Church planters and pastors at all levels of ministry are encouraged to plan to attend a major conference sponsored by the National Church Planting Office and the Church of God’s America Ablaze initiative.
The two ministries, along with the host, North Cleveland Church of God in Cleveland, Tenn. and Pastor Mitch Maloney, are partnering to bring a significant four days of training. The Mother-Daughter Church Planting Conference – so named from the “mother” churches birthing new “daughter” church plants – will be conducted on January 20-22, 2010. As part of the conference a second track will be offered entitled Imagine: The Future of Church Planting which will appeal primarily to prospective church planters.
“This meeting has the potential to impact the future of local churches and the Church of God,” stated Orville Hagan, consultant for America Ablaze. “Our goal is to supply current and potential church planters with the necessary tools to implement God’s vision for them.”
The Mother-Daughter concept comes from the Dynamic Church Planting Institute, which teaches and trains church planters and senior pastors about becoming a mother church.
“For senior pastors, we hope to equip them with ways to reproduce themselves in a young pastor, so their churches can move from addition to multiplication,” Hagan said. Because of this, Hagan says this conference is equally for pastors with well-established churches as it is for visionary church planters.
The “Imagine” track is designed to acquaint anyone interested in the church planting concept. This group would include aspiring pastors, senior pastors, and laypersons with a burden for church planting or those who aspire to become a church planter.
“The church at large is in plateau or decline,” Hagan continued. “The church is becoming less and less relevant in touching the life of the unchurched in America. Some statistics suggest that in the next 20 years, less than 10% of those living in the United States will claim Christianity. These disturbing statistics compel us to find a way to plant new churches and to embrace the next generation and empower them to build healthy growing churches.”
As part of the conference, a preliminary track will be offered on January 18-19 conducted by the Association of Related Churches (ARC) and the Church of God Church Planting Office. These two days will consist of intensive training with information on scholarship funds available for planting churches. Church planters can apply for matching funds for up to $30,000 to be used as seed money for getting a church off the ground.
Pre-registration for all three tracks is available for by calling the America Ablaze office at (423) 478-7204. You may register for either the Mother-Daughter and/or Imagine tracks before December 15 for the discounted price of $79. Registration after that date will be $89. The ARC/CoG Lab is $150 per couple or $99 for individual delegates.
To learn more, call the America Ablaze office or the National Church Planting Office at 270-825-3513 or visit the Web site www.cogplanting.com [1]or www.culturalpioneering.net [2]. Hispanic translation will be available for all tracks.