Let's be honest - no one wants to have tough conversations with their team mates. However, opportunities for growth and maturity often presents itself when working side by side in ministry. As a leader, we must have the courage and insight to guide our staff through tough transitions. This talk addresses the need for honest communication and the importance of hard, but necessary conversations.

At the heart of thriving churches are passionate people that volunteer in every imaginable capacity. It?s these people that bring to life what would otherwise be nothing more than nice ideas about what a local church could bring to its community. In this talk, Brad Baker explores what it looks like to steward volunteers and look beyond their mere function and begin to truly invest into their formation.

Meals are mile-markers. They carry memories and help us locate where we are in the journey. For Christian?s, the Lord?s Supper is a place where we remember Christ?s death and resurrection, anticipate the great feast when creation is made new, and encounter the Spirit here and now. As a practice, coming to the Table in our weekly worship services keeps Jesus as the center and the Gospel as the story.

As pastors, we are almost always leading. Yet taking the time to stop? whether by a sabbath or a sabbatical? can help us become truly present to the Lord, to ourselves, and to our families. It can also help us cultivate a kind of holy indifference, remembering that we are not in ministry because we love the church or the cause, but because we love Jesus.

There is an ongoing fear for ministry leaders that their kids will become disillusioned and disconnected from church life in their adult years. How we make sure that our kids are engaging in serving the local church and don't leave? This talking point highlights some key statistics and a personal story of how there is hope for those of us raising kids while working in the church.

More than melodies. More than lyrics. We are called to bring a sound that changes atmospheres. Songs that defy the darkness. Songs that confront culture. Songs that proclaim more than just good ideas or nice opinions. This breakout is all about breakthrough through the power of worship.

Seeing children rise to become Christ-like influencers at home, at school and around the neighborhood is the dream of every children's ministry leader. When a child realizes they have a role to play in showing others what Jesus is really like, beautiful things begin to happen. But how do we get there? It certainly doesn't happen by default. It begins by digging down to the foundation and examining the underlying, often unspoken, philosophy from which our children's ministry emerges.

We believe that the local life-giving church can change the world! Together, we can create a culture of personal outreach and unlock the passion of the people in your church to live beyond themselves and deeply impact the lives of those in need - both in your local community and around the world. Let's be the church that goes after the one, and let's change the world together!

Join members of the New Life Worship and New Life Creative Arts teams as we discuss the heart and vision behind our worship ministry as well as how we practically implement this vision. From rehearsals, to scheduling, to how we run sound on a Sunday Morning, find out how and why we do what we do.

Churches are full of teams...staff teams, worship teams, elder teams, ministry teams, kids teams, etc. So the question is, "Are they healthy?" There is a huge difference between a functional team and a healthy team and the fruit they produce. As church leaders we must pay attention to the state of our teams. Let's talk about what healthy looks like and helpful tools to get there.

Jesus said people would identify us as his disciples by our love for one another yet often our church bodies feel more like a gathering of sports fans cheering for the same team than they do the family that we see in Scripture. NLC Pastors Jeremiah Parks and Jon Plotner will share stories of how Section Communities are shifting our church culture into a family growing "with one another" and becoming more attractive to the unchurched in our city.

Can you imagine your city flourishing? Where people of all ages, races and status are serving the most vulnerable among us and God is glorified? In this breakout we will marry the biblical ideas of prophetic imagination with our passions to see our cities transformed. Biblical promises and pictures of flourishing cities abound. But how do we begin in our own city with a vision so large? How can we practically impact our own city? How can we remain faithful to the biblical vision of mission to our own cities? We will combine a simple framework with fresh insight and very practical discussion (but no formulas!) to help you embrace a vision and develop unique plans to bless people in your own context.

New Life Church Men's Ministry has taken a very unique approach to gathering men in a close relationship with God and each other. Using concepts derived from our military, our Men's Ministry encourages men to form small groups, called Fire Teams, that draw men together as comrades to love God, live life and care for one another. Join Pastors Gabe Jenkins and Colen Willis as they offer insights into this unique approach to Men's Ministry.

Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago (the home of Vertical Church Band) runs 7 Campuses a weekend and holds a huge weight on that event being the furnace that fuels the rest of the church's weekly activity. Our team will unpack the philosophy and 'Vertical' system behind planning our weekly worship services and explore variations of service ideas and forms.

My first five years of ministry in Austin have been both exhilarating and perplexing. Join me for a frank and vulnerable discussion about our church journey of making disciples in an urban setting, letting go of old paradigms, and the 21st century application of 1st century practices.

Pastors and leaders have a sincere desire to engage in their city and the world. What we should do, where we should do it and with whom we should partner with are usually hurdles that either stifle our engagement or minimize our impact. This workshop will help you craft a simplified missions engagement document that will streamline your overall church participation.

Many pastors and leaders feel the call to write. Perhaps there is a desire that stirs within you to steward the message God has given you through writing. Where do you start? How do you craft your message? Should you write a book? If so, how do you navigate the publishing industry? These are a few of the questions Gabe Jenkins and Allen Arnold will discuss in their session, "The Call to Write." Gabe has served on the pastoral staff at New Life for the past ten years and is the author of the book, "Deep Waters: God's Invitation To Go Deeper." Allen currently oversees all of the content and resources for Ransomed Heart ministries, and previously spent 20 years as an executive at Thomas Nelson Publishing

Some teach by topics; others by text. But all of us want to preach Christ above all. Yet in a world that is moving beyond the secular, how can we preach Jesus without succumbing to the trap of trendiness or the pitfall of, well, preaching only to Christians? Pastor Glenn Packiam will spend the first 20-minutes helping us discern a model that begins with what moves people deeply and is shaped by the Gospel itself. Then Pastor Daniel Grothe will help us think about a model of preaching that goes beyond the mere transference of information to the full engagement of one's imagination. We will wrap up with 20-minutes of discussion.

Always a favorite and fun session, you'll hear from a group of experienced songwriters about the great gift of song. Though each writer in this group may have a different approach, they have a deep commitment to God-songs and church songs.

Mia will be unpacking her experience as a worship leader and songwriter from the unique perspective of working with Hillsong, in Nashville and with many great leaders around the world.

This session will be an overview of what is needed to record songs written in your local church. We will cover the basic tools needed to make quality recordings and explore recording philosophies that will help give you better direction throughout the recording process.

So, let's say you are taking breaks, resting well, and developing a healthy rhythm. That's good, but when you work are you spending your energies in the right places? Many pastors are worn out by the wrong things. What if more ministry could happen without you? Let's talk about killing the staff-driven church, multiplying our energies, and empowering people.

New Life Staff leaders will talk about men's, women's, single moms and widows and how to minister effectively to those populations.

This workshop is geared towards providing practical tools and helpful perspective for the use of guitars in the context of a local church worship team.

Various New Life staff discuss the importance of creating a seamless experience from parking lot to pew and how they go about creating healthy culture.

Pastor Jimmy Rollins will help you find your rythmn as an outreach driven church and will share how his church formed a world changing partnership with One Child Matters.

This workshop is geared towards providing practical tools and helpful perspective for the use of keys in the context of a local church worship team.

The number of great songs and artists that now label themselves as "worship artists" has grown exponentially in the last 10+ years. However, the ambitions and gifts that lead people to be recording artists are often opposed to the qualities and gifts that must exist in a great worship pastor. We'll explore the state of worship music and its various expressions of Psalmists, Performers and Prophets. How can you find the balance of songs, excellence and ministry in our culture? Drawing from over 20 years of music industry publishing and recording experience, Craig will also leave ample time to answer your questions.

Join songwriters Jon Egan, Paul Baloche, Mia Fieldes, Cory Asbury, Stu G, and Jared Anderson. This session will consist of Jon Egan interviewing all the writers in a conversational environment. We'll talk through the writing process, philosophy, habits, success stories and failures!

This session is for every pastor who wants to ignite a culture of passion for God that spills out into missional lifestyles. We will describe the current challenges of local mission, and offer an alternative path, through courageous communication, to identify and embrace our roles, overcome all obstacles, and create a culture of self-sacrificial service.

If your church closed down would the neighborhood notice? Would they care?? These are questions all churches should ask. But what do we do to make sure the answer to them is in the affirmative? How do we motivate and mobilize our congregations to be great neighbors, salt and light neighbors in their neighborhoods? Come hear practical ideas and strategies on how to connect your church community with the neighborhood community they are a part of and should be reaching.

With 20 years of executive experience in a world wide para-church ministry and now a New Life Church Executive Pastor, Yvette will share some key insights into identifying what is in the chasm between where we are and where we're going in order to help us move forward personally and in our ministries.

'Liturgy' means, quite simply, 'the work of the people'; it's what we do when we get together. While much of our attention on a Sunday goes to the preaching and the worship, the truth is ALL our communal 'rituals'- from the parking lot to the lobby to the pew and to the altar- shape who we are. So, the only question that remains is, 'HOW (not 'IF') our rituals are shaping us? What kind of people are we becoming because of our corporate 'rituals'- even the ones we aren't aware of?

This session will focus on strategically evaluating your missions work and learning how to choose and cultivate healthy ministry partners.

This workshop is geared towards providing practical tools and helpful perspective for the use of bass in the context of a local church worship team.

Cory and Caleb will talk about the main principles of prophetic worship and how to implement spontaneous moments into your worship services.

Join various ministry leaders from the New Life Staff as they discuss specific ministry demographics. If you have interest in how to grow a sense of community over-all as well as within specific demographics, this is the breakout for you.

Worship operations at New Life Church involves pastoring and stewarding the worship staff and volunteers in a way that serves the vision of the church and its people. We?ll discuss some of the key components that help make this possible in our context, including communications, scheduling, Sunday morning worship team configuration and explanation of some of the tools we use.

Dan & Amy Perkins, leaders of the Desperation Leadership Academy discuss how to invest in interns and students. Over the years they have grown DLA from a handful of students to over 100, and they can help you unlock the potential of your church's internship opportunities.

'Culture' is a word that gets thrown around a lot. But what is it? How do we 'create' it as leaders? What are the signs that it is taking root? How do we cultivate it as it takes root? Is there a way to change a church's culture? Church planter Aaron Stern and New Life Downtown pastor Glenn Packiam will lead a story-filled, lively session about these questions and more.

Collaborative Leadership - Brady and Glenn

Women in Minisitry - Brady Boyd and Scot McKnight

3:30pm Breakout: Let Her Lead

3:30pm Breakout: Doxa Deo

2pm Breakout: The Role of Local Church in Military Ministry

2pm Breakout: Worship and Prayer

2pm Breakout: Creative Leadership

General Session Four - Robert Morris - Mistakes I've Made

General Session Three - Scot McKnight - Sound Theology in Preaching

General Session Two - Brady Boyd - Twelve Steps of an Affair

General Session One - Alan Platt - Reaching Your City

3:30pm Breakout: Church Planting

3:30pm Breakout: Band Dynamics

3:30pm Breakout: How Worship Shapes Believing

2pm Breakout: Community

2pm Breakout: High Risk Behaviors

2pm Breakout: Executive Pastors Round Table

Main Session 4 - 2012 Leadership Conference

Breakout Session 2 - 2012 Leadership Conference

Breakout Session 1 - 2012 Leadership Conference

Main Session 2 - 2012 Leadership Conference

Session 1 - 2012 Leadership Conference

The Empathy Encounter is a deeply interactive worship and justice experience. Worship, prayer, and scripture converge with film, photography, and artifacts to create an immersive evening capturing God?s heart for justice.

Tom Davis, Children's Hope Chest Sandie Morgan, Global Center for Women & Justice Chris Reyes, Life Network Bishop Michael J. Sheridan, Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs Kimberly Smith, Make Way Partners

In this session you will discover God's plan for His people to intervene in the circumstances that cause slavery, understand how the Church is uniquely situated to respond, and learn how you can personally take action that will make a difference.

Walk with Kimberly Smith through painfully intimate encounters with genocide, as she has personally recorded them in Darfur and Southern Sudan. Her unique insight has been hard wrought through nearly three years of living within the most extensive attempt of annihilation ever known to mankind. She will help us move from the 'valley of the shadow of death' mentality to living and working within the power Christ promised when He told us that His church would have so much energy, even the gates of hell would not be able to keep us out. In the end, we'll all have a clearer window through which to peer into the heart of God, finding our presence in, and our response to, this evil.

When you hear the word 'orphan', what do you think? Africa? Asia? South America? For some reason, we tend to assume that the phrase 'global orphan crisis' doesn't include the United States. Most people are shocked to hear that the US has more than 120,000 legal orphans - right in our own backyards. This session will explore that issue further and address ways we can have an impact on those orphans right in our communities

What if you haven't been called to adopt a waiting child, but you still want to help orphans and play a role in the adoption process? There is good news. You CAN play a role in the adoption journey, you can help a child, and you can make a world of difference for an adoptive family. This breakout will explore the many ways we can provide much-needed support to adoptive families in our churches and neighborhoods.

How do we see people with differing abilities from a Gospel Perspective? This break-out session will actively explore how to relate to one another from a Gospel Posture, and how to enfold people with disabilities-and their families-into congregational life by applying the Gospel in Practice.

Hope is not simply a matter of, 'Christ died for your sins,' but God's hope is here, it is in you and it now guides you and will take over every aspect of the new you. Hope that in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Jesus walks with us in the here and now, we are known, each one of us, by name. This is also true for the orphan and the forgotten. In the measure that we have received hope, we give hope to those who have been abandoned by all but God and it's the greatest adventure of our lives.

Ever wonder why some Christians emphasize the sanctity of human life while others emphasize justice? Does the Bible give an either-or option? Or, as Christ followers, are we called to a both-and approach? Why does it matter and what does it mean for the Church today? Ignite your passion, enhance your biblical understanding and become better equipped to be an advocate for those who can't speak for themselves - from the preborn to those at the end of life - and at all stages in between.