PORTLAND, OR — The Luis Palau Association announced a major gathering for evangelists called Connect PDX: The Innovative Evangelism Conference in Portland, Oregon on September 17-20, 2019. The conference will serve vocational evangelists and anyone passionate about evangelism. The event will feature Miles McPherson, Greg Stier, Carrie Headington, Luis Palau and over 36 educational workshops.

Workshop topics will focus on innovative evangelism methods – including digital evangelism by Groundwire’s founder and president, Sean Dunn. Other workshops will feature effective fundraising, improving ministry longevity, strengthening your family and marriage in the midst of ministry, and many other topics. Also featured will be an Action Sports Summit to address the concerns of those ministering through Action Sports.

Twenty years ago, the Luis Palau Association launched the Next Generation Alliance (NGA) in an effort to identify, affirm, mobilize and equip gifted evangelists. Since then, NGA has grown into a network of more than 750 evangelists.

Through training, equipping, collaborating, mobilizing, and networking, members of NGA are provided with all they need to impact their world for Christ. Building off the Palau team’s successful model for evangelism, NGA staff members offer coaching, mentoring, and valuable resources. Members of NGA are given multiple opportunities throughout the year to join forces and collaborate, fostering unity and opening new doors for ministry.

“We started NGA with the purpose of providing counsel, encouragement and resources to younger evangelists who didn’t know where to turn for advice,” said Luis Palau.

“We started as a small group of proclamation evangelists who wanted to serve each other. And today there are hundreds of us working together to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. And in the next 20 years we will continue to grow as we come alongside evangelists especially younger evangelists who God is going to use in a mighty way. We are proud to affirm them and stand with them which is why this Connect PDX conference is so important.”

Strength in numbers is a biblical principle embraced by NGA and evidenced in the amount of collaboration taking place among the members. The NGA team is currently engaged in over two dozen collaborative evangelistic missions in the USA and overseas, and is seeing consistent membership growth. According to a recent survey, 83 percent of NGA evangelists report that the network has increased their ministry effectiveness.

“NGA provides a fellowship that’s invaluable for us to be able to come together at conferences and events, work together, and to be encouraged and inspired to continue forward,” Vic Murphy, NGA member and professional BMX athlete said.

“Looking back over the past decade, and just seeing all we’ve been able to accomplish, I believe it’s only the beginning of what God is going to do through NGA. And I’m very encouraged to see what a bright future we have to be able to share the Good News with the world – especially with a network like this behind us.”

As membership grows, the NGA team is committed to providing training and resources on critical ministry concerns through one on one coaching, the NGA website, conference workshops, webinars, and through strategic partnerships with other evangelist training groups. The Connect PDX conference will feature over 36 workshops addressing the top ten concerns in ministry.

“I remember the early days when Mr. Palau would challenge me and say, ‘you cannot do this alone. We’re going to give you a place to belong,'” NGA Cabinet member evangelist Mike Silva said.

“The world is not going to be won to Jesus by one individual. The world is going to be won by thousands upon thousands of people taking the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to the farthest points of the world. I believe Got puts strategic relationships in your life, godly men and women who step in on behalf of the God of the universe, to love, embrace, encourage, pray, model, and enrich – this is what NGA has done for me.”

NGA is also working to launch “Advance” groups of evangelists. Following a successful model launched in the U.K., these small communities are made up of 10-12 evangelists who gather monthly to sharpen one another. The objective is to get NGA members in safe communities for equipping, encouragement and support.

Other recent NGA developments include the launch of the “Women of NGA” with the goal to provide connections and resources for both women evangelists and the wives of NGA members. NGA’s new website will also provide valuable tools for evangelists in both English and Spanish.

The Connect Conference is expected to attract evangelists, missionaries, evangelism pastors, and those interested in joining the NGA fellowship.

For more information about Next Generation Alliance or the Connect Innovative Evangelism Conference, visit www.nextgenerationalliance.org.

Contact: Jay Fordice, 503-614-1500

To read more news on Evangelism on Missions Box, go here.