Dr. Jim and Beth Blessman started their work in South Africa in 2001 by forming Blessman Ministries, a non-profit organization bringing hope to children through optical clinics, orphan villages, a feeding program, as well as sharing the love of Christ. All across the country of South Africa, Blessman Ministries hosts optical outreaches in the public schools, giving children the opportunity to look toward tomorrow. The work of Blessman Ministries has been faithfully serving the children and families of South Africa now for 15 years. What began small has grown to 3 different campuses in South Africa, 2 church plants, and 6 micro-enterprises. Over 7,000 children are fed each day Monday through Friday in partnership with Meals From the Heartland, where they receive a hot, nutritious meal that could be their only meal of the day. Blessman Ministries also partners with Rotary International, Hy-Vee, Days For Girls International, Abod Shelters, Convoy of Hope, Soles 4 Souls, Enviro-Loo, The Limpopo Department of Education, the South African Department of Corrections, and many more in an effort to become fully sustained in South Africa, and to best serve the people they have come to love so dearly. The main objective of Dr. Jim and Beth as well as Blessman Ministries is to give the children of South Africa physical and spiritual hope, by sharing their time, talent and treasure.
International Focus
October 4, 2016 • Dr. Jim Blessman
Keynote Speaker #1 – Part One
October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. As of fall 2015, Stetzer co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets. He also serves the teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, a multi-cultural megachurch in Miami, Florida.
Keynote Speaker #1 – Part Two
October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. As of fall 2015, Stetzer co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets. He also serves the teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, a multi-cultural megachurch in Miami, Florida.
Keynote Speaker #2 – Part One
October 4, 2016 • Dr. Mark Granquist
Mark A. Granquist is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Luther Seminary, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this he taught in the Religion Department at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (1992-2000) and at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota (2000-2007). Granquist has served in parish ministry or Lutheran higher education since his ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 1988. He was pastor of youth and education at Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN from 1988-1992 and has served several times as an interim pastor in local congregations. A 1979 graduate of St Olaf College, Granquist received his M. Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1984 and his Ph D degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1992. He serves as the editor of the Luther Seminary journal Word & World and of the Journal of the Lutheran Historical Conference, and has been active with the journal Lutheran Quarterly. His publications include Lutherans in America: A New History (Fortress Press, 2014), Scandinavian Pietists: Spiritual Writings from 19th-century Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (Classics of Western Spirituality, 2015), and The Augustana Story: Shaping Lutheran Identity in North America, (Fortress, 2008). He is one of the editors of the Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions (Baker Academic), which will be published in 2016, and the author of many book chapters, articles and essays, especially on the history of Lutherans in North America.