Independent Presbyterian Church 2018 Missions Conference

good news for a new memphis “Not only thee, my soul, but all, May rise and enter free.”

George M. Horton

INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 2 0 1 8 M I S S I O N S C O N F E R E N C E | F E B R U A R Y 4 – 11

Rise up, my soul and let us go Up to the gospel feast; gird on the garment white as snow to join and be a guest. dost thou not hear the trumpet call for thee, my soul, for thee?

Not only thee, my soul, but all, may rise and enter free.

– george m. horton George M. Horton ( 1798-1883) was born a slave in North Carolina. As he went about his work, he would compose poems in his head and then say them out loud to remember them. These poems would be transcribed and published in The Hope of Liberty (1829), the first book published by an African American in the South.

my dear friends, I am looking forward to our upcoming Missions Conference on multi-ethnic church planting in Memphis. As you know, we have talked a lot about being new people for a new Memphis. How does God go about making new people? How does he shape and renew a city? God does this through the preaching of the Gospel, the power of God that changes lives, families, and cultures.

But how does the preaching of the Gospel happen? It happens as equipped men are sent forth to go preach, taking the Gospel to neighborhoods, gathering families who are being changed by that Gospel, forming new churches to praise and worship the God who has changed them through Jesus. As these new people are formed into churches, they begin to change the warp and woof of neighborhoods; and as our neighborhoods begin to change, the very face of our city begins to change: new people, new Memphis.

That’s not just me saying it—that’s the Apostle Paul. As our theme verse from Romans 10:14-17 reminds us, men and women are changed as their faith comes to rest in Jesus, but faith comes by hearing the Word of God preached; and preachers don’t go out on their own, but they are sent with the good news that changes everything. My prayer is that God will make IPC passionate about “good news for a new Memphis”—because the Gospel of Jesus is our only hope for a foretaste of the new city coming.

In the grip of God’s grace,

Dr. Sean Lucas Senior Pastor

conference schedule SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Morning Worship Services | Sanctuary | 8:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Dr. Sean Lucas | Good News for a New Memphis Brief testimony from Dr. Al Barth

Panel Discussion | Fellowship Hall | 6:00–7:30 p.m. (following 5:30 Wednesday dinner) Mike Winebrenner, Michael Williamson, Jaime Loayza Do We Need Multi-ethnic Churches?

Christ Fellowship (PCA), part of the Midsouth Church Planting Network, is a three-year-old church plant located in the ethnically diverse community of Horn Lake, MS. Join us as the team who led the church’s effort to be a multi-cultural congregation share their experience.

Civil Rights Museum | 8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

8:30 Bus departure from IPC 9:15 Tour Museum 11:30 Lunch discussion in reserved

conference room at Museum 12:30 Bus departure for IPC Cost: $20 per person, includes transportation by

chartered bus, museum admission, and lunch Register online at ipcmemphis.org.

For more information, email Cindy Howell at chowell@ipcmemphis.org.

Morning Worship Services | Sanctuary | 8:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Russ Whitfield | Good News for a New Memphis Brief testimony from Montré Brooks

Joint Adult Sunday School | Fellowship Hall | 9:45 a.m.

Dr. Al Barth | Ministry to the City: City to City

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 Lunch | Fellowship Hall | 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Hernando Saenz | Strategies for Reaching Hispanics Churches are discovering that to be relevant in their community, they must intentionally break down cultural barriers and engage Hispanics. Many Americans view Hispanics as a homogenous group, when, in fact, Hispanics are not a single race but a mixture of many races and ethnicities and various levels of assimilation into U.S. culture. Hernando Saenz will address the question: Who are today’s Hispanics and how can your church reach them?

Nursery provided

Wednesday night activities for children will also have a missions theme.

Nursery provided

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 Lunch | Fellowship Hall | 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Randy Nabors | Moving Forward Together: The Story of New City Over forty years ago, Randy and Joan Nabors made their way to Chattanooga, TN, to help start a church that would model what Gospel reconciliation looked like, bringing together black and white around the Gospel of Jesus. Today, New City Fellowship (PCA) stands as a model of what the Gospel can do in changing people and, through them, impacting a city.

Nursery provided

Special children’s program at IPC for kindergarten through 5th grade.

Nursery provided

Joint Adult Sunday School | Fellowship Hall | 9:45 a.m.

Michael Rhodes | Practicing the King’s Economy Evening Event | Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church 70 North Bellevue | 3:00 p.m.

Memphis Christian Pastors Network Gather with churches from around the Memphis area at a joint worship service, organized by the Memphis Christian Pastor’s Network, reflecting on the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis and especially on the Sanitation Worker’s Strike. As we sing, pray, and worship together, we will find that the Cross of Jesus brings both death and resurrection for individuals and for our city.

speakers Dr. Sean Lucas serves as senior pastor at Independent Presbyte-

Jaime Loayza serves as director of discipleship and mission at

rian Church, Memphis, Tennessee. In addition, he currently is chairman of the executive committee for the Midsouth Church Planting Network, which serves four PCA presbyteries in our region.

Christ Fellowship. An experienced missionary and church planter, he translates sermons into Spanish and helps immigrants with English classes. He is a native of Lima, Peru, was educated in administration, and attended a Bible Institute in Argentina, completing a certificate in theological studies.

Dr. Al Barth

Randy Nabors grew up in a housing project in Newark, NJ, where he

is an ordained PCA minister who has planted four churches over his pastoral career. He now works primarily for Redeemer City to City as a church planting catalyst, helping start new movements of churches in major cities of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America. He has served as a coach, trainer, and mentor for many global church planters.

Hernando Sáenz

is Hispanic ministries coordinator for Mission to North America. He was born in Bogotá, Columbia, immigrated at age 15 to Miami, served overseas with the Air Force, then returned to Florida, where he was born again through the ministry of a PCA church. Now an ordained pastor and church planter, he works to reach Hispanics in the United States, planting PCA churches, developing leaders, and nurturing ministries.

Mike Winebrenner was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, but left his

came to Christ through the ministry of a church. Having attended Covenant College prior to Covenant Theological Seminary, he returned to Chattanooga and founded New City Fellowship, a congregation committed to the city’s African American and poor communities. Now coordinator of urban and mercy ministries for the PCA, he believes “the single best thing we can do for the poor is to plant the right kind of churches in their midst.”

Russ Whitfield serves as pastor and founder of Grace Mosaic

(PCA), a cross-cultural church in Northeast Washington, D.C. He is also the director of cross-cultural advancement for RUF and a guest lecturer in practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Washington, D.C., campus. He attended Dallas Theological Seminary and finished his formal training at Westminster Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity.

Montré “Tré” Brooks

childhood faith during high school, becoming a closet atheist. In college, he became a Christian through the work of RUF at Ole Miss, then graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary and was ordained in the PCA. He is pastor of Christ Fellowship (PCA), a multi-ethnic church plant in Horn Lake, MS.

is from east Memphis and attended White Station High School. During his undergraduate studies at Jackson State University, he was an RUF student leader for two years; and now he is an RUF intern serving at Jackson State, while also in his third year of studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS.

Michael Williamson

is director of community transformation and an instructor at the Memphis Center for Urban and Theological Studies, where he heads up efforts to equip urban pastors and community development practitioners with theologically-informed tools. Previously, he served as director of education at Advance Memphis. He is co-author of the forthcoming Practicing the Jesus Economy: Learning Disciplines for How You Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give, and is a deacon at Downtown Church.

was an Ole Miss graduate studying at Reformed Theological Seminary when Mike Winebrenner recruited him in 2014 to help plant a cross-cultural PCA church in Horn Lake. He served as Christ Fellowship’s director of operations and outreach until leaving in September 2017 to take a position as human resources officer at Diversified Conveyors Inc.

Michael Rhodes

ONE New Humanity: G O D ’ S M I S S I O N FO R A N E W M E M P H I S

As one would expect, the Bible talks about race and ethnicity—but it does so in the larger context of God’s great mission toward his world. What is God up to? He is gathering together a multi-racial, multi-ethnic people, a mission that has its roots in his promises to Abraham and runs all through the Bible to the multi-ethnic people praising God in Revelation 7. If that’s God’s mission, then it must be ours as well.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10 | Session 1 God’s Grace to the Nations (Genesis 1-12) | 6:30 p.m. | Fellowship Hall As we explore the foundational chapters of the Bible, we come to understand that God intends to bless all the families of the earth through a son of Abraham.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17 | Session 2 God’s Inclusion of the Races (Old Testament) | 6:30 p.m. | Fellowship Hall One thing that comes clear when we look at the Old Testament is that inclusion of the races in the people of God through the Messiah was always God’s purpose.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24 | Session 3 Christ Brings All Peoples Together (Luke-Acts) | 6:30 p.m. | Fellowship Hall God’s plan is not simply that the Gospel will go to all peoples, but that all peoples will be brought together through the Gospel to form one people in Christ.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31 | Session 4 The Church Includes All Races (Paul/Revelation) | 6:30 p.m. | Fellowship Hall Throughout Paul’s letters, we find that racial inclusion is a major issue, one that finds its solution in the Gospel itself. That points to the end of the biblical story and the picture of the nations as part of God’s glorious people.

suggested reading Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith | Published in 2001, a key book in exploring how 11 o’clock Sunday morning became and remains the most segregated hour in America. One need not buy all of the sociological categories in order to profit from a larger understanding of how racism is both individual and systemic in nature and how the Gospel is the only hope for dealing with it.

United by Faith by Michael Emerson, et al | In this follow-up to Divided by Faith, Emerson and his colleagues argue that the hope for breaking down racial barriers is starting multi-racial, multi-ethnic churches.

Appealing to every race to give up power in order to come together as sisters and brothers in Christ in common congregations, United by Faith offers a motivating vision for church planting’s future.

Practicing the Jesus Economy Michael Rhodes and Robby Holt (available April 2018) | While many believers have been inspired and challenged by the idea that Christ has claimed lordship over every square inch of our worlds, we often don’t know how that relates to the day-to-day realities of our pocketbooks, neighborhoods, and supermarkets. Michael Rhodes and Robby Holt offer six keys, which help us not only unlock a more faithful life of following Jesus, but a more just relationship with God’s world.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

– romans 10:14-15

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