Where I’ll Be the Rest of This Week
I’m hitting the road this morning to head north to Orlando, Florida (yes, that’s four hours north!) for the 2009 GCA Church Planting Conference. This conference is “an inter-denominational training event designed to equip church planters, coaches and supervisors to start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions.”
Here is the conference schedule for those interested. Not sure if I’ll be live-blogging the training, but I will likely be posting pics and giving updates on my Twitter.
:: Tuesday
1:00pm–2:45pm Opening Session – Vision – Steve Childers
2:45pm–3:15pm Break
3:15pm-5:00pm Foundations: Focus || Essentials: Prayer || Coaching
5:00pm-6:30pm Dinner
6:30pm–8:30pm Foundations: Prayer || Essentials: Worship-Sacraments || Coaching 1
:: Wednesday
8:30am-10:15am Foundations: Philosophy || Essentials: Preaching-Teaching || Coaching 2
10:15am–10:45am Break
10:45am-12:30pm Foundations: Purpose || Essentials: Discipleship|| Coaching 3
12:30pm–2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm–4:00pm Foundations: Values || Essentials: Groups/Launching || Coaching 4
4:00pm Free time begins
:: Thursday
8:30am-10:15am Foundations: Styles || Essentials: Evangelis,
10:15am–10:45am Break
10:45am–12:30pm Foundations: Models || Essentials: Mercy/Justice
12:30pm–2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm–4:00pm Foundations: Finances || Essentials: Leadership
4:00pm Free time begins
:: Friday
8:30am-10:15am Foundations: Planning || Essentials: Planning
10:15am–10:45am Break
10:45am-12:30pm Closing Session – Priorities – Steve Childers
There are two tracks on the schedule:
(1) Foundations Track – designed to inform, train, and encourage the church planter not yet on the field
(2) Essentials Track – designed to equip, strengthen, and develop a church planter already on the field
There is also a 4-session coaching workshop by Steve Ogne that looks really compelling. Ogne is a nationally known church planter trainer, coach and consultant for Church Resource Ministries & coauthor (with Bob Logan) of several church planter training manuals, including the best selling Church Planter’s Toolkit. He is also the co-author of the popular Study Kit: Empowering Leaders through Coaching (ChurchSmart Resources) with Tom Nebel.
I am really looking forward to this confrence and learning a ton. If you are in the Orlando or will be attending the conference, please let me know. And if you are on Twitter, holla. 
Tags: Church Planting, GCA National Conference
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January 27, 2009 at 10:21 am
As I was reading your blog this morning I thought how often we have all these conferences on how to plant a church and how to evangelize and how to reform a church all all other topics but we never have a conference to pray. We never travel hours and hours to pray with fellow believers for revival. We never have a three or four day conference to just pray intensely that God would come down and change the hearts of man. I do not mean to take away from all these good conferences but why not a conference to just pray that God would purify and grow His Church. Would anyone show for such a conference??????????
January 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Following on the heels of what Tim just said: My concern about such conferences is that it ends to be a step-by-step process. With the wrong mindset, we could be manufacturing something spiritual, rather than it being a move of God. Just a thought…