2007 National New Church Conference

Connect. Inspire. Equip. Challenge.
Exponential is a cross-denominational gathering designed to connect, inspire, equip and challenge church planting leaders. Nearly 9 of 10 attendees of last years conference said they would attend again and nearly 50% said the conference either helped them discern a specific next step in church planting or inspired them to pursue a next step.

Speakers
Below are just some of the speakers at this year's conference. For a full list CLICK HERE.

Efrem Smith - Efrem is an internationally recognized leader and speaker who uses storytelling, comedy, and passion to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a level that people can understand as well as presents principles for living the life on a daily basis. He also consults on diversity and multi-ethnic issues and has been a speaker at many high school and middle school assemblies and retreats. Efrem is co-author of the book The Hip Hop Church. Efrem is married to Donecia and has two daughters; Jaeda and Mireya. He has received many awards such as the Role Model Award from the Hennepin County Community Coalition, and the Community Service Award from Saint John's University.

Ed Stetzer - Ed has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, is an experienced church planter, and has served as a seminary professor. His book, Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, helps church planters to start and grow biblically faithful and culturally relevant churches. The book has become a standard church planting textbook in many evangelical seminaries. He has coauthored (with Elmer Towns) Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church which helps churches to determine what parts of church life are biblically commanded. Ed lives in Cumming, GA with his wife Donna and two daughters, Kristen and Jaclyn.

Mark Batterson - Mark serves as lead pastor of National Community Church (NCC) in Washington, D.C. Starting with a core group of 19, NCC has morphed into one church with five services meeting in movie theaters throughout the district. The church also owns and operates Ebenezer's, the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of ID: The True You, and a daily blogger at http://www.markbatterson.com/. He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife Lora, and their three children.

Matt Chandler - Matt serves as lead pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX. He describes his 3 year tenure at The Village as a re-planting effort where he was involved in changing the theological and philosophical culture of the congregation. The church has witnessed a tremendous response growing from 160 people to over 2500. Alongside his current role as lead pastor, Matt is involved in church planting efforts both locally and internationally through The Village and various strategic partnerships. Prior to accepting the pastorate at The Village, Matt had a vibrant itinerant ministry for over ten years where he spoke to hundreds of thousands of people in America and abroad about the glory of God and beauty of Jesus. His greatest joy outside of Jesus is being married to Lauren and being a dad to their two children, Audrey and Reid.

Wayne Corderio - Wayne is founding Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii; one of the nation's fastest growing churches. Since its opening in 1995, New Hope has grown to over 11,000 in weekend attendance with 8,500 of those being first-time decisions. Pastor Wayne is an author, songwriter, and highly sought after speaker. He has authored eight books, including Doing Church as a Team, Dream Releasers and The Seven Rules of Success in addition to releasing three music CDs. He is a church planter at heart and has helped to plant 80 churches in the Pacific Rim and beyond, including Hawaii, Montana, the Philippines, Japan, Myanmar, as well as Helsinki. Wayne and his wife, Anna, celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary this year with their three children, Amy, Aaron, and Abigail.

Bill Hybels - Bill is the founding and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. The church began in 1975 when a handful of young people gathered in a rented movie theater with a vision of turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Today, more than 20,000 people attend weekend services on the church's 230 acre campus and it's regional sites. He has authored 17 books, including such classics as Too Busy Not to Pray and Becoming a Contagious Christian, Courageous Leadership, The Volunteer Revolution, and "Just Walk Across the Room".. In addition to providing leadership and vision for Willow Creek Community Church, Bill serves as chairman of the Willow Creek Association, a fellowship of over 11,000 like-minded churches worldwide. He and Lynne are the parents of two grown children, Shauna and Todd.

Larry Osborne - Larry has served as the senior pastor of North Coast Church since 1980. Under his leadership, the church has grown from 128 to 6,500 in weekend attendance and now offers 23 worship options on five different local campuses. He serves as an adjunct professor for the doctoral and graduate programs at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Simpson College. He is the founder and president of the North Coast Training Network.

Bob Roberts - Bob is the founding pastor of NorthWood Church near Dallas/FT Worth, TX. He is the founder of GlocalNet (Glocal.net), an international network of like-minded leaders who are passionate about a multiplication movement that connects the body of Christ worldwide. Bob works extensively in identifying new places to start and train churches and in the placement and strategy of new churches. He teaches courses at universities and institutions around the world. Bob is a graduate of Baylor University (BA), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div), and Fuller Seminary (D.Min) with an emphasis in church planting. Bob is married to Nikki and they have two children, Ben and Jill.

Mark Driscoll and Tim Keller will both be presenting via video for this conference as well.

Location

The 2007 conference is at First Baptist Church (FBC) Orlando located at 3000 S. John Young Parkway, Orlando, FL 32805. The FBC campus is ideally suited for the conference. From their 6500 seat audiotorium to their on-site food services, FBC is the perfect host...and their staff are as excited as anyone about the conference. Their passion for serving the Body of Christ and supporting church planting will be evident to everyone who attends the conference. The campus is conveniently located about 12 miles from the Orlando International Airport, 12 miles from Disney, and just a few miles from a large selection of hotels and restaurants (click here for a list of hotels).

Click here for a map of the FBC campus and for directions to the campus.

Click here to see a map of the Orlando area.

National New Church Conference web site

Podcasts

Registration

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