FORTIFY Conference Banner

 
   

We’re looking
at something different.

Dear Members and Friends,

A few weeks back, we let all of our members know that we had not cancelled our Annual Conference and Exposition, and that we would be waiting until April 17 to reassess the situation. But several factors caused us to move up our reevaluation date by three weeks. On March 27, we made the decision to cancel our May 27 – 30 San Antonio event.

HOWEVER: We know how much our members love to be together to network, learn, and celebrate what God is doing in each other’s lives and ministries, even when times are tough. And we’ve been hearing that with the strain the Coronavirus has brought to everyone—the crazy hours and the precarious conditions—having such a time together would be very important, as soon as it’s safe to do so. For that reason, we’ve decided to plan something else for the Citygate Network family later this year—something to look forward to.

We’ve talked to the Naples Beach Hotel in Naples, Florida—the place where we were scheduled to hold our CEO Summit at the end of August. They have given us four days at the very beginning of September—September 1 – 4, the week before Labor Day—to hold a very unique event we are calling REVIVE!

It will not be a conference like we usually run. Space will be limited. We will have education on critical current topics, but not in 13 different tracks. We will have business members with us, but not our normal exhibit hall with 100 booths. But we will definitely have encouraging messages from God’s Word for all of you who have been laboring so hard, plus inspiring worship in song. And this special setting will allow you to find composure and peace under the palms and on the white sand beaches of the Gulf.

With the REVIVE! event now in place, we will also be canceling our 2020 CEO Summit and District Conferences. But when the time is right, maybe in July, we are encouraging members to think about getting together in small regional huddles that some of our district leaders and regional coordinators are already starting to plan.

If you have personally already registered (or were registered by someone else at your organization) for our San Antonio Annual Conference and Exposition, you (or that person) should have received an email explaining that your hotel reservation has been automatically cancelled and your first night’s deposit will be refunded. The email also gave options concerning your registration refund. If you did not get that email and feel that you should have, contact Stacie Hughes.

Sometime in the next week or two we will be sending out an online brochure for REVIVE! It will have start and end times, workshops and seminar listings, and speaker bios. The airport to use will be Southwest Florida International (RSW). Vann Ellison and his team at St. Matthew’s House—our member in Naples (and beyond)—will be providing logistical support.

We realize, of course, that with everything going on around us, this event is not guaranteed either. We will reassess our September plans in mid-June, but we will move forward in faith, hoping to have a gathering in Naples that we believe will meet the critical needs of our members.

If nothing else, these recent days have shown us that we are all sailing into uncharted waters right now. But when we know Jesus, we know Who is at the helm.  

You are constantly in our prayers.

John Ashmen

President

Citygate Network