by Wayne Guinn
The highlight of our spring will be our Church Planter Candidate School. Hosting our spring school will be Pastor Mark Hodges and the good people of Winter Haven Baptist Church in Winter Haven, Florida. This event is doubly exciting this year as the Baptist Bible Tribune and Editor Keith Bassham will be joining the NCPO to co-host our first S3 Conference along with our Church Planter Candidate School.
The Church Planters School will consist of the regular curriculum and lecturers plus the addition of Elmer Towns, Bill Monroe, and Allan Taylor (see bio information below). The S3 Conference will be a separate track designed for experienced pastors and established churches. The sessions will be held in a round table format to encourage interaction and the sharing of ideas all directed at encouraging attendees to move their ministries to the next level.
Towns will spend Monday talking about his observations of the Modern Church Movement, its models, motivation, and methodology, and what we can learn from them. He has been a student of churches and church growth over the past 50 years. Bill Monroe’s sessions will challenge us on Tuesday to stretch ourselves by purposeful planning as followers of Christ and as leaders of congregations. We will never lead our ministries beyond what we ourselves are — this is the foundation of leadership.
Wednesday Allan Taylor will encourage and instruct us to move our ministries from ember to blaze, sharing with us how to enlist, train, motivate, and involve our lay people to reproduce themselves in our churches. The name of the conference, S3, stands for Stretching ourselves, Surging our ministry, and Serving our communities. You won’t want to miss this threeday conference April 27-29, 2009. The meeting begins at 1:00 p.m. Monday and closes at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Dinner will be provided Monday and Tuesday and lunch will be provided Tuesday and Wednesday. Space is limited to the first 36 pastors to respond. For information contact NCPO at (417) 889-1017 or email us at bbfincpo@aol. com. Cost is $249 per attendee.
Elmer Towns (DMin, Fuller Theological Seminary) is cofounder with Jerry Falwell of Liberty University, where he currently serves as vice president and dean of the school of religion. He is an author and editor of popular and scholarly works, a seminar lecturer, and the creator of over 20 resource packets for leadership education. Towns has published over 50 books, including four CBA bestsellers and the 1995 Gold Medallion Book of the Year, The Names of the Holy Spirit. A visiting professor at five seminaries, he has received four honorary doctoral degrees. He and his wife, Ruth, have three children.
Allan Taylor is minister of education at First Baptist Church Woodstock, Georgia, where he has served since February 1995. Under his leadership, the Sunday School attendance has grown from 2,500 ncpo di recto r to over 5,000. Previously, he served at Beaver Dam Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and London Bridge Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Before surrendering to full-time Christian service, he was a high school football coach. Allan is the founder of Ember to Blaze Ministries (www. embertoblaze.org) and writes Sunday school, leadership, and training materials. He conducts numerous training seminars nationally and internationally, mentors, instructs, and encourages Christian educators at his annual conference entitled “Shepherding with Integrity and Skill.” Allan has also served as chairman of the METRO Christian Education Association. He and his wife, Linda, have three children and two grandchildren.
Bill Monroe is the well-known founder and pastor of Florence Baptist Temple, Florence, South Carolina. FBT is one of the larger churches associated with the Baptist Bible Fellowship, and Monroe is a past president of the BBFI. The National Church Planting Office was established during his term as president.