Ed Stetzer, Southern Baptist author, church planter, and director of LifeWay Research, will headline the Missional Leaders Conference, Mar. 27, near New Braunfels.

The free conference, hosted by the Bluebonnet Baptist Association and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, offers a plan of action for churches to become more effective, and mission- focused, said Robby Partain, SBTC director of missions.

“We’ve had George Barna, Bill Easum, Thom Rainer, and Reggie McNeal [as keynote speakers] in past years,” Partain added. “Each dealing with some aspect of leading a missionally effective church in today’s culture.”

True to its missionary roots, this year’s conference will focus on revitalizing declining churches. The weekend-event will offer three sessions and a question and answer forum – all led by Stetzer, who will speak from his latest book
Comeback Churches.

From his position as director of LifeWay Research, Stetzer has observed a national trend of declining churches. Joining with co-author and church planting strategist Mike Dodson, the authors surveyed 300 churches from ten denominations that have experienced explosive growth after a period of decline. Stetzer and Dodson present
the resulting keys to church revitalization in their book.

“A lot of churches are asking the question, ‘how can we get off this plateau or reverse the decline we’ve experienced?’ The answer is: start looking at your community with fresh, missionary eyes and be the church that your community needs now, not the one they needed ten or 20 or 30 years ago,” Partain said.“And Ed [Stetzer] has the most recent research on how churches have done this effectively.”

Glen Howe, pastor of Martindale Baptist Church, attends the Missional Leaders Conference every year and credits the conference with giving his church the tools to become an Acts 1:8 congregation. Averaging 200 in worship, Howe described First Baptist Martindale as a traditional and established church. It will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year.

“It is easy to do church the way you’ve always done it,” Howe said, who has served at the church for ten years. “But if we just keep doing [ministry] as we’ve done it, in a matter of time we’ll die.”

Specifically, Howe said the conferences have acted as the impetus for acceptance of the Acts 1:8 three-fold missions strategy – evangelizing Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.

“The conferences made us aware of the imbalance of our missions approach,” he said, noting that they had promoted international missions over local endeavors. “We were willing to give money and go to the ends of the earth, but we were overlooking the areas around us.”

By trying to incorporate local missions into their evangelism strategies, Howe said they evaluated all existing church ministries and tried to infuse each ministry with an evangelistic purpose. For example, each October the church hosts a picnic, and this year church members fanned out across a local RV park and a nearby college campus to invite the community to attend.

Additionally, the church’s annual fundraiser for the local fire department became an opportunity for missions as it turned into a street festival called Fun Fest.

“We are a little town, and the festival takes up the whole downtown area,” he said, adding that the festival is used as a gateway for VBS.

Howe encouraged pastors to attend the Missional Leaders Conference and to take their staff members or church leaders with them.

“If pastors want to change, but don’t know how to think beyond the typical way of doing things, and they have a desire to challenge some of their leaders – any one of those needs would be met by coming to this conference.”

Stetzer has planted churches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and has also transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has authored more than seven books and holds two masters degrees and two doctorates. Stetzer served for several years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville as well at the North American Mission Board. He is currently the director of LifeWay Research.

For more information or to register for the Missional Leaders Conference at First Baptist Church of Canyon Lake, contact Carol Landry at the Bluebonnet Baptist Association at (830) 629-7674 or email her at carol@bluebonnetbaptist.org. For more information about Ed Stetzer’s book Comeback Churches, go to www.comebackchurches. com.