Disciple Making Conference recap & An Invitation

It’s been two weeks since Sonlife’s Disciple Making conference and I’m still buzzing. Some of my personal highlights revolved around meeting new people, revisiting old friendships, and sharing meals together.

An unexpected highlight for me was the morning prayer time. I was inspired by the amount of people who joined us in that little room off the gym. I deeply enjoyed worshiping and interceding alongside many of you. It’s always a good thing to begin the day with a declared openness to God’s voice and leadership, but particularly so at an event where we are gathered for the purpose of learning from and following his lead in disciple making.

I was free to roam during the Pre Conference, and took the time to sit in on every training room. I’m continually grateful for the gifted Sonlife team members who train, and for those who assembled to seek disciple making faithfulness and excellence. This continued during the rest of the conference, when we focused on Jesus’ Strategy and learning from his Leadership Multiplication methods. Earlier today I heard from another conference participant who emailed me to say to the training helped him “feel FAR MORE PREPARED (emphasis his) to make disciples the way Jesus did!” That’s cool.

Of course, the city of St. Augustine was beautiful, and Good News Church was incredibly generous in hospitality. Thank you, again!

I’ve also been thinking about next steps. When I attend conferences, I like to bring sticky notes along to indicate pages of training that need revisited upon my return home. If I don’t have sticky notes, I dog ear pages and write notes on those pages, along with some ideas for follow up. I hope you’ve got a system, too. This stuff’s too good to forget.

Speaking of follow-up, I’d like to invite you to consider a few things.

First of all, keep an eye out for changes in Sonlife’s look. We have entered a rebranding process. Since we last did this, the context of American and Canadian youth ministry has been altered by a number of factors. And, honestly, we’ve found that not many in the youth ministry world know about us anymore. Our rebranding is part of a process of reintroducing Jesus’ strategy for disciple making to the wider youth ministry world in our global region. We believe when we seek to do ministry Jesus’ way, in relationship with Jesus, we increase the odds that we’ll get the results Jesus wants. And that’s something the Church needs in our area of the globe.

Secondly, consider joining a Sonlife coaching cohort. We believe these cohorts are the best way for most of us to transfer our learning about Jesus’ disciple making methods into real life ministry action. Through these cohorts you will journey alongside others who are seeking the same kind of faithfulness you are seeking, with the benefit of an experienced and trained coach to help you along the way. Check out COHORTS for more info.

Finally, next year we are planning to forego the Disciple Making Conference in order to initiate regional two-day training events in Canada and the US. This should enable more youth ministry leaders to participate in Sonlife’s training. We are on the lookout for hosts. Would your church consider hosting a regional training event? We’re still hammering out the details, but if you’re inclined to serve in this way, let us know by emailing us at office@sonlife.com.