transition ...

Partnering together
For many years, we knew we were called to plant new churches, but a few years ago, the Lord spoke to Larry, "I have many orphans in my body, and I am calling you to adopt some of my orphans." We knew He was calling us to also open our hearts to cell-based churches who had no spiritual oversight and apostolic protection. Now, in addition to church planting and multiplication, the Lord has given us a process of adopting churches who are called to partner with us. After going through a one-year engagement process of discernment, churches with similar values and vision are becoming partner churches with the DCFI family. Ron Myer works with a team of leaders who give oversight to this engagement process.

Our transition from one church to eight allowed the old structure to die so we could experience the new—a network of cell-based and house (micro) churches partnering together. At the time of this writing, there are 148 cell-based congregations either in the engagement period or partnering with the DCFI family from many nations of the world: the United States, Barbados, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Curacao, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, New Zealand, Peru, Rwanda, Scotland, Suriname and Uganda. The Lord has taken us on an amazing ride during the past few years.

In March 2006, at an International Leadership Conference, a new International Apostolic Council was commissioned to oversee the DCFI family of churches that included apostolic leaders from the DCFI global family born in three different continents. Seven apostolic teams from seven different regions of the world were also commissioned to give apostolic leadership to DCFI church leaders and church planting in their regions of the world.

Our desire is to see congregations of cell groups and micro churches clustered together in the same area so leaders can easily meet as regional presbyteries for prayer and mutual encouragement, and to find ways to be more effective in building His kingdom together. For example, senior elders of DOVE churches in Pennsylvania have the blessing of meeting together each month for prayer and mutual encouragement. An Apostolic Council member from the USA Apostolic Council also meets each month individually with each senior elder.

Each DCFI partner church is governed by a team of elders and consists of believers committed to one another in small groups. Each cell and each local church has its own identity while being interdependent with the rest of the DCFI family.

Networking with the body of Christ
We believe another important aspect to kingdom building is networking with other churches and ministries outside of the DCFI family. In this way, we can resource one other. There is no single church or family of churches who has it all! We welcome the exchange of Christian leaders between the DCFI apostolic movement and others in the body of Christ as we learn from the rest of God’s family and share what the Lord has given to us. DCFI partner church leaders are encouraged to pray regularly with other pastors in their region. These DOVE leaders throughout the world participate in pastors’ gatherings in their region.

God has given us a wonderful support team at DCFI consisting of the International Apostolic Council, seven regional apostolic councils overseeing church leaders throughout the world, a team of fivefold trans-local ministers, a Stewardship Team which handles the administration of financial details and legalities, and various other ministries that resource the leadership and believers in DCFI partner churches and serve the greater body of Christ.

These various ministries offer leadership training and ministry development on many levels. An essential twenty-four-hour Prayer Ministry includes a team of "prayer generals" who recruit, train and encourage a team of "prayer warriors" responsible to cover segments of time each week while praying for the entire DCFI family twenty-four hours a day. Nelson Martin oversees this vital prayer ministry.

The Apostolic Council and leadership from DCFI partner churches throughout the world meet together each March for our annual DCFI International Leadership Conference at a conference center on the east coast for the purpose of mutual encouragement, leadership training, relationship building, and to receive a common vision from the Lord. We believe the Lord has called us to work as a team together—with a shared vision, shared values, a shared procedure, and to build together by relationship.

In order for the DCFI family of churches and ministries to be effective in laboring together, we wrote our procedure down in a DCFI Leadership Handbook. This handbook is available by contacting the DCFI Office.
 
An important philosophy of ministry at DCFI is to release each believer and local leadership in order to provide a delegation of authority and responsibility to all believers. Unless the church leaders (elders) can release responsibility and authority to the cell leaders at a cell group level, this principle will not work. In this way, the Lord releases every believer to be a minister.  http://dcfi.org/House2House/House_Church_Networks.htm

Every elder is encouraged to maintain his security in the Lord and take the risk of empowering and releasing cell leaders to minister to others by performing water baptisms, serving communion, praying for the sick, giving premarital counseling, and discipling new believers. A major aspect of cell ministry is preparing and training future spiritual fathers and mothers. And many of these cell leaders will be future elders and church planters. They are experiencing "on the job training."

Brian Sauder gives oversight to the House to House Church Planting and Leadership School. This leadership training school is now being used to train cell leaders, pastors and elders in cell based churches throughout the body of Christ. It is both a live school and a video correspondence school used as a satellite school in churches throughout the world.

The philosophy here is to train them to give them away! We expect the believers in our cell groups and churches to soon have their own families—new cell groups and new churches that they plant.