Check your Mission Trip Blind Spots | Room 161A&B
Erica Schimelpfenig
It is possible to create mission trip experiences that help, protect, and support communities instead of hurting them. But to do that, you’ll need to check your blind spots. With 28 years of experience creating and facilitating youth mission trips, YouthWorkshas been through it all and learned a lot along the way. This seminar will give you a process for checking the blind spots that will allow you to help without hurting.

Controlling the Chaos | Room 162A&B
Chris Handrick
Let’s talk about the reality ofmanaging teens…There are times when we need to decide whether to reset, channel, or just embrace the craziness in our small groups. This breakout will help us reflect around where our struggles may come from and provide practical strategies for managingthe most rowdy, challenging, and loveable students!

Head-Heart-Hands: Whole & Holy Disciples | Room 205A
Crystal Kirgiss
Learn about a whole-person discipleship model that includes foundation, formation, and fruition. Content is easily adaptable to adolescents (and adults) of all ages. Includes access to a full 15-lesson series that can be downloaded and adapted for your students.

Leaders of Color in Majority-Culture Spaces | Room 205B
Peter Vang
When people of color find ourselves serving in majority-culture churches/ministries, there are both wonderful joys and often unspoken heartaches that naturally come along with it. This breakout hopes to address research, realities, stories, and encouragement for Leaders of Color so that we can better beautify our ministries with our God-given diversity. If desired, you may invite a colleague to join you at this session, so that they can lean in to better hear, better understand, and better partner to engage and achieve God’s multicultural vision of the changing local church.

Spaces of Belonging – Practicing Radical Hospitality in Youth Ministry | Room 154
Jimmy Bero
To reach young people today, our communities must be obviously and radically welcoming. Two of the most important values for Gen Z are authenticity and belonging, so the question for us is “How do our spaces (both physically and relationally) lean into these two values?” This session will not give you all the answers (we haven’t figured it out), but instead seeks to start a conversation that will guide all of us into taking steps toward and facilitate a time of sharing and collaboration across different ministry contexts. We have so much to learn from one another.

The Youth Leader’s Role in Student Mental Health Care | Room 201
Alyssa Greeley & Franny Rosing
Also During Breakout Session 2
The students we care for are navigating unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression. Suicide remains the second leading cause of death for teens. How are we equipped to respond? Join Alyssa and Franny as they bring professional expertise and youth ministry experience to provide simple yet powerful tools any adult can use to come alongside students experiencing mental health challenges.

Prayer Space | Room 202
This is quiet space open for you the entire day. If you would like one of our care staff to pray for you, to pray with a fellow leader, or by yourself, the room is available for you. Stop in anytime for a moment of prayer. Also stop by the Prayer Wall across the atrium.

Download Descriptions >

Connecting Beyond Programming: Contact Work & Outreach | Room 154
M.K. Pierce
As leaders to students, we have to earn the right to be heard / earn the right to be trusted. We can’t expect students to enter into our world without first entering into theirs. Some of the most important moments happen outside of the “youth group walls.” During this breakout session, we will dive into what it means to be a leader who shows up.

Engaging & Empowering Every Teenager | Room 161A&B
Erica Schimelpfenig
What if you had a discipleship framework that engaged EVERY teenager in your ministry — from the apathetic to the student leaders? There are few environments better suited for discipleship moments than mission trips but creating space for those discipleship moments can be tough and knowing how to respond in those moments can be even more difficult. For 28 years, YouthWorks has helped create mission trip experiences that help youth leaders create and prioritize discipleship moments. We’ll work through a discipleship framework that prepares you for discipleship moments that will make a lasting impact in the lives and faith of your students.

Entering Their World: How to Leave Your Comfort Zone Behind & Enter the World of a Child Living with Disabilities | Room 205A
Naomi Norris
Families with a student with special needs wonder if your ministry is a good fit for them. How can we approach these students and make them feel welcome and loved? We’ll discuss the benefits of “Friendship” vs. “Ministry.”

Research in Action: Engaging Gen-Z with a Gospel-Centered Lens | Room 162A&B
Kenz Ladd
Also During Breakout Session 3
Gen-Z is defined as anyone between the ages of 11 and 25 years old -which are the middle school, high school, and college-aged students we will be reaching for the next 12 years. We need to re-think how we are going to re-engage young people with the Gospel. Our message isn’t changing but our method has to, as young people are engaging the world differently. Come learn who this beautiful and unique generation Z is and how to reach them with the Gospel.

The Youth Leader’s Role in Student Mental Health Care | Room 201
Alyssa Greeley & Franny Rosing
Also During Breakout Session 1
The students we care for are navigating unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression. Suicide remains the second leading cause of death for teens. How are we equipped to respond? Join Alyssa and Franny as they bring professional expertise and youth ministry experience to provide simple yet powerful tools any adult can use to come alongside students experiencing mental health challenges.

Your Story, Their Story, & His Story | Room 205B
Heather Stahley
We are in and out of conversations every single day. What happens in these conversations when a part of your story and their story intersects with His story? We can prepare for the terrain of each interaction by thinking through who our audience is, the plot line the conversation could traverse, and what impact this exchange could have on our journeys toward Jesus. This breakout invites participants to engage in storytelling activities and strategies to utilize in life’s conversations.

Prayer Space | Room 202
This is quiet space open for you the entire day. If you would like one of our care staff to pray for you, to pray with a fellow leader, or by yourself, the room is available for you. Stop in anytime for a moment of prayer. Also stop by the Prayer Wall across the atrium.

Download Descriptions >

A Baker’s Dozen Bible Dives | Room 205A
Crystal Kirgiss
Come learn about 13 different ways to read scripture with your students (and yourself) more carefully so that scripture will read us back, transforming us into deeper disciples. Strategies range from creative to contemplative to analytic. As we become better readers, we will fall more deeply in love with God’s Word.

Avoiding Burnout: Ministry for the Long Haul | Room 161A&B
Craig Gartland
Youth ministry is hard. There are times when the schedule of youth ministry and the demands of relational energy with students can be overwhelming and hard to balance. It’s hard to know when to say no and how to sustain a healthy balance of ministry and personal life. In this breakout, we hope to provide practical examples for how to avoid burnout and create healthy margins that allow for long-term youth ministry.

Debrief of Preston Sprinkle Visit | Room 109
Ben Knox
For Blackhawk Church Leaders Only
After Preston Sprinkle’s visit on January 29, where we spoke about trans* identities and the church, this room is set aside for our team to process our thoughts, feelings, and possible next steps moving forward. This is OPTIONAL for Blackhawk leaders – feel free to choose a different session in this time slot if that would be more valuable for you.

How to Lead a Small Group | Room 201
Jimmy Bero
In this reprisal of a “fan favorite” from past years at YLC, we’ll seek to uncover the heart of why small group matters and the philosophy of how to create space for students to belong and have meaningful conversations regardless of what they believe about Jesus or the Bible. We’ll share hands-on, practical ideas to incorporate into your small group community. From journals to games, you will leave with a list of activities to facilitate community and conversations.

Research in Action: Engaging Gen-Z with a Gospel-Centered Lens | Room 162A&B
Kenz Ladd
Also During Breakout Session 2
Gen-Z is defined as anyone between the ages of 11 and 25 years old – which are the middle school, high school and college-aged students we will be reaching for the next 12 years. We need to re-think how we are going to re-engage young people with the Gospel. Our message isn’t changing but our method has to, as young people are engaging the world differently. Come learn who this beautiful and unique generation Z is and how to reach them with the Gospel.

Prayer Space | Room 202
This is quiet space open for you the entire day. If you would like one of our care staff to pray for you, to pray with a fellow leader, or by yourself, the room is available for you. Stop in anytime for a moment of prayer. Also stop by the Prayer Wall across the atrium.

Download Descriptions >

Jimmy Bero started in ministry as a volunteer Young Life leader in 2007 and began interning at Blackhawk Church in 2011 before joining the staff team in 2013. In July 2022, he transitioned to his current position as the Director of High School Ministry at Blackhawk. Jimmy has a lot of doubts and questions about what youth ministry is and what it should become in our current cultural moment but remains unwavering in his confidence that youth ministry is the most important work that a church does (with all due respect to other ministries). Jimmy and his wife Brianna are raising two kids, Zoe and Luca, who bring so much life and light into the world.

Craig Gartland is the Executive Pastor of Staff & Ministries at Blackhawk Church. He has served on church and campus ministry teams for “the long haul,” over thirty years. When he’s not on the clock, you might find Craig with his cycling buddies or his grandson.

Alyssa Greeley currently works as a mental health therapist at Crossroads Counseling Center in Sun Prairie. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies from UW-Madison and a Master of Science in Professional Counseling from Concordia University. Alyssa has experience providing individual, group, and family counseling to kids, adolescents, and adults. Her desire is for all humans to feel known and seen and believes everyone deserves to share their stories with integrity. Alyssa is not a licensed Christian counselor; however, she is passionate about integrating faith and spirituality with mental health and therapeutic techniques. She has served with High School Ministry at Blackhawk since 2014 and loves learning more about Jesus through students’ perspectives and experiences.

Chris Handrick serves as the Metro Director for Young Life in Dane County. He’s a Dane County native, graduating from Edgewood College and has more than 10 years of professional experience mentoring teens and young adults. Outside of work you’ll find him on the soccer field playing or coaching.

Crystal Kirgiss (PhD Purdue University) has been working with students for 35 years and encouraging youth workers for almost as long. She is an author and speaker whose greatest joy is to talk about Jesus in ways that are clear and compelling. She was part of the Youth Specialties national speaker and training team for many years, has written over 10 books, and has been a core writer for many student Bible editions. She currently serves as the Director of Discipleship Content and Partnership for Young Life. She and her husband Mark (a veteran youth worker) live in West Lafayette, IN and serve in the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Ben Knox is the pastor of Student Ministry and Middle School Ministry at Blackhawk Church. He will not be presenting any new content in his breakout session, but rather facilitating a conversation for Blackhawk folks who attended either of the events with Preston Sprinkle in late January. He cheers for Atlético de Madrid, and he can lick his elbow.

Kenz Ladd is the area director for Young Life College in Madison, WI. She previously served on Young Life staff for 7 years in Tennessee where she led both high school and college-aged students. She moved to Madison in the summer of 2020 to start Young Life College at UW-Madison, where she and her team are now reaching more than 60 college students on a weekly basis. Kenz also serves on the YLC national team where she helps develop new YLC ministries across the Midwest. While serving in that role she has been a part of a Gen-Z cohort for the past two years, reading, learning, and discussing Gen-Z and how to reach them. Outside of work, Kenz enjoys spending time with her goldendoodle Wrigley, cycling, traveling, and adventuring with family and friends.

Download Speaker Bios >