Ken Hemphill, national strategist for Empowering Kingdom Growth for the Southern Baptist Convention, has recently been named the director of the Center for Church Planting and Revitalization at North Greenville University.
HemphillAfter nine years under the SBC, the EKG initiative has been transferred to North Greenville University’s Craft-Hemphill World Evangelism and Missions Center, scheduled to open this fall.
Hemphill said the EKG strategy for enhancing church growth will continue to be a centerpiece of NGU’s church revitalization strategy, but the initials CPR will be used instead.
“It is a bit of a play on words,” said Hemphill. “CPR in the medical world stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. EKG can tell you that you have a problem, but CPR begins the process of revitalization and healing.”
The university will be holding conferences for church planting and revitalization and will be working toward a process for revitalizing the local church. NGU plans to take 10 churches through the year-long process beginning next year and will be using some of the EKG process that proved successful in Louisiana, according to a press release from the university.
“It is my goal to involve North Greenville’s ministry-track students in the revitalization process so that when they graduate, they will have both the knowledge and ability to be instruments through whom God brings revitalization,” said Hemphill.
Hemphill said he believes the revitalization component is critical, since as many as 80 percent of North American churches’ membership rolls have plateaued or are declining.
Hemphill is the former president of Southwestern Seminary. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in religion from Wake Forest University, a master of divinity and doctor of ministry from Southern Seminary, and a Ph.D. in New Testament from Cambridge University.
He is the author of several books and evangelistic materials. Hemphill teaches in the master of Christian ministry degree program at NGU’s T. Walter Brashier Graduate School and will also take on a role in the new doctor of ministry degree program beginning this fall. – NGU