One of the emphases of my address to the annual conference was that every church can be a missional-invitational church. Every church within the bounds of the Alabama-West Florida Conference can embody the God who sends and the God who welcomes. It is from this missional-invitational posture that we can more effectively make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Today, I want to tell you about how you can learn more about missional life and ministry and what it means that the Church is sent into the world. CATAPULT (www.catapultconference.com), one of the leading missional leadership conferences in our region, will be held on September 15-17 at Cornerstone UMC in Auburn. During your time at CATAPULT, the community sessions will allow you to hear from leading practitioners and thinkers of the missional movement, providing inspiration and challenge. The breakout sessions will focus on providing you practical ways to engage and serve your neighbors.
Community session speakers will be Jorge Acevedo and Arlene Jackson (Grace United Methodist Church, Fort Myers), Alan and Deb Hirsch (Forge), Romal Tune (author, God’s Graffiti), Rob Wegner (author, Missional Moves), and Mike Frost (author and missiologist). You will find new ways to love, serve, and reach your neighbors through the insights of these engaging speakers and the movement of the Holy Spirit within you.
The emphasis at CATAPULT is action. Because of the high number of registrations in past years, CATAPULT has been able to give back a part of its registration fees in the form of missional grants, which have helped to launch more than 10 ministries within the bounds of the Alabama-West Florida Conference over the last four years. More will be launched in 2014. I hope you will be there so that more and more we might embody the missional impulse of our God.
With Deep Appreciation,
Paul L. Leeland