1:00-4:00 pm

Building Healthy People Systems with Jenni Catron. Building a system that fosters employee engagement, protects alignment, and accelerates growth is the secret weapon of successful organizations. Jenni will guide you through building a plan for engagement of your staff. Special enrollment needed.

1:00-4:00 pm

The Art of Culture with Bobby McGraw. The Middle Way is an ancient paradigm that has powerful modern-day applications. Aristotle asserted that the Middle Way was, Where human beings are the happiest. Special enrollment needed.

1:00-4:00 pm

New XP Workshop with David Fletcher. Fletch leads this time on the critical first year for an XP. Some XPs had prior roles at the church for many years and others are new to that culture. The key is learning your new role and responding to the dynamics of that role: Working with the Senior Pastor, working with staff leaders and the entire staff and working with the congregation. Special enrollment needed.

1:00-4:00 pm

What If Financial Giving Drops? with Brad Leeper. Brad walks you through key questions: What if your board and team have ministry goals that cannot be funded either at budget or to handle a capital investment that accelerates mission? What if there is a giving resignation trend from economic conditions or giver fatigue? Special enrollment needed.

6:30 pm

XP-Seminar Registration and Dessert. We like to begin with an evening welcome and social in the Beverly Ballroom. Talk to old friends and meet some new ones.

7:00-7:30 pm

XP Leadership and Stewardship with Brad Leeper. Few know more about generosity and church culture than Brad. He and the Generis team were key movers in instigating a “culture of generosity” in the church landscape. Brad earned a Masters in Theology degree from Dallas Seminary and a B.S. in Economics from West Virginia University. He has diverse experience in church risk management, human resources, financial analysis, adult education, cross-cultural missions and strategic planning.

7:30-7:45 pm

Short Ride with JB Bowling. Listen to a fresh interview on some tough questions with JB and Fletch. JB is the Vice President of Clark and leads the Design & Business Development teams. George and Houston Clark first met JB 25 years ago, while working at his home church. JB went on to work for a few large churches, including Shadow Mountain Community Church as Production Director and Turning Point’s television broadcast. He was the Global Arts Director at LibertyLive.Church, leading the worship, production, and creative teams across three campuses.

7:45-8:30 pm

Sexual Abuse Risk—Learning from the Mistakes of Others with Kimberlee Norris, JD. As a national leader in sexual abuse crisis management, Kimberlee works non-stop to help ministry organizations navigate child sexual abuse issues. She explains predictable patterns in sexual abuse crises: ministry leaders cannot commit the same errors and expect different outcomes. Kimberlee describes frequent legal obstacles, how ministry leaders are stumbling, and offers guidance to avoid the most common mistakes.

8:30-8:45 pm

Documents To Die For a Short Ride with Dave Hess. Dave is a 22-year veteran of the United States Air Force, then served as an executive pastor. Now as Vice-President of Consultant Development with Financial Planning Ministry, his role is to help train and manage a team of 40 professionals who provide education on estate planning processes while assisting individuals and families with their specific planning needs.

8:45-9:15 pm

Busy ≠ Productive: 5 Productivity Hacks To Accomplish More & Juggle Less with Ryan Fitzgerald. Productivity isn’t just about task completion; it’s about optimizing all your resources. If you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed trying to grow your ministry’s impact while keeping up with the demands of church leadership, pastoral care, and your personal life, it may be time for a productivity overhaul. During this keynote, learn how to identify some of your roadblocks and explore strategies that harness—and maximize—productivity for your church. Before becoming the Director of Marketing at BELAY, a modern staffing company, Ryan Fitzgerald worked for North Point Ministries in Atlanta for 15 years. He also helped launch Decatur City Church, North Point’s sixth Atlanta-area location. While there, Ryan built the creative, communications, and operations teams and served as the lead pastor’s chief advisor and strategist.

7:00-8:20 am

Breakfast on Healthy Pastor Care with Bill & Kristi Gaultiere. The co-founders of Soul Shepherding will begin a special two-part keynote presentation on the pastoral heart. The Full breakfast is sponsored by Thrivent Church Financing. Thrivent has been serving churches for over 100 years with over 6,000 churches served, and many lessons learned.

8:20-8:50 am

Implementing a Church Vision with David Hsu. David is the Senior Pastor of West Houston Christian Church. He received his Master of Theology (Th.M.) and Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary. He joined WHCC as the English pastor in 1993. He was appointed as senior pastor in July 2002. He is married to Cheryl and has two children, Nathan and Hannah.

8:50-9:20 am

Why Your Accounting Department May Be the Highest Risk Part of Your Church Right Now and What You Can Do About It with Mike Batts. Mike Batts is the managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee (BMWL) and has more than 30 years of experience serving nonprofit organizations in a variety of ways. He has served on and chaired the boards of nonprofit organizations—both nationally and locally.  Mike is a member and former chairman of the board of ECFA, an organization that accredits Christian organizations in the areas of board governance and financial integrity. Mike regularly advises nonprofit organizations on matters related to board governance, financial oversight, tax compliance and strategy, risk management, corporate structure, international activities, and other related topics. He has also actively engaged in nonprofit legislative matters at the federal and state levels. Mike has authored several books, his most recent being Nonprofit Finance: The Field Guide for Financial Operations of Ministries, Schools, and Other Public Charities (Accountability Press, 2023). Mike is licensed or authorized to practice as a CPA in multiple states across the U.S.

9:20-9:35 am

Short Ride with Warren Bird. Warren is the SVP of Research and Equipping at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Warren is an award-winning writer and researcher. His background includes pastoring and seminary teaching, and a 13-year run as research director at Leadership Network. Warren has authored or co-authored over 30 books including Hero Maker with Dave Ferguson, How to Break Growth Barriers with Carl George and Unleashing the Word with Max McLean.

9:35-10:25 am

The Changing Marketplace of Church Insurance—Trends You Need to Know! by Kurt Hetherington. Huge verdicts from juries, increased construction costs, public adjustors, cultural shifts and a history of four years of the worst catastrophic claims … These are some of the critical causes that has put the insurance market on its head. Your church feels the impact. Be informed and understand how to mitigate, insulate and enhance your risk portfolio. Kurt is the President of James Greene and Associates an agency partner with Brotherhood Mutual, who is a national property and casualty insurance company with a heart for helping Christian ministries thrive. As a leader in the industry, Brotherhood Mutual provides innovative insurance coverage and risk management resources, specifically designed for ministries, to help them operate safely and effectively.

10:25-10:55 am

Banking and Budgeting: Key Considerations in an Uncertain Economy with Rob Faulk & David Lee. Join us for a look at the current banking and economic environment and how that may impact church budgets over the next few years, with insight and updates from a CPA and a banker. We’ll discuss practical steps to help you create margin in your church budget for increased interest costs, inflation, pastoral transitions, and other risks that will impact churches of all sizes. Rob serves as Partner and Church and Denomination Services Director at CapinCrouse LLP and David is a Senior Relationship Manager at Thrivent Church Financing.

10:55-11:25 am

Legal Cornerstones: The Essentials for All Churches with Wendi Hodges & Ally Haefner. Wendi is a Senior Attorney and Ally a Senior Associate Attorney, both with the Church Lawyers. The firm has been a sponsor of the XP-Seminar for many years and always brings the best in penetrating legal insights. Let’s discover what is essential for all churches!

11:25-11:55 am

Architecture and Design with Bruce Woody. Bruce is President & CEO for HH Architects and a frequent speaker on both large and small-scale church/faith-based campus planning projects. Since joining the firm in 1990, he has served as Design Lead or Principal-in-Charge on the vast majority of the firm’s large-scale projects, many of which are award winning. Bruce is best known for his creative problem-solving skills and the passion he has for design, which is evident in each long-standing partnership he has developed through his 33 years with the firm.

Noon

Networking Lunch. Pick up lunch outside the Ballroom and take it to a room on either floor. Use this time to meet new colleagues and network with friends.

1:15-2:15 pm

Workshops: Session 1

2:15 pm

Afternoon snack on first floor

2:30-3:30 pm

Workshops: Session 2

3:45-4:45 pm

Workshops: Session 3

Dinner

Take an XP/SP friend to dinner! Schedule it early with someone from your state or similar-sized church. We see scores of people do this every year.

7:00-7:30 pm

The Top 10 List to Enhance Church Communications, Marketing, and AI with Jason Hamrock. These days so much has changed in a church communications department, especially with the deployment of AI, and when any of those issues arise, it disrupts forward momentum and can cause major issues throughout the whole church staff. As CEO of Missional Marketing, Jason guides the vision for how Missional Marketing best serves church partners and strives to help churches digitally to capture attention, engage, educate, and persuade people to take action. He was a Communications Director for 11 years at Central Christian Church of Arizona. He hosts the Missional Marketing podcast, which just passed 100 episodes and has thousands of downloads.

7:30-7:45 pm

Short Ride with Jenni Catron. Jenni is the founder of The 4Sight Group, a consulting group focused on developing healthy leaders and thriving organizations. Jenni’s passion is to lead well and to inspire, equip and encourage others to do the same. Jenni is the author of several books including Clout: Discover and Unleash Your God-Given Influence and The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership. She has served on the executive leadership teams of Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California and Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

7:45-8:00 pm

Kingdom Outplacement: A New Paradigm In Letting Staff Go with Matt Davis. Many churches fit the profile of onboarding new leaders as being a transparent, elder-run, prayerful deliberation. Unfortunately letting leaders go in many ministry settings can feel obscure, dominated by legal and HR procedure, and we’re all usually left with more questions than clarity. Lessons learned during his own triage experience out of vocational ministry helped build the foundation for the services Pastoral Transitions offers to outgoing leaders. Co-hosting the Life After Ministry podcast, Matt and his wife Marilee talk about best practices in discovering what’s next for outgoing leaders.

8:00-9:00 pm

From Youth Pastor to Award Winning Filmmaker with Kurt Neale. Kurt is an independent filmmaker, photographer and storyteller. He is the founder and President of Compelling Light, a non profit ministry. Kurt works to build relationships while unveiling the complexities of sensitive subjects, provoking self-reflection and focusing on the mysterious collision of love. He earned a BFA in Broadcast Film from SMU in 1974. Kurt married Julie in 1979, they have two grown children and one grandchild. Some of his award winning films are, Ask: Can Love Survive Addition and Codependency and Normie: The Illusion of Normal. See his interview with Dr. Phil.

7:45-8:30 am

Seeing Around the Corner: 2024 Design Trends, Breakfast with Dave Milam. Every year brings a parade of design trends that often create an avalanche of expense requests to upgrade your site. In this short session, Dave will reveal which trends matter and which trends should be ignored. Don’t miss this inspiring breakfast with Dave. He is the Vice President of Strategic Design at Visioneering Studios. Dave stands firmly at the intersection of ministry, design, and visual storytelling. Having served in the church for over 20 years, Dave has a heart for guiding pastors through unique challenges of ministry to awaken the beauty that God has placed within them and their facilities. His writing has been featured in LifeWay, Outreach Magazine, Influence, Christian Standard and other national periodicals.

8:30-9:15 am

Soul Shepherding to Get Through the Wall with Bill & Kristi Gaultiere, Co-Founders, Soul Shepherding, which is a ministry to help pastors and churches go deeper with Jesus in emotional health and loving leadership. Bill is a psychologist (Ph.D.), ordained pastor, and spiritual director. Kristi is a marriage and family therapist (Psy.D.) and spiritual director. They co-lead the Soul Shepherding Institute which features four 5-day retreats on Spiritual Formation, Spiritual and Psychological Development, Soul Care Ministry, and Relationally Healthy Leadership and includes an option to earn certificates in spiritual direction and coaching. They have trained over 200 spiritual directors and coaches with over 40 serving on their staff as Sr. Spiritual Directors that offer spiritual direction, leadership coaching, Enneagram coaching, and Sabbatical coaching. They are authors of a number of books, including Journey of the Soul, which was #1 on Amazon in Christian Counseling, Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke, and their latest book, Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith.

9:15-9:30 am

2024 Church Tech Trends, a Short Ride with Cary Yocum. Pushpay builds world-class giving and engagement solutions to help organizations grow their communities. We deliver a donor management system, including donor tools, finance tools and a custom community app, to help the faith sector connect with their congregation. Pushpay acquired Church Community Builder, the industry-leading church management software. Together, they serve more than 10,000 customers.

9:45-10:45 am

The Future of Theological Education with Dr. David Hogg. David is the President of Phoenix Seminary. He taught at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Beeson Divinity School, where he also served as the Academic Dean. David has also served as a visiting professor at Biblický Teologický Semináři in the Czech Republic. As one of a few conservative evangelicals in medieval theology and history, his work has been published by, among others, Oxford University Press, NYU Press and Crossway. David was an Associate Pastor and then Senior Pastor over an 11-year period.

10:45-11:20 am

Be The Unicorn with William Vanderbloemen. William started Vanderbloemen because he understands that when your team isn’t whole it disrupts your mission. He has written: Next: Pastoral Succession That Works, Search: The Pastor Search Committee Handbook, Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace and his latest blockbuster Be the Unicorn (2023).

11:20 am

Break for Lunch. Pick up lunch outside the Ballroom and take it to a workshop.

11:30-12:30 pm

Lunch Workshops: Session 4

12:45-1:45 pm

Workshops: Session 5

2:00-3:00 pm

Workshops: Session 6

Have a safe trip home