Revitalize West moves to regional events

Revitalize West, originally scheduled for Aug. 21-22 in Casa Grande, has been reorganized and is going on the road in three stand-alone regional events.

The change was made by the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention revitalization team due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Keith Durham, AZSBC church health facilitator.

“An event that would potentially draw 100 people was just not safe at the time we needed to make the decision,” he said. “Just as pastors and churches are navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to maintain safe environments for their congregations, we, too, wanted to make sure we did not encourage a gathering of large groups of people.”

The three keynote speakers — Rob Peters, Matt Queen and Brian Croft — scheduled for the original August event will lead the redesigned sessions. Unlike the original event, which had a $25 registration fee, each of the three sessions will be free for pastors and church leaders.

“Each of the mini-workshops is designed to encourage and equip pastors to take personal steps toward leadership development and help the local faith community they lead,” Durham said.

The first Revitalize West regional event is Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in Lake Havasu City, Yuma, Tucson and Phoenix. Rob Peters, founder and president of Corpus Vitae, will address the topic of “Church Culture and Revitalization.”

The second regional event will be a statewide webinar on Oct. 21. Matt Queen, associate dean, associate professor and L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism in the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, will address the topic of “Evangelism and Discipleship.”

The third regional event will be Feb. 25-27, 2021, at locations to be determined later. Brian Croft, senior pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and founder of Practical Shepherding, will address the topic of “Preaching and Pastoring Through Conflict.”

“My desire is that by redesigning Revitalize West and taking it on the road, more pastors will be able to attend while being in a safe social distancing environment,” Durham said.

Registration for the first event is available at azsbc.org/revitalize/. Registration for the other two events will be available on the webpage closer to the time of the events.