Going Small: Small Churches and Small Towns

Sunday April 19, 2009 ~ 5 Comments

Small churches and small towns often get overlooked at our big, fancy conferences. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and benefit from most of the conferences, but many of the issues smaller churches face are often left unaddressed at these gatherings of big church leaders. This is why I'm happy to tell you about a couple of conferences coming up that are tailored to the needs and issues facing smaller churches - and I am looking forward to sharing at both.

This Friday I'll be speaking on "The Missional Small Church" at 8:00 pm at the Tennessee Small Church Leadership Conference in Hermitage, TN. The conference is sponsored by Lifeway, IMB, and NAMB.

Here's the conference schedule:

Friday, April 24, 2009 6:30 pm Worship 7:00 pm "The Small Church Is Not Broken" Les Puryear, Senior Pastor, Lewisville Baptist Church, Lewisville, NC 7:45 pm Break 8:00 pm "The Missional Small Church " Ed Stetzer, President, Lifeway Research Saturday, April 25, 2009 8:30 am Worship 9:00 am "The Beauty of the Small Church," Les Puryear, Senior Pastor, Lewisville Baptist Church, Lewisville, NC 10:00 am Break
10:30 am Breakout Sessions

"The Acts 1:8 Challenge,"
Tim Yarbrough, NAMB

"More Than Money,"
Tim Guthrie, Ecklund Stewardship Ministries

"An Organization For Small Churches,"
Ray Gilder, Tennessee Baptist Convention

"Biblical Leadership For the Church"
Chris Johnson, Senior Pastor, Grace Church at Hermitage, Hermitage, TN

12:00 pm Lunch (on your own)
1:00 pm Breakout Sessions (same as at 10:30 am)

2:30 pm Question and Answer Period

The registration is only $25.00. You can register online, call 1-336-946-2603, or pay at the door.

Next month, on May 13th, I'll be speaking at The Sticks Southeast Regional Conference. This is another gathering that seeks to inspire and equip pastors in small to medium towns to make a biggest impact possible the Kingdom. I'll be speaking along side Perry Noble, Gary Lamb, Charles Hill, Greg Oraham, and Tony Morgan. I did a podcast for that conference this week and will more share about it soon.

I'm happy to see more conferences like these develop that are addressing issues unique to smaller churches. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you at these upcoming gatherings. While I believe all local churches, when healthy, will experience growth I do not believe bigger is always better. I thank God that he uses churches of all sizes to reach all people for the glory of Christ and the Kingdom.

Posted on April 19, 2009 at 7:19 PM ~ 5 Comments

Tagged with: church, conference, small

5 Comments

By Terry on April 20, 2009 11:02 AM

Wish I was close to one of these conferences. I would love to attend!

By Jamie Bickel on April 20, 2009 1:17 PM

Will audio be available?

By Patrick on April 20, 2009 4:18 PM

You can check out the aforementioned podcast for The Sticks by clicking the link to the website above, or by navigating to:

http://thesticksconference.blogspot.com

Terry - check out the price, you may able to come, it's only $99.

By Gene on April 20, 2009 8:59 PM

Why are large church pastors speaking at the Sticks conference? That seems odd to me...

By Robert Angison on April 20, 2009 10:02 PM

The Sticks is a pretty petty conference imho. Its all led by pastors and leaders of mega churches and seems to talk down to people trying the hardest to grow small churches in smaller contexts.

If most of our churches are smaller churches, then why not include some practioners from their contexts that have been faithful in ministry for the long term?

I'm very thankful that you, Dr. Stetzer, have been included in the line up and mean this as no disrespect to anyone. It just seems that it is rather odd (as other posters have mentioned) that the Sticks isn't about truly being in the Sticks.

You are the Church!
R.A.