Join us for Equip Intensive 2027 !

Equip is our leadership conference. 2027 is a deliberate reset year: one voice, two sessions, one clear word to carry into the year, with the full three-day Equip returning in 2028. That word is FORWARD, taken straight from Exodus 14:15, the moment at the Red Sea when the command is to stop crying out and go forward. The theme is not decoration laid over the event; it is the instruction at the heart of it. The weekend has two parts. Friday, January 8 at 7 PM is a worship service with preaching in the Cathedral, streamed and open to all, no registration required. Saturday, January 9 is the ticketed intensive: breakfast at 9 AM, teaching from 10 AM to 12 PM, with Bishop John Gunns. The single most compelling reason to come is spiritual impact and clarity for the new year: a leader walks in unsure and walks out with a clear word and a next step. Tone is strategic. Not hype, not heavy. Confident and premium. We never signal that a two-day year is less; it is a focused reset, and every piece should feel intentional and unhurried. Audience is both church leaders and the wider congregation, promoted across Florida. The job of the creative is simple to say: make someone feel it is time to go forward, and move them to register for Saturday.

Friday, January 7, 2027

7:00pm Worship Service

Saturday, January 8, 2027

9:00am:  Breakfast
10:00am - 12:00pm:  Intensive with Dr. John Guns

Bishop John Guns

John E. Guns is the Senior Pastor of St. Paul Church of Jacksonville, Inc., where he has totally revived what was once a rigid, placid, traditional southern Baptist church into an oasis of FAITH, FELLOWSHIP, and FUN. Through extremely innovative thinking and an approachable spirit, Dr. Guns has epitomized koinonia before this great congregation and has ultimately built an amazing community of worshipers. His love for worship is evident whenever the St. Paul family gathers!

He was formally educated in the public and private school system of Hampton Roads, VA. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Norfolk State University and his Master of Divinity and Doctoral of Ministry Degrees from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University.

Bishop Guns wears several proverbial hats.  He is the Founder of Operation Save Our Sons, a national movement to work with At-Risk boys designed to equip them to make positive decisions regarding the law & authority. Bishop Guns serves as the Senior Vice Presider of the Global United Fellowship, under the leadership of Bishop Joel Peebles, Presiding Prelate.  Dr. Guns also serves as the Dean of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA. He works on several boards and community-based organizations, and is also an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., since 1982.

Of all his accomplishments, his most important is his family.  Bishop Guns is the proud husband and life partner of Co-Pastor Sonjanique L. Guns, the loving father of three amazing daughters, Alexis (Claude) Cheatham, Daijah S. Guns, and Tayler J. Guns, and committed grandfather to his grandsons, Zion John-Eric and Claude Douglas III and granddaughter, C’Zariah Alexis Michelle.