At the September 21 meeting of our Converge MidAtlantic Board of Overseers, Pastor Michael Henderson was appointed to serve as part time Church Planting Director for our District. CMA has entered into an agreement with Pastor Henderson and New Beginnings Church in Charlotte, NC to contract for 20% of his time to help direct our growing District church planting efforts. Michael will begin effective November 1.
 
Pastor Henderson has planted two churches in our District and helped start up a third church plant as a young leader in Akron, OH. He currently is one of our church planting coordinators, and is serving as the Coordinator for our church planting coaches, resourcing them regularly for their coaching ministry with church planters. New Beginnings Church in Charlotte recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary. The congregation is one of the fastest growing churches in our entire Converge movement, and is now involving over 2000 people every weekend.
 
Pastor Henderson will continue to work with our team of Church Planting Coordinators, including Damian Williams and Pastor Ron Crawford. Other church planting leaders may be added to the leadership team, as we seek to grow our church planting systems to an even higher level of excellence, and strengthen the overall impact of our movement across the MidAtlantic. Funds for this part-time Church Planting Director position have been given from churches across our district over the past two years. We will contract with Pastor Henderson for an initial two-year period of time, and consider next steps at that time. Please pray for Michael and his wife Twanna, as Pastor Henderson begins this leadership role in our District.

Dates for assessment centers in 2010 are now in place. If you or your church are planning to send a church planting candidate to an assessment center this next year, please make plans accordingly. Dates and locations are as follows:

Our CMA executive staff is pleased to announce and invite all Converge MidAtlantic pastors and spouses to our 2010 Pastors and Spouses Getaway, planned for Monday through Wednesday, May 17-19, 2010, at the Stonewall Resort in West Virginia! This will be a fantastic opportunity for renewal and connecting up for our movement leaders. One of our own movement leaders and Pastoral couple, Rod and Sheri Hairston of Messiah Community Church near Baltimore, MD, will serve as presenters speaking on marriage and ministry issues. The Stonewall Resort facility is a fabulous place and is really very centrally located in our region. Much of the cost will be underwritten by our District. Every Pastor and spouse is encouraged to put these dates on your calendar now.  More details will be coming out very soon!