Pre-Conference Workshops

Our 16 pre-conference workshops provide opportunities for in-depth training and skill development. Pre-cons are 3 hours each and are a paid add-on ($49 per workshop). Note that there are morning and afternoon options.

Morning Pre-Conference Workshops

Offered on Thursday, October 19 from 8:30-11:30 am

Helping You Help Others: Building Confidence and Competence in Lay Caregiving

Speaker: Haley Scully, MA

When you’re involved in a lay caregiving or coaching relationship, it’s important to have healthy self-awareness and situational awareness, along with practical tools to provide the best care possible. Coaches and lay caregivers must also know how to establish effective boundaries in order to avoid ministry burnout and compassion fatigue. This workshop will equip you with helpful concepts on caregiving and provide practical resources that will help you carry another’s burden without becoming overwhelmed yourself (Galatians 6).

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn a model for caregiving relationships that will help establish and maintain expectations and boundaries.
Learn important relational, mental, and physical health considerations as they provide care to others, as well as when to refer to professionals.
Learn how to guard their hearts from temptations and how to avoid communicating something that might be harmful in a caregiving relationship.

Communicating with Confidence: Converting the Fear of Public Speaking into Positive Energy and Audience Connection

Speaker: Dwight Bain, MA

Life coaching continues to grow as an emerging field and is a regular topic in the news today. Many are talking about the benefits on social media, newspapers, television, radio, magazines, podcasts, blogs, YouTube, TED Talks, and more. The significant demand should result in a full schedule of clients and with new opportunities to share one’s message. This workshop is designed to empower coaches in their public speaking and boost confidence to share their message as paid communicators and subject-matter experts.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Identify the underlying anxiety and psychological barriers that block most life coaches from communicating effectively and speaking publicly.
Learn how to incorporate 10 key communication strategies to use in personalizing a coaching message to impact one’s community as a paid speaker.
Gain insight in how to utilize verbal, non-verbal, and paraverbal skills to connect with clients and organizations.

Become a Champion: Bringing Faith, Resilience, and Healing to the Brokenhearted

Speaker: Nick Vujicic and Jay Smith

Also available for virtual attendees

As a ministry, Nick Vujicic and Nick V Ministries have seen millions all over the world come to faith in Christ, and countless others who are brokenhearted experience God’s healing touch. This workshop will train you as ministry leaders, caregivers, and life coaches, to effectively introduce people to a vibrant relationship with Jesus and do so in a spirit-led and compassionate way. Core principles will be shared on how Nick has been used to encourage the brokenhearted, the physically disabled, the downtrodden, and those who wrestle with some of life’s most difficult issues. We will explore specific keys in ministering to 12 unique demographics that represent our Champions for the Brokenhearted initiative. Together, we can bring greater resiliency and hope to a world that needs to hear the Good News.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn how to incorporate Faith in lovingly and effectively leading people to Jesus.
Understand the keys to teaching and increasing Resilience in people when they are faced with physical, emotional, mental, relational, and spiritual disabilities and brokenness.
Be given a vision for God’s Healing in championing the brokenhearted, including the trafficked, unborn, disabled, orphans, prisoners, abused, addicted, suicidal, bullied, veterans, and poor.

Building Strong Marriages: Biblical Principles and Meaningful Relationships

Speaker: Dewey Wilson, PhD, and Lynne Wilson

Expectations are founded in our beliefs and these beliefs ultimately determine our actions and how we think others should act. Whether you are a life coach, lay caregiver, or minister or church leader, this workshop will introduce you to proven mentoring tools and processes designed to equip and empower couples for healthy marriages. Learn how to successfully guide spouses through even the most difficult challenges after they say, “I do” and intentionally discover their God-given purpose in marriage.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Gain deeper understanding in how valuable the right assessments can be for coaching, caregiving, and mentoring processes.
Learn how to effectively prepare couples for a biblical marriage in today’s postmodern and increasingly secularized society.
Identify coaching, caregiving, and mentoring principles, methods, and strategies that have proven to successfully strengthen and restore at-risk marriages.

The Equipping Profile: Transforming Lives at the Speed of Thought (Session 1)

Speaker: Gary Morais, MA

The Equipping Profile Method offers rapid learning, clinically proven, and biblically based tools, and breakthrough solutions for your coaching practice and caregiving ministry to gain momentum in growth and help clients heal faster, resulting in greater impact and more referrals. People are looking for effective strategies to their challenges NOW! Not just talk, but practical, immediate solutions for a changed life. Christ calls us to provide biblical solutions to help those whom we serve. This workshop introduces you to a life-changing assessment tool, real-life case studies in the Equipping Method, integrating Scripture, and understanding how thousands of people have experienced greater freedom over the last 30 years.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn how the brain works and how to transform lives at the speed of thought.
Understand the differences between Symptoms and Root Causes of a client’s problem(s) in worldly thinking that triggers stress, fears, anxiety, poor relationships, anger, and more.
Incorporate three simple steps using the Equipping Method to help clients get unstuck from a hopelessness for Rapid Life Transformation.

Shattered: Responding When Crisis and Trauma Strike the Church and Community

Speaker: Scott Floyd, PhD

The past few decades have provided greater awareness of the impact of crises and trauma-based events that often occur in a church or community setting. It is important for those in leadership, ministry, and people-helping positions to better understand how trauma impacts individuals, families, and their churches and congregations, as well as the broader community where people live. Knowledge combined with proven strategies on how to effectively respond to these events greatly increases the likelihood of helping survivors in the recovery and healing process.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Have an in-depth understanding of the definitions and nature of crises and traumatic events.
Gain knowledge on how to effectively analyze common symptoms associated with trauma.
Explore practical approaches in preparing for and following up on crisis or trauma events that take place in church and community settings.

The Eight Levels of Relationship: Building Meaningful Connections with Others

Speaker: Dan Chrystal, JD

Have you ever wondered why there are so many caregivers, coaches, and counselors? The answer can be found in the following three words: Relationships Are Messy. Healthy relationships also take hard work, mutual commitment, trust, respect, forgiveness, and more. It seems that today, people are more divided than ever and have no hope for improvement or anything better. This workshop offers practical and biblical principles that help foster hope for those you care for, coach, or counsel.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Gain valuable insights and master-class people skills on the nature and complexity of relationships.
Learn the critical eight levels that help build a foundation for meaningful connection.
Be equipped and empowered to help others build stronger, more authentic, and genuine connections in life.

Hope through Hardship: The Need, Impact, and Tools for Disability Ministry

Speaker: Daniel Moreno

Nearly one billion people around the world live with disabilities. Many of these individuals and their families live in poverty, pain, and despair. Our mission at Joni & Friends is to mobilize the global church to evangelize, disciple, and serve people living with disability. Through this workshop, we will walk through the impact disability ministry can have on a church, hear directly from a Special Needs Minister and their approach to ministry, and have a panel discussion surrounding how the church can be a resource for families who face disability.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Walk through the biblical view of disability and how that should impact our ministries and professions.
Discuss practical tools for disability ministry.
Be able to communicate the necessity of disability ministry to your church.

Blended, Not Broken: Foundations for a Strong Family Core

Speaker: Tim Smith, MA, Christie Meldrim, MA, and Grant Wood, MS, MA

Over 50% of families in the United States are remarried or recoupled, and nearly 1,300 new stepfamilies are created every single day. Beyond the normal stresses and pressures on any marriage and family, second marriages fail at almost twice the rate of first-time unions. This Intensive is a foundational course in blended family coaching and caregiving that addresses many of the core issues while also offering practical and biblical solutions.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn how blended families can start their families off strong.
Identify the importance of co-parenting in the blended family.
Explore how to build a solid relationship with your new spouse’s children.

Afternoon Pre-Conference Workshops

Offered on Thursday, October 19 from 1:00-4:00 pm

God’s Will in Your Wallet: How to Build a Financial Plan for God’s Glory Instead of Your Own

Speaker: John Thornton, PhD

Unresolved money questions can be the #1 hurdle that blocks clients from moving forward and reaching their goals. Jesus said to “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). This workshop provides three proven tools to help clients overcome the biggest financial hurdles between them and the life God is calling them to live. Learn this simple plan to overcome the financial fears that block many people helpers from being more effective and taking their coaching and caregiving to the next level.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Identify the best use of wealth and the two challenges that stand in your way.
Describe the three tools everyone needs to manage their money wisely.
Create a personal action plan for financial freedom.

The Secret Storm: Overcoming the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Speaker: June Hunt, MA

Nothing damages the core of a child’s inner being like sexual abuse. It reaches deep, destroying innocence and trust, leaving its victims in darkness—something a child should never have to experience. Childhood sexual abuse is almost always committed by someone the child knows. Such familiarity sets the stage for a child to be all the more vulnerable, traumatized, and confused. Children victimized by sexual abuse are in bondage to “the secret.” The best strategy for breaking the power of the secret is to gently lead the child into the light of grace and truth—to reveal the truth and help them heal from the trauma. In this session, you will discover the typical course of childhood sexual abuse, then examine the profile of perpetrators, the signs of abuse, and the essential steps for healing from that abuse. You will also be equipped to help the abused surface the secret and learn how to give children “Protection Power”—permission to say “No” to authority figures.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Be able to identify the signs and recall the typical course of childhood sexual abuse.
Practice using the “Protection Power” statements to help young hearts know how to resist sexual advances.
Walk abusers through 12 steps of life-transforming change.

Famous at Home: Seven Coaching and Caregiving Decisions for Helping Leaders Put Their Families Center Stage

Speaker: Joshua Straub, PhD

Also available for virtual attendees

We live in a culture that competes for our time, attention, and identity. Too often, it’s our families that get the leftovers. In this workshop, Dr. Straub reveals the seven practical and life-changing coaching and caregiving strategies he uses at Famous at Home to help leaders prioritize their families, and in turn, show up well on their respective stages.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Utilize two practical strategies to help spouses and/or parents show up well for their loved ones.
Implement three practical strategies to help spouses and parents/children develop emotional safety and connect in a more meaningful way.
Identify two practical strategies for families to develop healthy rhythms, discover their values, and live more purposefully.

Breaking the Taboo: The Church and Mental Health

Speaker: Cedric White and Michelle White

So many of life’s personal challenges and trials are difficult to comprehend. Is the problem physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, or a combination of factors? Today, the Church is facing a growing crisis with the rise of mental health issues in the pews, as well as the pulpit. This workshop examines how to compassionately and spiritually respond to and serve each other through various mental health challenges.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn how to encourage leaders, members, and other lay care personnel to treat people with mental illnesses the same way they treat people with other disabilities and ailments, and to help all involved understand that just because you can’t see a physical disparity does not mean the individual is not in pain.
Gain understanding that, quite often, the Church is the first point of contact when someone is seeking assistance for mental health issues.
Gain understanding and compassion that mental illness is not synonymous with spiritual depravity.

God’s Word and Wisdom: Radical Results for Life Recovery Coaching and Caregiving

Speaker: Steve Arterburn, MEd

Behavioral and substance addictions, poor life choices, and bad habits often develop out of deep pain and woundedness. This workshop offers a biblically based Life Recovery Model that includes five truths from God’s Word that radically impact the recovery process and five truths from God’s Word that reveal the pathway to recovery and how to apply them in coaching and caregiving ministry.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Know and understand the biblical foundation of each of the 12 Steps.
See how Life Recovery is not just for addiction, and can be used with other problems, such as anxiety, depression, and divorce recovery.
Walk away with the biblical truths and principles that profoundly impact and bring freedom to fellow strugglers.

Counting the Cost: Generational Differences in Coaching and Caregiving

Speaker: Rita Murray, PhD

Today, we are experiencing a time and culture when six different generations, spanning over 100 years, now live together; five of them work, worship, and socialize together. These generational cohorts have significantly different ways they connect, communicate, participate in public life, and care about God and faith. This workshop will help create successful coaching practices and caregiving ministries by discovering relevant and biblical worldview strategies to better understand the “technology needs” that distinguish every generations.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Recognize the Why’s and How’s of generational research, the nature of age as a variable, and key insights of each generation’s attitudes and behaviors.
Brainstorm the “So what?” and “Now what?” questions that impact coaching and caregiving processes, while experiencing innovative tech-wise elements that cross generations.
Evaluate generational roadblocks and identify effective approaches for exceptional coaching and caregiving.

The Dark Night of the Soul: Help and Hope for Those Who Experience Trauma, Grief, and Loss

Speaker: Michelle Nietert, MA

Grief and loss, especially as the result of trauma, are universal. How a person works through their grief is often unique and individual. Trauma and loss can occur from the time a child is born, and it frequently disrupts the major developmental stages during the early years and until the brain is fully formed in our mid-twenties. This workshop will offer practical tips for identifying and understanding the ways people are impacted by trauma, grief, and loss, as well as implications for coaching and caregiving dynamics within one’s church and community. Additional strategies are provided for creating faith-based support, and includes developing helpful referral relationships with Christian treatment providers when appropriate.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Be able to better define the dynamics of trauma and identify common traumatic experiences within our culture.
Develop effective strategies for ministering to people who experience grief and loss and resulting impact on emotional, cognitive, relational, and spiritual wellbeing.
Learn more about healthy boundaries, recommended resources, and high-quality, faith-based referrals as they bring care and counsel to those who are hurting.

The Equipping Profile: Transforming Lives at the Speed of Thought (Session 2)

Speaker: Gary Morais, MA

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Learn how the brain works and how to transform lives at the speed of thought.
Understand the differences between Symptoms and Root Causes of a client’s problem(s) in worldly thinking that triggers stress, fears, anxiety, poor relationships, anger, and more.
Incorporate three simple steps using the Equipping Method to help clients get unstuck from a hopelessness for Rapid Life Transformation.