By Wayne Guinn
It has been a very busy month of October for the National Church Planting Office. However, it was an exciting month for us as well.
The NCPO had the privilege of co-sponsoring the Upward Conference with the Baptist Bible Tribune and the BBFI Mission Office. Our thanks go out to Pastor Bruce Humbert and Sauk Trail Baptist Church for being gracious hosts for our conference. Charles Lyons and Duke Hergatt did an incredible job dealing with breaking attendance barriers through the subjects of momentum and assimilation. We also enjoyed hearing from Terry Kizer, Rob Willis, and Randy Abell. The comments from those who were present were very positive and encouraging.
At the same time our Upward Conference was going, we had our fall Church Planting Candidate School. What a blessing it was to see our seven church planters and their wives join with our other pastors for combined sessions throughout the week. It all began with an amazing time of prayer, reflection, and revival with Pastor John Arnold on Monday night. Every one of our Church Planting Schools starts off with John’s sessions, and it certainly sets the tone for what God will do the rest of the week! Mark Milioni, Monty Maple, Keith Bassham, Jim Smith, and our new Third Vice-President, Dave Shaffer, all were there to help teach for the week. The week was long and some of the church planters said they were in information overload, but all commented that “it was definitely worth it.” If you or someone that you know would be interested in attending our Spring Church Planting Candidate School, please call the NCPO.
We also just finished sponsoring our Ignite Church Planting Forum on the campus of Baptist Bible College. The plenary sessions and breakouts were full of students, pastors, staff, and guests. It was our privilege to have Eric Geiger, executive pastor of Christ Fellowship in Miami, Florida, and co-author of Simple Church as our special guest. The special four-hour afternoon session with Eric was especially good as those who attended were able to interact and ask questions. Then Duke Hergatt from Albany, New York, wrapped it all up with his testimony of starting Temple Baptist Church and then bringing a challenge and commitment time to the students about church planting. Our thanks go out to Jim Edge, Greg Christopher, Jon Slayden, and staff for the wonderful job they did of hosting this event. The student interaction and excitement was overwhelming. As we have received feedback from those who attended, it was great to hear that two students told their professor that based on what they heard from the Ignite Forum, they feel that God is leading them to start a church. This is the purpose of why the NCPO has the Ignite Church Planting Forum. We want to challenge students to consider whether God would have them go out and start a new church, and to let them know that the NCPO is here to help serve them and our BBFI churches in that endeavor.
We will be sponsoring our next Ignite Church Planting Forum on the campus of Boston Baptist College in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 16-17. If you are within driving distance of the campus, we hope that you will join us as we hear from Nelson Searcy, pastor of The Journey Metro Church of Manhattan, New York, and well-known author and speaker. We will also be hearing from Ryan Bevan, pastor and church planter of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Chillicothe, Ohio. Please pray that God will move on the hearts of these students toward church planting!
If you would like more information about our Church Planting Candidate School or these other conferences, please call the NCPO at (417) 889-1017 or email office@bbfincpo.com.