The Association for Church Renewal is a strategic alliance of renewal leaders representing over 30 renewal ministries in the mainline denominations of the U.S. and Canada.

ACR will sponsor “Answering the Call: Replanting, Revitalizing and Pastoring the Church” a conference scheduled for Aug. 6-8 at Elmhurst College, Chicago, Ill.

Keynote speakers include:

Ed Stetzer, director of Lifeway Research, a Southern Baptist agency. He will discuss how to be missional in a mainline local church.

John Hull, president/CEO of EQUIP, a non-profit organization specializing in the development of effective international Christian leaders founded by Dr. John C. Maxwell in 1996. Hull, former pastor of The People’s Church in Toronto will speak on leadership training for the local, national and international church.

Jim Tomberlin, founder of MultiSite Solutions, will speak on how the multi-site concept can help churches grow and reach new people.

John Armstrong, founder and director of ACT 3, formerly Reformation & Revival Ministries. ACT 3 mission is encouraging the church, through its leadership, to pursue doctrinal and ethical reformation and to foster spiritual awakening. Armstrong will discuss his book Your Church is Too Small, a call to missional ecumenism.

Other speakers include
· Carmen Fowler, president and executive director of The Presbyterian Lay Committee (PCUSA). The mission of the Presbyterian Lay Committee is to inform and equip Christians to share the Biblical faith by proclaiming Jesus Christ alone as The Way of salvation, The Truth of God’s Word, and The Life of discipleship
· Jim Harrell, president and co-founder of Overseed. Overseed is a nondenominational organization whose objectives are to recruit evangelicals to serve in mainline churches and help train evangelical pastors for pastoring in the Mainline.
· Bob Thompson, Pastor of Corinth Reformed Church in Hickory, N.C., and President of Faithful and Welcoming Churches of the United Church of Christ

A pre-conference workshop for pastors and future pastors considering a call to a mainline church is set for Aug. 6. Other workshops during the conference will focus on “how-to” aspects of church replanting and revitalization.

L. Faye Short, ACR Coordinator for Leadership Training, describes the workshop on the Association’s website this way:

Answering the Call will be the kind of inspiring event you will want to be a part of. It will bring together leaders, both clergy and lay, from across the Mainline Protestant Churches. This gathering will also welcome newly-formed mainline-related church leaders. Keynote speakers and workshop opportunities will challenge you to new vision, creativity and strategic thinking—imperative components for growing, healthy churches.

You will appreciate the “Answering the Call” event, and the process for leadership training that will be introduced at and continued beyond this gathering of ECOT (evangelical, conservative, orthodox, traditional) leaders. In a recent mainline study, George Barna identified the quality of leadership provided as being “the most critical element in determining the future health and growth of mainline congregations.”

To facilitate leadership training across our denominations, in various settings, the Association for Church Renewal (ACR) is partnering with EQUIP, a biblically-based, servant leadership training program through which over three million Christian leaders are trained worldwide. EQUIP’s logo is “Equipping Leaders to Reach Our World.” The fulfilling of the Great Commission is the driving priority along with training leaders who will help find solutions for the critical issues plaguing societies around the world. We are excited about this partnership venture.

John Hull, President of EQUIP will be a keynote speaker at “Answering the Call.”

Tom Atema, an EQUIP Vice President, will lead a workshop to introduce participants to the EQUIP model for leadership training and to discuss how ACR constituents can utilize and contextualize the training resources, adapting them for use in the various denominational settings. Be sure to sign up for this important workshop.

In a Winter 2010 article in Leadership magazine, Ed Stetzer, keynote speakes at “Answering the Call”, wrote, “While pastors believe that the church is a place where leaders need to be developed and they see themselves investing in this task, they generally recognize a real deficit in the church’s effectiveness in accomplishing it. Although efforts are being made, pastors are not confident that the church is nurturing and growing new leaders adequately”.