ATLANTA, GEORGIA (ANS) -- Whether you're in a college setting, a leader in a church, or someone who has been called on to be a leader in Short-Term Missions, the 20th annual National Short-Term Missions Conference may be just the place for you.

Organized for leaders of Short-Term Mission, the conference is designed with the triple aims of preparing leaders with practical essentials, promoting discussion, insight and innovation, as well as providing inspiration for personal spiritual growth.

The 2009 conference will be held January 23-25, 2009 in Atlanta, GA, with pre-conference options beginning on January 22.

If you’re in a college setting, a leader in a church or someone who has been called on to be a leader in short-term mission, please join others like you to learn about how we can do short-term mission with excellence.

"Workshops and plenary sessions are relevant for people who are taking their first team and for those who are seasoned veterans," says David Jensen,
Chair of NSTMC.

"This conference has been training leaders of short-term mission for 20 years," Jensen said.

"The conference includes plenary sessions and forty workshops which are relevant for people who are taking their first team and for those who are seasoned veterans. Leaders from churches, colleges and mission agencies come together to better equip ourselves for doing short-term mission with excellence."

Jensen explained: "By programming our annual conference plenary sessions, workshops, and other conference events with high standards, quality resources, and experienced STM (Short-Term Mission) facilitators, the NSTMC will equip and strengthen STM practitioners/leaders to be more effectively and consistently engaged in excellent short-term missions."

The first NSTMC conference was held in Miami in 1990, and for the first several years was known as "The Miami Conference."

"The conference gained popularity and in 1996 the conference became known by its current name, the National Short Term Mission Conference (NSTMC). Currently the conference moves from coast to coast in an effort to make it convenient and affordable for STM leaders located across the United States," Jensen said.

The NSTMC is now one of three parts of the Alliance for Excellence in Short Term Mission (AESTM). The other two divisions are the Fellowship of Short Term Mission Leaders (FSTML) and the Standards of Excellence (SOE).

"People that attend NSTMC include STM leaders from colleges and universities, all sizes of churches, and mission agencies. Authors, professors, and other experts in the field of STM have served as plenary speakers and workshop faculty," said Jensen.

Registration information for the 2009 NSTMC conference is now available at: www.nstmc.org/register.asp.

Keynote Speaker, Tim Elmore, is the founder and president of “Growing Leaders,” a nonprofit organization created to develop emerging leaders by
equipping students on hundreds of U.S. campuses.

He also serves as Vice President of Leadership Development at EQUIP, a non-profit organization whose objective is to train one million Christian leaders around the globe He has served as a pastor at two churches and vice president of two organizations since 1979. Tim has authored numerous books on his passion of mentoring tomorrow’s leaders.

Featured Speaker, Dr. Benson Karanja, was a young boy in his village in Kenya, when the United States seemed like a faraway dream. He never imagined that decades later he would be the first African immigrant to become president of Beulah University in Atlanta, one of the oldest bible colleges in the U.S., where he’s using his position to help the poor back home in Kenya.

Among Dr. Karanja’s other credits are: appointment as Board Member of Moi Africa Institute to represent the U.S., recognized as Man of the Year by Secretary of the State of Georgia, honored as one of the most influential leaders by Who’s Who in Atlanta, Georgia and has written his autobiography Grains of Sand which tells his saga from Kenya to the U.S. and his rise from janitor to the president at the same college. His philosophy is: “Any one can become anything, depending on the direction you take.”

There are four pre-Conference workshop offerings.

Option A: Seeing Through Other Eyes: How to Train your Team to Cross Cultures Successfully is about the fact that taking people on a short term mission trip is more than ministry plans, spiritual readiness and logistics.

Team members need to learn how to be cross-culturally sensitive to develop authentic relationships with the people they serve. There are some creative things you can do to help your team members learn how to adequately and appropriately interact with those of other cultures. There are resources to help train your team right in your own neighborhood. This workshop will offer fun exercises, insight and tangible ideas for you to use in training your team to be prepared to go and develop relationships across cultures. Kim Hurst Kim Hurst (along with her husband Rich) helped found the NSTMC, and was at the first conference in Miami in 1990, and the next 15. She holds a Master’s Degree in Cross-cultural Studies from Fuller Seminary and was co-author of Vacations With a Purpose, a guide for STM team members and leaders.

Option B: Urban Short Term Missions—Panoramic View will show attendees how to find out how short-term mission teams can fit into the urban ministry scene.

During this workshop you will have a guided tour of several different urban ministries in the Atlanta area and discover first hand how short-term mission teams can meet needs in the urban setting and make a meaningful impact.
Paul Palmer is the founder and pastor of the Atlanta Dream Center and Church Planter. He is a U.S. Missionary leading and hosting hundreds annually on STM trips. Paul has published over 150 articles, and is
an international teacher, preacher and evangelist. He has been featured on the 700 Club, and in a number of Christian magazines.

Option C: Reaching Your Muslim Neighbor is a pre-conference session that will focus on helping participants to understand the lure of Islam to American youth (black and white alike) and provide strategies to confront it with love, faith and courage.

Participants will be equipped with resources, tools and techniques to reach Muslims and other non-Christian movements in our communities. Dr. Carl Ellis Jr. is the President of Project Joseph, a ministry devoted to equipping Christians to minister to Muslims. He is also the Dean of Intercultural Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Ellis holds a B.A. from Hampton University, a M.A. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and a D.Phil. from Oxford Graduate School. Carl is a sought-after speaker on the subjects of Islam and Racial Reconciliation. He has pastored in Tennessee, taught seminars for prison ministries and theological studies and authored several books.

Option D: Standards Introductory Workshop (SOE) is an NSTMC pre-con option, which is actually a requirement for key STM personnel from U.S. Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission (SOE) Provisional Member organizations—churches, agencies and schools which are members of the SOE.

This session will help you understand how to achieve all seven standards, and how to form and manage your own peer review teams. The workshop will be interactive, using case studies, small group discussions, several presenters, and will provide training in MISTM theory to help you proceed to SOE Covenant Member status.

The pre-Conference brochure says: "A lotta good stuff in one day and a lotta fun working together, helping you achieve STM excellence in all your short-term mission work!"
Standards of Excellence Workshop leader Brian Herwaggen is the Executive Director of Delta Ministries International. His first short-term mission was on a Delta team in 1980 and he was hired as Executive Director in 1985. Brian is also a member of the National Standards of Excellence Committee. He is the author/collaborator of the Next Mile.

Co-presenter Wayne Sneed is the founder and director of Orphanos Foundation, and its president since its inception in 1997. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Excellence in STM, on the steering committee for the Standards of Excellence in STM, and was on the steering committee for the Fellowship of STM Leaders for nine years. He is also the co-author of Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission.

Worship Leaders for the NSTMC will be the Mt. Paran Worship Band, a lively, spirit-filled worship group from Mount Paran Church in Atlanta.

Conference & Lodging will be at the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia, 1031 Virginia Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30354. Phone: (800) HILTONS or (404) 767-9000; Fax: (404) 767-0844.

Register for the conference on-line at www.nstmc.org  

Be sure to visit the NSTMC sister conference, The Fellowship of Short Term Mission Leaders. See: www.fstml.org  for details.

NSTMC 2009 Information:
Email: info@nstmc.org  • Website: www.nstmc.org  • Phone: 909.931.1311

NSTMC is a Subsidiary of the Alliance for Excellence in Short-Term Mission

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael has traveled to Albania and the former Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany and the former Czechoslovakia, Israel,and Canada. He has reported for ANS from Jordan, China, Russia, Jamaica, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International.