Speakers
Mike Laughrun
Friday Night Speaker
Mike lives in upper Tennessee with his wife Jennifer and their five children. He serves as one of the lead pastors at Tri-Cities Baptist Church where has been for 14 years. In addition, he serves as a Global Engagement Director with Send Network of the North American Mission Board.
Mac Brunson
Saturday night speaker
Dr. Donald McCall "Mac" Brunson Jr. was married to his wife Debora in 1979 and they have 3 children and 16 grandchildren. Obtaining a M. Div., D. Min., and PhD from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and having over 40 years of pastoral experience, Dr. Brunson is heavily involved in missions. His most recent endeavors include missions to Ukraine, Israel, Argentina, England, Lebanon, Romania, Egypt, and Haiti. In addition to receiving numerous awards, he is also an author of many articles and books such as The God You've Been Searching For and The New Guidebook for Pastors.
Kevin Hamm
Sunday Night Speaker
Dr. Kevin Hamm has been the Senior Pastor of Gardendale First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Alabama since April 2006. GFBC is committed to passionate worship and anointed preaching of God's Holy Word. The church is consumed with taking the Good News of Jesus across the street and around the world and is consistently among the state leaders in baptisms.
Pastor Kevin often says, "God blesses a church that will worship Him in spirit and truth. Celebrative, passionate worship combined with Biblical, anointed preaching is a match made in Heaven!" He previously served nine years as the Senior Pastor of Valley View Church in Louisville, Kentucky which grew dramatically under his leadership.
Pastor Kevin has the unique ability to hold an audience's attention by communicating God's Word with tremendous clarity and enthusiastic passion. His preaching schedule includes Evangelism Conferences in Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida and Mississippi. Pastor Kevin has served on the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and as President of the Alabama Baptist Pastor's Conference. His articles have been published in Growing Churches, Leadership and Leader Life.
He has his B.A. from Western Kentucky University, M. Div. from MidAmerica Theological Seminary and Doctor of Ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He married his wife, Kim, in 1987 and they have three daughters: Lindsey, Lauren and Kayla.
Paul Harper
Breakout Session LEader
I was born again as a junior in high school which began an amazing journey. I played the bass guitar in a semi-professional gospel group and music director with a Southern Baptist evangelist during my college years. Right out of college I served as music/youth pastor at FBC, Coffeeville, MS were I met and married my beautiful wife, Ellen on July 23, 1976. Our commitment to ministry has always been to faithfully walk through the doors that God opens and try not to kick in any doors that He doesn’t open.
The 1st quarter of our ministry together I served as music/youth pastor in MS, the 2nd quarter as Executive Pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga where I also served as coordinator of the International Congress on Revival with Dr. Bill Stafford, the 3rd quarter as Vice President of Global Focus with Dr. Larry Reesor where our mission was to mobilize churches to be on mission with God across the street and around the world and the 4th quarter as an independent contractor with non-profits serving primarily as Director of the Stephen Olford Ministry Legacy and as Personal Assistant with Dr. Richard Hamlet, founder of Ministry Outreach Foundation.
Now in overtime I continue to serve as President of the Harper Group, Director of the Stephen Olford Ministry Legacy and as worship leader at our home church, FBC, Coffeeville. We are right back where we started living on a small farm outside of town.
Ellen has faithfully served alongside me as well as serving as Director of Pressing On Ministries in Chattanooga and as an elementary school teacher in various school districts with most of her career spent in the Cherokee County School District in GA where she received a Teacher of the Year Award, served on the mayor’s council and various committees in the school district. As a result of her witness among the students we had the privilege of seeing a number of her students coming to Christ each year.
May God make Himself known during these days of Engage Missions Conference!
Mike owen
Breakout session leader
The Owens are Alabama natives with a heart for unreached people. Mike and Lori were married in 1995 and have been serving churches in Alabama and Colorado as Senior Pastor for 25 years. Mike was ordained by Mt. Pleasant Baptist church in Gordo, AL in 1993. He has a BS Degree in Education from the University of Alabama and a Master of Divinity in preaching from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans. The Owens have been working in Brazil since 2002 but answered the call to full time missions in 2018 to work within unreached people group in Northeast Brazil. Mike serves as the Executive Director of Harvest Mission Brazil where he mobilizes churches in the US and Brazil to partner together to reach the unreached people group known as QUILOMBOLAS, all for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Paul Buhwahwa
Breakout Session LEader
Rev. Paul Lusana Buhwahwa is serving as a senior pastor of a local church in Mwanza, Tanzania. God called him in 1998 and in 2001 he pioneered to start a new church in Iloganzala, Mwanza under the Tanzania Assemblies of God. Since then, he has led countless campaign trips which includes evangelism, pastor conferences, church planting strategies, and more.
His goal is to make sure that “NO PLACE IN TANZANIA IS LEFT WITHOUT A HEALTHY CHURCH”. They invite any one who is ready to partner with them to take the gospel around the whole country of Tanzania.
