With so many great conferences happening each year, it's easy to miss out on some gatherings you might find helpful.

Let me share some conferences that are new (or I just received more information). In this post is a conference on parenting, free conferences on church planting and growth, a national conference on church planting, and the first conference I have ever created-- called missionSHIFT.

Right now, I am writing this from my hotel in Plano, prepping for the Anglican100, and posting this late Sunday. The blog has been giving us trouble so "Saturday is for Seminars" is posted late Sunday!

Anyway, here are some upcoming events where I will be sharing-- please be praying for these conferences and those who attend.

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D6 Conference
September 15-17th

Here is a video just released about the D6 Conference in Dallas. I'll be presenting some brand new parenting research exclusively at the conference.

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The NEXT Church Planting Workshop (free)
March 1, 2010 Warner Robbins, GA

From the website:

Come; bring your entire team to this one-day event hosted by Jim & Jennifer Cowart and the Harvest Church team. Harvest Church was launched using the Purpose Driven model and has grown to over 2500 in weekend attendance. Jim and Jennifer will provide you an overview of the steps and principles for launching large and leading a church that impacts this generation. If you are launching a new church or thinking about it, or if your church has stalled, Harvest is the place to be.

Click here to register.

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The NEXT Growing Churches Workshop (free)
March 12, 2010 Kissimmee, FL

Bring your entire team and join us at Florida Christian College near Orlando on March 12th for the FREE one-day Growing Churches Workshop. Robbie O'Brien, Pastor of The Beachside Church will share the key principles that have led to Beachside's growing effectiveness. The Beachside Church began 4 years ago in Ormond Beach, Florida and is launching its first church plant. You can register here.

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Exponential Conference
April 19-22 Orlando, FL

The Exponential Conference is looking better and better as more snow falls throughout the country. Last week nearly every state in the lower 48 had some snowfall! Seems highly likely that the speakers at Exponential will warm things up considerably--Exponential always draws a fascinating lineup! Giglio and Chan are the bookends. I'm joining Chandler, Batterson, Blanchard (not your typical church planter pick), Gibbons, Ferguson, McNeal (Reggie not Shaq), Claiborne, Patrick, Salter-McNeil-- and these are just the ones from the main sessions. Beyond there are more than 60 workshops, 15 pre-conference intensives, and many denominations and networks are using Exponential as their main national gathering-- banquets, breakfasts, luncheons, early training, late meetings.

I'm looking forward to it and I invite those of you who are church planting leaders to participate in the Best Practices Pre-Conference Intensive. Get everything you need at exponentialconference.com.

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missionSHIFT Conference
July 12-15 Ridgecrest, NC

The word "missional" is used to bludgeon legalism and antinomianism alike. To some it is a sign of freedom from all established forms of the church and to others it is a degeneration into syncretism with the world. However, I think words help us when we are clear about the meaning. Thus was born missionSHIFT. The actual conference is designed for church leaders and their families. Held at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in NC, there will be time for learning together under some outstanding teachers but also time for us to just spend time together as families enjoying one another and talking about what matters most-- God's mission at work in the world. Make sure you get registered soon!

In the next few months, we will be discussing (here at my blog and at other places on the web) the subjects associated with the word "missional" and how it is practiced by the church. Several practitioners will serve as the initial "framers" of a document we are entitling the "Missional Manifesto." Our one hope is that it will be a help to all churches desiring to understand how to live out the missio Dei in communities in our culture.

See you on the road.

The next ten days are both the busiest travel season AND the end of the fall "pastor conference" schedule for me. In other words, thing slow down. And, that's good.

But, I plan ahead and know that his time of year is always the busiest for me. In October and November, I am blessed to be able to talk to tens of thousands of leaders. It is tiring, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to brag on Jesus and provoke Christians toward His mission.

Yet, as you can tell, it is a little tiring. And, during this season, I need your prayers.

Here is a quick recap. See last week (part 1 and 2) for more info):

Tomorrow, I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin, TN.
Monday, I'm joining some friends for the TN Pastor's Conference in Jackson.
Tuesday, it's back to Louisville for the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference.
Wednesday, I'm off to New Orleans for the Great Commission Research Network Conference.
Thursday, I be preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary chapel and doing a dialogue with the students following my message.
Friday and Saturday, I will be teach at ReTrain, and speaking to the leadership of Mars Hill Church
Sunday, I will be preaching to all the campuses at Mars Hill.
Monday, I will be speaking at the Calibrate Conference (with the Assemblies of God) in Seattle.

And, then I head home Tuesday and collapse.

Here is my travel for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for praying for me and I hope to see you on the road.

The National Outreach Convention is this Wednesday - Friday in San Diego, CA. This isn't just a big conference (but it is crazy big), it also features a very diverse line up with some very solid guys. I know I'll see a number of you there.

On the 8th I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin.

On the 9th I'm joining some brothers at the TN Baptist Pastors Conference where we'll focus on the Kingdom of God.

On the 10th I'm with friends at the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference "Ambition" at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.

On the 11th I'm speaking at the Great Commission Research Network Conference

On the 12th, I will also be preaching at the NOBTS Chapel and doing a dialogue after with the students.

...and then I'm off to Seattle (See part 1)

Tomorrow I'm back preaching at Two Rivers Church in Nashville, TN. Then on Monday, on October 26th, I'll be up in Chicago teaching a course on Becoming a Missional Church at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (my class syllabus from the same class last year is here). My wife will be coming along which makes it an even better week!

On Thursday of my class week, the Wesleyan, Evangelical Free, and Illinois SBC folks are hosting me for a day on "missional leadership" while I am teaching my class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Actually, I will be meeting with local E.Free. pastors for lunch, leading a conference for all three groups from 1:00-6:45p.m., and then having dinner with the Wesleyan pastors after the conference. Should be a great day. If you want to come, information is here, but note that the Wesleyans are having a two-day meeting of which I am only a part. But, if you want to come Thursday afternoon with me, the email is in that pdf file. (The venue is small so we can't take more than 75 people-- you will need to email if you want to come.)

Looking a bit ahead, I'm speaking at the National Outreach Convention in November. The conference is November 4th-6th in San Diego, CA. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there!

In the next week I'm speaking to people about a variety of subjects at gatherings that are pretty different from one another. Here's the rundown.

This morning, I spoke at the Together for Adoption conference in Franklin, TN at Christ Community Church. It was a great conference... very convicting. I spoke on "The Gospel and Social Justice." That talk should be up on line soon.

On Sunday I'm preaching at Grace Nazarene church in Nashville. Ken Dove is the pastor (and, you have to admit, that is a pretty great name for a pastor).

Then on Tuesday the 6th I'll participate at the Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism at Union University, Jackson, TN. This is an issue I have addressed before from various angles (here and here for example) and am looking forward to this dialog. I will be presenting a paper that is, as of now, 37 pages. I will probably need to trim that down! My understanding is that they will be live streaming my talk and will tweet that when I have details.

The week will wrap up in Duluth, GA at Catalyst 2009. This is always a great event with a diverse group of speakers and thousands in attendance. And they have a pretty snappy website. Check it out.

I will be speaking in the church planting track on Wednesday, being interviewed at the VERY early "Red Carpet Experience" on Thursday, and speaking from the main stage on Friday.

Hope to see you this week. Please be praying that I might make much of Jesus and his mission.

The folks at The Exponential Conference are a never-ending source of creativity. They have an RV. That's right, a conference RV. It has its own web site and Twitter account. They even made a video to introduce the RV.

They are touring the planet as part of their promotion of the Exponential Conference. Exponential gathers about 3000 people to each year in Orlando to talk about church planting and ministry. I will be sharing again this year presenting some research and inspiration from my new book Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers. The book will be released at the conference itself.

Well, the boys in the RV came by my house on Saturday. I was one of several people they visited in Nashville including Thom Rainer, Pete Wilson, and Anne Jackson. Some pretty fun stuff.

Needless to say, it was a guerrilla-style shoot. My person favorite part is that each video seems to begin with some version of what you say just before you start filming. ;-)

The guys were great fun and good sports. Josh Jackaway is the guy doing the interviews and he wants to be a church planter, so he is OK in my eyes! And, his cameraman, Corbin Franklin, put up with a lot of foolishness from me.

Here are my four videos:

First, from my exercise area over viewing my exercise plan and what I read on the elliptical:

Next they wanted to see my kitchen where I describe my food and how it is different than my wife's food. For the record, I don't eat what she eats. ;-) I thought it was funny that this video got aggregated into a weight loss site.

And, probably more importantly, here are two videos with viewer questions about church planting:

Enjoy... and be sure to visit the sites involves:

The Exponential RV
The Exponential Conference
The Exponential Network

And, I will see you in Orlando April 19-22, 2010.

Just one event this week... but it is BIG.

It is called "The Nines."

9/9/09 at... well... you guessed it, 9:09:09.

Every speaker in the world will be there as well as 6 billion attendees. (Actually, it is 70 speakers and over 6000 registrants so far, but that seems like a lot to me!)

It's on-line and free, but you have to register. And, they promise me the web streaming will work-- but we will see. ;-)

This fall, I will be again presenting research at the Catalyst Conference main stage. The theme of Catalyst this year is built around the idea of "making a mark" and is tied in to the 10-year anniversary of Catalyst.

I would like to get your feedback about the questions we should ask in a survey of 1000 Protestant pastors. Here are some ideas we have-- help us to think of more or to make these questions better. If you could ask 5-10 questions of 1000 pastors that would help understand their views of leadership, the future, and making their mark, what would they be?

Here are some of our thoughts. As you can tell from the numbering they are part of a larger survey.

This is a slow couple of weeks for travel, which means I will be catching up on some things at the office. Sleeping in your own bed for a whole two weeks in a row is quite an accomplishment. ;-)

I will be doing some local church speaking. For the next three Sundays, I am in different churches-- and also preaching at one church on a Monday.

Yesterday, I posted the video from my training in Oklahoma. I neglected to add the outline and notes, so I am posting them here. You can see the video here and the notes are below.

At the One Day web page, you can find those outlines, with "blanks" if you want to use them as training notes. Bob Mayfield tells me that 16 of the 273 churches have done their "One Day," but they have already trained over 2000 leaders. I am encouraged!

Missional Leadership

1) Reconsideration of Leadership

a) From superman to everyone
b) From church to kingdom
c) From me to we
d) From personal power to people empowerment

2) Rejection of Clergification

a) From three tiers to one mission
b) From "called to the ministry" to "called to ministry"
c) From "called to missions" to "sent on mission"
d) From exceptional to ordinary
e) From "priests" to a "priesthood of believers" codependence

3) Renewed focus on mission

a) From "full service" to "simple mission"
b) From "pay, pray, and get out of the way" to "join God on His mission"
c) From decisionism to disciple making
d) From "mission statement" to "Jesus mission"
Luke 4
Luke 19:10

4) Realignment of priorities

a) God is a missionary god
b) I personally join Him on mission - modeling
c) I lead others to join Him on mission - leadership
d) I equip others - multiplication

I hope that is helpful. Be sure to watch the video to get the context.

In May, I put together three videos with my friends from the Oklahoma convention on the topic of missional communities. The convention is using these videos as part of a training strategy for small group leaders. It's called the "One Day Initiative." For most churches, the health of small groups determines the health of the church as a whole.

Here is the video the churches are using for this initiative:

Missional Small Communities from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

So far 273 churches in Oklahoma signed on. Bob Mayfield developed Oklahoma's plan to de-centralize the training process for small group leaders and put missional leadership materials directly into the hands of the local church. They believe that a church can equip more of its members locally than by taking them to big events that are long distances away. Bob sent me some comments they are already receiving, even though the initiative is less than a week old. Here's one example:

The general session began with hearing Ed Stetzer on video sharing about Missional Leadership. It really fired-up our people in attendance and for some I believe it was a life-changing message... Ed brought a fresh perspective about what a class could be and our folks loved it. The support materials that you (Bob) and your team put together are great, and we needed the breakout times after the video to digest what we heard and explore the materials. Scott Badgett, Associate Pastor at Chisholm Heights Church in Mustang, OK

Badgett also noted that they typically take about 6 people to an annual regional training event, but had 93 attend the One Day seminar in their church. Check here for some blogs that have been made about One Day.

That BGCO has made all three of the One Day videos available at their cost on a two disc DVD set (which also includes 3 music videos and 4 promo videos) for only $10.00. You can order them at www.bgco.org/oneday.

My "Saturday is for Seminars" is late, so we will rename and post it now!

This Thursday I'm speaking in Charleston, SC at another Connect Conference (I blogged about it earlier). Check out the website for more information and to register. I hope to see you Sunday!

Looking a bit farther down the road in September I'm participating in THE NINES, a very exciting one day event for church staff members who are looking to develop their leadership skills. Why "The Nines?" It's going down on 9/9/09 and... well let me pull it from the website.

Hit the website for the rest of the details.

I am excited to speak at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego, CA, November 4-6.

If you received the brochure, I am the guy in the really little pic on the front cover, to the right, with the old fluffy hair cut and 125 pounds ago. ;-)

Efrem Smith and I will be keynoting the first night and there will be a special unannounced guest. That is not a marketing strategy; there is a reason that will become clear that night. It will be a good night and you won't want to miss it.

It looks like it will be a fun and challenging time.

Here is some information fom the website...

Here's what you can expect at NOC09...

• 50 power-packed workshops with the nation's leading voices on outreach.
• 4 Inspiring General Sessions - with powerful worship, true outreach stories and messages from key note speakers passionate to reach more for Christ.
• 120+ resource providers - ready to share effective tools and the newest resources with you and your team.
• Tons of free resources and giveaways!
• More books and authors than ever! Meet the authors - get the latest from your favorites.
• Discussion groups - more than 15 opportunities to dialogue with powerful outreach champions from churches around the country.
• FREE Night of Comedy
• NEW! Outreach Film Festival!

Check out the website, you can become "a fan" of The Outreach Convention on Facebook, and you can follow them on Twitter.

I was the first to join the "twub" (and it is my first twub) so, I feel extra special. ;-)

This is an annual destination for me and I really appreciate my friends at Outreach. As a columnist for Outreach Magazine, part of the research team that works on the Outreach Magazine / LifeWay Research special report on the largest and fastest growing churches, and a regular part of the NOC, we value the friendship and partnership.

See you in sunny San Diego!

Here is one more "Saturday is for Seminars" that is posted on Sunday.

Take a look at this video:

Connect Conferences: Reaching and Keeping Young Adults

This fall I will be participating in a series of Connect Conferences around the country. These unique gatherings provide a focused discussion about reaching and keeping young adults. Our hope is to provide an intimate opportunity for key leaders to:

• learn more about young adults


• understand some of the many reasons why they leave the church


• network with other leaders in your area


• walk away with practical, promising next steps for ministry

Thom Rainer, Sam Rainer, Jason Hayes, and I will be speaking at the majority of these events. In addition, other speakers include Mark Batterson, Michael Kelley, Heather Zempel, Tim Miller, Jen Hatmaker, Adam Thomason, and more.

Go HERE to learn more about these gatherings and to see who will be in a city near you.

Atlanta, GA - August 13-14, 2009
Nashville, TN - August 20-21, 2009
Charleston, SC - August 27-28, 2009
Washington, DC - September 17-18, 2009
Shreveport, LA - September 24-25, 2009

Hope to see you at one of the Connect Conferences.

Here is what is coming up this week... Lots of "SBC" in today's list. Thanks for praying for me and for the folks listed below.

Becoming a Missional Church

This Thursday, I'll be at Westmeade Baptist Church in Decatur, GA for a conference on Becoming a Missional Church. You can download the brochure here.

Thanks to the Alabama Baptist Convention for making it possible.

Speaking at the SBC (building)

On Friday, I am actually preaching to the Southern Baptist Convention. Well, sorta.

The Southern Baptist Convention only exists two days a year (most recently for two days in Louisville, KY). Between those annual meetings, the business of the convention is conducted by the Executive Committee. Technically, it acts "for the Convention ad interim in all matters not otherwise provided for."

I am guessing that I am only one of seven people to have read the history and role of the EC, but I find it helpful to understand how my denomination works. It is worth a read if you want to know how the denomination works-- lots of helpful resources in an easy to navigate site.

Also, while you are looking around at the site, let me encourage you to follow a link over to Morris Chapman's address to the SBC in 2004 called "The Fundamentals of Cooperating Conservatives." I found it a helpful call for cooperation in a (still unresolved) time of denominational conflict. I found it a great encouragement in 2004 and I am hoping people might listen today.

Here is a small part:

There's a road wrongly taken by many on our left, the road of liberalism. But there is also a road wrongly taken by many others on our right side. It may not be as treacherous as the road of liberalism, but it is just as disabling to the Convention.

What is this road? It is the road of separatism - an ecclesiastical methodology that devalues cooperation in favor of hyper independence. In the past, we have avoided this road as fervently as the road on the left. If Southern Baptists steer too sharply toward the right, we will end up on the road of separatism.

Southern Baptists have never embraced the methodologies of separatism. We can be both conservative and cooperative. It is our distinctive heritage. It is the genius of our success. It is our spiritual destiny.

Good words then. Good words now.

May the SBC have ears to hear that we can cooperate with different kinds of people who affirm they can work within our confessional framework: contemporary, rural, emerging, Calvinist, traditional Baptist, ethnic, etc.

Anyway, I will preach at the chapel of the Executive Committee that day. I look forward to it. These men and women work hard to serve our convention so it can be a tool to help our churches cooperate for the Great Commission. I have still not decided my text or topic, so please pray for me. Considering the days we are in, I will try to be on my very best behavior!

Both of these are driving distance... no airplanes this week! That makes it a good week.

And a Final Prayer Request

One final thought since I gave an SBC polity lesson: if you are SBC (and, for that matter, even if you are not), please click this link to learn about and to pray for the Great Commission Resurgence and the GCR Task Force. These are important days.

The B21 panel, presented by Baptist 21 and hosted by Sojourn Community Church went down during the Southern Baptist Convention last month. I am probably the last person to post it on his blog (considering the thousands of video views), but I need to in case you are the only person who has not yet watched it.

The panel examined reasons for young pastors to involve themselves with the Southern Baptist Convention, the place for seminaries in training up the next generation, dual involvement with the SBC and Acts 29, and more provocative topics. You can watch it in two parts below.

Of course, I was live-twittering the event, as you will see on the video. The picture I took is here.

The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Columbus, OH

Tomorrow, I am flying to Columbus, Ohio to speak there on Monday. I'll be speaking at the national meeting of The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. The meeting is called "Equip 09." My focus will be what it takes to see Church Planting Movements in North America.

The Grace Brethren are spiritual decedents of the Schwarzenau Brethren. Their history is here.

Wikipedia explains:

The Schwarzenau (German Baptist) Brethren, originated in Germany, the outcome of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th century. Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ, the founding Brethren abandoned the established Reformed and Lutheran churches, forming a new church in 1708 when their apocalyptic hopes were still unfulfilled. They thereby attempted to translate "the Philadelphian idea of love into concrete congregational ordinances obligatory for all the members." Unlike the Philadelphians, Brethren rejected Leade's embrace of direct revelation and emphasized early ("Apostolic" or "primitive") Christianity as the binding standard for congregational practices. The founding Brethren were also in conversation with Mennonites and influenced by Anabaptist writings.

In Germany the Brethren became known as Neue Täufer (New Baptists), in distinction from the older Anabaptist groups. In the United States they became popularly known as Dunkers, Dunkards or Tunkers, corruptions of the German verb tunken, to dip. Other religious groups related historically to the same Radical Pietist ferment as the Brethren are the Community of True Inspiration and the Moravians.

NAMB in Atlanta

On Tuesday, I will be speaking at the North American Mission Board State Summer Leadership Meeting in Atlanta, GA. I will be present the preliminary report on the spiritual receptivity of first generational immigrant groups. On Wednesday, I will be meeting with and co-facilitation NAMB's task force focus on how we might advance the work of the Great Commission.

Together for Adoption in Nashville

Later this fall I'll be speaking at the Together for Adoption Conference October 2-3.

I'm looking forward to speaking at the upcoming on "The Gospel, Social Justice and the Missional Church." Check out the conference details here, register here, and I hope to see you there!

I am sitting on my back patio looking at my wife.  Great view!

But, she is working on her calendar and some trips we are planning this fall.  So, it inspired me to finish this week's "Saturday is for Seminars."

Here are a few updates, with some extra info thrown in (using my typical ADD writing approach for a Saturday morning). 

Santa Fe, NM

As I mentioned last week, I am at Glorieta (near Santa Fe, NM) this week.  And, it is GREAT to have my family along with me.  More info about that here.  I will be preaching each night, Monday through Thursday, if you want to come and visit.

Decatur, AL

Looking ahead, I thought I would share something coming up in August. The Alabama Baptist Convention is hosting a one-day regional conference for church staff and leadership on "The Missional Church."

The last time I went to Alabama it was to watch a football game with Thom Rainer, so I am still in recovery from that experience.  I am hoping that this is more my world than going to an Alabama football game and meeting Bart Starr. In other words, I am hoping there is no sports trivia contest as part of the day. ;-)

(And, yes, I had to ask Thom, "Who is Bart Starr?"  He mocked me. Again. Sigh.)

Anyway, Rick Lance is the Alabama state exec. and is the most followed state exec on Twitter.  Follow him on Twitter here: Rick Lance.  He has done a good job using Twitter to keep in touch with pastors and church leaders.  And, Rick has a blog as well. 

Speaking of state execs on Twitter, honorable mentions go to Fermin Whittaker (California), who has been on Twitter longer than any other exec. and to Jim Richards (Texas) just because I like him and we follow each other on Twitter.  ;-) 

I am sure there are more, but those are the three I know.  If you know of any other state execs on Twitter, please let me know.

Anyway, back to the conference.  The details below from ABC's website.

 

Becoming a Missional Church
Date: Thursday, August 06, 2009
Time: 08:30 AM - 03:00 PM
Location: Westmeade Baptist Church, Decatur

This conference is designed for church staff members to dialogue with a national leader in research and church development. A church staff will have the opportunity to hear the latest research, interact with the leader, and plan an effective response/strategy for the local church. An opportunity is provided through the host church for those who would like to make the event a staff retreat.

Click here to view the Becoming a Missional Church brochure.

For more information contact Ministry Assistant Charlotte Burgos by email at cburgos@alsbom.org or by phone at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 307.

Hope to see you in Alabama.

New Orleans

Let me also add something to last week's post about New Orleans.  I will also be preaching in chapel at New Orleans Seminary and planning a dialgue with the students after chapel.  More details on the dialogue, but my friend Steve Lemke will be hosting it through the Baptist Center and it will be a "bring your brown bag" kind of thing.  More on that soon.

In the meantime, you might want to read Chuck Kelley's report on how the SBC has become "The New Methodists."  You can find it here.  It has not received the attention that I think it should in the SBC and it is worth your time.  (And, my Methodist readers, take a look at what he says before you get offended.  I think it will make sense.)

Chuck sees the challenge as what it is, a spiritual problem among many of our churches.  Here is a quote from his message:

The conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. The stirring of a church and community in revival and awakening is a work of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these works of the Spirit is typical in SBC churches today. We are not anointed. That ‘we' would be you, me and all of us at work in places with little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit. We are so not anointed we have come to accept not being anointed as normal.

Read the full story here.

 

See you on the road...

 

I have been a little tied up and weekends and have not done my "Saturday is for Seminars." I will try to get back into the swing of doing so.

Thanks again for those of you who pray for me while I am on the road.

Here is where I am now and/or will be going soon:

Ridgecrest, NC
Right now, and for the next 16 hours, I am in beautiful Western North Carolina at Ridgecrest Conference Center. I preached last night and will do so again in about 4 hours at the Sunday School Weekend/Week at Ridgecrest in Ridgecrest, NC.

Glorieta, NM
I'll be doing this again at Glorieta, NM later this month. But, I get to have my family with me in Glorieta, so that makes it even better.

Originally, my family was going with me to Ridgecrest. We love the camp and kids programs each year. However, the folks at B&H Publishing asked me to make a change to respond to a request from the International Christian Retail show... which is where I am heading early tomorrow.

The International Christian Retail Show
Early tomorrow, I fly to Denver for the International Christian Retail Show, Christian Booksellers Association on July 12th. (Is Colorado close to North Carolina?) I went last year and had a little too much fun with Twitter, so I have to be on my best behavior this year.

The folks at ICRS have asked me to speak on church and culture research in the Sunday afternoon main session. It's also good to meet new and old friends and talk to people about the research we do at LifeWay Research. I will also be doing a book signing Monday morning, so if you are there-- drop on by and say hello.

Looking Ahead
On Nov. 10-12, 2009 I'll be speaking at the Great Commission Research Network which is planning a joint meeting with the Society for Church Consulting Summit 2009. This is a big three-day conference (or two conferences in one location) that will go down at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Here's some info from the website.

Conferences At a Glance

Nov. 10: Church Consulting Summit 2009
The first day of this historic joint event is the Society's inaugural summit. This year's theme, "Battling Ministry Giants," will feature a practical array of workshops, case studies, and discussions led by SCC board members and sponsors. Topics include conflict management, church visioning, conducting community research, and many more practical areas of church consulting.

Nov. 11-12: GCRN's Annual Conference
The second conference is focused on how churches can reach out in times of calamity and recession. GCRN (formerly the American Society for Church Growth) will present topics like:

• Transformational Churches: Who They Are and How They Do It - Ed Stetzer
• An old Strategy Revisited: Prayer Ministry in Times of Crisis - Chuck Lawless
• Building Bridges of God During Calamity - Gary McIntosh
• Future Trends in Church Consulting - Tom Harper

Joint Conference Schedule

Day One (Tue., Nov. 10) - Society for Church Consulting

• Case study breakouts
• Expert panel discussion
• Practical workshops
• Exhibit area
• Member meeting
• Networking receptions

Days Two and Three (Wed. & Thur., Nov. 11-12) - Great Commission Research Network

• Lectures
• Research presentations
• Exhibit area (same for both conferences)
• Bus tour of local churches damaged by Katrina
• The prestigious Donald McGavran Award
• President's banquet

You can download the brochure here, and register here.

New Orleans

While I am at New Orleans, I will be planning a "Tweet-up" with friends (and potential new ones). My friend Steve Lemke, has promised to buy me lunch and, if I time it correctly, I am pretty sure I can get him to come to his first-ever TweetUp.

Watch Twitter and the blog for more details.

Hope to see you on the road!

In August, I will be hosting the first meeting of a Church Planting Leadership Fellowship. This meeting will include time with Bob Harrington (Stadia) on church networks, Hutz Hertzberg (Moody Church) on assessment research, Thom Rainer (LifeWay) on organization leadership, and Steve Pike (Assemblies of God) on influencing your denomination. In addition, we will have peer-to-peer interaction among church planting leaders from different denominations. The first meeting is in Nashville, August 24-25th and the focus of this, and subsequent, meetings is how denominations can be more effective in church planting by sharing ideas and best practices.

The Mission America Coalition had asked me to convene a Church Planting Leadership Fellowship to help denominational leaders connect and collaborate around church planting learning. There seems to be a need for a place for peer learning and I am glad to help facilitate the group.

Chris Conrad (Director of Church Planting for the Wesleyans) and I will be working on this leadership community for people in denominational church planting leadership. It will meet three times per year: one in summer, once in fall, and once in spring (in partnership with the Exponential Conference). The group will be limited to those in similar church planting leadership roles. The focus will not be planting together, but rather learning from one another.

There may be an additional group that helps networks and network leaders connect together, but we have not decided on that quite yet. If you would be interested in that group, please let me know in the comments. (We won't post them but will contact you.) Also, feel free to email this information to your denominational church planting leadership if you think they might be interested in participating.

Here is the email we sent out earlier this week.

Dear Fellow Church Planting Champions,

I pray this finds you doing well as you continue to roll up your sleeves and give your best efforts to serve, support and celebrate church planting and church planters in your context.

Each of you receiving this e-mail have indicated an interest in being part of the Church Planting Leadership Network as we discuss best practices and work together to increase the number and effectiveness of church plants being launched.

So far we have two meetings scheduled:

August 24-25 (Nashville)
November 18-19 (Location TBD)

Our August meeting will include presentations and discussions about the following subjects all of us in the church planting world face:

• Recruitment
• Assessing
• Training
• Networking
• Multiplying

Attached you will find flyer that will give you more information as well as an application. To join the Church Planting Leadership Network, simply fill out the application and send it in, along with the membership fee, to the address on the application.

We look forward to having you with us in this "Best Practices" community.

Thanking God for you,

Ed Stetzer and Chris Conrad