Have weekly meetings with each resident one on one.
2. Taylor a residency program to each resident based on their education and ministry experience.
3. Have monthly meetings (in person or via Skype) with all residents together.
4. I will build relationships with seminary placement staff (DTS, Knox, Masters, etc.) in order to surface recruits. I will communicate in some way with this staff monthly.

Resources

I will use:

1. Assessment tools (to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each resident)
2. The use of technology such as Skype, FaceTime, shared calendars, etc.
3. A customized bibliography for each resident.
4. Use of demographic data for the area the resident plans to plant.
5. Resources and ministry needs of the Chapel campus from which the resident will plant.

Measurement

I will:

1. Track progress via the rubric of residency expectations the residency covenant.
2. Subsequent assessment tools to gauge ability/desire to plant.
3. Fellowship with other campus pastors to gauge growth (spiritual and in ministry planning).
4. Develop an assessment tool for final assessment.

Artifacts List

• Saturate Residency Bibliography
• Saturate Movement Residency Contract and Core Distinctives

Learning Reflection

The Saturate Bibliography and the Residency Contract helped to shape my vision of what our church planting residency will look like and presents an environment of continuous learning and defines expectations for a successful church planting residency experience.

Cultural Engagement Goals

Stated Goal:

“The student demonstrates appreciation for the many dimensions of ongoing public-square and global conversations related to social, cultural, religious, biblical, and theological concerns, and develops a biblical Christian perspective that results in knowledgeable, compassionate dialogue with appropriate evangelistic engagement.”

This goal involves me being aware and sensitive to cultural issues and distinctive that are different than my own in an effort to broaden not only my experiences, but to appreciate and listen and learn from others perspectives and experiences. This is essential because God’s elect are from every nation, tribe, people and tongue (Rev. 7:9) and He will be our God and we will be His people (Rev 21:3).

In order to help me be intentional about meeting the need of increasing cross-cultural Christian worship experiences in the greater Akron Area I will:

1. Create a residency experience that will result in the planting of an intentionally multicultural church.
2. I will incorporate a sensitivity to cross-cultural awareness in the context of the Saturate Movement Residency.

Strategy

1. Help equip a resident church planter to plant a church in Macedonia, Ohio (which is between predominant African American and White neighborhoods).
2. I plan on making texts such as “Disunity In Christ” by Christina Cleveland to facilitate discussion/awareness of race and cultural issues.

Resources

1. Chase Jones is my church planter for Macedonia.
2. There is opportunity to plant a church in a predominately African American neighborhood through a local Christian School.
3. There are several opportunities for residents to gain experience through the Chapel’s outreach ministry and through other campuses.
4. Books like “Disunity in Christ” will be added to residency bibliography to engage residents in discussions revolving around cultural engagement.

Measurement

When the residency is completed we will know that objective is reached. The church won’t be planted within the scope of the internship. Projected date is Easter 2020.

Artifacts List (with accompanying reflection statement)

Learning Reflection

Lifelong Development Statement

I chose two emphases for the completion of my ThM and tailored the artifacts to prepare me for a ministry in preparing church planters. These emphases are Historical Theology and Spiritual Formation.

Historical Theology Emphasis Description and Requirements:

This emphasis focuses on the development of the Christian faith through historical study of its classic sources. This study equips the student to communicate faithfully the teachings of Scripture in continuity with historic orthodoxy in various ministerial settings.

Dr. Svigel is my emphasis coordinator and he has approved the following artifacts to complete my emphasis requirements:

1. THE PATRICK OPTION- CELTIC EVANGELISM FOR CONTEMPORARY WITNESS AND SPIRITUAL FORMATION
2. ANCIENT PRACTICE FOR TODAY’S MINISTRY: HOW THE DIDACHE INFORMS CONTEMPORARY CHURCH PLANTING AND SPIRITUAL FORMATION

Spiritual Formation Emphasis Description and Requirements:

This emphasis is designed to enhance the student’s ability to guide others in spiritual formation in a variety of ministry settings by offering additional training in areas such as spiritual formation in historical perspective, spiritual formation in contemporary culture, and the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Sten-Eric Armitage is my coordinator for this emphasis and we have agreed on the following artifacts to complete my emphasis requirements:

1. A blueprint for teaching spiritual disciplines (Ed Cycle)
2. EML 750 Integration Paper