Global Church Advancement Conference - I

I arrived in Orlando, FL a few hours ago to live-blog the Global Church Advancement Conference. Since there are a number of parallel sessions throughout the week, the conference organizers have asked me to post on specific sessions. Tomorrow I'll be posting on the opening session by Steve Childers on the importance of grasping God's vision for His kingdom as a church planter. Later I'll post on a session by Scotty Smith called Learning to Lead with Gospel Astonishment. And in the evening I'll post on a session by Drew Goodsmanson called The Internet & The Sovereignty of God. Here's a bit about each of the speakers.

Steve Childers is the President of Global Church Advancement, a professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the director of the doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation. Steve is a trainer, consultant, network director for the Central Florida Network & author of many training manuals including The Church Planter Training Manual. Steve and his wife Becky live in Orlando, Florida, and have three daughters.

Scotty Smith has planted two thriving churches, including Christ Community Church, where he is currently Pastor for Preaching, Teaching and Worship in Franklin, TN. He serves as an adjunct professor at Covenant Theological Seminary and he also teaches at RTS, Orlando. He co-authored books with Steven Curtis Chapman (Speechless) and with Michael Card (Unveiled Hope), and authored the books Objects of His Affection, Reign of Grace and Restoring Broken Things. He is also a featured pastor on Modern Parables, giving an outstanding explanation of the parable of the prodigal sons. (I previously introduced Modern Parables.)

Drew Goodmanson co-founded Kaleo Church in San Diego, part of the Acts 29 Network. Kaleo is a church planting movement that has planted both multi-site and daughter churches. Drew serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Church Communication (CFCC). He is an author of Voices of the Virtual World, a book on the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. Drew is President of Monk Development, an internet development company that serves over 600 churches and ministries. Drew lives in San Diego, CA with his wife, Heather and two sons, Gideon & Roman.