In the church, there are ministry roles that all members should play, which can be referred to as ministry uniformity. This includes evangelism, discipleship, loving one another, financial stewardship and corporate prayer. But there is also ministry diversity, ministry strengths and roles that vary between Christians. This includes both spiritual gifts and specific ministry field passion. We should seek a healthy balance between these in our church, and here we discuss what that looks like and how a body of Christ can move toward that balance.

Francis Schaeffer, in his book "The God Who is There," states that we must make a biblical case for Christ in every generation, meaning that we begin with the question of what is truth and how we may know it. There are several ways of knowing, and through examining these different ways, we can adopt a holistic and biblical view of both truth and knowledge. We find truth through our head, heart and hands. Another way to explain this would be knowing through propositional truth, personal truth and practical truth, all tests for identifying truth. As we explore this topic, we see how imperative discovering real truth is to our world and to our faith.

The fear of falling from grace can at times cripple us, especially when we see other spiritual leaders fall. But while we are capable of evil, we have been created for glory. God created us for good, and he offers his comfort for the fearful. By observing the transformation of the apostle Peter we see a model of grace's power to provide hope and change. In fact we see powerful transformations scattered across the Bible! These examples and truths give us hope in our own Christian lives.

Leadership in the Christian sense requires problem-solving, meeting unique needs, and helping improve the spiritual health of others around us. Thus creativity is imperative for success. Creative leadership is a biblical principal, and we would be wise to assess the components: passion, teamwork, wisdom, research, critical thinking and experience. This workshop explores both barriers to creative leadership as well as tips for growth in this area.

Francis Schaeffer, a nineteenth century, prominent theologian, provides several key insights into faithful and biblical evangelism that is transcendent across culture and time. Schaeffer was convinced that we must become preoccupied with reaching the people of our current generation. We should not settle for a superficial knowledge of secular ideology, and we should hold loosely to language or methods that may be barriers to the gospel. While we want to adorn the gospel with authentic Christian love and community, we never want to compromise the truth as we do so. Finally, we can have confidence to point every individual toward a God who is truly there.

Guilt relates to specific actions we may wrongly commit, while shame is the negative defining of self. Shame is rooted in identity. God calls us to have humility and repentance for the wrong things we do, but he offers us freedom from having a life that is persistently defined by guilt and shame. In order to gain victory from this trap, we must assess the differences between positive shame and guilt and negative shame and guilt. Seeking freedom allows transformation, intimacy with God and others, and ownership of our new identity in Christ. This workshop includes several practical ways to help move away from the negative uses of guilt and shame.

We will all experience times when God does not seem present, but several key principles can help us to endure these valleys faithfully. We should expect what is biblical rather than our own desires for God to present himself in vibrant, spiritual experiences. We must exercise trust in God's sovereign goodness and evaluate our own heart attitude and flawed perceptions. Our final step is to wait on the Lord, for which this workshop provides several practical applications.

Unresolved conflict stirs up many negative emotions, including confusion for how God is involved. God does, however, have a will for conflict, and it is that he seeks to be glorified. He is glorified both through resolution and when even one person obeys his principles for conflict. This means that no matter how the other person may respond, we are responsible for our own response. We are called to withhold judgement, address our own failure first, relate wisely, seek God for our needs, and treat the other as we want to be treated. Through these steps, we can have a more God-centered approach and response to conflict.

Joey Francisco teaches a breakout session on understanding what anger is, what the Bible says, and how we can navigate our responses to it. Sometimes our anger is legitimate, and it's important to process through our thoughts and actions. \r\n\r\n

John delivers the first of three workshops based on the SeeJesus ministries discipleship resources and training formed by Paul Miller. As we study the person of Jesus we can understand who God is and how He interacts with people. In scripture when Jesus saw suffering, He had compassion and acted on it. As we study specific passages, using the format Paul Miller has created, we gain insight into God's own heart. \r\n\r\n

Often times we can forget to behold the beauty of the true Jesus that we are heading towards. Opening up the gospels to reengage with the real person of Jesus can lead us to rediscovery. We can discover him through the eyes of the authors. We can also discover how he interacts with people and creates the space they need to enter into a love relationship with him. As we follow and try to live like Christ, we will get to know him more deeply.

We find in the Bible that Jesus loves through his anger. Jesus embodies love and views people as they are meant to be seen. When Jesus gets angry it is because of injustice. Through the story of the man with the crippled hand we can follow Jesus' anger and learn how to love in anger.

The depth and length of relationships that we have with one another, in the Body of Christ, is the final apologetic. To maintain unity we must engage the battle in our thought life, practice forbearance with one another, and practice humility.

While Satan may not be visible to us, we can be sure that he is actively involved on our leadership teams. One of his particular ministries is accusing people to each other, dividing teams of Christians. In order to combat Satan and his attempts to thwart our mission and unity, we must first recognize his presence and identify is common targets. Then in our awareness, our commitment to spend time together, and our focus on positive things we can in turn thwart the evil one.

Many critics of Christianity align science and Christianity against each other in the fighting ring. But is this a proper debate? This workshop addresses two major questions. First, can we believe in both science and God? And two, where does the evidence lead? As we explore the evidence in our physical world, we see that belief in science and God are not two mutually exclusive areas. In fact, science helps defend the Christian faith, and the Christian faith helps propel science.

While there are barriers to teaching apologetics to teenagers, there are also several important benefits. Apologetics can help lead non-believing teens to Christ, and students who are believers can begin to develop a confident faith. In order to teach them effectively, however, we should pray for God's help and involvement and seek ways to connect with the students. Through accommodating for students' understanding and encouraging participation, we can communicate the content in a way that is clear and impactful.

The reality of the Trinity is an important truth both to support our discipleship and our evangelism. As we see Scripture's witness to God as the Trinity, we mature in our faith and grow in our confidence, which in turn helps our evangelistic conversations improve. Through studying the Trinity in Scripture, this doctrinal truth can become a truth that is both relational and relevant for us. This workshop helps us extract key truths about the Trinity from Scripture and consider how to thoughtful converse about this topic with non-Christians.

The existence and personal experience of our soul is readily available evidence that we have a personal, creator God. After defining the soul, we can begin to assess arguments for and against the existence of the soul. This presentation examines several key lines of evidence, including high order consciousness, near death experiences, indications of free week, as well as discrediting parts of the no-soul view. The existence of the soul is overwhelming, and it leads us to the logical conclusion that there must be a supernatural God.

The statistics exposing the passivity of men in our culture are grim, and the church is by no means exempt. Passivity is a lack of action or response, a sin of omission. This workshop provides practical resources for challenging Christian men in this area, ranging from conversations we should ensure we are having, to group ethos changes, to suggestions of how to help motivate them towards God. Jesus wants to draw all men to himself, and we should fight diligently to win men into lives devoted to Christ.

Waiting is an inevitable and frustrating part of life, and the Christian life is not exempt. Though we often short circuit what God wants to do through our waiting, waiting is necessary. This is in part because God is sovereign and knows what is best far beyond our own perceptions. This means that He also has His own timing. We often yearn for growth and change but they take time, as does forming a deeper relationship with our Creator. As we examine reasons why we are called to wait, and who the God is that calls us to wait, we can arrive at a confident hope in our Lord.

Being a Christian does not exempt anyone from suffering. No matter how many good things we may do for God, we will still experience suffering, because suffering is not the result of God's punishment on us. Suffering is a tool for our sanctification, to help us grow and develop stronger character. As we grow to know our God, we see that his picture is much bigger than ours, and he is weaving a story through our suffering to bring about good, though we may not see it in the midst of our trials. We have a choice to make in how we respond when faced with suffering: we can give up in bitterness or hold fast to the Lord's promises and His eternal hope.

Unfortunately some of us have been perpetrators or victims of apologetics used during sensitive and difficult times that are cringe-worthy. How do we balance providing truth and biblical answers in times of suffering with being a caring and sensitive friend? This workshop helps practically break down scenarios and address appropriate responses to others' suffering based on timing and relationship, amongst other factors. As we learn some practical steps in both pastoral cases and apologetical cases, we become better equipped to provide thoughtful responses to others around us.

Our culture is plagued with loneliness. Part of the problem is that we are often more concerned about whether people are being good friends to us than if we ourselves are being a good friend! As we examine the biblical story of David and Jonathan's friendship however, we see several key elements of good friendship. To be a good friend, we must warn our friends of danger even when it may be risky for us. We should speak and wish well of them, encourage, and initiate choosing to commit to the friendship. As we move away from our own selfish tendencies and toward these habits, we move toward becoming a good friend to others.