Seminars

In addition to our beneficial keynotes, worship time, and events, the seminars are stuff of legend. Keep checking back as we will be adding more details.

PRE-CONFERENCE EVENTS

COUNSELING TRAINING

"Act" on Change: Utilizing Evidence-based Practices to Join with Difficult Clients

This immersive, dynamic session is tailored for direct care professionals seeking to enhance their skills in fostering meaningful connections and driving positive change in challenging clients. Through experiential learning and participation, you will delve into the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), equipping yourself with practical tools and strategies to effectively engage with and motivate even the most resistant individuals … and hopefully learn a few things about yourself along the way! Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your therapeutic abilities and make a positive, lasting impact in your client’s lives.

NEW CEO LUNCHEON

Kickstart Your Citygate Network Journey!

New to the CEO role? Begin your annual conference experience surrounded by peers on the same journey. The New CEO Luncheon is more than a meal — it’s an opportunity to hear from seasoned CEOs and key stakeholders who’ve blazed the trail and bolstered mission work from coast to coast across North America. Be ready to forge connections, gain insights, share challenges, and build lasting relationships with other likeminded leaders at Citygate Network. Your CEO adventure starts here — make the most of this transformative experience!

RISING LEADERS INTENSIVE

Going Beyond Performance

Join us for an exclusive pre-conference session designed specifically for the next wave of rising leaders. Dive into transformative leadership strategies with entrepreneur, coach, and author Jason Jaggard, who will challenge you to reach beyond the boundaries of traditional leadership models and unlock potential that transcends expectations. This unique session will not only grow your leadership, but give you new benchmarks for excellence and opportunities to network with peers. Secure your spot now to join a movement that promises to redefine leadership for the next generation.

TRACK SESSIONS

Organizational Growth

Investing in the Team’s Capacity to Ensure Healthy Growth Across the Entire Mission

Prepare Your Organization to Hire Higher
Nonprofits face huge staffing challenges these days. Learn how to prepare your organization to attract superior talent, improve retention, and create a culture that maximizes mission impact. You'll walk away with practical steps to attract top talent and avoid compromises that could jeopardize hiring success and retention.
How Kingdom-Centered Innovation Can Positively Impact Your Ministry
If innovation feels out of reach, the Chalmers Center's Innovate training can teach you a simple, three-step, creative process that equips your ministry to address local challenges in creative and Christ-honoring ways. Incorporate and use these tools right away and see an immediate difference in how your ministry functions.
Recruiting In Today's Marketplace
Uncover the power of transferable skills, transition from job posting to effective job marketing, and discover insights on tapping into the growing Gen Z talent pool. Gain guiding principles and practical tips for building a robust talent pool. Both seasoned recruiters and those new to the field will come away with valuable strategies for navigating today's dynamic job market.
Elevate Your Planning
Do your mission's plans seem fragmented, pulled from different areas, and then bundled as strategy? Explore a shift toward a more visionary, Jesus-empowered direction for impactful change. Discover the distinctions between planning and dynamic strategy, uncovering opportunities for better service. Navigate proven frameworks that breathe life into strategy, balancing current operations with future-focused moves. Transform planning into a catalyst for deeper missional impact.
Creating a Culture of Sustainability
As organizations grow, they become more complex, and complexity impacts clarity. But if clarity fuels effectiveness and efficiency, then leaders must do a better job of inspiring and equipping the team. Unpack the four questions everyone in your organization should be ready to answer to cut through the complexity of organizational leadership, and better serve your community.

Leadership & Staff Development

Inspiring Intentionality and Growth for Ministry Leaders

Career Paths for Everyone
Empower your organization of any size to develop effective career paths for staff, and foster growth and talent retention. Discover the simple impact career paths can have, even outside traditional managerial structures. Gain actionable insights and materials to implement career paths that ensure a thriving and motivated workforce dedicated to ministry success. This session specifically addresses the unique roles associated with rescue ministries.
Navigating Change Management
As leaders, we face challenges navigating change and innovation. In this training, we'll discuss the psychology and theory behind effective change management. We'll also explore the practical realities of leading through change and discuss strategies to prepare for common roadblocks that leaders encounter while implementing significant organizational changes. Let's work together to become more effective change agents for our organizations.
Five Keys to Growing Your Ministry's Leadership
Unlock your leadership potential by discovering how to embrace your unique calling and identity as a leader. Learn strategies to build a cohesive team that fosters ministry growth and explore the most effective methods to inspire donors, volunteers, board members, and staff with your vision. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting out, this workshop will equip you to follow your calling while effectively leading others towards a shared mission.
Leadership as Influence
Leadership is far more than a title or a role, it’s ultimately about influence. This hands-on workshop explores leadership as influence and helps participants see themselves as God sees them—as influencers with Jesus.
Creating a Culture of Staffing Sustainability
Discover the keys to attracting, retaining, and cultivating a thriving ministry team. By prioritizing the well-being of your staff, we'll explore how to support a healthy team that enhances and sustains ministry outcomes. Learn strategies that foster competency and create a positive impact on the residents you serve and contribute significantly to the success and growth of your organization.

Operations & Administration

Galvanizing Ministries with Best Practices in HR, Finances, Facilities, Technology, and More

Help! I’m New to HR in Ministry
Working in human resources requires a variety of skills that range from record-keeping and filing to strategic decision-making, policy, and legal compliance. Acquire valuable knowledge about the fundamentals of maintaining excellent records, discover important retention requirements, and learn what laws apply to your organization. This critical instruction will help you protect and exercise the rights that specifically impact your faith-based nonprofit.
Most Common Ministry Insurance Claims and What To Do About Them
Whether you're a seasoned leader or new to ministry, the practical strategies you learn will help you navigate common insurance claims and enhance your risk management toolkit. Explore prevalent risks like auto incidents, resident volunteers, slip and fall accidents, and thrift store customer injuries. Gain insight into managing these risks effectively and discover strategies to mitigate potential challenges.
The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Internal Controls
Internal controls play an important role in organizations of all sizes. Dive deep into how they impact every level and provide staff and donors confidence in your organization.
From Precaution to Ministry, Security as a Ministry Opportunity
Whether you have an established and polished safety plan or you have just begun to form some ideas, safety remains near the top of the list for missions and ministries these days. Learn what steps to take to better secure the safety of your guests, staff, and volunteers as you leverage safety as a ministry opportunity instead of just as a necessary precaution.
Coming Soon!

Transformational Programming

Inspiring Life-Changing Programs Toward Next-Level Outcomes

Increase Retention in Recovery Through Life Skills
Join us for an informative session on how life skills development is crucial for enhancing retention in recovery. While hard skills such as educational and career readiness and financial management are essential, we must recognize the significance of soft skills in long-term employment, healthy relationships, and lasting connections within a recovery community. This session will explore the importance of developing soft skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) in clients. Learn how acquiring these skills could lead to deeper motivation for change and better retention in addiction recovery.
Reins to Recovery
Explore one ministry's innovative approach to homelessness through an enhanced shelter model. Discover how this transformative programming provides homeless neighbors with temporary homes, fostering strategic planning beyond daily survival. Gain insights into the philosophy, strategy, and practical details of this model, emphasizing relational support over transactional aid. Learn how skilled case managers guide guests toward recovery, infused with the love of Jesus, and uncover practical tips for adapting guests to a structured environment.
Preventing First-time Homelessness from Escalating into Chronic Homelessness
Address the growing issue of first-time homelessness by exploring a crucial two-week service dedicated to preventing the transition to chronic homelessness. Through intentional relationship building and resource awareness, this program focuses on deterring new guests from a life of homelessness and the pitfalls of a flawed system. Gain insights into the detailed programming and how it fosters a stable environment for guests to make informed decisions about future plans.
Building a Best-in-Class Referral and Intake System
Address the growing issue of first-time homelessness by exploring a crucial two-week service dedicated to preventing the transition to chronic homelessness. Through intentional relationship building and resource awareness, this program focuses on deterring new guests from a life of homelessness and the pitfalls of a flawed system. Gain insights into the detailed programming and how it fosters a stable environment for guests to make informed decisions about future plans. How do you begin to address a broken referral and intake system? Learn about the creation and success of a ministry's Referral & Intake (R&I) team, a unified intake system, rebuilt relationships, and simplified processes. Explore the partnership approach that increases trust and opens doors, resulting in a surge of guests entering mission programming. Gain insights into the methodologies and technologies used for data capture and improved decision-making. Learn valuable lessons for fixing a broken referral and intake system for more effective and compassionate care.
Victimology in Domestic Sex Trafficking
Using 10 years of data collected from Institute for Shelter Care (formally The Samaritan Women) will provide a victim-centered way of looking at the trauma of domestic sex trafficking. Through statistics, case studies, and anecdotal analysis, you will gain an understanding of what renders an individual vulnerable to sexual exploitation, the most common traumas that occur in domestic sex trafficking, and what challenges the survivors faces in social re-entry.
Creative Housing Problem-Solving: Success With Diversion
Over the last four years, Outreach, Inc. has developed a highly successful diversion program as part of the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. Learn about diversion as a philosophy while gaining an understanding of program structure and analyzing outcomes that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Trauma-Integrated (Focused) Care
Building on the foundation of trauma-informed care, trauma-integrated (focused) treatment addresses symptoms through therapy focused on the trauma while integrating resources, incorporating coping and mindfulness skills, and providing education and healing for family relationships.
Managing Recovery for Transition and Aftercare
The first 12 months following the completion of a recovery program represent the most critical time for building new habits. Reengaging with the responsibilities of life can trigger overconfidence, isolation, and/or old thoughts and feelings. Discover tools and strategies that will help you support your program graduates as they transition into living a new life of recovery.
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!

Client & Culture

Tracking Global Trends and Other Critical Ministry Topics

Leverage Program Data for Insightful Evaluation and Compelling Storytelling
Boost your data literacy to unlock the power of data in program management and storytelling. We will not only discuss the nuances of outcomes, outputs, and impact, but will learn practical applications of data in program evaluation and development. Join this session to explore strategies for utilizing data effectively to substantiate the impact of your work, and provide valuable insights for both program enhancement and compelling narratives for donor engagement.
Honoring Tradition While Embracing Innovation
Many rescue missions and similar ministries have adapted to tremendous social and cultural changes. How do we adjust and remain faithful to our core values and instill them in our staff? What should never change? Together we’ll examine the past and present to answer these questions and explore shaping the future of the movement. Workshop facilitators represent 50+ years of history in the rescue mission movement and innovative leaders within the movement.
One Ministry, One Team
Fostering relationships and healthy communication between departments impacts organizational success. Explore strategies to break down silos and build collaborative relationships essential for mutual dependence. Discover techniques to work effectively with other departments, cultivate a supportive organizational culture, and implement best practices for cross-departmental communication.
The Neuroscience of Purpose for Those Experiencing Homelessness
Neuroscience research demonstrates that the homeless community suffers from a loss of hope and future. In fact, this population of all groups believes that they do not have a Purpose in Life. We know this is a false perception, and our programs are designed to help them discover their Purpose, which gives HOPE and a FUTURE! People who discover Purpose in Life (PIL) enjoy numerous essential psychological benefits for their overall well-being. Finding and living their purpose increases resiliency, protects against suicidal ideation and completion, and reduces unhealthy behaviors like addiction, delinquency, and anti-social activities. PIL helps cultivate an open mindset, compassion, healthier relationships which boosts self-esteem leading to mastery, fulfillment, improved employment performance, and community engagement. Purpose gets people engaged with life!
Unpacking Effective Change Management
Navigating a leadership transition, especially a sudden one, presents unique challenges. Learn practical steps, including 30-day, six-month, and one-year plan for assessing and promoting organizational health, recognizing staff loss indicators, and identifying traits that make leaders successful during transitions. Lead with confidence through times of change.

Resource Development

Leveraging Resource Pathways to Maximize Ministry

A Deep Dive Into AI Fundraising
Curious about how your organization can benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) in fundraising? This engaging session will give you answers to these key questions: What is AI and how does it work? How can AI enhance marketing and fundraising results? Learn to utilize AI without compromising your organization's core values. Don't miss this interactive exploration into the transformative potential of AI in fundraising!
Giving Circles 101
Giving circles mobilize donors and supporters around a specific focus of your ministry, like women's ministries, education, or recovery. Giving circles create the opportunity to rally, educate, and engage like-minded people to your cause, ultimately generating avenues to giving fueled by their passions.
Tips to Improve Your Digital Fundraising
Ministries possess a significant opportunity to enhance regular interaction with donors and potential donors through a variety of channels. Learn how to use paid media platforms to expand reach and engagement with Christian audiences. Discover tactics to run a successful email marketing program. Hear real-life examples of how some of the largest ministries productively use video for paid media.
Ten Keys to Growing A Mid-Level Program
Discover the untapped potential of mid-level donors and learn to define, identify, cultivate, and engage this valuable segment while maintaining faithful stewardship. Gain insight into implementing multichannel strategies that foster donor relationships, and effectively reporting progress to leadership and the board. Expand your capacity and maximize the impact of your ministry by leveraging the generosity of mid-level donors. all that God has called you to do.
A Million Dollar Day: Creating Events That Generate Mega Gifts
Learn the art of organizing events that inspire transformational giving, departing from conventional ticket sales or table sponsor models. Discover the secret ingredients to success, such as valuing quality over quantity, emphasizing direct asks, addressing substantial needs for impactful gifts, and more.
Educate, Motivate, Activate Your Donors
Learn to build transparent relationships with donors using Philippians 1:9 - 11. This passage can equip you to share stories effectively, think like a donor, and seize everyday moments for impactful narratives. Discover a formula for truthful storytelling across platforms as you invite donors into partnerships that engage them in solutions and give them an understanding of the good, bad, and ugly of your ministry.
Increase Your Results Through Donor Research and Analysis
Giving personnel access to wealth screening software and empowering them to learn more about existing donors and prospects can result in more realistic goals and results. Enhance major gift fundraising by managing portfolios strategically and avoiding transactional approaches. Learn to present donor information effectively by balancing giving capacity with understanding each donor as an individual. Explore key metrics for maintaining a healthy development program.
Capital Campaign Excellence from Inspiration to Impact
A variety of events inspire capital campaigns, from a real estate opportunity to a passionate local leader to a community need to a strategic organizational goal. How do we as mission leaders, board members, and staff ensure we pursue a vision aligned with our true mission and purpose? Take a closer look at the journey to vision realization by starting at the beginning with an impassioned mission, leading through focused strategic planning, and finishing with a comprehensive capital campaign and grand opening.
Inspiring Board Members to Fundraise
With the proper motivation and training, board members can become effective evangelists for your ministry. Learn how to select, recruit, and train board members who can help discover where God might have money hidden. Inspire them to give generously and even encourage their friends to invest. Teach your board the tools and give them valuable confidence to make a compelling ask.
Coming Soon!

Public Image & Branding

Deepening Community Connections through High-Impact Communications and Branding

A Comprehensive Guide to Effective Rebranding Strategies
There are many things that may spark a rebranding campaign: programmatic shifts, new positioning, cultural realignment, etc. Start with knowing the "why" behind your rebranding, and then this workshop will walk you through a complete rebranding strategy, including how to introduce your new brand and avoid mistakes with your key stakeholders.
Leveraging Social Media: Leading the Narrative. Impacting Community.
Beyond asking for funds and posting images, social media provides a powerful tool to build a community of supporters who can become your biggest and most influential ambassadors. Learn the basic steps to build a social media presence consisternt with your organization’s strategies, goals, and culture. Hear tips, tricks, and stories to help you achieve a strong presence on various platforms, while understanding concepts like content pillars, engagement tracking, key performer indicators, and Meta pixels.
Crisis Management and Media Engagement
Prepare for the inevitable. Crisis planning is a strategic process that alleviates panic when the unexpected occurs. Explore how to assess situations before they escalate into full-blown crises. Learn effective strategies for reputation recovery following a crisis, while safeguarding your fundraising efforts and organizational standing.
Multi-Channel Strategies to Maximize Monthly Giving
Looking to boost your monthly donors? (Who isn't?!) Explore the multi-channel strategies behind BDI's Sustainer Campaign employed for Helping Up Mission (Baltimore, Maryland). Discover fresh and innovative messaging to reach across digital, media, and CTV spots. Delve deeply into how each channel contributes to an effective, integrated campaign to achieve maximum impact and increased monthly revenue. Gain new insights on how to implement similar strategies to foster a culture of sustained giving at your ministry.
Smaller Missions. Smaller Cities. Niche Programs.
In smaller cities, generating public interest and support for missions, particularly when overshadowed by larger neighboring cities, can pose unique challenges. Explore the success story of one smaller-scale mission that has strategically targeted homeless veterans in western New York. Learn how that niche focus has generated impact, amplified awareness, and even boosted fundraising.

Hot Topics

Addressing the Burning Questions and Provocative Subjects of Today and Tomorrow

Give Me Shelter: A Response to Permanent Supportive Housing
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) has created challenges for modern rescue missions. Following federal funding requirements, many cities have adopted PSH as the only solution to homelessness, in spite of mounting evidence demonstrating the problems inherent with this approach. We’ll discuss the history, context, weaknesses, and opportunities of PSH methodology, and address responding to critics of emergency shelter programs and strategize working within the system to most benefit our guests and communities.
Rooting for Rivals: Unleashing Our Collective Impact
Unleash the "rooting for rivals" mindset within your Citygate Network district. In God's economy, He owns everything, and collaboration diminishes unmet needs. Envision the impact of working closely, and filling each other's resource gaps. Explore ways to share your ministry's time, talents, and treasures. Dive into ideas on resource sharing and the collective pursuit of regional resources for impactful, collaborative ministries.
Addressing the Opioid Crisis
The DEA Louisville Field division will explore the evolving landscape of illicit drugs and delve into the rise of potent synthetic opioids, the growing availability of highly addictive counterfeit pills, and the emergence of new illicit substances. Learn the impact of legalization movements and technological advancements on drug-use patterns. Gain a comprehensive understanding of current trends and informed solutions and discuss identifying persons at risk for substance misuse and how to support them.
Maintaining Mission Momentum During Leadership Transition
This candid conversation about real life experience in leadership transitions will focus on creating a positive experience for all mission stakeholders. Learn practical strategies that maintain forward momentum in spite of leadership transition. Gain insight on commitment, founder-successor dynamics, and self-management. Discover key considerations that help promote a seamless transition as well as establish how long outgoing leaders and successors should work together.
Nurturing Your Well-Being for Effective Service
If you put yourself on the back burner to get the job done and take care of others above yourself, you do a disservice to those you serve. Discover six assessment areas of self-care and learn the importance of incorporating spiritual disciplines that prevent burnout and foster a strong connection with the Father. Learn practical strategies to implement restorative activities that bring balance to your life and ensure you serve from the best version of yourself, sustained by God.

Enterprise & Retail

Catalyzing Entrepreneurial Spirit for Ministry Outcomes and Resource Growth

Launching a Thrift Store in Today’s Market
Seize current market advantages to open your next, or first, thrift store to maximize funding and brand awareness for your organization. Explore generational wealth transfer, real estate opportunities, and IRS benefits that make now a good time. Leverage your thrift store for an ongoing profit stream and incorporate numerous connection points that engage customers, donors, and volunteers. Discover how opening a thrift store aligns with current market trends to provide a strategic avenue for financial growth and increased visibility.
Best Practices for Merchandising and Layouts
Does your thrift store ministry include a master plan for floor layouts and effective merchandising? What else could you do to drive sales and expand community engagement? Assess and improve your donor and customer experience, and connect with rescue mission colleagues to share ideas and strategies that positively impact thrift store operations. Bring questions and tactics to contribute to an interactive and informative session.
Recruit Personnel to Grow Your Social Enterprise
Hiring and retaining employees poses the single greatest challenge for North American businesses today. To meet this need, your social enterprise must identify individuals that fit your needs, pursue them strategically, and reward them appropriately.
Expand Brand Awareness through Social Enterprise
Maximize community engagement through intentional interactions with your social enterprise. Learn to effectively connect with customers, donors, and volunteers to enhance your mission's visibility. Explore strategies, including cues for additional donations at checkout, as well as educating thrift store donors on mission impact. Discover the power of volunteers as storytellers and equip them with tools that invite others to join their efforts. Elevate the influence of your social enterprise, to make it a key driver for community awareness and support.
Coming soon!

Plus five sessions in Foundations of Counseling

Merging Clinical Approaches with Ministerial Heart

The Power of the Collective: Engaging the Ecosystem for At-Risk Clients and At-Risk Helpers
With an emphasis on Ecomap training for social work as well as assistance for at-risk clients and professionals combating burnout, you’ll get a visual overview of social networks, supports, and stressors. Through collaboration, you can gain insight into relationships, identify support gaps, and develop intervention strategies, while learning self-awareness, healthier boundaries, and self-care. This dual-purpose tool enhances the well-being of both clients and professionals, promoting personal growth through theoretical understanding and support identification.
How Helping Others Makes Us Stronger
Explore how various counseling techniques compel personal growth through willingness to engage in the emotional lives of others and develop your own identity in the process. The LiveUp Resources equip participants for more effective ministry assistance and foster individual maturity in service to those around them. As you give within your ministry, you simultaneously nurture personal growth and identity.
Heart to Heart (Part One)
Master heart-to-heart conversations with clients, colleagues, and yourself. This two-part workshop will tackle challenges that accompany assisting individuals in turmoil while providing realistic and effective solutions. Delve into fundamental identity formation theories and apply them directly in both therapy and/or team building. With a focus on personal growth, LiveUp Resources seeks to equip participants for more effective ministry and holistic individual development while serving others.
Heart to Heart (Part Two)
This continuation of training will focus on cultivating heart-to-heart conversations with clients, colleagues, and yourself. With an emphasis on the language of emotion, you’ll explore understanding client messages and responding appropriately. Delve into how various personality types impact helpers. Recognize the importance of self-awareness in uncovering client motivations, unfulfilled needs, defensive mechanisms, and identity issues. LiveUp Resources seeks to equip participants for more effective ministry and holistic individual development while serving others.
Listen Up: Authentically Connecting with Your Client’s Journey
Focus on assessing and managing diverse personalities, needs, and motivations. Explore how various response styles tailored to individual needs can promote personal growth. An authentic therapist-client connection can reveal identity struggles and help guide effective assistance. LiveUp Resources seeks to equip participants for more effective ministry and holistic individual development while serving others.