When Mark Powers became director of worship and music at the South Carolina Baptist Convention after serving in churches for 28 years, God began to lead him toward a missional church mindset.
Powers spent time with worship leaders – thinking, praying and studying about what “missional” meant and what it would look like. “We are so locked into our institutional thinking that we have to challenge ourselves and work together to move to a missional mindset,” he said. “It’s a process.”
Charleston-area pastor and former SCBC president Sonny Holmes is among the speakers for SYNC ’13.The result is that there are now nine resource groups in South Carolina that help worship leaders move toward a missional church mindset.
Three years ago, Charleston Southern University reached out to youth ministers, and the first SYNC event was born. Since then, the conference has expanded to include pastors, pastoral staff and marketplace leaders interested in “producing strategic change through missional means and ideas,” said Rick Brewer, vice president for student affairs and athletics.
Charleston Southern University and the South Carolina Baptist Convention have partnered together to produce the SYNC conference. “We are working to redesign our [SCBC] events so that they are missional in intent,” Powers said, “so the SYNC conference is right in line.”
During the upcoming two-day conference, April 18-19, conferees will be involved in spiritual enrichment, leadership development, creative-ideas sessions and lunch dialogues. They will also hear keynote speakers addressing a “broad range of strategies for moving God’s people on to God’s agenda for missions and ministry,” said Brewer.
Presenters will include Sonny Holmes, Reggie McNeal, Doug Paul, Alvin Reid, Phil Wickham and Pete Wilson.
Holmes, lead pastor of Northwood Baptist Church, North Charleston, and a former state convention president, will speak about turnaround churches – those that have plateaued or declined. He will discuss the structure of turnaround, reversing negative momentum, overcoming mission inertia, and accelerating through the turn.
McNeal, a former SCBC staff member who who now serves as missional leadership specialist for the Leadership Network of Dallas, Texas, will speak on helping people, leaders and Christian organizations pursue more intentional lives. “Rather than just evaluating how busy we are at church and how involved our church program is, we have to think about our impact in the world,” McNeal said.
Paul has pioneered new initiatives as the pastor of multi-venue and multi-site churches and as a communications director. Today, he serves as the director of content for 3DM. His specialty is in church planting and megachurch leadership.
Reid has been a missionary in Indiana where he served as state evangelism director. He spent three years teaching at Houston Baptist Theological Seminary, and in 1995 moved to Wake Forest, N.C. “The American church stands at a crossroads of great opportunity,” Reid said.
Wickham, a musician, has released six recording projects and has led worship at Soul Survivor Church. Wickham, whose father and brother are also worship leaders, graduated from Calvary Christian School in Vista, Calif.
Wilson is the founding pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tenn., one of the nation’s fastest-growing churches. Cross Point has five campuses located around the Nashville area. His ministry focuses on helping people become devoted to Christ, committed to each other and dedicated to reaching those outside of God’s family with the gospel.
Registration for SYNC ’13 is available online at charlestonsouthern.edu/sync or by calling 843-863-8082. – CSU