2021 Speakers
Main Session Speaker:
Rick Howerton
We are excited to announce the main speaker for the 2020 conference is Rick Howerton. Rick is a returning speaker with The Groups Conference and we are excited to have him back. His extensive background in the area of groups and discipleship are a natural fit with our conference theme... "As We Go...".
Rick spent 13 years as the small group specialist at LifeWay Church Resources, three years with NavPress as their Small Group Specialist, and is currently the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Church Consultant for the South Central Region of Kentucky.
Rick has authored or co-authored multiple books, studies, and leader training resources including:
Rick's varied ministry experiences as a collegiate minister, small group pastor, teaching pastor, elder, fulltime trainer and church consultant, as well as having been a successful church planter gives him a perspective of church life that is all-encompassing and multi-dimensional. Rick is a highly sought after communicator and trainer. Rick's deepest passion and his goal in life is to see, "a biblical small group within walking distance of every person on the planet making disciples that make disciples."
Rick Howerton
We are excited to announce the main speaker for the 2020 conference is Rick Howerton. Rick is a returning speaker with The Groups Conference and we are excited to have him back. His extensive background in the area of groups and discipleship are a natural fit with our conference theme... "As We Go...".
Rick spent 13 years as the small group specialist at LifeWay Church Resources, three years with NavPress as their Small Group Specialist, and is currently the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Church Consultant for the South Central Region of Kentucky.
Rick has authored or co-authored multiple books, studies, and leader training resources including:
- A Different Kind of Tribe: Embracing the New Small Group Dynamic
- Destination Community: Small Group Ministry Manual
- The Gospel and the Truth: Living the Message of Jesus
- Small Group Life Ministry Manual: A New Approach to Small Groups
- Redeeming the Tears: A Journey Through Grief and Loss
- Small Group Life: Kingdom
- Small Group Kickoff Retreat: Experiential Training for Small Group Leaders
- Great Beginnings: Your First Small Group Study
- Disciples Path: A Practical Guide to Disciple Making
- Countdown: Launching and Leading Transformational Groups
Rick's varied ministry experiences as a collegiate minister, small group pastor, teaching pastor, elder, fulltime trainer and church consultant, as well as having been a successful church planter gives him a perspective of church life that is all-encompassing and multi-dimensional. Rick is a highly sought after communicator and trainer. Rick's deepest passion and his goal in life is to see, "a biblical small group within walking distance of every person on the planet making disciples that make disciples."
Past Speakers
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2018 Speaker: Amy Jackson
Amy Jackson is the founder and director of The Perch www.theperch.com. The mission is to provide space and skills for soul care so you can engage God, others, and yourself in meaningful ways. Designed to be a resting place, The Perch offers an environment to experience rest, renewal, reflection, and rejuvenation. Amy is super passionate about soul care and showing people new ways for that. Her background includes serving as an associate publisher of SmallGroups.com at Christianity Today, small-group minister, coach, and group leader. ~Connect with Amy: at amykjackson.com and on Twitter @amykjackson. |
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2018 Speaker: Bill Duey
William "Bill" J. Duey teaches at the Crossover in Mattoon, IL and serves as the director of Fit-2-Serve, a not-for-profit he founded in 2008. The vision of Fit-2-Serve is to be a catalyst for a stronger collaborative community through relationships and service. For 24 years he served as a professor at both a state and Christian university and came to realize that service learning seems to be the pedagogy that millennial's both crave and need and that Jesus frequently engaged His followers in. ~Connect with Bill: fit-2-serve.net. |
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2018 Speaker: Danah Himes
Danah Himes is a campus minister at the Christian Campus House in Charleston, IL. Danah invests in the training and development of leaders while overseeing the small group ministry at CCH. She loves being a part of what God is doing in the lives of college students. Danah has a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from EIU and a Masters Degree in Ministry from Lincoln Christian Seminary. Danah has written articles for SmallGroups.com, womenleaders.com, CT Pastors, and more. ~Connect with Danah: danah@campus-house.com |
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2018 Speaker: Brad Himes
Brad Himes has a passion for training and developing others to lead biblical small groups throughout the community. His experience involves overseeing the Life Group and discipleship ministry at a local church as well as helping other churches around the country implement group ministry strategies. Brad is the founder of The Groups Conference and has written articles for SmallGroups.com, CT Pastors, Christian Standard, and LifeWay Publishing. Currently, Brad is a Performance Consultant at a local not-for-profit hospital with a focus on employee training, facilitating, and consulting . ~Connect with Brad: brad@thegroupsconference.com |
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2017 Speaker: Scott Boren
M. Scott Boren is the President of The Center for Community & Mission, a training and consulting organization that works with Christian leaders to foster conversations about what it means to be Jesus-way people in a secular age. He is the author of nine books, including his latest Leading Small Groups in the Way of Jesus. He shares life in Saint Paul, MN, with his wife Shawna and their four kids. ~Connect with Scott: http://scottboren.blogspot.com/ |
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2017 Speaker: Mike Mack
Michael Mack’s mission is to equip ordinary people to courageously lead extraordinary small groups. He believes life change happens best in the environment of healthy groups because he has experienced it himself. He loves helping leaders overflow through his ministry, Small Group Leadership, which exists to equip leaders; resource them with articles, books, blogs, and discussion guides; and coach/consult with ministry leaders. Mike founded smallgroups.com in 1995. His books for small group leaders include Small Group Vital Signs, The World’s Greatest Small Group: 7 Powerful Traits of a Life-Changing Leader and more. ~Connect with Mike: http://smallgroupleadership.com/ |
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2016 Speaker: Dr. Bill Donahue
Dr. Bill Donahue, Ph.D., is a popular conference speaker, prolific author and leadership consultant. A graduate of Princeton University, Bill also holds a Ph.D. in Adult Learning from the University of North Texas. He is an Associate Professor at Trinity International University in Deerfield where he develops emerging leaders. He also serves as President of the LeaderSync Group, Inc. where he provides strategic consulting and leadership development for key leaders and their teams. Bill has authored over a dozen books and resources including the best-selling Leading Life-changing Small Groups and co-authored Coaching Life-Changing Leaders with Greg Bowman, and Building a Life-changing Small Group Ministry with Russ Robinson. ~Connect with Bill: http://drbilldonahue.com/ |
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2015 Speaker: Rick Howerton
Rick has one passion... To see “a biblical small group within walking distance of every person on the planet making disciples that make disciples.” Rick has authored or co-authored multiple books, studies, and leader training resources including A Different Kind of Tribe: Embracing the New Small Group Dynamic. Rick’s varied ministry experiences as an collegiate minister, small group pastor, teaching pastor, elder, full-time trainer and church consultant, as well as having been a successful church planter gives him a perspective of church life that is all-encompassing and multi-dimensional. Rick is a highly sought after communicator and trainer. ~Connect with Rick: https://rickhowerton.wordpress.com/ |
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2014 Speakers: Jim & Vicki Egli
Since 1992 the central focus of my ministry has been small group ministry. For eight years of that time my full-time job was writing training and consulting with churches helping them to establish vibrant small group ministries. In my quest to help churches like yours with small groups I completed a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from Regent University researching what differentiates growing small groups from stagnant ones and why some churches small groups ministry thrive while others struggle. If you want to learn more about what I and my fellow researcher discovered, pick up our recently published book, Small Groups, Big Impact, the most researched and I think the most practical book ever written for small group leaders. ~Connect with Jim: http://jimegli.com/ |
