8:00 AM – 9:00 AM – Registration
9:00 AM – 9:10 AM – Welcome and General Announcements
9:10 AM – 10:00 AM – Main Session – “Focus on the Basics “ – Mark Scott
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM – Break
10:15 AM – 11:00 AM – Main Session – “Avoiding Turnovers” – Andrew Fitzgibbon
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM – Main Session – “Offense & Defense” – Brian Lowery
12:30 PM – 1:15 PM – Breakouts
1:30 PM – 2:10 PM – Main Session – “Encourage Your Team” – Mark Scott
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM – Main Session – “It’s How You Play the Game” – President Silas McCormick
3:00 PM – Wrap Up and Head home
Breakout Sessions
President’s Partnership Representatives – Silas McCormick
A Place for All Abilities: The Why & How of Special Needs Ministry – Andrea Mercier
The Special Needs community needs us. Their hearts, families, and marriages are struggling and they need us to be intentional about loving them. Join special needs mom and full-time minister, Andrea Mercier, for an honest discussion on the why and how of special needs ministry. You’ll come away with a better understanding of Jesus’ heart for the special needs and see it’s not just for the mega-churches as Andrea shares the story of Chillicothe Christian Church embracing special needs.
Bio: Andrea is a graduate of Trinity Christian College (B.A. Church and Ministry Leadership) and Northern Seminary (Masters of Divinity). She is an author, speaker, and full-time ministry ninja serving as the Associate Minister of Connections at Chillicothe Christian Church. She loves Jesus and His Church, is a special needs mom and Army wife, who loves to laugh and believes peanut butter is one of God’s special graces.
Resources to Train and Retain Our Youth – Rich Knopp & Zach Breitenbach
The session will survey a variety of resources that Christian leaders can use to stabilize and strengthen the faith of teens and young adults in the church.
Bios: Rich Knopp is Professor of Philosophy & Apologetics at LCU and Director of Room For Doubt.
Zach Breitenbach is Associate Director of Room For Doubt and Adjunct Professor at LCU.
Church safety/legal issues – Robin Pickett
Countless ministries have benefited from Robin’s knowledge and resources to start or improve their safety and security team. He shares resources on forming a team, recruiting the right volunteers, training for violent and non-violent situations, and reducing your ministry’s liability exposure. His goal is to be helpful whether you are insured through his agency or somewhere else. In this breakout session, Robin will offer and discuss resources which are used by ministries of all sizes. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers.
Bio: Robin is the owner of Pickett Insurance Group, an agency that specializes in partnering with ministries. He has 43 years of experience with insurance and risk management, managing over 700 ministry accounts. He has walked ministry leaders through thousands of claims, including sexual abuse, violence, and accidents in the church.
Effective use of Social Media in the Church – Karis Hortin
Bio: I recently graduated from Lincoln Christian University with a degree in Business Administration. A little fun fact about me, I was adopted from Ethiopia Africa at the age of 9. I am a certified life coach for teens, content creator, and social media manager. I got introduced to the social media world when I started my own YouTube channel 3 years ago. As a content creator, I have realized the power of social media is absolutely endless. This is why I choose to use my skills to help churches, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations share their message by utilizing the power of social media.
Best staff compensation practices – Jarod Walker
“It’s all about the benefits.” We should paid church staff a healthy wage or salary. In this workshop we’ll go beyond salary to look at 6 types of compensation benefits that a church or ministry should consider offering its staff.
Bio: Jerod began serving as a pastor at the age of 19 while attending Bible college. Though an Illinois native, as an Army brat he lived in Arizona, Texas, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Germany. Jerod has been a children’s pastor, family ministries pastor, and lead pastor. In 2011, he started Legacy Christian Church in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. In 2018, Jerod became a Regional Vice President at Christian Financial Resources. Jerod and his Wisconsin-native wife, Joanne, were married in 1997. They live in Germantown, Wisconsin with their six children.
Year Zero: A Church Remodel (Acts 2:42-47) – Tracy Thomas
The past two years have been…something. As the church moves forward, let’s take a moment to go back to Acts 2:42-47. We will review the checklist for what the church looked like in the beginning and see what that could mean in your local context.
Bio: Tracy Thomas serves as the Director of Alumni Relations for Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, IL. Tracy has been married to Lori since 1989. They have two daughters: Katie is married to Jarod Haskell, and they are parents to Ezra and Rory; Hannah is their Prader-Willi angel and lives with them. Tracy graduated from LCU (B.A. in Bible, 1991); Illinois State University (B.S. in English, 1991); and LCU (M.A. in Ministry, 2003). Prior to returning to LCU, Tracy served for 18 years in youth ministry (Macomb; Murphysboro; Lincoln IL) and 10 years in preaching ministry (Woodlawn IL). He has a heart for the church and loves that LCU gets to be a bridesmaid to serve the bride of Christ.
Rooted: A Discipleship Tool – Jim Nash, Kay Pemberton
Rooted is a discipleship experience that is consistently challenging people to live lives free from unnecessary baggage and to discover healthy rhythms in life that produces maturing disciples of Jesus. Our goal in this session is to give a high-level overview of Rooted and to describe Cornerstone Christian Church’s journey with Rooted. We’ll discuss how we began the relationship with Rooted, how we found training for facilitators, our wins and losses, and most importantly we’ll share the results that we’re seeing. We do not work for Rooted this is just our story with a useful discipleship tool.
Bios: Jim Nash is Lead Minister at Cornerstone Church in Effingham, IL. Jim has served in that capacity for three and a half years. Along with his role at Cornerstone, Jim serves as Chief Operating Officer with DMI in Effingham and Co-leads a coaching team that focuses on leaders in small churches. He is married to Jamie Nash. Jamie and Jim have one child, Luke Nash with his wife Mikayla lives in Zanesville, Ohio where he serves as Connections Minister at North Terrace Church of Christ.
Kay Pemberton is Executive Minister of Business & Communication at Cornerstone Church in Effingham, IL. Kay has served at Cornerstone for 9 years. She graduated with her Bachelor degree in Organizational Leadership from Greenville University and completed her MBA at Western Governors University. Along with her role at Cornerstone, Kay also has assisted small businesses, non-profits, and individuals with business systems and operations since 2008. Kay currently oversees the Rooted ministry at Cornerstone and is motivated by the “aha” moments and stories of life change.