Why BTCP Trains Leaders the Way We Do
A Word to Our Partners, Teachers, and Students
Local Training, Global Mission
Each BTCP, BTCL, and BTCI class is an individual expression of a global ministry currently active in roughly 100 countries. Each class uses the same curriculum and model that is being shared with pastors and church leaders across sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and countless places in between.
That consistency is the fruit of 35 years of commitment to the model God revealed in Scripture to equip leaders.
We do not see BTCP as the only worthy approach to church leader training, or the right fit for every context. We celebrate what other ministries are doing. Our aim is simply to do this one thing well, in the places where it fits.
The Biblical Pattern: Truth Transferred from Life to Life
As each of us has seen in our Old and New Testament studies, God uses people, not just documents, to train and multiply leaders.
Moses walked with Joshua. Elijah invited Elisha into his life until the time came to pass his mantle. Jesus gathered twelve men, explained things personally, modeled faithfulness before their eyes, and commissioned them to do the same for others.
Paul captured the pattern simply:
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
— 2 Timothy 2:2
This is a living chain, not information delivery. The teacher's presence and example are not incidental to the process. The teacher’s life is part of the lesson.
Three Essentials of a BTCP Program
BTCP's model rests on three pillars that depend on one another.
The Study Bible
Anchors everything in the Word of God. It is the “textbook” for every course.
The BTCP Manuals
Provide structure and ensure that training is consistent and reproducible in every country where BTCP operates.
A Present and Qualified Teacher
This is where the biblical model comes to life.
A live teacher knows the students, adjusts when someone is confused, answers nuanced questions the manual may not cover, and models week after week what a faithful leader looks like.
A live classroom is where future teachers are discovered. As students share their biblical findings and take on more of the class conversation over time, gifts become visible, confidence grows, and the seeds of new teachers are planted.
That is how the movement multiplies.
Why We Hold to This Model
Over the years, thoughtful partners have proposed a range of modifications: replacing live instruction with YouTube videos, training through Zoom sessions, reducing the number of required training hours, or modifying the curriculum.
Each request comes from a genuine desire to reach more people, and we appreciate that heart. We have nonetheless held to our three-pillar model, and we want to be transparent about why.
We Hold to It Because the Biblical Model Matters
Life-on-life leadership development is not a preference. It is God’s revealed, biblical model. We want to honor that pattern.
We Hold to It Because Our Global Partners Depend on Consistency
BTCP operates in approximately 100 countries, and a student in one part of the world deserves the same quality of training as a student in another.
Consistency is what gives our certification meaning: a certificate earned in Kenya represents the same standard as one earned in New Zealand.
A single model also keeps the ministry efficient. Every variation requires additional oversight, communication, and resources. One model helps us steward the time and finances the Lord has entrusted to us.
We Hold to It to Protect Against “Mission Drift”
There is a pattern that has quietly undone many good ministries over time. When an organization tries to be the answer to every need, it slowly loses traction and direction.
Each small exception to a core principle, though reasonable on its own, becomes a step toward something different from what the ministry was called to be.
No ministry is the answer to every need, and that is not a failure. BTCP exists to do one thing: to multiply pastor and church leader training worldwide using the biblical model of life-on-life discipleship.
A Word to Those Who Were Hoping for Something Different
Your desire to equip more church leaders is a beautiful desire, and one we share.
BTCP is not always the right fit for every context, and we celebrate other programs that are meeting needs we do not. It may be that some other ministry will be the solution to your specific challenge or context.
We have seen in the history of Christian ministry that well-intentioned efforts to expand a ministry's reach beyond its core calling can quietly erode the very things that made it effective in the first place.
This is not a criticism of those who have proposed changes. It is a caution we hold for ourselves as much as anyone, a reminder that doing one thing faithfully over the long haul is its own form of faithfulness to God.
BTCP has been fruitful for 35 years largely because it has maintained a simple, consistent, and reproducible model.
There are faithful pastors leading churches in places most of us will never visit, trained through this model, now training others, because someone before them held to the standard faithfully.
That is a gift worth protecting together.
BTCP is a global ministry committed to multiplying pastor and church leader training in about 100 countries. To date, more than 195,000 students have graduated through this consistent, biblical model of life-on-life discipleship.