Upcoming Conferences in Partnership with Belmont University

The Center for Healthy Churches and the Moench Center for Church Leadership in the College of Theology and Christian Ministry at Belmont University are excited to announce their upcoming conferences focusing on issues related to church health and healthy church leadership. Join us to participate in an intentional effort to strengthen pastors, church leaders, and churches while imagining and supporting healthy ministry strategies.

10:00 a.m.  Opening presentation in the Janet Ayers Academic Center (JAAC) 5003.

11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. Focused conversation with pastors and church leaders. Complimentary lunch will be served . In the Inman Health Sciences (IHS) 405 (Building #6).

For more information, contact Darrell Gwaltney, Dean of the College of Theology and Christian Ministry and Director of the Moench Center for Church Leadership at Belmont University.

Upcoming Conferences

“A Culture of Call: Creating a Congregational Ecology of Christian Vocation”

Dr. George Mason
October 19

The Protestant notion of the priesthood of all believers must be renewed in each generation if the church is to be perennially vital. Some are called to do the work of the church and others to do church work, but all are called to serve according to the gifts and graces bestowed upon them by the Spirit. The normal church cycle of worship and education offers opportunity to give language to this work. We will look at the threefold strategy of Notice, Name and Nurture that fosters the healthiest environment in which people may hear, discern, explore and answer the call to ministry.

George Mason has been senior pastor at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since August 1989. At Wilshire he birthed and directs a pastoral residency program that has graduated 28 young ministers in pastoral roles. He is the author of the book, Preparing the Pastors We Need: Reclaiming the Congregation’s Role in Training Clergy (Alban Press, 2012).

“Fresh Expressions of Church: New Forms of Church for People Highly Unlikely to Come to Yours”

Dr. Travis Collins
November 9

Fresh Expressions is an international movement of missionary disciples cultivating new kinds of church alongside existing congregations to more effectively engage our growing post-Christian society. Beginning in 2004 as an initiative of the Church of England and the British Methodist Church, the movement has resulted in the birth of thousands of new communities in the UK alone and brought renewal to scores of established churches. The movement has spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Germany. In 2010, the movement began taking shape in the US through the vision and generosity of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and a growing number of partners committed to a new era of missional ecumenism, a unity around the mission of God the Father through the resurrected Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Travis Collins is both pastor of First Baptist Church, Huntsville Alabama, and a member of the Fresh Expressions US Team. He authored the books, Fresh Expressions of the Church and From the Steeple to the Street. He was a missionary in Venezuela and Nigeria and brings his passion for indigenous churches to the movement, begun in England, called Fresh Expressions.