We're haven't left the summer season yet, but I want to give you a heads up about two conferences coming up in September and October.

The NINES
9/9/2010

The NINES is an free online conference and gathering for church leaders that will happen on September 9, 2010. Things will kick off at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time (10:30 Central; 9:30 Mountain; 8:30 Pacific) and will last about 9 hours.

If you can watch videos at YouTube on your computer, you should be able to watch the live stream on The NINES. Just be sure that you have the most current version of flash.

Did I mention that this is free? Well, not only is the conference free, but there are upgrading options as well. You can learn more about The NINES here.

The GCM Collective Conference 2010
October 28 - 30, 2010

The GCM Collective will be hosting their first GCM Conference in Austin, TX this October, bringing together church planters, pastors, and leaders to collaborate on the practice of missional communities. This three-day conference will feature main and breakout sessions under the theme of GOSPEL, COMMUNITY and MISSION.

You will get to hear from, meet and interact with leaders who are daily practitioners, living in gospel communities on mission in their cities. This is a unique experience that will present the why, what and how-to of starting, leading and multiplying missional communities. Interactive plenary sessions, breakouts and unique training experiences will fill our days both on-site and off.

Big church, small church, multi-site or neighborhood this event is for every church that seeks to effectively expand the gospel in their context.

I'm looking forward to be speaking along with Steve Timmis, Jeff Vanderstelt, Caesar Kalinowski, David Fairchild, Drew Goodmanson and Jonathan Dodson. You can find more information and register here.

This August 6-8 I'll be in Chicago participating in The Mainline Call, a conference that targets the revitalization, replanting and pastoring of mainline churches.

They are focused on churches that they call ECOT churches. If you Google "ECOT mainline," it turns out there are many resources geared toward helping mainline churches that want to be "Evangelical", "Conservative", "Orthodox", or "Traditional." I'll be joining John Armstrong, Carmen Fowler, Jim Harrell, John Hull, Bob Thompson, Jim Tomberlin, and David Runnion-Bareford.

If you're in the Chicago area in early August, I hope you'll join us! Register here. Please be praying I will make much of Jesus, the cross, and God's mission.

When I did my usual "Saturday is for Seminars" this week, I forgot to mention one that is coming up soon: Ligonier Conference and the SBC.

I know some of my readers will be at the Southern Baptist Convention this year in Orlando, FL, but you may not know that following the SBC Ligonier Ministries is hosting its annual conference in the same city, and is offering registration at only $50 to everyone who attends the SBC. The conference theme is Tough Questions Christians Face and features speakers like Dr. Albert Mohler, Michael Horton, John MacArthur, RC Sproul, Alastair Begg, and others. It looks to be a great time. I'm even joining a few others at the pre conference happening on June 17th. From the ad,

Come join some of the leading Christian thinkers at the Ligonier National Pre-Conference on June 17, immediately following the SBC Annual Meeting right here in Orlando. Albert Mohler and Ed Stetzer will join Burk Parsons and Tim Challies as they explore a biblical approach to using the internet.

Then stay for the National Conference on June 17-19 as these and other leading theologians and teachers--including R.C. Sproul--explore some of the toughest questions Christians face.

Visit www.ligonier.org/conferences for more information, or call 1 800-435-4343.

J.D. Greear, did his PhD work in Christian and Islamic theology at Southeastern Seminary. He now pastors a rapidly growing multi-campus church of 4000 in the Raleigh-Durham area. The Summit Church, has undertaken the goal of planting 1000 churches in the next 40 years. Currently, they have 12 plants around the world. J.D. has authored a number of publications, including Breaking the Islam Code. He lives in Durham, NC with his wife Veronica and his four ridiculously cute kids, Kharis, Alethia, Ryah and Adon.

J.D. is one of the main speakers at the missionSHIFT Conference this summer.

I just got back from speaking at the Exponential Conference. I shared the results of a LifeWay Research survey that demonstrates support for church planting is lower than I prefer, though new church starts are outpacing the closing of established churches. Lifeway Research surveyed over 1,000 Protestant pastors and found only 3 percent of their churches served as the primary sponsor of a church plant in the past year, and only 14 percent gave financial support in partnership with other churches to help start new congregations. Let that sink in for a minute. Three percent of Protestant churches started new churches, and only 14 percent financially supported new works.

The Christian Post has the story here.

On Friday, I shared some quotes about the importance of engaging the culture. Today, I thought I would share a place where we will talk about that very thing...

Advance 2010 is April, 26, 27 and 28th in Durham, NC. The theme of the conference is "Contextualizing the Gospel in the New South." I'm honored to be speaking along with Matt Carter, Mark Driscoll, Jerome Gay, J.D. Greear, Johnny Hunt, Tyler Jones, David Platt, and Tullian Tchividjian.

The conference site explains:

I am really looking forward to being a part of "the largest gathering of church planters on the planet" next week. Yes, EXPONENTIAL 10 is happening in two days in Orlando. The theme this year is "It Starts in the Heart of One Transformation." This conference is featuring speakers like Matt Chandler, Mark Batterson, Darrin Patrick, Scott Hodge, Francis Chan, Larry McCrary, Neil Cole, Tim Stevens, and many, many more.

This is a great time to connect with and learn from many gifted church planters. And for me this year --- it is going to be a good, but very busy, week. In addition to a bunch of one-on-one meetings, here are the public ones:

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!