KANSAS CITY – Looking forward to the church of tomorrow, an upcoming conference will focus on the church of today.
“We talk about children and youth being the church of tomorrow,” Hanna Sims, member of Red Bridge Baptist Church and conference cohost, said, “but, we must realize that they are the church of today. We must first have them today so that we don’t lose them tomorrow.”
The conference, “Help for the Local Church: Rescuing the Next Generation” is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 28, at FBC Belton, 810 South Cedar Street, 11:30 am to 6 pm.
KANSAS CITY – Missouri Baptist apologist Hanna Sims teaches gospel truth to children here. (Submitted photo)
The goal of the conference is to equip parents, update “seasoned” church/ministry leaders and volunteers, and train new ones.
Eight different break-out sessions are planned with each presentation being offered twice. Topics will include evangelism for children and youth, after-school Bible clubs for students, Christian education in starting a Christian school and homeschooling. Sims has also lined up a variety of ministry partners for sessions including Bible memory programs and ministry for teens.
Pastor Danny McCubbin, senior pastor at FBC Belton and superintendent of Heartland Christian School, will lead the sessions on starting a Christian School as well as practical methods for evangelism for children and youth.
“Heartland is a growing school,” McCubbin said, “We started two years ago with 85 students and the next year, we had 140. Our current enrollment is 250. A lot of it is the culture, parents are stepping up to protect their students.”
Sims, a member of the Missouri Baptist Apologetics Network and the co-author of the children’s curriculum, “Yes, God is Real,” agreed with McCubbin. “We need to teach children a biblical worldview and not to buy into the lies of the world. We want to make this conference a practical workshop to meet that need. We want to learn to prepare children for all the anti-Christian messages and we want teens to be engaged in their local churches. It is a necessary investment in the next generation.”
McCubbin added, “We designed this conference for the intentional equipping of the local church. Most churches focus on adult ministry, and the children go into a separate area for singing and stories. We want to go beyond just the one-time Sunday morning. We want to empower the local church to reach and disciple children and youth.”
Sims continued, “When young people are only taught Bible stories, they grow out of them. That is why apologetics is so important, young people need to be grounded in their faith.”
Resources will be another strong component of the conference. Sims and McCubbin have pulled in several experts for the break-out sessions as well as providing an Exhibit Hall to meet with some of the partner organizations. More information about the conference, the speakers and registration are available on the conference website: https://www.networkerstec.com/conference.html.