I am in my hotel room in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is late, but I am feeling a "blog urge" and wanted to post.

Tomorrow (at 5:30a.m.), I head over to Springfield, Missouri (and it is midnight here!). So, I better make this a quick post. I am speaking to two Baptist groups in two different states. I am in the heartland with Baptists in Missouri and Arkansas.

I recognize that most of my blog readers are not Baptists and thus do not necessarily speak "Baptist." Thus, a little explanation might he helpful.

Tomorrow, I am in Springfield, Missouri to speak at Baptist Bible College. Bible Baptist College is part of the Independent Baptist church movement. Wikipedia explains:

Independent Baptist churches (also referred to as Independent Fundamental Baptist, or IFB) are Christian churches holding to generally Baptist beliefs. Like all Baptists they are characterized by being independent from the authority of denominations and church councils. However, the reason for the distinction, "independent," is that they eschew even the Baptist conventions or associations in which other Baptist churches participate (although many Independent Baptist churches do belong to fellowships). They remain autonomous and congregationalist in nature and are generally fundamentalist in teaching. The IFB movement is not a denomination per se, but there are similarities that run throughout most Independent Baptist churches.

I am not IFB, so I am particularly blessed that they would invite me to share with their students and the pastors attending the conference. We will be talking church planting and evangelism and I look forward to it.

Tuesday, I am back in Bentonville where I will speak to the Arkansas Baptist Convention. They theme is Reaching Generation Next Now. I will speak just before lunch and will share some research and speak on engaging emerging generations. After I speak, I will meet with some contemporary church pastors over lunch (see below).

Part of what I help the International Mission Board is help them connect with innovative pastors to get them involved in global missions. During lunch on Tuesday, we are hoping to do that very thing. Jeff Noble, who came with me to Poland last week (see his interview here), is organizing a lunch meeting of innovative church pastors who might want to talk about engaging in church planting in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rob Brown, who oversees much of the work there, explained the opportunity this way:

Come visit the IMB teams serving in Central Europe to see what God is doing and prayerfully explore how their churches can serve alongside these teams in impacting peoples with the gospel through creative access venues and relational exchanges.

If you are interested, be sure to check out my recent Europe posts here and contact Jeff immediately if you can come to lunch on Tuesday in Bentonville.

Updated: Check out this article. It just came out and gives great info about the partnership.

Good night.