This week I am attending the 2007 New Church Leadership Institute at Mt. Sequoyah in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My wife, Nicole, and I attended an interest meeting a few months ago for pastors in the Kansas Area who were interested in considering new church plants. We attended a meeting with about 8 other pastors and left with some more information and an application for more interest. I filled out the application and returned it. I heard back that I was invited to attend this conference. I am excited to learn more about what it would mean to be the pastor of a new congregation. I see this time as part of the discernment process.
A few of the goals from the published brochure:
Goals of the New Church Leadership Institute
- Assist pastors to discern if they are called to be a church planting pastor.
- Connect potential church planting pastors with successful church planting pastors.
- Equip potential church planters with knowledge and skills for successful church starts.
- Prepare pastors for a variety of New Start models, and a variety of models for leading an existing church through re-vitalization relocation, transition or merger.
I am particularly interested in the first goal – continued discernment in this area.
Rev. Andrew Conard 
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[…] training for potential new church start pastors of which I am a part. This training began with a week long retreat at Mount Sequoyah in January, continues through the SCD and concludes with another week long retreat in the fall. Are you here […]