USA (MNN) — Hundreds of evangelists will gather next week, but this time not to evangelize. Instead, participants in the Innovative Evangelism Conference will be soaking up encouragement and training to get rejuvenated to do the Lord's work.
The conference will last from November 10 to November 13 in Portland, Oregon. It is being hosted by Next Generation Alliance, a branch of the Luis Palau Association.
"NGA exists to encourage, to equip and to network evangelists, sharing from the experiences that Dr. Palau and all of our team have had over the last 40 years," says NGA Director Tim Robnett. "We just want to help other people reach more people for Jesus Christ."
NGA was formed in 1998 with only 10 participants at first, as an opportunity for evangelists to learn under the instruction of the entire Luis Palau staff. Since then, the group has grown to include more than 200 ministries and has branched off into two other ministries: Livin It, a ministry with an extreme sports focus and about 40 members, and a growing Creative Arts ministry.
The Innovative Evangelism Conference is only one of NGA's initiatives, but it is certainly an important one. The conference will serve to teach evangelists by means of 75 to 80 workshops. Luis Palau and others on the staff will speak to encourage evangelists.
"[The conference is for] encouragement of fellowship, training, and then the third major thing that always comes out of these conferences is just the networking that occurs — people meeting new people or renewing old friendships, things that people could do together, along with creative ideas and new ways of doing evangelism," says Robnett.
The conference is coming up soon, but there is still time to sign up. To watch a promotional video and learn more, click here. To register, click here. Scholarships are available for those who may not be able to afford it.
Prayer is especially needed for this conference. Pray that the Lord would work by encouraging His servants and re-igniting their passion for evangelism. Pray that the right connections would be made between people to make their ministries as effective as possible.
