HGM hosted another Church Planters Intensive March 29-31 in Salem, Virginia at Christian Life International Church. The Intensive was a beautiful picture of cooperation and partnership between CLI and Pastor Ryan Linkous and his team, Pastor Tony Atkinson and his team, the Appalachian Conference and EVUSA/HGM. Wednesday night opened with Pastor Tony Atkinson telling the story of the planting of Celebration Center in Belpre, Oh and how a dozen churches were planted out of Celebration Center. Pastor Tony inspired everyone with stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Thursday started with worship, and the day focused on the visioneering process, establishing a church planting timeline, how to build a launch team and how to effectively do fundraising. The planters and potential planters were also given the opportunity to review their personal scores of a church planter’s screening assessment (available to anyone on the homepage of www.plantachurch.us) that covers the areas of personal evangelism, personal significant faith risks, self-starter abilities, strong social networking skills, and ability to recruit leaders.
Friday again started with worship, and focused on leadership, team building, budgets/business, online presence/marketing, and how to have a strong and healthy launch. The Intensive ended with worship, prayer and ministry over every planter and potential planter. There were 23 planters and potential planters at the Intensive plus several other participants. Larry Meadors, the Missions and Evangelism Director for the Appalachian Conference said, “The Church Planting Intensive is bringing "fresh legs" in order to run with the vision of church planting in the IPHC. I appreciate Trey Jones bringing this excellent event to the Appalachian Conference. It has brought a renewed focus on the call to reach our communities with the gospel. Every session was presented with excellence by someone with credibility and real-world experience. Our prayer is that God will water these seeds and bring forth the harvest.”
Trey Jones
HGM Director
