Vital Church Planting East Conference 2012
The Missional Roadmap
Where do we go now?
February 2-4, 2012
St. Paul’s Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario
Everything seems set for another high quality VCP conference in early February. The speaker (Dave Male from Cambridge UK) has booked his ticket, focussed and practical workshops are falling into place, and registration is up and running on the website. There is even an early bird rate of 10% off the full price if you register by the end of this month. Full details are on the VCP website here.
Instead of the usual Tuesday through Thursday time slot, the conference this year runs from Thursday through Saturday (February 2-4), to make it more possible for lay people to attend. Workshops on the Saturday will concentrate strongly on equipping teams for mission. There is also a special rate of $65 for those who can only attend on the Saturday.
“But,” you say, “I’m not thinking of planting a new church. Why would I come?” One reason is that the principles of church planting in a post-Christendom age—thinking missionally, learning to discern where God is at work, creating vision, team building—are applicable to any church that wants to be revitalized and move ahead in mission.
But the theme is also a reminder that there are segments of our society which will never be reached by existing churches, however warm and welcoming. The hope is that some fresh expressions of church will do more than reach out to new people and draw them back into existing churches, valuable though that is, but that they will over time grow into self-sustaining new churches.
It’s the “mixed economy.” As Archbishop Johnson said recently, “Missional focus, that is what we are about. . . . moving towards a mixed-economy church, a healthy inherited church alongside new church plants and fresh expressions, new ways of doing things.
So the conference is really for anyone interested in the church health and growth—and that will be worked out in many ways, one expression of which will be new churches.
You will find all the details on the VCP website here. Hope to see you there!
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