[With Dr. Sarah Leer] Exploring themes of affirmation, solidarity, and belonging through the lens of abundance, this journey begins with the reality that many church workers are stretched thin—navigating shifting social, political, and ecclesiastical landscapes while trying to create spaces where people feel seen and safe. Engaging topics like brave spaces, practical theology, and LGBTQIA+ affirmation, the experience invites deep reflection and honest conversation. Through creativity and collaboration, adults are challenged to share power with youth and young adults, cultivating communities where belonging runs deep. What emerges is a set of practical tools and frameworks that help nurture inclusive spaces and spark transformation.

[With Melissa Tucker & Marte Aboagye]
In this co-led workshop presented by Springtide Research Institute, participants will interact with fresh findings that explore how faith-based organizations engage emerging generations, learning how SD United Youth Group does so using an innovative cooperative (“co-op”) model. Springtide has been undertaking a multi-year campaign, supported by Lilly Endowment, Inc., to discover what's working in Christian youth ministry. Springtide’s Head of Engagement Marte Aboagye will share insights on the five core themes this study found consistently in effective youth-serving organizations: inclusivity, purpose, fun, integrity, and adaptability. Pastor Melissa Tucker, co-creator of SD United, will bring these themes to life by sharing how implementing a co-op model in an open and affirming youth group has allowed teens from across San Diego to find a home. Together, Springtide and SD United will provide a space to learn from thriving ministries and to consider how you might cultivate these themes in your own work with young people.

[With Rachel Whaley Doll]Across denominations and regions, church leaders are facing shifting demographics that no longer fit traditional program structures. Creating meaningful, multi-age experiences can feel costly, time-consuming, and overwhelming. This exploration begins with the science behind creating together—why it matters and how it works. From there, participants dive into hands-on activities like Shared Storytelling, Liturgy Libs, Fun Noodle Foosball, Word Art, Composting Anger, and Growing Connections through Broken Plate Mosaics. Along the way, ideas are shared, adapted, and reimagined for different groups and spaces. What emerges is a fresh perspective on multi-age ministry and a packet of flexible, meaningful activities ready to be brought home.

[With Rev. Shannon LeMaster-Smith] Exploring three key elements of faithful discipleship—beginning with equipping youth to take ownership of ministry leadership. Moving into building intergenerational teams, the focus shifts to youth and adults planning, implementing, and evaluating ministry together. The final element introduces a curriculum approach grounded in wondering and play, honoring every participant as a co-explorer. Along the way, participants gain conversation starters and a flexible template to begin this work in their own ministry contexts.

[With Rev. Kelly Demo] How can youth bring their gifts and passions to life in service to the Gospel? This workshop introduces a Sunday school model where senior high youth design and implement their own projects that give back to the church and community. Learn how to teach youth to engage in discernment, needs assessment, and ministry planning as well as gaining leadership skills, collaboration, navigating productive failure, and balancing goal-setting with their already busy lives. Whether you have 1 or 100 youth in your program, the Giving Project can help youth learn how to live out the gospel in concrete ways. This will be a very practical how-to workshop.

[With Stephen Ingram] A workshop that explores a methodology that moves past haphazard encounters with a deconstruction phase and towards an intentional process of regular deconstruction in students' faith lives as a core part of Christian education. This approach leans into methodology being employed in many Scandinavian countries—methods that help students read and understand news and current events through a critical lens. By adopting these practices, the workshop is helping youth workers employ deconstruction as a core part of their Christian formation process. Deconstruction becomes a tool of reflection and refinement that combats mindless nationalistic Christian herd mentality.

[With Rev. Dr. Emily Peck ] Respecting the agency of young people in our faith communities also means accompanying, encouraging, and equipping them as they seek to make changes within the church. Learn how to (and why) teach youth how to organize within a faith community, which can also help them learn how to organize in their schools and wider communities. 

[With Matt Sandoval] Individuals who have experienced trauma—and communities shaped by historical wounds—deserve healing-centered spaces rooted in cultural tradition, spiritual practice, and creative expression. Resilience grows through personal coping skills, compassion, community connection, and the integration of spiritual and cultural identity. Exploring the transformative power of the arts, this experience offers trauma-informed activities that show how creativity, paired with caring adult relationships, can help children turn trauma into resilience. Inspired by the Free Arts model, the approach centers on safety, self-expression, skill-building, self-efficacy, and mentorship through the arts.

[With Zach W. Lambert] Based on Zach’s book Better Ways to Read the Bible, this experience invites a fresh, life-giving approach to engaging Scripture. The journey begins by dismantling four harmful lenses—Literalism, Apocalypse, Moralism, and Hierarchy—that often distort the message of the Bible. In their place, Lambert offers four new lenses—Jesus, Context, Flourishing, and Fruitfulness—that open space for healing, wholeness, and liberation. What emerges is a way of reading that transforms Scripture from a weapon of exclusion into a tool for justice, compassion, and hope.

[With Tamice Spencer-Helms] Exploring imagination, courage, and the radical act of making the unseen visible, this journey speaks to anyone who has ever felt erased or unseen. Inspired by A Wrinkle in Time, it begins with Meg Murry’s leap into empty space—a metaphor for queer existence, radical faith, and liberatory imagination. Drawing from the life of Jesus, who walked toward light and love despite empire’s denial, the experience invites participants to dream beyond diseased imagination and leave a legacy that cannot be erased. Through reflection and movement, the invisible becomes tangible—an act of Invisible Ink.

[With Mike Mullin] When it comes to progressive theology, there is a spectrum. For some, progressive theology offers an inroad for doing theology with people on the margins. For others, progressive theology offers an opportunity to wade in the theological margins. This workshop will focus on the latter. Too often, there is an interpretive chasm between the so-called “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” The creation stories may be poetry, and Jonah may be a metaphor; but when you start to question the historicity of Jesus’ birth narrative, the legitimacy of the miracles, and the veracity of a bodily resurrection, you may still find many “progressives” prepared to pronounce you a heretic. And yet, certain branches of progressive theology have been exploring these different interpretations for decades. This workshop will invite you to consider where you might align on the progressive theology spectrum, and how you can share theological margins in your context—all while still leaving room for divergent viewpoints and without worrying about getting canned.  

[With Cali Bronkema] Creating spaces where all of God’s children feel welcome means embracing neurodiversity with compassion and intentionality. When congregations lean into this work, they often discover deeper wells of grace, patience, and love. This work involves practical steps rooted in real ministry experiences, offering guidance for navigating common challenges and fostering open dialogue. Exploring ways to support neurodiverse individuals in worship and Sunday school settings equips faith communities to build more inclusive, empathetic environments where everyone can fully participate and belong.

[With Heather Selement] What if you could create a safe space that gently whispers, “You belong here”? Join us for a hands-on, creative workshop where we’ll dream, design, and troubleshoot sensory-friendly environments that honor neurodiverse needs, calm anxious hearts, and celebrate every individual. Whether you're starting from scratch or refining a quiet nook, you'll leave with practical tools, creative multipurpose space solutions, and quick ways to implement radical hospitality. Bring photos of the spaces you’d like to transform and receive personalized, one-on-one recommendations to help bring your vision to life.