The Luis Palau Association is planning to host a major gathering for evangelists in Portland, Oregon, September 17-20.
The conference, called Connect PDX: The Innovative Evangelism Conference, will serve vocational evangelists and anyone passionate about evangelism, and will feature more than 36 educational workshops and speakers including Miles McPherson, Greg Stier, Carrie Headington, and Luis Palau.
Workshop topics will focus on innovative evangelism methods – including digital evangelism by Groundwire’s founder and president, Sean Dunn. Other workshops will feature effective fundraising, improving ministry longevity, strengthening your family and marriage in the midst of ministry, and many other topics. Also featured will be an Action Sports Summit to address the concerns of those ministering through Action Sports.
Twenty years ago, the Luis Palau Association launched the Next Generation Alliance (NGA) in an effort to identify, affirm, mobilize, and equip gifted evangelists. Since then, NGA has grown into a network of more than 750 evangelists.
Through training, equipping, collaborating, mobilizing, and networking, members of NGA are provided with all they need to impact their world for Christ. Building off the Palau team’s successful model for evangelism, NGA staff members offer coaching, mentoring, and valuable resources. Members of NGA are given multiple opportunities throughout the year to join forces and collaborate, fostering unity and opening new doors for ministry.
“We started NGA with the purpose of providing counsel, encouragement and resources to younger evangelists who didn’t know where to turn for advice,” said ministry founder and renowned evangelist Luis Palau in a press release. “We started as a small group of proclamation evangelists who wanted to serve each other. And today there are hundreds of us working together to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. And in the next 20 years we will continue to grow as we come alongside evangelists especially younger evangelists who God is going to use in a mighty way. We are proud to affirm them and stand with them which is why this Connect PDX conference is so important.”
As membership grows, the NGA team is committed to providing training and resources on critical ministry concerns through one-on-one coaching, the NGA website, conference workshops, webinars, and strategic partnerships with other evangelist training groups. The Connect PDX conference will feature more than 36 workshops addressing the top ten concerns in ministry.
NGA is also working to launch “Advance” groups of evangelists. Following a successful model launched in the U.K., these small communities are made up of 10-12 evangelists who gather monthly to sharpen one another. The objective is to get NGA members in safe communities for equipping, encouragement, and support.
Other recent NGA developments include the launch of the “Women of NGA” with the goal to provide connections and resources for both women evangelists and the wives of NGA members. NGA’s new website will also provide valuable tools for evangelists in both English and Spanish.
The Connect Conference is expected to attract evangelists, missionaries, evangelism pastors, and those interested in joining the NGA fellowship.
More information about Next Generation Alliance and the Connect Innovative Evangelism Conference is available at www.nextgenerationalliance.org.
