Hundreds Gather for Conference
April 8, 2011–The Strategic Missional Leadership Conference is a major conference on prayer and church planting and is taking place this weekend at the North Cleveland Church of God.
Pastors, district overseers, and church leaders are taking part in nine general sessions and 78 workshops and prayer and church planting in the jam-packed three day weekend. The event replaced a meeting which was canceled and was merged with a conference on prayer already scheduled for this week.
The focus of the expanded meeting is reflected in the name, Strategic Missional Leadership Conference—Engaging Prayer and Church Planting. The meeting is, “a conference for Church of God leadership focusing on a missional mentality, strategic planning, and committed engagement with prayer and church planting.”
Last night’s opening session featured David Sobrepena, a church planter from the Philippines who addressed the delegates about, “Building Church Planting Factories.” He was followed by Claude King and John Maempa, both well-known for their work in the area of prayer who addressed the topic, “Prayer, Evangelism and Renewal.” The night was topped off with a fervent session of prayer led by Church of God prayer liaison, Doug Small.
The schedule for today was modified to accommodate the celebration of life service for Dr. Ray H. Hughes who died earlier this week. James O. Davis, director of the Billion Soul Network, and Michael Knight, who leads the National Church Planting Office, made a tandem presentation. The first workshops began this morning with two sessions featuring 13 different workshops each took place simultaneously across the North Cleveland campus.
A special luncheon featured Larry Stockstill, pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center in Louisiana. Stockstill is also the author of The Remnant and gave each luncheon delegate a complimentary copy of the popular book. The luncheon was followed by a general session which was led by Stockstill. The remainder of the afternoon consisted of two sessions of workshops.
This evening the featured speaker is Eliezar Bonilla, pastor of the Abundant Life Church in San Antonio, Texas, who will be followed by Chris Blake who will speak from the topic “Compassion Ministries.”
The conference concludes tomorrow with an address from Beverley Pegues of the 10/40 Window Network and a closing session led by General overseer Raymond Culpepper.
–Cameron Fisher
