GUEST SPEAKERS

Steve Carter

Pastor, Author

The Thing Beneath the Thing and Grieve, Breathe, Receive

Steve is the bestselling author of The Thing Beneath the Thing, and the newly-released Grieve, Breathe, Receive, and hosts Craft and Character, a podcast devoted to empowering pastors and church communicators who want to work on their craft while learning to lead with character.

Pastorally, his passion is to bring the way of Jesus into everything he does. He describes his work as humbling and vulnerable—a soul-baring process that keeps him dependent, expectant, and grounded in Christ.

Steve serves as a teaching pastor at Forest City Church and regularly teaches at churches, conferences, and various businesses worldwide. He lives outside Chicago, Illinois, with his wife and two kids.

Beyond Suppression: Building a Safe and Trustworthy Church

There is a framework for how the world suppresses. Unfortunately, it has made its way into many systems and churches. Pastor Steve Carter will walk you through a biblical framework for not just how the world works but how God longs to work as well. 

If we are to move forward as a safe, consistent and trustworthy space as a church we must:

• be aware of this framework
• be willing to do our own work, and
• offer up a more compelling Jesus-way kind of framework as church leaders. 

Cyd & Geoff Holsclaw

Spiritual Director & Professor, Pastors & Authors

Does God Really Like Me?

Geoff (PhD) is an author of multiple books, affiliate professor of theology at Northern Seminary, and co-host of the Embodied Faith podcast, which offers a neuroscience-informed spiritual formation. He is currently Deeply Attached to God.

Cyd is an author, spiritual director, and pastor. She is also a trauma-informed, Jesus-centered, integrative coach (PCC) focused on embodied practices and building a secure attachment to God.

Together, they co-host the Attaching to God podcast (formerly Embodied Faith podcast), which offers a neuroscience-informed spiritual formation. They are co-authors of Does God Really Like Me? Discovering the God Who Wants to Be With You.

Repairing Distorted Defaults

Those who attend, and lead, churches have default assumptions about others, themselves, and the world. These defaults shape—differently—how we feel, what we think, how we pay attention to, and how we interpret relational experiences.

In this session, we will explore how these distorted and distorting defaults are being repaired to God's good design so that can become churches of faith, hope, and love.