About the Propel Conference
The Propel Conference offers inspiration and training to grow your church. Sponsored by a coalition of Seventh-day Adventist ministries committed to seeing churches grow, it was born out of a desire to see an annual evangelism training event on the West Coast.
Uniquely Adventist
Adventist churches grow differently. So this event is specifically designed to help churches propel forward the unique message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. At the Propel Conference, you'll leave equipped for proven, effective church growth in our missional context.
Effective Innovation
Inspired Teams
Bringing a team of leaders to an in-person event builds relationships and helps reignite the fire for ministry. The Propel Conference’s multiple training tracks are perfect for team members to each grow in their skills, then come together to dream and make plans to drive the mission forward.
Steering Committee
Larry Witzel, SermonView Evangelism Marketing, chairBill McClendon, North Pacific Union Conference
Dale Galusha, Pacific Press
Brad Forbes, AdventSource
Roger Walter, EvangeLead
Carl Johnston, Seminars Unlimited
Why This? Why Now? A Note from the Steering Committee Chair
For several years, now, I’ve had a growing desire to see an annual church growth training event for Adventist churches on the West Coast. This is what WestPoint of Evangelism used to be back in the early 2000's, but even its successor event, Adventist WestPoint, has now been discontinued. Roger Walter’s EvangeLead events in 2018 and 2019 were a great step in the right direction, but I've wanted to see something bigger. When Dr. Walter agreed to join forces with SermonView Evangelism Marketing to launch this event with the North Pacific Union, the Propel Conference was born.
The fastest-growing Adventist churches in the NAD still use public evangelism as a key step in the evangelism cycle, but holding an effective reaping series is a perishable skill that many local pastors do not have. The Propel Conference offers training and inspiration to help.
Evangelistic innovation is crucial, and the results of this innovation—both good and bad—should be communicated so we can all learn together. The Propel Conference is a place where this innovation can be shared, where failure can be embraced as just another data point that moves the mission forward.
Bringing a team of local church leaders to an in-person event builds relationships and helps reignite the fire for ministry. The Propel Conference’s multiple training tracks are perfect for team members to each grow in their skills, then come together to dream and make plans to drive the mission forward in their local church.
Non-Adventist events like Exponential, Amplify Outreach, and the Unleash Conference have their place. But these don’t help our members propel forward the unique message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They don’t equip our church leaders for proven, effective evangelism in our missional context. My dream for the Propel Conference is that it grows into an annual touchstone for hundreds of like-minded Adventist leaders, who come together every year to inspire each other to grow more and better disciples of Jesus.
So come join the movement. Plan to attend. Bring your leadership team. Promote it in your territory. Most of all, please pray for our speakers and participants, that the Holy Spirit will fill us all with the desire and power to move this work forward.
Larry Witzel, Chair
Propel Conference Steering Committee