The Church of the Brethren’s church planting and church revitalization conference, held every other year, will meet next on May 13-15, 2020. Under the title “New and Renew: Revitalize – Plant – Grow” the theme is “The Reward of Risk” based on Matthew 25:28 in The Message: “Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most.”
The 2020 event will be held at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill., not at Bethany Seminary as has been the practice in previous years. It is sponsored by Discipleship Ministries and the New Church Development Advisory Committee.
“Many times, in our conversations around church planting and church renewal, we talk about the possibility of failure in regard to risk,” said an announcement. “But have we ever stopped to ponder the possibility of reward in the midst of risk? What might it look like to celebrate those who stepped out and took a risk for the Kingdom of God?”
The keynote speakers will be José Humphreys and Christiana Rice. Humphreys is a social worker, consultant, and minister providing training around culture building, organizational development, transformative dialogue, and emotionally intelligent leadership. He is a pastor of Metro Hope Covenant Church, a multiethnic and multicultural church in East Harlem, N.Y. Rice, who is from San Diego, Calif., is an on-the-ground practitioner and visionary voice in the Parish Church movement, serving as co-director of the Parish Collective. She is co-author with Michael Frost of the book “To Alter Your World: Partnering with God to Rebirth Our Communities.”
A flier for the event may be downloaded from www.brethren.org/churchplanting/documents/new-and-renew-postcard.pdf . More information will be posted at www.brethren.org/churchplanting . Registration will open on Feb. 6, 2020.