About

Our Mission
Equipping leaders in relational disciple-making according to the Son’s life.

Our Vision
Transforming the culture of youth ministry in North America, restoring it to the disciple-making heart of Jesus.

Our History
For over 40 years, Sonlife has taught the life of Christ developmentally, believing that Jesus modeled how to create a movement of multiplying disciples.  Looking at Jesus’ life from the perspective of a leader trying to “walk as Jesus walked” (I John 2:6) and “do what Jesus did” (John 14:12), we have analyzed what Jesus did the first year, second year, and third year in creating a movement of multiplying disciples. Identifying 5 phases in the development of a healthy ministry, we have identified critical priorities Jesus lived by in building a movement of multiplying disciples. Believing that Jesus' disciples may have been in their late teens or early 20’s, we have committed ourselves to training next generation leaders in developing disciple-making ministries.

Dann Spader, Sonlife’s founder, birthed the ministry out of a youth ministry he was leading while a student at Moody Bible Institute. One of Dann’s professors at Moody had made the comment that it was likely that many of Jesus’ original disciples were teenagers, so Dann decided to intently study Jesus and model his ministry after the Son’s life. Soon other youth pastors in the Chicagoland area were asking Dann to teach them about the Son’s life and how to build a ministry like Jesus. Since it’s founding, Sonlife has worked hard to go deep into the Life of Christ… making application to ministry within a local church setting. Today, Sonlife’s disciple-making training is impacting ministry leaders in over 100 countries across the globe. Over 1,000,000 leaders have been through some aspect of the Sonlife training over the last 40 years, and over 50 organizations globally have identified Sonlife as their training partner.

In July 2013, Doug Holliday accepted the leadership role of President for Sonlife North America.  Doug began in youth ministry in 1987 at the church Dann Spader attended, and Dann became a ministry mentor for Doug.  In 2001, Doug joined Sonlife’s leadership team as the Southeast Regional Coordinator and Jr. High Ministry Multiplier.  From 2003-2013, Doug multiplied Sonlife’s training globally in Africa and Haiti, serving as J-Life Africa’s East Africa Coordinator and the Director of the School Of Youth Ministry in Haiti. 

Today, Sonlife’s team of missionaries continues to grow as many who have been impacted by the Son’s Life are called to step out in faith and join our team, equipping others as they have been equipped through training and coaching in relational disciple-making according to the Son’s life.

We invite you to join in the movement!

Statement of Faith
Sonlife adheres to the statement of faith from the National Association of Evangelicals.