Patrick O’Connell is the Director of NewThing. After graduating college and a stint in the Army, he went to work in the corporate world, eventually becoming a Vice President in a prestigious investment firm. It was during this time that he connected with COMMUNITY and eventually found his way back to God. In 2007, he left his business and moved with a team of people to Kansas City to help start Restore Community Church. Soon after, he began coaching and mentoring church planters. He's become a student of church planting, enrolling in the Master of Missional Church Movements Program at Wheaton College. He wants to leverage his knowledge, experiences and passion for Jesus to help people start more churches that help even more people find their way back to God. He's married to Nancy and they have three great kids: Bailie (19), Declan (14) and Cormac (10). Patrick blogs at Missionglue.com.

SESSIONS

PRE-CONFERENCE: Together: Pursuing the Great Collaboration – Hosted by NewThing Network
We understand the great commission; and we believe in the great commandment; but we have forgotten Jesus' challenge of the great collaboration in John 17 that we are to do the mission "Together!" Jesus offers us a vision of a "Together" church that prioritizes relationships (with God, family, team and network) as the way to be and do God's mission. This includes an in-depth look at the value of participating in a church planting network and how to start a small church planting network. Full details for this pre-con here.
Day / Time: Monday 1:00pm – 5:00pm and Tuesday 8:00am – 11:30am
Location: Faith Hall - Room 301A

Workshop Session 1: Collaborative Networks
Collaborative networks are comprised of independent churches that have adopted a common mission and are willing to collaborate on various levels to achieve the goal. See how alignment of these autonomous but interdependent churches can achieve more together.
Time: Tuesday, 2:30 – 3:30pm
Location: Faith Hall - Room 301G
Speakers: Bill Couchenour, Dan Grider, Øivind Augland, and Patrick O'Connell

Networking Lunch: What It Takes to Move to Multiplication: The Power of Networks and Collaboration — Hosted by Exponential
Grab your lunch and joing us! Outreach Magazine recently published their "Top 100" issue that, for the first time, included the a list of 100 Reproducing Churches. This lunch will give you the rare opportunity to hear from 4 leaders who had some of the greatest influence on the churches on the inaugural list of 100 Reproducing Churches. And, you will have an opportunity to get your questions answered live from these leaders. Facilitator: Bill Couchenour. Panelists: Patrick O'Connell, Bob Roberts, JD Pearring, and Ed Love.
Day/Time: Wednesday, March 4 / 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Location: Faith Hall - Room 301G

Workshop Session 3: Going into All the World Together
Together As a Church – Living in togetherness is always a part of following Jesus. It wasn't optional for Jesus. It wasn't optional for the first apostles. It wasn't optional for the first Christians, and it's not optional for us! The church was designed to be God's eternal community where we experience reconciliation with Him and with others. Too many church leaders are leading churches but are not really a part of those churches. For us to fulfill the Great Collaboration we must be church leaders who live in togetherness and lead in togetherness with our churches. Together As a Network – When church leaders come together to form networks, they discover the missing piece of movement. This requires leaders and churches working to advance God's Kingdom and not creating their own kingdom. When leaders work and live together in unity, it is a missional strategy that will reach the least and the lost. (John 17:21b-23)
Time: Wednesday, 2:30 – 3:30pm
Location: Henry Chapel
Speakers: Michael Carrion and Patrick O'Connell

Workshop Session 4: Support Networks
Support networks play a vital role in kingdom multiplication by providing training and resources to church planters that fit a set of requirements and values. See how these objective-oriented networks impact church planting across broad geographical areas.
Time: Thursday, 8:45 – 9:45am
Location: Faith Hall - Room 301H
Speakers: Patrick O'Connell, Toney Salva, Rob Wilton, and Tom Planck

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