GA 2024 EQUIPPING SESSIONS

OVERVIEW AND NAVIGATION

On Thursday, June 20, explore the different offerings of the EPC’s Gospel Priorities. Click below to learn about the exciting options at this year’s GA:

Church Health

10:00 AM

12:00 PM 

Church Planting

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

Effective Biblical Leadership

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

Global Movement

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

Women’s Ministry

12:00 PM Pastor’s Wives Lunch

1:15 PM Women’s Enrichment

CHURCH HEALTH EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 10:00 AM

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TRANSITIONAL PASTORING

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Bill Rasch
Location: TBD

Church Sessions and Pastors are encouraged to come and have their questions answered about Transitional Pastors:
What does a Transitional Pastor cost?
What is the length of a Transitional Pastor contract and other details concerning those?
What is the work of a Transitional Pastor?
What is the process through which they lead a congregation?
What training does a Transitional Pastor provide for a pastoral search team and how does a Transitional Pastor support the search team during that process?
and more.

BUILDING AN EVANGELISTIC CULTURE IN YOUR CHURCH

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Mark Farrell
Location: TBD

According to the scriptures, every Christian is a minister who’s called to proclaim the good news of the gospel.  Therefore, it’s important to know the gospel, understand the context of our individual mission fields and practically engage with those who are far away from God.

Join us as we discuss our call to the Great Commission and how your congregation can serve as effective witnesses for the Kingdom of God.

RETURNING TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD: CENTERING YOUR CHURCH’S LOCAL CONTEXT IN YOUR GREAT COMMISSION WORK

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Sam Rainer
Location: TBD

The EPC’s Church Health process focuses on the work of the Great Commission in the context of each congregation’s neighboring community. During this conversation facilitated by Mark de Jeu, Sam Rainer (author of The Surprising Return of the Neighborhood Church) will share insights from his research about the impact of churches rooted in and committed to their local communities, and we’ll be encouraged together to pursue the mission of God’s Kingdom in all the places we call home.

CHURCH PLANTING EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 10:00 AM

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M CALLED TO CHURCH PLANTING?

Organization: EPC Church Planting
Host: Richard Reeves
Location: TBD

South Regional Church Planting Director Richard Rieves: I’m ordained and on staff of a church, and/or I may be the lead pastor of a church. How might I know if God is calling me to plant a church? Do I have the gifts? How or why would I transition to something as risky and frightening as church planting? There is no one mold for a church planter to fit into. If fact, we MUST have pastors with real ministry experience answer the call and plant if we are going to reach this present culture. Join us as we consider your potential role in church planting.

MATCHING OUR MODEL TO OUR MISSION: CONSIDERING DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHURCH PLANTING

Organization: EPC Church Planting
Host: Hunter Bailey
Location: TBD

Heartland Regional Director Hunter Bailey: Not all churches operate or aim for the same type of ministry. In this seminar, we’ll explore four distinct models we utilize for church planting and their strategic benefits. Understanding these models offers churches, presbyteries and planters greater freedom to utilize our redemptive imaginations when planting and will equip “parents, partners, and patrons” with a fuller perspective on how to come alongside our planters. 

RICKS & BIRD Q&A

EFFECTIVE BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 10:00 AM

CROSS GENERATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Next Generation Ministries Council
Location: TBD

What does cross-generational, intergenerational discipleship look like? How do we get different groups in meaningful communities of learning from and growing with one another? It is both more difficult and challenging and at the same time easier and rewarding than it appears.

Borrowing language and categories from cross cultural training like Hospitality, Lament, Mutuality, and Solidarity, we will explore how to see each other in each generation in order that we might each grow in empathy toward each other while striving together for the advancement of the gospel.

Cross-generational discipleship aims at growing the Kingdom of Jesus by fostering not just productive conversation, but meaningful communities. We will identify the necessity of cross-generational discipleship, examine some of the difficulties and potential land minds to navigate, then provide positive examples on what this does and can look like in our local contexts.

GOING FORWARD TOGETHER: MINISTRY COHORTS THAT WORK

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Annie Rose
Location: TBD

What difference does it make whether or not a pastor is in a cohort or covenant group? Join us for this Equipping Session and learn about the value of developing intentional community with other ministry leaders. We will share insights from the recent Pastoral Health & Effectiveness pilot project and give practical guidance for how you can form a cohort that will help you thrive in life and ministry.

TEN WAYS TO PURSUE A REVELATION 7:9 PATHWAY

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Revelation 7:9 Task Force
Location: TBD

How can your church improve its delivery of the Great Commission—“to make disciples of every ethnicity”—and the Great Commandment—“to love our neighbors as ourselves”—within its 1-3-5 mile radius?

EPC leaders will present 10 ways your congregation can practice a Revelation 7:9 ethic in everything from staffing decisions to community outreach.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 10:00 AM

DISCIPLE MAKERS FOR ALL NATIONS

Organization: EPC World Outreach
Hosts: Jeff Lewis
Location: TBD

How can we grow, nurture, develop, and mobilize our churches to make disciples? Biblical disciple making is the God ordained process of mobilizing the church both locally and to the ends of the earth. This equipping session will investigate the foundational biblical principles of disciple making, along with identifying the core competencies of an all nations disciple maker. The challenge is how do we differentiate between the western caricatures of disciple making that reinforces an egocentric faith compared to the foundational biblical principles of disciple making? Join us for this thought-provoking time as we focus on making disciples for all nations.

MOBILIZING THE NEXT GENERATION FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION

Organization: EPC World Outreach
Hosts: Lisa Pak
Location: TBD

This equipping session will challenge us to actively and intentionally engage the young and rising leaders to optimize their passions, talents, and giftings for the kingdom work of the Great Commission. We will discuss the different characteristics of the older and younger generations, examining biblical paradigms and models as we consider together how collaboration will strengthen the greater kingdom effort. Additionally, we will also consider how we can adjust so that we can engage and empower young people to also be at the forefront of evangelism, church-planting, and even creating Bible access for those who have yet to hear. Could there be change in our churches, organizations, and communities towards new paradigms of radical collaboration across generations and even disciplines? Come and join our conversation and let’s learn together!

CHURCH HEALTH EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 12:00 PM

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TRANSITIONAL PASTORING

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Bill Rasch
Location: TBD

Church Sessions and Pastors are encouraged to come and have their questions answered about Transitional Pastors:
What does a Transitional Pastor cost?
What is the length of a Transitional Pastor contract and other details concerning those?
What is the work of a Transitional Pastor?
What is the process through which they lead a congregation?
What training does a Transitional Pastor provide for a pastoral search team and how does a Transitional Pastor support the search team during that process?
and more.

BUILDING AN EVANGELISTIC CULTURE IN YOUR CHURCH

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Mark Farrell
Location: TBD

According to the scriptures, every Christian is a minister who’s called to proclaim the good news of the gospel.  Therefore, it’s important to know the gospel, understand the context of our individual mission fields and practically engage with those who are far away from God.

Join us as we discuss our call to the Great Commission and how your congregation can serve as effective witnesses for the Kingdom of God.

RETURNING TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Organization: EPC Church Health
Host: Sam Rainer
Location: TBD

The EPC’s Church Health process focuses on the work of the Great Commission in the context of each congregation’s neighboring community. During this facilitated conversation Sam Rainer (author of The Surprising Return of the Neighborhood Church) will share insights from his research about the impact of churches rooted in and committed to their local communities, and we’ll be encouraged together to pursue the mission of God’s Kingdom in all the places we call home.

CHURCH PLANTING EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 12:00 PM

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M CALLED TO CHURCH PLANTING?

Organization: EPC Church Planting
Host: Richard Reeves
Location: TBD

South Regional Church Planting Director Richard Rieves: I’m ordained and on staff of a church, and/or I may be the lead pastor of a church. How might I know if God is calling me to plant a church? Do I have the gifts? How or why would I transition to something as risky and frightening as church planting? There is no one mold for a church planter to fit into. If fact, we MUST have pastors with real ministry experience answer the call and plant if we are going to reach this present culture. Join us as we consider your potential role in church planting.

MATCHING OUR MODEL TO OUR MISSION: CONSIDERING DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHURCH PLANTING

Organization: EPC Church Planting
Host: Hunter Bailey
Location: TBD

Heartland Regional Director Hunter Bailey: Not all churches operate or aim for the same type of ministry. In this seminar, we’ll explore four distinct models we utilize for church planting and their strategic benefits. Understanding these models offers churches, presbyteries and planters greater freedom to utilize our redemptive imaginations when planting and will equip “parents, partners, and patrons” with a fuller perspective on how to come alongside our planters. 

RICKS & BIRD Q&A

EFFECTIVE BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 12:00 PM

CROSS GENERATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Next Generation Ministries Council
Location: TBD

What does cross-generational, intergenerational discipleship look like? How do we get different groups in meaningful communities of learning from and growing with one another? It is both more difficult and challenging and at the same time easier and rewarding than it appears.

Borrowing language and categories from cross cultural training like Hospitality, Lament, Mutuality, and Solidarity, we will explore how to see each other in each generation in order that we might each grow in empathy toward each other while striving together for the advancement of the gospel.

Cross-generational discipleship aims at growing the Kingdom of Jesus by fostering not just productive conversation, but meaningful communities. We will identify the necessity of cross-generational discipleship, examine some of the difficulties and potential land minds to navigate, then provide positive examples on what this does and can look like in our local contexts.

GOING FORWARD TOGETHER: MINISTRY COHORTS THAT WORK

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Annie Rose
Location: TBD

What difference does it make whether or not a pastor is in a cohort or covenant group? Join us for this Equipping Session and learn about the value of developing intentional community with other ministry leaders. We will share insights from the recent Pastoral Health & Effectiveness pilot project and give practical guidance for how you can form a cohort that will help you thrive in life and ministry.

TEN WAYS TO PURSUE A REVELATION 7:9 PATHWAY

Organization: Effective Biblical Leadership
Hosts: Revelation 7:9 Task Force
Location: TBD

How can your church improve its delivery of the Great Commission—“to make disciples of every ethnicity”—and the Great Commandment—“to love our neighbors as ourselves”—within its 1-3-5 mile radius?

EPC leaders will present 10 ways your congregation can practice a Revelation 7:9 ethic in everything from staffing decisions to community outreach.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT EQUIPPING SESSIONS | 12:00 PM

MISSIONS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

MISSIONS — PARTNERING & SENDING

Organization: EPC World Outreach
Host: EPC World Outreach Panel
Location: TBD

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” Romans 10:14-15. Almost half of all missionaries leave the field within the first five years, and most leave for preventable reasons. How can we in the church partner and send them well? How can we support, encourage, and equip them as they prepare, go, serve, and come home? Join us as our EPC World Outreach panel offers practical suggestions on partnering and sending.

THURSDAY, JUNE 20 | OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

PASTORS’ WIVES LUNCH – 12:00 PM

Organization: Hope Church
Audience: All Pastors’ Wives
Location: TBD
Pre-purchased ticketed lunch provided.
Topic: A Job Description for the 21st Century Pastor’s Wife:  Bringing to Contemporary Life the Ancient World of Scripture.
Speaker: Mrs. Jacqueline Smith, First Lady of Hope Church
There is nothing new under the sun, including the work of the pastor’s wife. Using biblical wisdom, First Lady Jacqueline Smith will appropriate Scripture to the work and life of the modern pastor’s wife. Time will be given for building relationships and prompting conversation between new and experienced ministry wives.
Featuring music by AngelStreet, an organization that develops girls as creative leaders through musical training and mentorship in Memphis.

WOMEN’S ENRICHMENT – 1:15 PM

Organization: EPC Effective Biblical Leadership
Host: Karen Ellis, Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta, GA
Audience: All Non-Commissioned Women
Location: The Chapel
Topic: Helping Women of Your Church to Answer Wisdom’s Call and Discover Life-Giving Beauty and Power
Women who are non-voting commissioners are welcome to join Karen Ellis for a time of spiritual enrichment. Coffee and sweet treats will be served.

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LOOKING FOR TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY LUNCHES?

“Networking Lunches” are on Tuesday and Wednesday. You can learn of those opportunities HERE.

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