Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Manager/Writer
Dexter, Missouri - This Saturday, April 27th, First United Methodist Church of Sikeston, Missouri will host the first Church Growth Clinic.
The Clinic is designed to encourage pastors and church leaders. "The local church is the hope of the world," says Brad Aycock, organizer of the event. "Leading a church can be challenging. It's helpful to have an opportunity to learn from others who have faced the same challenges. We should never stop learning. If we're learning, we're growing. If we're growing, we're changing. Growing things change."
The event will feature fifteen pastors from ten different states. Each pastor will share three ideas that attendees can take back to their church and implement. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver will be a guest speaker.
Cleaver is the 5th Congressional District Representative and has served as pastor of the St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri for more than 30 years. He saw his congregation grow from 40 members to more than 2,600 members. Quite an accomplishment!
Jim Ozier, Director of New Church Development and Congregational Transformation from Plano, Texas will speak on "Breaking Barriers to Growth". he is the leader of Trietsch Church in Flower Mound, Texas with over 4,000 members. Jim consults nationally on congregational transformation and new church development.
Dustin Cooper will speak about "The Budget: It's More Than About the Money". He has been a pastor for 25 years and is from Overland Park, Kansas.
Twelve other pastors from ten states are scheduled to appear and speak including, Chad Schuchmann from Omaha, Nebraska, Diane Harrison from Memphis, Tennessee, Emanual Cleaver from Columbia, Missouri, Geoff Posegate from Sikeston, Iesmar Abrarez from Lexington, Kentucky, Jim Downing from Sedalia, Missouri, John Miles from Jonesboro, Arkansas, Lia McIntosh from Kansas City, Missouri, Margie Briggs from Calhoun, Missouri, Pat Ward from Oxford, Mississippi, Rusty Hutson from Auburn, Alabama and Shane Bishop from Fairview Heights, Illinois.
The Church Growth Clinic equips leaders with actionable principles, ideas, and solutions to overcome any challenge that may get in the way of reaching your community for Christ.The event is open to anyone. Doors are open at 8am and the event begins at 8:30.
Registration is $48 and can be done by visiting churchgrowthclinic.org. For more info contact Brad Aycock at 573.421.1824.
"Growing leaders have growing organizations. Growing organization have growing leaders," adds Aycock.
