To help fulfill the Great Commission, 21 International Partnering Churches have united with African countries to help launch PD strategies and develop Purpose Driven nations. Among them is Capital Christian Center (CCC) in Olympia, Washington which took on the country of Ghana to install the PEACE Plan.
Their commitment started in 2016, shortly after several CCC pastors traveled to Rwanda to see the impact PD had on that country. Under Senior Pastor Dave Minton, the church boldly accepted the role of teaching national church leaders PD strategies, and tools to reach communities and UUPG’s. Click HERE to read how their journey with Ghana began.
After countless hours of partnering preparation, a team of four CCC pastors—including Senior Pastors Dave and Kelly Minton, Pastor Dani Payment, and Global Trip Leader, Lyla Grimm— traveled to Ghana to officially begin implementing PD strategies. During the first week of February, they taught PD Essentials to 137 pastors who committed to becoming Mentoring Churches. This multiplication model of ministry allows those Mentoring Churches to implement PD in their own churches, and in turn mentor 8–10 other churches in implementing PD principles.
A priority for the CCC team was establishing coaches that would guide the Mentoring Churches in their PD training. They successfully installed four Coaches, including the Director of Ghana Evangelistic Council (GEC), the General Secretary of the Church of Pentecost, and a local bishop who oversees 20 churches.
As Pastor Dani Payment explains: “Once a month, these four Coaches will each train eight of the 32 Mentoring Churches that committed to implementing PD/PEACE Plan. Monthly reports from Mentoring Churches will be given to their Coaches, the In-Country Coordinator, and us as their IPC. Our In-Country Coordinator, Pastor Philip Tutu, will take on any other churches that come online until we find another coach to take mentor them.”
This level of accountability assures that PD strategies are properly implemented and in place to help transform communities. In addition to reaching Ghana’s capital of Accra, the CCC team also brought PD into the territory of Kumasi. There, they attended a GEC meeting where they met with leaders and asked for the endorsement of the PD/PEACE Plan in Kumasi. Although the official endorsement has yet to be finalized, they have scheduled a follow-up meeting to discuss these details at a later date.
While the 5-year assignment for each IPC may seem daunting, CCC is well on the way to training 100 churches in PD, and finding another 10 to become future IPC. Already they’ve identified 32 churches who have committed to implementing PD globally, 21 churches regionally, and one that will become a future IPC.
For CCC, their next step takes place in May, when Senior Pastor Dave Minton will travel to Accra to continue teaching parts 4 and 5 of PD Essential Training. “In just over a year, we went from literally zero missions in our church, to now adopting the nation of Ghana,” says Pastor Dani. “In 2016, we went to Rwanda three times for training, and to Ghana once to meet our In-Country Coordinator and the Implementation Team. By 2017, we were implementing PD training, and by 2018, we hope to start mobilizing our members.”
To learn more about becoming an International Partnering Church, visit pd.church/start.
