2025 Disciple Making Conference

Breakout Session Listing

Breakout Session 1: 10:30 a.m.

How To Raise up Church Leaders From Every Generation
Brent Crowe
In this session, we’ll discuss how to create and maintain discipleship processes that produce reproducing leaders in your church. Together, we’ll think through practical ways your church can implement these processes with every generation, from high schoolers to senior adults.

Guest Services 101: Principles for Welcoming Families Into the Church
Danny Franks
When it comes to families who are first-time guests at your church, the little things go a long way. And yet, it’s the little things that we too often forget or ignore. Learn how to build a thorough plan to welcome new families to your church and show them that their children will be loved and safe.

Creating a Sending Culture for Fostering and Replanting Churches
Aaron Wallace
In this breakout session, you will discover the biblical foundation as well as practical strategies for cultivating a sending culture within your church. Together, we will learn how to develop a theology of sending and church multiplication, assess and overcome common obstacles to sending, build a culture of generosity, risk-taking and empowerment, and equip and mobilize leaders for church planting and revitalization. Our hope is that you will leave this session feeling more empowered to foster and replant thriving communities of faith.

Thriving During a Rural Revitalization
Cory Smith and Jerry Lewis
Revitalization can be difficult no matter the context, but it can be especially challenging in rural settings. Many pastors get worn out or burnt out, and they find themselves and their churches just surviving. Come hear stories and learn proven strategies for revitalizing a “normal church” in a rural setting. Gather insights from those who have been there and have seen how God can move churches and pastors from just surviving to thriving.

Preparing Your Church to Send
Gus Hernandez
The leaders, planters, replanters and missionaries of tomorrow are sitting in your seats today. This breakout session will focus on helping church leaders think through developing an intentional process for training future qualified leaders, planters and replanters.

Building a Generosity Culture in your Discipleship
Brian Davis
Do you want to create a contagious culture of generosity within your church? Discover practical strategies to “drip” and “pour” generosity into your church’s culture, while learning ways to talk about money that inspires your people to go deeper in discipleship and further as a church.

Women in Ministry: Leading and Serving On Mission Together
Anna Daub, Christy Thornton, Christina Devlin, Katy Kabrich
Join us for an inspiring panel discussion featuring women ministry leaders from across North Carolina who faithfully serve in their churches, driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ. They will share how discipleship and evangelism shape their ministries and will reveal the incredible work God is doing throughout our state. Don’t miss this opportunity to be encouraged and equipped for your own faith journey!

Think Multiplication
Andrew Hopper, Josh Wredberg, Robert Hefner
How do we help our church to catch the vision for multiplying? In this “TED Talk”-style breakout, you will hear from three very different multiplying churches as they talk about how they are helping their church to “Think Multiplication.”

Casting and Carrying Out a Vision for Sending
Todd Unzicker
Many leaders struggle with casting a compelling vision for mobilizing the church. What if the secret to casting the vision is actually in carrying out the mission? Learn basic steps to mobilizing every church member to be on mission.

Breakout Session 2: 12:30 pm

Stopping the Student Dropout Problem While Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
Jeff Long
Many high school students drop out of church by 10th grade, never to return. How can we combat that trend and implement steps to raise up the next generation of church leaders starting in high school?

Strategies for Fostering and Replanting Churches
Ben McRoy, John Wilson
Come hear stories and learn strategies from churches that are actively replanting and fostering struggling churches. This breakout session will include candid discussions of the successes and failures these churches have experienced during these partnerships as well as practical tips on how to identify struggling churches, build trust and navigate the challenging aspects of fostering and replanting.

Strategies for Revitalizing a Rural Church
Sandy Marks, Chris Fox, Allen Murray and Chip Stallings
Join us for an engaging breakout session where we explore the unique challenges and rich rewards of ministry in rural communities. Learn from seasoned pastors who have navigated these landscapes as they share proven tools and strategies tailored to both rural and normative settings. Whether you’re currently serving in a rural area or seeking to understand the dynamics of rural ministry, this session offers valuable insights to inspire and equip you on your journey.

Big Vision Beyond Size
Rusty Gunn
In this breakout, you will learn from Send Arkansas Director Rusty Gunn, who leads a normative-sized multiplying church, about how “not-large” churches can send. You don’t have to be a big church to have a big vision for sending and planting churches.

Caring for Others Amid Cultural Brokenness
Tate Cockrell
The effects of living in a broken and fallen world can be seen all around us. Christians know what the Bible says, yet it can be hard to know how to love our friends and family well when they are pursuing sins that the culture has normalized. In this session we will address how to show care and compassion to those blinded by culturally normative sins like premarital sex, cohabitation, homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion.

The Essentials of Disciple-Making Parenting
Rodney and Donna Navey
How can we equip parents to be effective disciple makers in their homes? What systems or structures can we build to help busy parents disciple their children, their community and the ends of the earth?

Women in Ministry: Actively Engaging in Discipleship and Evangelism
Ashley Reffit
Join us as we explore how women’s discipleship aligns with God’s call and design for women in the local church. We’ll discuss how women can cultivate intimacy with Christ while actively serving Him through prayerful engagement in evangelism, discipleship and missions. Together, we’ll discover ways to leave a lasting legacy for future generations.

Engaging Your City with the Gospel
Brent Minter
Keystone Church of Ankeny, Iowa, is a church God is using to lead people to faith in Him as they engage their city in practical ways. Keystone is part of the larger network of churches called The Salt Network, whose heart is to plant churches and Salt Companies in university cities all across this country and to the ends of the earth.

Casting and Carrying Out a Vision for Sending
Todd Unzicker
Many leaders struggle with casting a compelling vision for mobilizing the church. What if the secret to casting the vision is actually in carrying out the mission? Learn basic steps to mobilizing every church member to be on mission.