CEC Speakers

From now until the Christian Education Conference in January we hope to tell you a little bit more about some of our speakers than just the bio information in the brochure. Once again you may download a copy of the brochure at http://www.christianeducator.org/cec/cec_2008_broc.pdf
We thank Jerry Bowling for his hard work and the great program he has put together for our conference this year.

The first speaker I would like to highlight is Larry Fowler because his book Rock Solid Kids is one of my favorites. It is filled with practical insights in how to engage parents in the spiritual development of their children. I found it to be the perfect follow up to George Barna's Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions.

Larry Fowler is the Director of Global for Awana Clubs International. You can read more about him on the Awana website http://www.awana.org/pressroom/docs/larry_fowler_bio.doc
This quote by Larry resonated with me because I think it is the desire of not just children's ministers but to all of us that minister in churches with families, "I want to help change the children's ministry culture in America. I long to see churches more effectively focus on engaging parents in the process of training their children." Perhaps this is a passion of Larry's because he himself is the father of two and the grandfather of seven!

If you haven't had the opportunity to read Rock Solid Kids you can read some reviews at http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Solid-KIDS-Larry-Fowler/dp/0830737138

You can also listen to short quote from Larry at http://www.awana.org/ri/files/2ndlarryf.mp3.

In doing research for this article I found that Awanas have started a new program called the Rorheim Institute. http://www.awana.org/ri/ri_pages/default.aspx?id=806 Their website says they exist to equip churches with leadership who have cultivated a biblical world view. They have training seminars and resources to help accomplish this goal. The training seminars particularly sound interesting to me.

I am really looking forward to hearing Larry Fowler in person and having an opportunity to dialogue with him further regarding how we can better train our parents and help them in building Rock Solid Kids. We hope you are planning on joining us in Nashville and joining in the dialogue.