Nuts and Bolts Track

Many topics of interest either stand on their own or need emphasis by themselves. Our Nuts and Bolts track will provide conferees the opportunity to pick from four or five different specialty topics during each breakout session. World-class leaders will present material based on their latest research, their areas of passion, and some of our biggest needs in the church planting world.

Speakers and sessions include:

Vince Antonucci

  • An Idiot's Guide to Idiotic Church Planting: Is God calling you to do something different, something radical, something others might consider idiotic? Are you looking for permission to break out of the box of what other churches are doing so you can truly be unique? If you need to be inspired to jump off the ledge and into the lunatic fringe, do not miss this workshop.

Mark Batterson

  • The Five Greatest Challenges Every Leader Faces:  This workshop deals with the underside of leadership including the emotional, spiritual, and family challenges leaders face. It will help you set healthy boundaries; learn how to do ministry out of the overflow of what God is doing in your life; find practical ways to put your family first; do ministry out of imagination; and give you the courage to be yourself.

John Burke

  • Navigating Cultural Landmines: You've read the books and reports - people don't like Christians or the church - so how do you start a church that invites people to find the truth without stepping on their demand for tolerance? 

Steve Childers & Steve Ogne

  • How to Start & Strengthen a Regional Church Planting Network - Part 1: This workshop will focus on the development of certain "essential components" necessary for establishing a regional church planting network that will result in the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of a region. These "New Church Network (NCN) Components" include vision, spiritual dynamics, assessment, coaching, training, resourcing, etc. Essential steps needed for the development of these components will be explored. Practical insights will be drawn from Steve's personal experiences in establishing and directing several regional church planting networks.
  • How to Start & Strengthen a Regional Church Planting Network - Part 2: This workshop will focus on the development of certain "essential components" necessary for establishing a regional church planting network that will result in the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of a region. These "New Church Network (NCN) Components" include vision, spiritual dynamics, assessment, coaching, training, resourcing, etc. Essential steps needed for the development of these components will be explored. Practical insights will be drawn from Steve's personal experiences in establishing and directing several regional church planting networks.
  • How to Start & Strengthen a Regional Church Planting Network - Part 3: This workshop will focus on the development of certain "essential components" necessary for establishing a regional church planting network that will result in the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of a region. These "New Church Network (NCN) Components" include vision, spiritual dynamics, assessment, coaching, training, resourcing, etc. Essential steps needed for the development of these components will be explored. Practical insights will be drawn from Steve's personal experiences in establishing and directing several regional church planting networks.

Patrick Dennis

  • Branding, Marketing, and the Church: A Primer for Church Planters:  Can a new or existing church (of any style) raise awareness and shape the way it is perceived by its community in a way that honors God? Yes! This session will provide practical tracks to run on in two critical awareness-building disciplines: Marketing, the effort to raise visibility and to "let people know we are here"; and Branding, the perception-shaping practice designed to "let people know what we are about." This seminar is for church planters/leaders-from mainline denominations to modern, less traditional environments-who: (a) wrestle with whether or not their church should be involved in marketing efforts; or (b) want to do a better job of getting the word out and aren't sure where to start. If you want to see your church expand its reach, and are aware that the potential impact of your church will be directly (and perhaps dramatically) influenced by the degree to which people are aware you exist, this session is for you.

Bill Dillon

  • 12 Steps on Raising Funds for the Church Planter: It's one thing to have a vision to serve as a church planter but it's another to raise the funds needed to accomplish your vision. Bill Dillon, President of People Raising, will share from his more than 35 years how to raise those funds. His approach is practical and has helped thousands of people in ministry today. Bill's proven 12-step personal solicitation program is based on the popular Moody Publishing book People Raising: A Practical Guide to Raising Support. Also, a 6-hour DVD curriculum and web site www.PeopleRaising.com will provide ongoing fund raising training.

Bill Easum

  • Ministry Redux: Reaching the Postmodern: Being able to read the signs of the times is one of the crucial pieces of leadership in exponentially changing times. Learn the secrets to unlocking the unfolding new world.
  • Staffing a Growing Church: Staffing a growing church is one of the biggest learning curves a lead pastor ever experiences. The larger the church the truer this statement: as goes the staff so goes the church.
  • Developing a Culture of Equipping: Learn the ins-and-outs of equipping and coaching your leaders to multiply themselves and their ministries.

Chris Elrod / Scott Hodges / Todd Rhoads

  • Blogging 101: Blogging has developed into one of the foremost ways to communicate in the 21st Century. From international news sites to celebrity gossip, blogs are popping up everywhere on the Internet. This workshop will help you discover how blogging can enhance your ministry and introduce you to new techniques for communicating with your congregation.

Brian Jones

  • Catholic and Searching: Reaching Catholics in a New Church:  Are you prepared to reach the most spiritually open group of people in your community? If you're a church planter ministering in a predominantly Catholic community, don't make the same mistakes most church planters with a Protestant-background make. Based on the real-life experience of a church planter who's never prayed the rosary or prayed a prayer of ejaculation, come learn how to understand, reach out to and welcome searching Catholics in your community.  P.S. If you're hung up on the "the prayer of ejaculation" thing (short, sudden, memorized prayers to aid in devotion) then you definitely need this workshop as well as Freudian counseling. 
  • Teaching Forgiveness in the New Church:  To experience authentic Christian community those who have been placed under our spiritual care must learn how to genuinely forgive those who have hurt them. The problem is that we pastors don't do a great job at forgiving ourselves. Whether it's pain we experienced in our family of origins or dealing with toxic nutballs who have transferred into our churches, pastors need to learn how to forgive just as much as they need to teach forgiveness.  Based on Brian's experience as a church planter for twenty years and his newly released book, Getting Rid of the Gorilla: Confessions on the Struggle to Forgive, come be encouraged and challenged to live out and teach what has to be Jesus' most difficult command. 

Greg Kappas & Henry Oursler

  • Creating a Climate of Health in Church Planting Movements:  Church planting and church turnaround movements need a climate of health much like a greenhouse. This workshop will identify Biblical and cultural principles for creating this climate.
  • How Do We See God Expand our Leadership Capacity:  In this workshop we will look at Biblical principles from the life of Paul and his missionary church planting band and ways that God took the lid off their leadership capacity.

Dave Mills

Sally Morgenthaler

  • Dead Men Walking: Pastors and the Loss of Soul:  Tired? Afraid? Losing sleep? Wondering when the next shoe is going to drop? The distance from ministry passion to burn-out is surprisingly short. Often, our best Christian intentions only make the trip go faster. How can you opt out of the ministry death march and choose life? Come ready to wrestle with this issue outside moralistic "fix yourself" lists. Not an answer class so much as one that inspires a new kind of presence in your everyday life.

Tom Nebel

  • Church Planting Landmines: Experience shows that church planters often commit the same mistakes again and again. Avoiding some of the top "landmines" during years 2-10 can save church planting leaders enormous amounts of time and money - and will help them sleep better at night.
  • Recruiting Church Planters: Those charged with reruiting potential church planters often ask the wrong question. Rather than asking, "Where can I find church planters?" they'd be better off asking, "How can I help the myriad of potential church planters around me embrace their calling?" In this workshop we'll focus on developing a recruitment pathway and learning specific methods to help those who should plant churches to go for it.

Steve Ogne

  • TransFormissional Coaching:  Together we will discuss the unique aspects of coaching young and emerging leaders.
  • Mobilizing Coaches...Finding and Keeping Them: It is impossible to release a movement with professional coaches alone.  Come and learn how to raise up the coaches you need for your church and your movement.

Dave Olson

Groundbreaking research based on a national database of over 200,000 churches shows that the overall United States population is growing faster than the church. The director of the American Church Research Project, Dave Olson, has worked to analyze church attendance, showing that it is virtually unchanged from fifteen years ago while our population has grown by fifty-two million people.  What does this mean for you, your church, and the future of Christianity in North America? Join Dave in his four sessions to learn more about: 

  • The Landscape of the American Church
  • The Survival of the Species
  • The Future of the American Church
  • The Message and Mission of Jesus

Larry Osborne

  • How to Grow a Church and Still Have a Life

Darrin Patrick

  • Raising up good leaders:  Everyone talks about raising up leaders, but what pastors need are good leaders, not just leaders.

Jim Putman

  • Alignment: Do you wonder why some churches grow some, some grow exponentially and why some don't grow at all. Since we are working for God, why doesn't every church grow? Join Jim Putman as he shares the possibility of aligning your church for growth. He will show you how to aim at the right target, organize a structure that works and train up a team of leaders so God's team will win in your community.  

Efrem Smith

  • Growth, Strategy & Theology: This workshop will make the important connection between church growth, strategic planning and a foundational theology. The 2nd Chapter of Acts will be used as a Biblical blueprint for a church that can grow as well as well as take current members deeper.
  • Engaging Culture for Kingdom Purposes: This workshop will present Acts chapter 17 as a foundational text for developing a stategy of cultural engagement. You will discover principles, and ministry models, which equip and empower people to advance the kingdom of God and explore how these ideas compare with cultural embrace and painting the culture as the enemy.

Mark Williams

  • 12 Biblical Principles of Dynamic Church Planting: Church planting was invented by God. It's His chosen way to spread the Gospel and extend His Kingdom. Because church planting is God's idea, we can find principles for planting dynamic churches in the Bible. We have found twelve principles that are transcultural, transgenerational and timeless. Utilizing these biblical principles provides a strong foundation for church planting. The session will be team taught with Kevin Marsico, an exceptional church planter and leader.
  • Leadership Development for Church Planting...a 3D Approach: In this session we will look at a paradigm of Christian leadership. Leadership is influence. If the purpose of a church planting leader is to plant a dynamic, reproductive, disciple-making church, what makes his influence (leadership) effective? The session will be team taught with Kevin Marsico, an exceptional church planter and leader.