To gain momentum around the discipleship of kids and families in our churches, we know that it requires alignment with and support from our senior leadership. When we understand the common priorities of senior leaders and what requires their attention, we can grasp the language we need to adopt in order to have a productive conversation with them about children’s ministry vision. Together, we will identify steps towards creating a clear presentation that communicates the way a biblical vision for children’s ministry aligns with the overall mission of your church. In addition, we will discuss key areas of support that you need in order to achieve this vision and how to ask for those things.

Take a breath. Give yourself some space. Discover your humanity.

We know how you feel. As much as you want to discover ways to keep growing your ministry, the truth is you probably need a minute, right? After what we have experienced collectively, specifically as ministry leaders over the last 2 years, you just need the space to be; to be present with your own emotions; to be aware of what’s happening in your own hearts, away from the sometimes overwhelming nature of ministry. You could probably use a little time to breathe, decompress, and invest in you as a whole human.

That’s why we created the Discovery Sessions. These experiences are designed for you to reflect, reset, and return to your “why.”

Say What You Need to Say is a reflection experience designed to explore the power of words and how we can use them to help us reconnect with our own humanity, with others, and with God. This experience will be an ongoing, repeating reflection during each breakout. It is designed for you to opt-in at any time, or you can plan ahead by registering early!

Mindfulness in Motion is an audio experience designed to guide you into spending time being present in mind, body, and spirit. This experience will be a self-paced audio practice that you can download on your mobile phone and use at any time.

Since both of these experiences will be an ongoing, repeating reflection during each breakout, it is designed for you to opt-in at any time, or you can plan ahead by registering early!

Most families in your community aren’t anti-faith, they’re actually looking for a version of faith that will shape their children’s sense of worth and purpose. But according to the latest research, most parents say they don’t feel supported nurturing their kid’s faith at home. Join us as we reveal some of the latest findings on what parents are really looking for, and discover how you can reimagine the way every leader and volunteer can partner with parents in the decade ahead.

How do you know if your ministry is teaching what really matters for human kids? How do you evaluate your weekly curriculum or messaging strategy? Every teaching strategy has a framework. Regardless of what curriculum is best for you, it’s important to know how to evaluate the learning models, theological debates, and tensions at work in any messaging strategy. Join us to learn how you can recognize and keep the right tensions alive in your message so you can teach and lead kids toward a version of faith that’s reasonable, respectful, and resilient.

We don’t need to look far to see that children are struggling with anxiety and depression at younger ages than ever before. How are our ministries and volunteers equipped to respond to the growing mental health crisis of children and preteen humans? Join authors Will Hutcherson and Dr. Chinwe Williams as they blend both clinical research and real-life stories to provide simple—yet powerful—tools any adult can use to help a generation in despair.

There are more digital opportunities than ever before for families to learn about God—and that’s a great thing! But something unique happens when we’re able to be in the same space together. Now, like never before, we have to rethink physical experiences so they excel at the things that can only happen with physical proximity. Join us for a conversation about how to completely reimagine your ministry experience so preschoolers will want to attend—and might even drag their family along with them.

There are more digital opportunities to learn about God, and grow in discipleship than ever before—and that’s a great thing! At the same time, developmental research suggests that the preteen phase is a significant time for humans to build relational skills that are best nurtured in proximity with other humans. Now, like never before, we have to rethink physical experiences so they excel at the things that can only happen with physical proximity. Join us for a conversation about how to completely reimagine your ministry experience so preteens will want to attend.

It’s no secret that the past few years have created new challenges for recruiting and retaining volunteers. Yet in order to effectively disciple kids and teenagers, we need to re-engage volunteers to show up—even if the volunteer roles are shifting. In this session, we’ll share what some of the most innovative ministries are learning about volunteerism and how we can all develop a volunteer culture where every relationship matters.