Upcoming speaking engagements

This week I finalized plans for two speaking engagements in March.  The first is with the Old Colony Baptist Association in Massachusetts.  On March 15 they are hosting a conference called "Small Churches Big Possibilities."  I will be the keynote speaker that morning and will be speaking on "The Healthy Small Church."  That afternoon I will lead a workshop on "Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance-Minded to Missional."  In addition, there will be other workshops and a panel discussion on small church issues.  The conference is open to anyone in The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts.  For more information and registration go to http://oldcolonybaptist.org and click on Spring Meeting.

On March 27-29 I will be with the American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire for a conference they are hosting.  Thursday evening and Friday I will be presenting a workshop on "The Healthy Pastor."  Saturday's session will address "Bivocational Ministry in the 21st Century."  Ministers in that region should look for promotional material to be coming soon.

It is very exciting to see judicatories offering training opportunities specifically designed for their smaller and bivocational churches.  As more of our marginally fully-funded churches transition to bivocational such opportunities will be even more important.  Not only are they needed for the ministers serving in those churches, they are also important for the lay leadership.  Significant changes occur in a church when it makes this transition, and many churches are not prepared for those changes which often creates problems.

I found it interesting that the four messages I have been asked to present at these events are the most popular workshops I offer.  That tells me there is still a need for this material.  If you are a denominational leader reading this and believe your smaller church leaders would benefit from one of these workshops, or others I offer, I would be glad to discuss presenting them to your leaders.  You can contact me through this blog.

For the bivocational and small church ministers reading this, when your denomination, judicatory, or association does offer this kind of training, be sure to take advantage of it.  For many years those of us in small church leadership had very few training opportunities specifically for us. and many of us got out of the habit of attending any training that was offered.  If your regional or district leadership does offer something like this please make every effort to attend.  Future events often depend on the attendance at the ones that were offered, so you can help ensure more training in the future by attending the events that are offered today.

I hope to see a great turn-out at these two events and look forward to seeing many of the readers of this blog at them.