Founded in 2011

The Multitude Experience (TME) was founded by Reverend LaJoyce Chatwell Lawton in 2011 and began by providing customized courses designed for those called to ministry. The award-winning program empowers participants to acquire specialized ministry skills and earn certificates to fulfill their unique callings. Today, the program has expanded to help graduates monetize their ministries, as many expressed the need for funding to advance their divine missions. Read about our graduates below!

Beyond our educational endeavors, TME is deeply committed to community support through speaking engagements, volunteer work, and financial contributions. By actively participating in community events, our entrepreneurial ministers and ministry leaders gain firsthand experience with diverse organizations. Community involvement includes collaborations with entities such as Artwork Based on Ancestry, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Committees, Houston Black Restaurant Week, Minority Landowners Magazine Conference, and Agricultural Cuba Engagement.

  • Logo for Leisa Wilkins Ministries showing a green purple shell, a leaping woman, and the initials LW.

    Leisa Wilkins Ministries

    “Encouraging and Empowering you to become who you were created to be, God's Masterpiece, a Divine Original!” Visit Site.

  • Let's Empower To Succeed text and graphic in blue and white.

    Let's Empower To Succeed

    Fostering the life-long success of disadvantaged youth and young adults through college and career readiness skills, life skills, leadership and literacy development. Visit site.

  • Four ghost peppers on a white background.

    The Ghost Pepper Project

    The Multitude Experience (TME) initiated the Ghost Pepper Project to offer agricultural training to Indigenous Peoples in Costa Rica, aiming to help them acquire land and replicate similar initiatives.

  • An outline of a gold cross on a white background.

    Christ Kingdom

    Christ Kingdom is a Holy and sacred community created to help all believers to develop into Kingdom Disciples. Disciples will demonstrate heaven on earth and be the light unto the world as we pray, praise and proclaim the Lord God's purposes and plans in the lives of all believers and followers of Jesus Christ.

  • The Forward Progress logo featuring the text "FWD Progress" in a yellow and orange gradient.

    Forward 2 Progress

    Providing resources to encourage creativity, education, personal growth, and community advancement while empowering individuals to express their god-given talents through art and entertainment. Visit Site.

Introducing the African Diaspora Fashion Fest, a fundraising venture launched by the Multitude Experience with the twofold purpose of demonstrating how your passion can monetize your ministry and supporting TME participants with seed money for their ministry ventures.

The African Diaspora Fashion Fest helps support TME participants who voiced a common lack of resources to get their ministries off the ground both in providing monetary support and providing an example of how your passion can monetize your ministry.

Seeds for ADFF as it exists today were planted when Dr. Lawton and her sister modeled for a church fashion show while they were in elementary school. Later, Dr. Lawton modeled her creations at Lincoln University fashion shows and developed African Diaspora fashion festivals during Black History Month in Yokota, Japan. Most recently ADFF has presented fashions from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Swiss designers at fashion events in the Houston area.

Interested in participating? We are always looking for models, photographers, designers, event venues, organizers, etc. to join us! Contact us here.

An image of the founder of TME, Reverence LaJoyce Chatwell.

Meet our Founder

Reverend LaJoyce Chatwell Lawton, Ed.D. was ordained in 2004 and has been serving churches across Texas since. Read on to learn more about her story.

Learn more

Awards & Grants

Best of Cypress (Religious Organization)

Course of the Year Award for Independent Study (ACCESS)

Ministry grant from Inspire Women to train clergy in Ghana

FAQs

  • All TME work is based on needs analysis. Participants who were called to specialized ministries stated they needed additional skill sets to carry out the ministries God had dropped in their spirits. During our first season, TME provided faith-based training and development for participants. We created a customized, accredited, award-winning, hybrid format Certificate in Ministry program. Follow up conversations with TME graduates and reports from graduates have revealed that they lack resources to do the ministry God has dropped in their spirits. They spoke – we listened. Therefore, our focus during this second season is Follow Your Passion … Monetize Your Ministry. That’s the impetus for instituting our fundraising arm. Following all that God drops in your spirit can transition into financing your ministry/non-profit.

  • When clergy and lay leaders are called to specialized ministries, they often need to monetize a startup ministry or monetize a new aspect of an existing ministry. We believe Monetizing Your Ministry happens in one of two ways (1) your ministry can generate enough income to maintain itself (2) you can have an entrepreneurial venture that will finance your ministry.

  • What on earth does fashion have to do with ministry? Studying fashion throughout the African Diaspora is what God dropped in my spirit. I’m finding that fashion design is an exciting and creative entrepreneurial venture. Reviewing, considering, and studying the fashion of a region allows me to embrace my study of African Diaspora cultures. It’s a blessing to share this journey with you. There are two benefits when you participate in African Diaspora Fashion Fest activities (1) you contribute toward seed money for our program graduates (2) you receive templates for your ministry/nonprofit fundraising endeavors.

  • Each page has a distinctive focus. Posts, stories, and reels on The Multitude Experience page include information on Ministry Strategies, Using Ancestry Research to Create Artwork, and updates on ongoing African Diaspora Fashion Fest endeavors. Exploring these topics helps to examine passions that transition into monetized ministry. The purpose of the African Diaspora Fashion Fest page is (1) to showcase emerging fashion designers from the African Diaspora – primarily African/Caribbean, African/Central American and African/South American areas (2) to introduce their creations to the African American community. We then use their creations to create ministry fundraising events or marketing materials.

  • We encourage our participants to follow their passions. Our African Diaspora Fashion Fest work includes incredible examples of individuals who are following their passions, sharing their stories, and expressing their cultures.

    Our focus is working with participants who have parachurch ministries and organizations. Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside traditional Bodies of Christ and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that individual churches may not be able to specialize in by themselves.

    Ministries/Community Organizations Who Receive Seed Money From Our Fundraising Endeavors

    -Christ Kingdom

    -Leisa Wilkins Ministry

    -Forward Progress

    -Let’s Empower To Succeed

    -The Ghost Pepper Project