I recently completed teaching a college course on Evangelism In Your Context. I had students from all over (east of the Rockies) and a good time was had by all. The majority of the students were either pastors or staff members of churches and the sheer number of Ahas! was gratifying. Perhaps the most common Aha! I heard was when they understood that evangelism isn’t going to happen while the pastor or staff sit in their offices. Leaders have to lead, meaning they have to get out of their offices and do evangelism, not just bang on the pulpit and berate the congregation for not doing it. As goes the leader, so goes the flock.

In the midst of the course, my partner Bill Easum and I had a conversation about evangelism and leadership and the role of the two. The result of our chat was the development of two seminars that we’re going to be presenting in October. In Cleveland on October 17-18 we’ll be leading a conference called Hitchhiker’s Guide to Evangelism where we’ll train church leaders how to create a church full of evangelists (in the good way, not the stereotypical wild-eyed prophets). Then in Chicago on October 24-25 we’ll lead a conference on Leading With Impact, which looks at what it takes to lead and have a glocal impact.

If you’ve not been to one of our conferences, these would be great ones to get your feet wet. They’re pretty inexpensive ($75 each if you register before October 1st) and they’re pretty centrally located. If one’s not near you, don’t despair … we’re scheduling events coast to coast in 2009. LA, Philly, Washington DC, Tulsa, and Detroit are all in the negotiating stage, so if you can’t afford to travel and you can afford to wait until next year sometime, then keep your eyes open for upcoming events.

With that said, here are two links to get more information about the two events. Hope to see you there!