Kenton and Sonya Becker

Kenton and Sonya's goal is to start culturally relevant churches that are self-sustaining and able to reproduce themselves. They do this by integrating into the local culture and finding common ground with the people around them. Taking time to earn trust builds a natural platform from which the gospel can be shared in a way that fits the context they serve.

From 1995 to 2004 they had the privilege of working alongside a French couple to help establish a church in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, which is still bearing fruit today. That experience taught them what it takes to start a culturally relevant church capable of reaching its community.

In the fall of 2004 the Beckers moved to Le Pian-Médoc, a town of about 7,500 just outside Bordeaux. Much of their ministry is built on relationships of trust, since trust tears down the walls that keep people from hearing the gospel clearly. They organize weekly children's clubs, the Friday Club for primary schoolers and the Keys Club for middle and high schoolers, each combining English, games, songs, and a Bible lesson. It has become their most effective point of contact with children and their families. Several special services built around these clubs draw fifty to well over a hundred people a year, most of them unsaved. Their other ministries include visitation, weekly prayer meetings, individual and group Bible studies, and a Sunday morning service in their home.

Kenton grew up in a believing family on a farm near Freeman, South Dakota. He accepted Jesus as his Savior at four and was baptized at fourteen. Sonya grew up in Mali, West Africa, the daughter of missionaries with the Gospel Missionary Union, and was baptized at eight.

Kenton and Sonya met at Grace University, where both earned degrees in Bible. After graduating in 1987, Kenton spent six months on a mission internship in Mali, showing the Jesus Film in nearly a hundred cities and villages. Sonya graduated in 1988, and they married that October in Grand Junction, Colorado. Struck by the spiritual needs they saw in France and sensing it matched their gifts, they arrived there on July 14, 1993. They have five children: Hannah, Stefan, Sofia, Lydia, and Joella.