IFCA International Pacific NW Regional Church Leaders Conference

I am so looking forward to the IFCA International Pacific NW Regional Church Leaders Conference which begins tonight. The conference theme is:

Faithful Leaders for the Next Generation

I have never met nor heard the featured speaker, Paul Seger. Apparently for some seventeen years he planted churches among the European population in South Africa under the auspices of the Biblical Ministries Worldwide. He is the current president of the IFCA International.

We are gathering for this conference at the Evergreen Bible Church in Vancouver, WA. This is so convenient for me since I live only 42 miles from Vancouver.

We will be in conference tonight, all day tomorrow, and then half day on Wednesday. I am sure there will be lots to take in and some things to not so take in.

I think the one thing our fellowship misses is related to leadership, particularly leadership for the next generation. I have come to see that many pastors and/or elder teams fail to teach and develop leadership from within the body. It is my contention that a church should not have to look outside the body when it finds itself in need of replacing a teaching pastor. Someone on the current leadership team should have been trained and developed to step in to the teaching pastor role without any interruption. 

Of course there may be a couple of objections to this; if the church is too new or too small to have any qualified men then it may need to turn to someone from without the body. If no one on the current Eldership team is either qualified, trained, or willing to step in as the new teaching pastor, then I have to ask, "Why are they on the leadership team?"

Our topics for this conference include:

• The Incredible Potential of the Next Generation
• Preparing the Next Generation
• Equipping, Encouraging, and Training Men for Ministry
• Mentoring the Next Generation
• Transitioning to the Next Generation

Hope to see you there!