The Birthing of DCPI
Paul Becker
How did God call you to DCPI? God called me to found Dynamic Church
Planting International during a prayer retreat to Stonewall Peak in San Diego (California, USA) in 1994. Prior to that time, I had planted four churches, mentored 50 church planters and served in two other church planting organizations. On that prayer walk, the Lord made it clear that I was to found one organization to equip leaders to plant dynamic churches worldwide. Thus, DCPI was birthed.
What would you say some of DCPI’s core values are?
Christ-centered: We work only with those church planting leaders who are Christ-centered. Reproductive Training: We use materials and teaching techniques that trained leaders can reproduce. Cooperation: We work to increase the effectiveness of churches, missions, and associations in planting dynamic churches. Evangelism and Discipleship: We strive to help plant churches that reach people for Christ and disciple them to maturity. Multiplication: We seek to multiply the planting and establishing of churches with those whom we serve. Prayer: We consistently intercede for each other, our families, church planters, and church planting organizations.
How did you get connected to The Titus Group?
The Titus Group contributes significantly to everything that God is doing worldwide through DCPI.
At DCPI, we have a long-term strategic plan that we update each year. Several years ago, through prayerful planning and the challenge of a strategic consultant, we, by faith, set a goal to raise up financial partners around the world that had a strong Christian population with a desire to reach the world for Christ. Singapore was one of the two nations we believed God wanted to work through to affirm the five million church vision towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
One day, when checking my emails I noted a message from Daniel Chua, the Chief Executive Officer of The Titus Group based in Singapore. Daniel mentioned that he was aware of DCPI and that the Group’s Kingdom Investors may be interested in funding us.
So, we set up a Skype call with Daniel and got to know one another. We met in person in southern California. We prepared a grant proposal according to the Titus guidelines. And, praise God, it was funded.
Since then we have met with one another in both southern California and Singapore and developed a strong Kingdom focused friendship. Recently, Megan Gericke, the Grants Manager at The Titus Group and I, with several leaders, experienced the work of one of our partners in Northern India. We were under a tent with 5,000 first generation believers and 400 church planters from 100 Unreached People Groups.
What do you love most about what DCPI does?
What a great question! The most common statement we have heard from Christian leaders around the world is “I know that God has called me to plant churches, but I just don’t know how”.
I love the fact that we can train these precious leaders to do what God has called them to do. And as a result, they establish new bible-teaching, Christ-centered, disciple-making, salvation stations all around the world. The biggest miracle of DCPI may be the fact that God has partnered us with thousands of great church planting leaders around the world.
Through our training, we help them equip one another to plant churches and reach the world for Christ.
At DCPI, we have 12 Biblical Principles of Church Planting. All of our training is biblical-principle based. We provide a systematic process, through several tracts of church planting training, to thoroughly equip and empower indigenous leaders to establish church planting movements.
Explain what Kingdom Impact DCPI has had in the world since its inception in 1994?
Before I answer this question, I want to be very clear that God has done this work and that he receives all the glory.
From 1994 through 2015, the Lord has used our team to train 118, 580 leaders to plant dynamic churches. More than 25,000 of those leaders were trained in 73 countries in 2015. God is on the move through DCPI’s ministry and we are growing rapidly.
According to our best research from three countries, the DCPI trained leader plants an average of 2.73 churches in the five years following training. We project that our trained leaders are establishing over 320,000 churches in 110 countries. We have made progress toward our vision but we have a long way to go. And we can use your help.
Our research tells us that the average size of a church planted by DCPI trained leaders is 46.7 new disciples. We project that over 15 million people are gathered in these new churches worldwide.
What is the biggest challenge facing Christian church planting leaders today?
These leaders face many challenges around the world today: Extreme persecution and martyrdom from Islamic and Hindu extremists; Extreme materialism in wealthy countries that blinds people to their need for Christ. And the tremendous need to reach next generations for Christ.
I met a man named Marv who is 82 years old. He said to me, “I am a part of a dying church. We are all old people. We have no youth group. We have nothing to attract young people.” I thought to myself, Marv is describing a church with no vision; a church in which the people just get older and older. Gradually they die off, until the people are too old and too few to even take care of the church. Have you ever experienced a church like this? It is tragic.
What we need to do is challenge and equip the next generation leaders to plant dynamic churches to reach their generation and those that follow.
What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better church planting leader?
The Bible in that leader’s language. Always the first and best book for a church planter.
DCPI’s Church Planting Training Tracts in that leader’s language. We are continuing to build the number of translations available in each of our tracts.
The New Dynamic Church Planting Handbook by Paul Becker, Mark Williams and Jim Carpenter. A practical, biblical, step-by-step how-to-plant a church handbook. For your free copy, go to dcpi.org. Click on ‘Resources’. Click on ‘FREE Resources’. Double click on “The New Dynamic Church Planting Handbook”.
Good to Great by Jim Collins. Wisdom for business and church planting leaders.
Masterplanning by Bobb Biehl. This book will help you create a master plan for your ministry or business. DCPI’s long-term master plan was developed using these principles.
How can we participate in your mission?
Help us transfer vision and leadership to the next generation. Partner with DCPI by…
- Connecting us to networks of young people in the nations of the world
- Partnering with us financially for our NexGen leaders to challenge young leaders in the nations
- Launching and accelerating the opening of new countries with NexGen and Church Planting Essentials so church planting movements can flourish
- Translating the NexGen Challenge and Church Planting Essentials into the top 50 languages of the world so that we can equip and empower young leaders in their home language
In closing, the beauty and signature of Church Planting is that it rises above programs, methodology, fads, and popular trends. Its primary focus and intent is the heart of God to impact the “lostness” of its society and to advance the mission of heaven.
Church Planting is a universal strategy that will work around the globe. It is not culturally restricted, restricted by language or location, economically or generationally restricted. It is the most effective strategy on the planet. It is what God is doing and what God is blessing.
An investment into DCPI will help equip leaders to plant churches in every village of India, in every high rise of China, in every cave of the Middle East, in every barrio of Latin America, in every neighborhood of Australia, Europe, and the USA, and under every tree of Africa.