Feedback from past PlantR events has shown us that there is a great need for a deeper missional training than can be accomplished in our three-hour MicroConferences. That is why we're excited that Fuller Theological Seminary is sponsoring this Thursday's MicroConference. Fuller's Master's of Arts of Global Leadership gives leaders a chance to recieve a world class education without leaving their mission field. PlantR board member and Verge Network founder Michael Stewart, as well as PlantR's coordinator of media and MicroConference's Chris Morton, are both participants.
Fuller describes the MAGL this way:
The MAGL comes alongside in-service leaders from across the world with transformational graduate education for leadership in their contexts, to help them become increasingly effective missional change agents in their communities.
Participants are on-the-ground leader in churches, church plants and mission agencies. They bring their unique knowledge and skills, and we provide educational content. The program is built around Praxis, informed reflection on practice which provides opportunities for reflecting, learning, and doing in ways that are immediately applicable to students' lives and ministry endeavors.
Since we believe that transformation best happens in safe, peer-oriented environments, students study together in a cohort that provides mutual dialogue and support. Over their time together MAGL students will gather online and in person to wrestle with how missional theology, global trends, leadership and learning style affect their different ministry contexts.
To quote one of our students, a missionary in Romania, "the MAGL is opening my eyes, transforming my paradigms, confirming my call and informing my practice. As I reflect on my goals, I realize that the MAGL will serve as a disciplined approach to better defining what is in my heart and will clarify identifiable goals for the future."
You can learn more about the MAGL here, or at Thursday's MicroConference.
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Dr. Murray is the featured speaker at next week's MicroConference. Register for yourself or your whole team today.
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One new feature of the PlantR Soul Care Conference is that we will feature three specialized breakouts.
Jason Kovacs "Don't Go to Counseling Alone"
Jason is the director of the Austin Stone Counseling Center. The Center strives to come alongside missional communities to provide for specific needs, such as pre-marital counseling and a gospel-centered 12-step program. His breakout will discuss their unique approach of Counseling in Community.
Jason Minnix "Receiving Direction from God"
Jason is an adjunct professor at George Fox Seminary in Portland, Oregon, where he helps provide spiritual direction for students, and teaches classes on spiritual direction. His passion is to walk alongside leaders in times where discernment is needed. His breakout will discuss the role of spiritual discernment in Christ-centered communities.
David Murray "Soul Care Systems for the Whole Church"
David is the featured speaker for the PlantR MicroConference. Dr. Murray will discuss how a leader can act as a model of Soul Care a congregation.
You can still purchase single tickets and individual passes today.
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Zac Allen is a PlantR Board Member, the founding Pastor of Austin Bible Church, and now serves as the Campus Pastor of Austin Stone's West Campus.
If you are a leader, you are likely a Minimizer. Minimizers are real people who take direct and indirect shrapnel coming in the form of sharp criticism and do their best not to let those words define them. Minimizers are real people who take the repeated pounding of disappointment after disappointment and keep leading. Minimizers are real people who have broad shoulders, but the weight of that leadership finally weighs so much, it hinders their ability to lead.
I am a Minimizer. And after starting and leading and pastoring a church plant for 5 years, I literally CRASHED! In the middle of my last sermon leading Austin Bible, I heard this voice in my head say, “Shut your mouth and walk off the stage, you’re done.” And a few weeks later in the midst of an unplanned Sabbatical, I found myself in the darkest, deepest, most hopeless place of my life. That place where people think about taking their lives and that place where people make irrational decisions that have forever consequences. This wasn’t burnout, this was flat-out depression with a capital D.
I had those same friends Job had, trying to counsel me and find answers to my suffering. I had pastors drill me to find the lies I was believing about my identity, and place I was not believing the gospel. My body, mind, and soul was sick and I needed emergency care.
You may identify with my state of burnout that led to depression, or at least share in the fact you are a Minimizer. Here is what you need to know: You will either heed words of wisdom and seek health when burnout comes, or you will neglect the warning signs and literally crash.
Pastors and Leaders, you need Soul Care. And that is why you need to attend this micro-conference led by David Murray, author of the booklet Christians Get Depressed, Too.
For the sake of your own health, your family’s health, your church’s health, your city’s health, meet me on May 10th at 9 AM for the PlantR MicroConference.
The Soul Care MicroConference will take place on May 10. You can purchase tickets and team passes today!
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