JEFFERSON CITY – A broad line-up of speakers have been slated to headline the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Conference, Feb. 23-25.
Keynote speakers include:
Alvin Reid
Alvin L. “Doc” Reid (born 1959) serves as Professor of Evangelism and Student Ministry at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he has been since 1995. He is also the founding Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism.
Alvin has a passion to equip leaders for the coming generation who will change the world for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel. He speaks extensively to churches and leaders on the subjects of revival and missional ways to reach the West, and to college students on youth on living for Christ.
Ed Litton
Litton served as a Church Planter for 7 years in Arizona before coming to be the pastor or First Baptist North Mobile. He has been here for 22 years. Today the name is Redemption Church and their vision is a multi-site church planting church. They are planting in Cleveland, Denver and Las Vegas. He is married to Kathy Ferguson Litton. They both suffered the loss of their spouses, Rick Ferguson of Missouri and Tammy Litton of Arizona. Kathy works for the NAMB with Pastor’s and Church planters Wives.
Kathy Litton
Kathy lives in Mobile, AL with her husband Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church. Kathy serves at NAMB as National Consultant for Ministry to Pastor’s Wives.
Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books.
David Garrison
Beginning January 1, 2016 Dr. David Garrison will assume responsibilities as the new Executive Director for New York City based Global Gates. Global Gates, with ministry in six North American cities, seeks to reach the ends of the earth through global gateway cities.
For more than three decades, Dr. David Garrison has been a missionary pioneer serving with the International Mission Board. His assignments over the years have included Associate Vice President for Global Strategy for the agency’s 5,600 missionaries.
Garrison has a PhD from the University of Chicago and a Master’s degree from Golden Gate Seminary, with undergraduate study at Ouachita Baptist University and Seinan Gakuin University in Japan.
John Avant
Dr. John Avant, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Concord, Knoxville, TN, is committed to communicating God’s Word so that others may experience how to live REAL life in Christ in today’s culture. His heart is to equip the church to lead out in seven spheres of influence: education; business, science and technology; media and communication; entertainment, arts and recreation; lonely and disadvantaged; government; and family.
John was born in St. Louis, but grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He became a follower of Christ at the age of 16. He earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and earned his M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern Seminary.
Greg Stier
Greg leads a ministry that has equipped hundreds of thousands of teenagers to relationally and relentlessly share the gospel of Christ. As a former church planter and pastor Greg believes in the power and potential of the church to transform entire cities with the gospel. As a former youth leader he is committed to seeing this transformation erupt from the next generation. Greg is the author of thirteen books and countless articles. He has appeared on CNN, CBN, TBN, Focus on the Family and several national radio programs. He is a regular contributor to the Christian Post, Churchleaders.com and Group Magazine. He has been a featured speaker at Promise Keepers, Youth Specialties, Creation Festival, LifeFest and The Billy Graham Schools of Evangelism. Greg has been married to Debbie for twenty-two years and has two children.
Jared Hall
Jared uses illusions and comedy to present the gospel of Jesus Christ in relevant, engaging ways. Traveling extensively across the nation, Jared performs his illusions for many conferences, festivals, out-reach events, youth camps, and Upward award nights. He has shared the stage with many artists including Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Kristian Stanfill, David Crowder, Third Day, Switchfoot, Jamie Grace, Toby Mac, and Lecrae.
God called Jared to ministry while he was a student in high school in Baytown, Texas. While in school, he began using illusions, comedy, and even mind-blowing stunts to capture the attention of students and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
Lance Crowell
Lance Crowell serves the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as an Associate in the Church Ministries Department. His areas of ministry include Discipleship, Online Training, Men’s, Family, Young Adults, and Young Married ministries.
Lance is a graduate of the University of Houston with a BS in Engineering as well as a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. He is also a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. Lance is blessed with an incredible wife (Mandy) and two amazing kids. In his free time he enjoys time with his family, reading, sports, and photography.
Brian Key
Brian is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Director of the Minority Pastoral Residency at Redeemer Fellowship, Kansas City.
He is responsible for responsible for serving our people through preaching the Word, leading the congregation in worship, and cultivating contexts for teaching and equipping ethnic minority leaders for broad kingdom impact.
Brian has a B.S.B.A. from University of Arkansas in Finance, and a M.Div. from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.