LYNCHBURG (BP) — Leaders at Liberty University have a vision to help plant some 500 new churches during the next five years, evidencing its commitment with a three-day church planting conference.
During chapel services attended by 5,000-plus Liberty students during the conference, several hundred made decisions to sign up for summer missionary and church planting internships across the United States.
Cosponsored and attended by representatives from 15 state Baptist conventions — including the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia — and the North American Mission Board, the Liberty conference aimed at recruiting students for real-life church planting opportunities this coming summer.
“Liberty wants to help students discover and examine their calling in this area of ministry,” said David Wheeler, NAMB national missionary and associate director of Liberty's Church Planting Center, “and to gain a sense of the heartbeat and vision that Liberty has for church planting.”
Wheeler said the conference will become an annual event at the Lynchburg campus.
Jonathan Falwell, Liberty's executive vice president for spiritual affairs, said, “Our time together was extremely productive as we discussed strategies for literally saturating our nation with new church plants.”