Speaker: Jason Leach
Title: Developing a Strategy for Pastoral Care in your Church
Room: Sanctuary
Pastors have many responsibilities. Caring for people, and intentional discipleship is at the heart of a healthy church, and both are very interconnected. This workshop will look at some examples from Scripture that teach us how to develop a strategy in our churches for a culture of care and serving one another, while releasing people in their giftings. We will share some practical tips and ideas for developing a strategy that can be reproduced, and continue to be effective as more people are saved and added to your church.
Speaker: Melynn Krausse
Title: One Sound
Room: West Hall
Worship isn’t just about songs we sing today — it’s a sound that connects generations. When young musicians and seasoned musicians come together, something powerful happens: faith is strengthened, skills are sharpened, and the church’s song grows stronger. This session will unpack how worship is both learned and lived, showing how we can train, share, and release the next wave of worshippers.
Speaker: Jalissa Turcic
Title: Building Legacy with Eternal Impact
Room: Lower Level - Kids Main Room
This breakout session highlights the eternal impact of Kids Ministry and the vital role leaders play in shaping the next generation. We’ll explore inspiring examples from Scripture that show how leadership and legacy can begin early. You will walk away with practical strategies for empowering others through delegation and investment, creating a culture that develops the next generation while preventing burnout.
Speaker: John Friesen
Title: Clarifying the Executive Role
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 1
The need for the Executive Pastor (EP) role emerges when a church grows beyond the capacity of one leader to effectively oversee both vision and operations. The EP helps address this scalability challenge by translating vision into strategy, managing staff and resources, and ensuring that systems, finances, and ministries remain aligned with the mission. This session will clarify the role of the Executive Pastor by exploring stages of church growth, when and why the EP role becomes necessary, the purpose and responsibilities of the EP, models of EP–Senior Pastor relationships, as well as qualifications, needs, and potential dangers of the role.
Speaker: John Finochio & Lorne Lueck
Title: Transition
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 2
As stewards of the church it is always important to have a vision that is carried out with prayer, planning and preparation. Transition of leadership is no different. In order to love and care for God’s people we must carefully plan and prepare for transition. As pastors we must know when the right time is for transition. We must honor our leaders by inviting them into the process that prayerfully leads us to the right successor. After these decisions have been made we must prepare the congregation to walk together in unity to accomplish these changes. This session will be about sharing some ways that we have walked through the process of transition.
Speaker: Gary Heyes
Title: Building a Prophetic Community and Team
Room: Sanctuary
Developing a prophetic community in the local church is a powerful way to steward the gift of prophecy responsibly and effectively. A well-trained and Spirit-led prophetic team can bring encouragement, direction, and edification to the body of Christ. In this session we will explore key steps and strategies to help you develop a healthy prophetic team and culture.
Speaker: Daniel Lutz
Title: Onboarding and Discipling Youth Leaders
Room: West Hall
In youth ministry, we often experience a high turnover of leaders, many of whom are still quite young themselves. Too often, new leaders are placed into roles straight out of high school and expected to guide younger students with a level of wisdom and experience they haven’t yet had the chance to develop. This session will explore how we can better support our youth leaders by providing intentional onboarding and ongoing discipleship, equipping them to navigate the emotions, challenges, and unique situations that come with walking alongside youth.
Speaker: Gillian Dias
Title: Leading from Within
Room: Lower Level - Kids Main Room
…Equipping volunteers, strengthening teams, shaping legacy
This one hour workshop is for anyone who wants practical, take home strategies to equip themselves, their teams and strengthen their ministry. We are called to be people developers, not position fillers - leaders who invest in people and build strong teams. You’ll leave with tools and ideas to continue developing your ministry and teams long after the session ends.
Speaker: Shanelle Somers
Title: Behind the Scenes of VIVA Church Social Media
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 1
Discover how to build and empower a social media team that captures powerful moments, creates scroll-stopping content in real-time, shares the gospel in fresh ways and helps your church grow in community no matter its size.
Speaker: Alessandra Felicio
Title: From Guest to Family Member
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 2
It’s time to turn Sunday hellos into connections that last! This session unpacks practical ways on how to create a culture of radical hospitality and implement a seamless system that turns first-time guests into fully committed team members without overwhelming them or your church staff.
Speaker: Matt Tapley
Title: Rediscovering the Power of Preaching the Cross
Room: Sanctuary
This session reveals why the early church's devotion to the cross produced daily conversions while sophisticated rhetoric impresses minds but yields minimal fruit. The power of the Holy Spirit rests upon cross-centered preaching. This kind of preaching doesn’t just win debates – it reconciles enemies of God and convicts sin. Drawing upon over three decades of preaching experience, Matt will share spiritual and practical insights to help you preach with passion and renewed confidence in the Gospel. God isn’t looking for our eloquence—He is looking for our faithfulness.
Speaker: Levi Clattenburg
Title: The Song You Leave Behind - Legacy of Worship
Room: West Hall
Building a Jesus first, Jesus focused worship ministry - Unity, First Love and Song Writing
Speaker: Russell Seaborne
Title: Listening to my Tomato Farmer Friend
Room: Lower Level - Kids Main Room
Navigating financial administration can appear to be daunting and often overlooked or shelved until someone comes asking, sometimes it is the CRA but more often people in our churches. I will be sharing some lessons learned from the last 19 years being involved in church administration, where to start, what to watch out for and even how to get things done. More often than not, the people doing the hard work just need to be told that they are doing a great job and given the tools to make it less complicated.
Speaker: Carol Felicio
Title: Building The Future
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 1
This breakout session will be more practical than a message, focusing on hands-on strategies that we can apply right away in our kids ministry. We’ll talk about what we’ve learned as our church has grown, adding services and adapting our systems, to better serve both children and volunteers. Also talk about practical ways to grow our volunteer base, schedule effectively, keep our team engaged, and choose curriculum that truly impacts kids. Most importantly, we’ll talk about why children today are more eager than ever to experience the Kingdom of Heaven, and how we can lead them in that pursuit with excellence and joy, leaving a lasting legacy of faith for the next generation.
Speaker: Dave McTaggart, Kris Krausse and Reuben Krausse
Title: Building a Family Legacy
Room: Sanctuary
Legacy is more than inheritance. It is values, faith, character, and influence passed down. Legacy is not something we leave for our children; it’s something we leave in our children What do you want people to say about your family? How do you want people to see your family?. In this session we will give some practical tools and some creative ideas for building your family legacy. Regardless of where you are in your family journey it is never too late to begin to build a spiritual legacy in your children. By God’s grace we can build.
Speaker: Claude Lainey
Title: Raising the Next Generation for Ministry
Room: West Hall
There is a desperate need for church leaders across our nation, and Seminaries and Bible College are not filling the gap. I believe it is the call of the local church to step in, raise up, and release leaders for ministry—including raising our own leaders for our own church. This session will explore how we can respond to this challenge with vision and practical steps.
Speaker: Josué Lainey
Title: Making Room for the Spirit in Next Gen Ministry
Room: Lower Level - Kids Main Room
Exploring how to create space for the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts, our leadership teams and our ministry programs.
Speaker: Matt Jackson
Title: Reach Your City for Jesus
Room: Lower Level - Classroom 1
This workshop will look at how to, “Reach Your City for Jesus,”. It is designed to equip believers with practical and spiritual insights to impact their communities for Christ. We will look at how focused prayer, evangelism, and community engagement can help participants identify the unique needs of their city and respond with the love and message of Jesus. The strategy emphasizes building relationships, serving with compassion, and partnering with local organizations to build the Church and bless people in the community, while sharing the love and hope of the gospel message.