May 10, 2017
Dear Partners in Ministry,
I pray continued encouragement and joy for each of you as you continue your ministry in your region or area. I write to share the exciting news of our next September Leadership Academy in Indianapolis September 18-22, 2017 and all the great things that have emerged from our reimagining this event. Speedway Christian Church will be the site for this exciting time of worship, training and networking.
Under Terrell McTyer, our Minister of New Church Strategies’ visionary leadership a new format has been developed with three tracks: Start; which will be our church planter’s track, Sustain; a new track developed for pastors of new and existing congregations that will be exploring ministry sustainability and, Soar; which is our transformation track. We are excited to announce that we will be featuring Jim Griffith and Eric Law and Angela Whitenhill from NBA as our main DOC Talk speakers. Lead Lab facilitators include Rich McCullen from Mission gathering, Tom Morse from DOM, Bruce Barkhauer from OGMP, and several others from our general ministry partners as well as our seminaries. Stay tuned! Our General Minster and President, Terri Owens will also be with us during this event.
Our cohorts will be led by DOC practitioners who bring a wealth of experiences and insights, providing practical tools of engagement for planting, sustaining and transforming congregations. You might have heard that we are very near the 1000 mark of new churches planted and affiliated; we know that not all are still around, but we are grateful for their witness and the impact they had in their communities. We are committed to that second wind of empowering more than 1000 new starts, but also helping our congregations begin to experience sustainability and transformation so they may thrive.
No doubt God is doing a new thing in the life of our Church, and we can’t wait to see how Leadership Academy will be part of that great move of the Spirit of God in our communities.
I trust you have had a chance to see our Pentecost video with the theme; “Churches Can Change the World… Start More”. We are praying for a bountiful Pentecost offering from our local congregations June 4 and 11. This will enable our regions and areas to be able to send your planters to Leadership Academy. Registration for the event is now open and it can be accessed through the following link (www.hopepmt.org/la/registration ). As before, registration fee will cover cost of food, lodging and training. Please note that each participant must cover their transportation expenses. Deadline for registration is August 20, 2017.
I invite you to visit our event page (www.hopepmt.org/la) so you can learn more about our keynotes, facilitators and other resources. Once again we appreciate the opportunity to work in partnership with you in equipping church leaders for the challenging and exciting work of fulfilling the Great Commission and joy of seeing our congregations THRIVE! Please let us know if you have any questions.
Grace and Peace,
Gilberto Collazo
President of Hope Partnership
for Missional Transformation