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. ;-)

The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Columbus, OH

Tomorrow, I am flying to Columbus, Ohio to speak there on Monday. I'll be speaking at the national meeting of The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. The meeting is called "Equip 09." My focus will be what it takes to see Church Planting Movements in North America.

The Grace Brethren are spiritual decedents of the Schwarzenau Brethren. Their history is here.

Wikipedia explains:

The Schwarzenau (German Baptist) Brethren, originated in Germany, the outcome of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th century. Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ, the founding Brethren abandoned the established Reformed and Lutheran churches, forming a new church in 1708 when their apocalyptic hopes were still unfulfilled. They thereby attempted to translate "the Philadelphian idea of love into concrete congregational ordinances obligatory for all the members." Unlike the Philadelphians, Brethren rejected Leade's embrace of direct revelation and emphasized early ("Apostolic" or "primitive") Christianity as the binding standard for congregational practices. The founding Brethren were also in conversation with Mennonites and influenced by Anabaptist writings.

In Germany the Brethren became known as Neue Täufer (New Baptists), in distinction from the older Anabaptist groups. In the United States they became popularly known as Dunkers, Dunkards or Tunkers, corruptions of the German verb tunken, to dip. Other religious groups related historically to the same Radical Pietist ferment as the Brethren are the Community of True Inspiration and the Moravians.

NAMB in Atlanta

On Tuesday, I will be speaking at the North American Mission Board State Summer Leadership Meeting in Atlanta, GA. I will be present the preliminary report on the spiritual receptivity of first generational immigrant groups. On Wednesday, I will be meeting with and co-facilitation NAMB's task force focus on how we might advance the work of the Great Commission.

Together for Adoption in Nashville

Later this fall I'll be speaking at the Together for Adoption Conference October 2-3.

I am sitting on my back patio looking at my wife.  Great view!

But, she is working on her calendar and some trips we are planning this fall.  So, it inspired me to finish this week's "Saturday is for Seminars."

Here are a few updates, with some extra info thrown in (using my typical ADD writing approach for a Saturday morning). 

Santa Fe, NM

As I mentioned last week, I am at Glorieta (near Santa Fe, NM) this week.  And, it is GREAT to have my family along with me.  More info about that here.  I will be preaching each night, Monday through Thursday, if you want to come and visit.

Decatur, AL

Becoming a Missional Church
Date: Thursday, August 06, 2009
Time: 08:30 AM - 03:00 PM
Location: Westmeade Baptist Church, Decatur

This conference is designed for church staff members to dialogue with a national leader in research and church development. A church staff will have the opportunity to hear the latest research, interact with the leader, and plan an effective response/strategy for the local church. An opportunity is provided through the host church for those who would like to make the event a staff retreat.

Click here to view the Becoming a Missional Church brochure.

For more information contact Ministry Assistant Charlotte Burgos by email at cburgos@alsbom.org or by phone at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 307.

Hope to see you in Alabama.

New Orleans

Let me also add something to last week's post about New Orleans.  I will also be preaching in chapel at New Orleans Seminary and planning a dialgue with the students after chapel.  More details on the dialogue, but my friend Steve Lemke will be hosting it through the Baptist Center and it will be a "bring your brown bag" kind of thing.  More on that soon.

In the meantime, you might want to read Chuck Kelley's report on how the SBC has become "The New Methodists."  You can find it here.  It has not received the attention that I think it should in the SBC and it is worth your time.  (And, my Methodist readers, take a look at what he says before you get offended.  I think it will make sense.)

Chuck sees the challenge as what it is, a spiritual problem among many of our churches.  Here is a quote from his message:

The conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. The stirring of a church and community in revival and awakening is a work of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these works of the Spirit is typical in SBC churches today. We are not anointed. That ‘we' would be you, me and all of us at work in places with little evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit. We are so not anointed we have come to accept not being anointed as normal.

Read the full story here.

See you on the road...

Earlier this week, I added a stop to my Los Angeles trip and, as is my custom, I share about my upcoming week here on Saturdays. As always, I appreciate your prayers.

After I preach tomorrow morning here in San Antonio, I'll be flying to Anaheim, CA to speak at the Southwest Baptist Conference, a regional gathering of Converge Worldwide (formerly the Baptist General Conference, formerly Swedish Baptists, formerly, Swedes, I guess).

I will spend all of Tuesday morning with Glenn Burris and the Foursquare Church leadership in Los Angeles. Three years ago, Glenn Burris and Jack Hayford asked me to consult with them through their reorganization, and I was greatly blessed that they would have me to help.

For those of you who do not know the Foursquare, it is a fascinating movement with a colorful beginning. The movement was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson. Her Wikipedia article is worth a read. Jack Hayford recently announced his forthcoming retirement. (Christianity Today has called him "The Pentecostal Gold Standard" and they are correct. He is called "Pastor Jack" around the building.)

Glenn Burris is the general supervisor of the U.S. national church and will be Interim President starting in September. Please pray for him and the Foursuare movement as they are in this season of transition.

I am honored to work with these great folks and will spend the morning at their Los Angeles headquarters. (And, let me add, the view from Glenn's office is a bit nicer than the view from mine.)

Enough for now... I am preaching at Grace Point Church in San Antonio tomorrow.

It has been three weeks since I have been in the office. We (parts of my family and I) have been in 6 states and 5 countries since last sitting in my office chair. (My travel details are here). As weird as it sounds, I miss my office chair (and, of course, my co-workers).

Here is a recap of this week:

Southeastern

As I post this, I just got home from a week in Raleigh-Durham. I had a great time teaching at Southeastern Seminary and, if I have not mentioned it, you should be going to school there (and check out the Ph.D. program in missiology with a focus on North America that I have been helping develop). It was a great week and I look forward to much more interaction at SEBTS.

Advance09

At the end of the week, I had the privileged to speak at Advance09. Here is a panel we did including Tyler Jones, Eric Mason, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and J.D. Greear. I preached from Matthew 16 on how the Kingdom births the church in its wake.

The venue was pretty impressive. The attendees were enthusiastic. The music was amazing (good to hear the Sojourn Church band again).

I was blessed to hear preaching from several amazing leaders, most of whom I also know as good friends.

Thanks to the folks at Desiring God, you can find all the audio from the conference here.

Next Up

I am home this week and will be in the office five (count 'em, five) days in a row.

We hit the road just a bit next weekend.

I will be preaching Sunday in San Antonio at Grace Point Church. They have three services (which I did not remember when I agreed to do so about a year ago!). I am taking Jaclyn with me and we are planning to Remember the Alamo.

From San Antonio, I will be flying to Anaheim, CA to speak at the Southwest Baptist Conference, a regional gathering of Converge Worldwide (formerly the Baptist General Conference).

And, then, of course since I am in Anaheim, CA and have Jaclyn with me, we have plans on Tuesday:

I'm out of the country at the moment, but I'll be back soon enough - just in time to travel some more. At least this time it's closer to home and my whole family will be with me.

Here are some events coming up:

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary D. Min. Seminar

In early June (1st - 5th) I'll be a guest professor at SEBTS teaching a doctoral seminar titled, "Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth." I love my time teaching at seminaries and Southeastern is an amazing school.

Advance09

Be sure to not miss Advance09 that same week. Piper, Driscoll, Chandler, Akin, Greear, and many friends... you won't want to miss it.

Here is something for the Fall:

A Note from Bob Whitesel to GCRNet (ASCG) Leaders

My friend Bob Whitesel sent this out about a future conference and I am passing it on to you. Be sure to click on the link to see the program. Some great speakers there.

As you know, we have an exciting Annual Conference for The Great Commission Research Network coming up Nov. 11-12, 2009 in New Orleans, hosted by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Hope to see you in New Orleans this fall.

I will be out and about the next few weeks.

Monday: Church of God (Cleveland) National Church Planting Lab

Monday I will be up in Madisonville, KY teaching church planting lab for my COG friends. The Church of God (Cleveland) is one of two Christian denominations among the 25 largest that are growing. I have had the privilege to speak at the National Lab before in addition to some other events with the Church of God. Take a look here for more information.

Tuesday: InnovateChurch

Tuesday, I will be in Lynchburg, VA speaking at InnovateChurch sponsored by Thomas Road on Liberty Mountain. Because I have to leave early afternoon, thanks for Francis Chan for switching times with me.

Immediately after I speak, we will be meeting with people interested in pastor coaching networks. The InnovateChurch website explains:

Where do you go AFTER the conference? What do you do with all the challenging content, information, and inspiration you receive?
---We'd like to suggest NEXT NETWORKS.---
We're partnering with Ron Sylvia and Ed Stetzer of NEXT NETWORKS to offer you a coaching experience. On TUESDAY of the Innovate Church Conference Ron and Ed will be hosting a free luncheon, explaining the coaching that NEXT can provide.

I am looking forward to hanging with my twitter friend, Jonathan Falwell.

Wednesday (and the next 10 days), Germany, Italy, and France:

On Tuesday night, I take off for Germany. I will speak to a group of mission leaders and pastors in Frankfort, then take a group of pastors to Rome, Italy and Marseilles, France. My daughter, Kristen, will be coming along with me. You can follow along on the blog and on Twitter.

Then, we get into June... which I will write more about next week. But, for now:

June 1-6: Teaching at Southeastern

I will be teaching a doctrinal seminar and hanging out with my family in Raleigh Durham. My syllabus is here.

June 4-6: Advance09

I will be speaking at Advance09 and doing a panel discussion with John Piper and Mark Driscoll. You can visit the web page here. I look much more excited than the other speakers. ;-)

See you on the road, on the blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Here are a couple of things about upcoming conferences for my weekly "Saturday is for Seminars" post:

First, for this week:

May 14, 2009

Flourish Conference is the first ever national pastor's conference on creation care. It features a fascinating line up.

Check out the website and get in on it if you're going to be around Duluth, GA this week.

I will be presenting some new research from a poll of 4000 Protestant pastors on their views of social involvement and action, breaking their views down by age, type, etc. Should be some interesting data.

And, here is an upcoming conference for you to consider.

The Great Commission Research Network

The Great Commission Research Conference is coming up Nov. 11-12, 2009 in New Orleans. This is a multi-denominational gathering hosted this year by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Check out the website at GreatCommissionResearch.net and download the brochure here.

I will be presenting data from our research on 5000 churches and if they are seeing gospel transformation in lives, their church, and the community.

Hope to see you soon!

This week I will be out and about... home you can drop by!

St. Louis

On Monday, I will be in St. Louis with the Synodical Leadership of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. It will be good to connect with Mike Ruhl and the folks from the Center for U.S. Missions who had me speak at Concordia University last year. The LCMS plan is ABLAZE and it is an aggressive plan to "share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with 100 million unconverted people, 50 million of them in the U.S. by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017."

Tuesday, I will speak at the Acts 29 Regional Meeting at Journey Church in St. Louis. Darrin and I will be recording a video early that morning and then I will be speaking at the regional gathering later that morning.

Nashville (and the rest of the world via USAToday)

On Wednesday, I will be speaking at LifeWay chapel at 7:30a.m. (yikes, that is early). Then, all day on Wednesday, I will be guest hosting the USAToday Faith and Reason blog. More on that later in the week.

Also on Wednesday, I will be speaking right after Mark Dever at the Metro Conference for collegiate leaders and he and I will be doing a dialogue right after I speak.

Somewhere near Oklahoma City in a town called Davis

Finally, Friday, I will be speaking at Falls Creek camp in Oklahoma for something called the One Day seminars that my hosts plan to use to train 10,000 bible study leaders. I will be speaking three times and we will be shooting videos on these topics:
-Missional "small communities"
-Missional Leadership
-Lost and Found (Reaching Young Adults)

You can find information about the One Day emphasis here. The meeting is free for pastors if you would like to come. And, Jaclyn will be coming with me so we can do a little fishing in Oklahoma! Should be great.

See you this week via Twitter.

I have a lot to share with you about upcoming seminars and conferences. Dates, places topics - and even a way to save you some money!

March 15, 2009
After services tomorrow, I'm speaking to the Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA) campus ministry students who are coming up to Nashville for church in the morning. Should be good.
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March 17, 2009
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Spring 2009 LifeWay Conference (Wake Forest, NC)

Thom Rainer and I have switched chapel days so you might be surprised to see me there on Tuesday and Thom will be there on Wednesday.
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March 19, 2009
Protestant Church Owned Publishing Association Spring Conference I will be speaking on "Protestant Pastor's Today" at the annual meeting in Nashville, TN.
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March 23-27, 2009
Starting next Monday I will be teaching for a D.Min. class on "Entering the Missional Conversation" at Biblical Seminary (Hatfield, PA)
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I have mentioned the Exponential Conference before. While I am there we are planning a special dinner on Monday night. Here are the details:

Dinner and Dialog with Hirsch and Stetzer (April 20)
Let me give you a "heads up" about a couple events in the Orlando area in April around the Exponential Conference.

What if Alan Hirsch and I were starting a church together?
What would it look like?
What strategic considerations would we talk about?

Here's the blurb:

On Monday, April 20, at 6:30 pm in Orlando The Upstream Collective along with Christian Associates International will host Alan and Ed, who are among today's leading missional thinkers and church planters. Join them in a conversation about what church planting could look like in North America, what values a church planting team might espouse, what attractional and/or missional elements it might employ and more.

We have a limited amount of seats available. Tickets are 10.00 at the door and that helps cover the cost of the dinner that will be hosted by Houseblend Café in Orlando.

If you want to reserve your spot go to www.theupstreamcollective.org to sign up.

Also on Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 pm The Upstream Collective will hosting a dinner with Derek Webster, a church planting strategist for Scandinavia. He will talk about some unique opportunities for North American churches to get involved in what God is doing in Scandinavia. You might be surprised to hear about the ways your church could be a perfect fit for this region of the world!

You can sign up for either or both of these upcoming dinner events online at www.theupstreamcollective.org until April 12.

May 12-13, 2009
And, if you are pastoring in a small town, you might want to check out "The Sticks," a conference for pastors and leaders in small towns. Their early bird registration is about to end. I will be at the SE regional conference along with Perry Noble, Tony Morgan, Gary Lamb, etc.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, D. Min Teaching Chicago, IL (March 9-12)

I'm back in "Chicagoland" teaching a D. Min seminar on church planting at Trinity. It's a great school with sharp students, and I always enjoy my time teaching there.

I will being two events this week as well.

First, on Tuesday night I will be meeting with a group of regional Evangelical Free Church pastors about church planting.

Second, as part of my class, we are incorporating a seminar for local pastors and church leaders. It is called the "Subtext Forum."

Subtext Forum at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (March 12)
The Subtext Forum is a one day conference organized by Steve McCoy and Joe Thorn and focuses on the preaching and practice of the gospel in the suburban context. The conference runs from 10am - 3pm, includes lunch, and only costs $25. I'm speaking in three sessions on:

The Missional Church in Principle and Practice
Breaking the Missional Code in Suburbia
Challenges to Missional Thinking and How to Overcome Them

And at the end we're making time for Q&A. There's still time to register - get all the details at Subtext.