Organizers of the 2024 N.C. Baptist Pastors’ Conference hope to show that church growth and sending out missionaries and church planters isn’t an “either-or” proposition but a “both-and” necessity.

“Growing and Going” is the theme of this year’s conference, which is scheduled for Nov. 3-4 at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. The event precedes the 2024 N.C. Baptist annual meeting on Nov. 4-5.

Andrew Hopper, lead pastor of Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro and this year’s pastors’ conference president, said he hopes the event encourages pastors to see the connection and link between church growth and missions.

“There’s a saying we have around Mercy Hill,” Hopper said. “Churches can grow without going, but they can’t go without growing.”

By God’s grace, Hopper says, Mercy Hill has been able to experience both.

Mercy Hill has been recognized in recent years as one of fastest growing churches in the country by Outreach magazine. At the same time, the church has prioritized planting churches and sending missionaries. In July, Mercy Hill celebrated its 50th international missionary to be commissioned and sent out by the congregation since Hopper planted the church in 2012.

“Missions and church planting come from the overflow of growing,” Hopper said.

Hopper said he believes church growth has become a taboo topic in ministry circles in recent years based on what he perceives as a backlash against the church-growth movement of the 1980s and 1990s. In a significant pendulum swing, it’s become more positive and acceptable in recent years for pastors and church leaders to talk about sending missionaries and planting churches.

Hopper said he hopes the conference will help demonstrate how and why the concepts of church growth and sending are not mutually exclusive, while encouraging pastors to see the importance of preaching toward those ends.

“We want to try to reframe growth positively and connect it to sending, and we also want to show how we can move the church toward growth and sending through the preaching of the Word.

“If we’re not preaching for the harvest and if we’re not preaching for growth, it’s going to be hard to send.”

Hopper said this year’s lineup of speakers are accomplished church and ministry leaders from diverse contexts from both inside and outside of North Carolina. Each speaker will address a different aspect of preaching as it relates to church growth or missions.

Scheduled speakers include: Jason Brinker, lead pastor of Catalyst Church in Jacksonville, N.C.; J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Dean Inserra, lead pastor of City Church, in Tallahassee, Florida; Antoine Lassiter, church planting strategist for SendNC with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina; Jerry Lewis, lead pastor of Grace Community Church in Marion, N.C.; Bryant Wright, a former pastor and founder and chairman of Right From the Heart Ministries in Marietta, Georgia; and Steven Wade, senior pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Youngsville, N.C.

The conference will also include worship through music by members of Mercy Hill’s worship team.

Attendees will also elect new officers for the 2026 conference. N.C. Baptist Pastors’ Conference officers are typically elected two years in advance to allow ample time for planning and securing speakers.

Hopper said he hopes the conference will encourage, equip and inspire pastors to pray and work toward seeing people come to Christ, grow in their faith and take the gospel to the ends of the earth, no matter what ministry context they find themselves in. 

“Sometimes we can get stuck in some bad thinking around what God might want to do in my community because it’s small, it’s rural, it’s not growing or whatever,” Hopper said. “We can’t control what God is going to do and the results of how my church grows or goes, but we can control what we’re asking God to do.

“I’m praying that this conference will be a catalytic moment for getting back to preaching for the harvest, seeing people raised up in the faith and sent out to do it in other places.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue of the Biblical Recorder magazine. For more information on this year’s N.C. Baptist Pastors’ Conference, visit www.ncpastorsconference.com.)