Training church planters in Thailand

"It was as though you were speaking just to me," said the Thai church planter through an interpreter. We were enjoying our lunch break in an open-air Bangkok restaurant last month around the corner from where I was part of a team training over 50 people in Church Planting Essentials. Somboon, the church planter, went on to explain that he'd already planted 50 churches in northern Thailand, but that 20 of these churches had not survived. The week's training was giving him confidence that he would now be able to plant healthier and more dynamic churches.


What a thrill for Somboon and me to be connecting like this, church planter heart to church planter heart, across formidable boundaries of distance, language, and culture! What I was teaching was alive for Somboon because the gospel remains God's power for salvation across all boundaries, and new churches are the proven best way of reaching communities with that gospel. The training from Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI) is based on twelve biblical principles that also transcend culture. When I first received training from DCPI, I believed it to be the best I'd seen, even though I'd already received training in Bible college, grad school, seminars, culturally-specific mentoring, and after having already planted over a dozen new churches. Since then I've learned that it is often the most experienced church planters that appreciate DCPI training the most--an observation born out in my conversation with Somboon.

Carole and I are going through a period of transition right now, from planting churches and training Christian leaders in the Philippines with Philippine Christian Mission (PCM) to training church planters around the world with DCPI as their Director of Asia and Pacific Zones. I was glad when a last-minute schedule change for last month's Thailand training event led to my invitation to lead the team doing the training--what an opportunity to experience one of the things I'll be doing from India to Polynesia, from Japan to New Zealand. Training the Thai church planters along with me were Dr. R. Jayakumar, a DCPI World Zone Leader from India, and Arnold Pasion, an old church planting colleague of mine from the Philippines; Arnold was appointed Master Trainer while we were in Bangkok together.

Thanks for your prayers and support for our family! We need all the help we can get right now what with all the moving, shipping, setting-up, reporting, briefing, debriefing, adjusting, visiting, and planning that is going on. If you're one of our PCM ministry partners, be looking in the mail soon for a letter explaining more about the transition. In the meantime, our Claremont address remains valid and we are still being supported through PCM. (Sadly, our missionaries.com e-mail address isn't working--the domain was sold and the new owner is not forwarding e-mail.) Your faithfulness and generosity keeps us going.

In Christ,

Chris McKinney