Wednesday Workshops
At this year’s National Gathering, we’re featuring over 30 workshops for you to choose from. You can explore Love INC Core principles, learn more about Cool Focus, Relational Wisdom, Church Engagement, how to develop a thriving transformational ministry, and more. To view which workshops will be available during each training session, view Workshops by Date/Time now.
Additionally, if you are not currently connected with a Love INC and are desiring to know more about the Love INC Movement, we’ve cultivated a specific track to kick off your Gathering experience. View our Recommended Guest Sessions now.
Are You Leading Like Prayer Actually Works?
Audience: All Attendees, DNA Recommended
Theme: Encouragement
Love INC is not just a service model—it’s a spiritual movement. Yet even the most mission-driven leaders can slip into managing outcomes more than seeking God’s direction. This session confronts a critical leadership gap: the disconnect between believing in prayer and leading as if it truly changes everything. Leave with simple practices to integrate prayer more deeply into your team’s rhythms and your personal leadership.
Led By:
Stuart Smith, Executive Director, Love INC of Clackamas County, OR.
Blueprints to Growth: Aquiring, Remodeling and Maintaining Spaces for Ministry
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Want to make your photos and videos stand out—without expensive equipment? This workshop will show you how to use your phone to create eye-catching, authentic content that connects. Learn the power of real images over stock photos and simple techniques to elevate your digital marketing.
Led By:
John Ligtenberg, Executive Director, Love INC of the Black Hills, SD.
Kaleb Langham, Warehouse Ministry Manager, Love INC of the Black Hills, SD.
Communicating the Beauty of Love INC—A Collaborative Discussion
Audience: All Attendees, DNA Recommended
Theme: Mission
Love INC’s mission is beautiful. While it is easy to see the power of the mission from inside Love INC, it can be challenging to communicate every Love INC does and the impact you make in your community to all your stakeholders. Creating consistent understanding and equipping your team, board, and volunteers with the tools necessary to communicate “what Love INC does” is critical for mission impact and growth. Join fellow Love INC affiliate leadership and staff as they talk about best practices and key learnings in how they have strategically communicated “What Love INC does” with their stakeholder. Learn how others have been able to communicate Love INC’s powerful mission to various stakeholders to increase impact.
Led By:
Chris Jorgensen, Chief Consultant and Founder, Convergent Strategy. Read Bio.
CoolFocus Reporting and CF5 Update: What's New and What's Next
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Leverage CoolFocus data to obtain valuable information for planning and operations. Learn how to access data for statistics, donor mailings, reporting volunteer involvement to churches, and more. Also, explore the new version of CoolFocus, CF5: what has been released and what is coming.
Led By:
Michelle Miduri, Director of Operations, Love INC of Greater Hershey, PA. Read Bio.
Ditch the Stock, Capture the Real: Elevate Your Marketing with Authentic Images
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Want to make your photos and videos stand out—without expensive equipment? This workshop will show you how to use your phone to create eye-catching, authentic content that connects. Learn the power of real images over stock photos and simple techniques to elevate your digital marketing.
Led By:
Daytona Nichelson, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Love INC National.
Empowering Volunteers - Serving with Heart and Intentionality
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Discover how to keep the Love INC mission front and center in everything we do. This workshop will explore practical ways to align our processes and procedures with our purpose—making it easier to onboard new volunteers and help them connect with the heart of the mission. We’ll also discuss strategies to prevent ministry burnout in long-time volunteers who have faithfully poured into others for years.
Led By:
Lori Baxter, Volunteer Coordinator, Love INC of Yakima County, WA. Read Bio.
His Care—A Godly Approach to Walking With Others
Audience: All Attendees, DNA, and Guest Recommended
Theme: Mission
Caring for people in need should reflect God’s heart—moving beyond transactions to true transformation. This workshop explores redemptive compassion: biblical principles of relational ministry that affirm the God-given value and potential of every person. Participants will learn specific, practical ways to serve wisely, foster dignity and mutual participation, and walk with others in ways that lead to lasting change.
Led By: Vicki Conn, Executive Director, Love INC of Greater Holmes County, OH. Read Bio.
Love INC Core—Who We Are and How We Serve
Audience: All Attendees, DNA Recommended
Theme: Mission
Explore the heart of Love INC—who we are, what we value, and what sets us apart. Learn how we live out our mission through our ministry modes and the tools that help us pursue excellence.
Led By:
Katie Popp, Director of Affiliates, Love INC National. Read Bio.
Love INC National Q&A
Audience: All Attendees, DNA Recommended
Theme: Mission
Once every other year, Love INC affiliates and national leadership are all in one place. Take this opportunity to connect with, hear from, and ask questions of the Love INC National Leadership.
Led By:
Kirk Vander Molen, Executive Director, Love INC National.
Lora Petitt, Senior Director of Special Projects, Love INC National.
One Time Events:
The Gateway to Regular Volunteers, Potential Donors, and Loving Your Community
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Mode
Are you often short volunteers from your church partners? Just as the body of Christ thrives with diverse and essential spiritual gifts of its members, we too need a variety of opportunities to give people a chance to experience serving In the Name of Christ and use those gifts.
Led By:
Glen Keith, Executive Director, Love INC of Cedar Valley, IA. Read Bio.
Our Mission—A Structured Body of Christ Working Together
Audience: All Attendees, DNA, and Guest Recommended
Theme: Mission
“What if?” What if churches in your community were united in purpose, fully engaged in living out their faith by lovingly serving people in need? For 48 years, Love INC has equipped churches to do just that—work together, bringing Christ’s love and transformation to communities. This session explores how Love INC unites and mobilizes churches to serve effectively and relationally. Could God be calling you to bring Love INC to your community?
Led By:
Kirk Vander Molen, Executive Director, Love INC National. Read Bio.
Lora Petitt, Senior Director of Special Projects, Love INC National. Read Bio.
6 Principles of Empowering Program Design
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Mode
Many poverty alleviation ministries see the same clients year after year. They aspire to help people live God-honoring, productive lives but seem to make little progress. Yet, there are approaches that see dramatically different results. This session will cover both principles and practical application that help you transform handouts into dignifying empowerment ministries. If you serve people in poverty, this session is for you!
Led By:
Nathan Mayo, Vice President of Programs, True Charity. Read Bio.
Program Analysis and Improvement 101
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Leadership
Conferences fill your head with ideas for improving or replacing existing programs. But where do you start? This session walks you through a deliberate process that will help you analyze your existing programs and craft a confident strategic plan to implement what you’ve learned. Learn techniques to evaluate existing programs, create alternatives, focus your approaches, identify barriers to change, manage change, execute with excellence, and anchor the new programs into your culture. If you know you have some changes to make but aren’t sure how, this session is for you!
Led By:
Nathan Mayo, Vice President of Programs, True Charity. Read Bio.
Vision + Reality (Track One)
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Mode
Our Vision & Reality Trainings casts vision and inspires your affiliate to engage in the various modes of Love INC as well as helps you understand what it takes for vision to become a reality. Track 1 is an Introduction to Transformational Ministry. This training requires participation by two people from your affiliate, one of which must be the Executive Director.
Led By:
Hilary Ford, Program Manager, Love INC of Treasure Valley, ID. Read Bio.
Your Call—Living with Purpose at Every Stage
Audience: All Attendees, DNA, and Guest Recommended
Theme: Encouragement
God calls each of us to live with intention and purpose, no matter where we are in life. This session explores how we grow in our calling, deepen our engagement in God’s work, and live fully into His purpose for us.
Led By: Daniel Walker, Director of Developing New Affiliates, Love INC National. Read Bio.
Thursday Workshops
AI Systems: An Introduction
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
What is AI and how can it make you more efficient? Come learn about what AI is, what systems are out there, and how encorporating AI into some of your workflow could save you time and increase your impact.
Led By:
Catherine Vlieger, Director of Marketing and Communications, Love INC National. Read Bio.
Brain Overload: Creating Sticky Adult Learning Experiences
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Mode
In this interactive session, we will discuss how God has wired our brains to process and make meaning out of new information, as well as some of the stressors that inhibit learning. You will also have the opportunity to practice creating adult learning experiences that bridge oral culture and print culture by transforming a 1-way lecture into an interactive experience that appeals to oral learners.
Led By:
Jerilyn Sanders, Senior Director of US Economic Development Programs, The Chalmers Center for Economic Development. Read Bio.
Building Buy-In for Program Transformation
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Shifting from perpetual crisis relief to long-term development requires getting buy-in from numerous stakeholders. This practical workshop will explore the “ADKAR” model to help you build buy-in from your team, volunteers, donors, and board members. Through interactive discussions and exercises, you’ll make a plan for fostering Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement to support developmental shifts in your organization. Whether you’re a senior leader or an engaged volunteer, if you want to get your whole team on board with a new direction, this session is for you!
Led By:
Nathan Mayo, Vice President of Programs, True Charity. Read Bio.
Church Engagement –
A Best Practice Discussion
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Leadership
Most Love INC affiliates spend considerable effort engaging churches in their communities. As the needs of churches continually change and grow more complex, creating tangible and meaningful relationships with churches is becoming more and more challenging. Join fellow Love INC affiliate leadership and staff as they talk about best practices and key learnings in church engagement today. Engage in conversations about your own church engagement practices and identify ways to create more meaningful relationships your church partners.
Led By:
Chris Jorgensen, Chief Consultant and Founder, Convergent Strategy. Read Bio.
Digital Transformation for Affiliates - Creating an online HUB for your Love INC
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Love INC and Featherlight have done a great job of creating templates and standard content that can be used on your Love INC website through our managed site program. However, there is a lot that you can do to make your site (and your whole online presence) stand out and truly reflect the community you serve, as well as get in front of the people who need what you do. This centers around making your site the HUB of your communications, and ensuring that you’re using it to build your affiliate to the best of your ability. This workshop will offer strategies and approaches that will get help your organization with the digital transformation expected of all nonprofits in the digital age.
Led By:
Tyler Doornbos, Founder & CEO, Featherlight Websites. Read Bio.
Fundraising Plan
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Your budget and your fundraising plan are two different documents that work together. This workshop will help you integrate your budget and fundraising goals and learn to evaluate past data and use rationale to establish both financial and strategic goals. You will learn how to creates tactics and timelines to accomplish your goals and establish an evaluation process to USE your plan and keep it from growing stagnant.
Led By:
Kevin Whitman, Specialized Consultant, Mission Increase. Read Bio.
The High-Performing Board: Characteristics of Effective Governance
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Leadership
In this interactive and encouraging session, we’ll explore what makes a board truly effective in advancing the mission of a Christ-centered nonprofit. Together, we’ll look at the key traits of high-performing boards—clarity of purpose, strong relationships, and wise stewardship—and how these shape healthy, mission-focused governance. Come ready to be inspired, challenged, and equipped with practical insights to strengthen your board’s leadership and impact for the Kingdom.
Led By:
Tim Van Soelen, Executive Director, CACE. Read Bio.
An Intro to Outcomes: Measuring What Matters
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
We will never know if our poverty alleviation and discipleship programs are moving people towards a flourishing life unless we measure results. This hands-on session will give you a process for identifying outcome domains, particular outcomes, measurable indicators, and determining best practices for data collection. We’ll break into two levels of small groups based on where you are in your outcome measurement journey. Beginners will work through a process to identify the outcomes and outcome domains they want to measure. Intermediate attendees will collectively brainstorm specific indicators that can help them measure pre-identified outcomes. If you want to start measuring outcomes or improve existing measurements, this session is for you!
Led By:
Nathan Mayo, Vice President of Programs, True Charity. Read Bio.
Relational Skills that Empower People to “Get Upstream of Conflict”
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
This workshop will provide guidance on how Love INC chapters can teach, model and practice the principles of relational wisdom, biblical peacemaking, and servant leadership in order to equip their staff, boards, volunteers and clients with relational skills that enable them to reduce conflict, experience stronger and more productive ministry and client relationships, and turn conflict into an opportunity to demonstrate the transforming power of the gospel. These skills include self-awareness and self-discipline, empathy, communication, anger management, conflict resolution, problem solving, negotiation and emotional resilience. All workshop attendees will receive free access to the more extensive 10-hour online course on relational wisdom.
Led By:
Claude Allen (for Ken Sande), Executive Director, Love INC of Montgomery County, MD. Read Bio.
Tour—Love INC of Lake County
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Encouragement
Join us for the Go & See Affiliate Tour, a unique opportunity to see a Love INC Ministry in action. This guided experience at Love INC of Lake County offers an inside look at how local churches are mobilized to transform lives and communities through Christ-centered service. Come be inspired by real stories, practical ministry models, and the powerful impact of love in action.
Led By:
Amy Bothmann, Program Manager, Love INC of Lake County, IL. Read Bio.
Transformational Giving
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Operations
Transformational Giving (TG) is a Biblical approach to fundraising. This workshop will help you understand your dual calling as a ministry leader and explore the basic TG principles to help you shift your fundraising paradigm. Re-characterizing your relationship with your champions lays the foundation for all of your fundraising operations and helps you experience fundraising as a joyful calling!
Led By:
Kevin Whitman, Specialized Consultant, Mission Increase. Read Bio.
Transformational Strategic Focus
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Leadership
Learn how mastering strategic focus elevated one Love INC Affiliate’s potential and mission impact through effective strategic planning and organizational effectiveness. This session unpacks effective strategic planning and implementation and best practices that fuel strategic focus. John Ligtenberg of Love INC of the Black Hills will join as co-presenter to provide his unique insight into how his team has leveraged strategic focus for great impact.
Led By:
John Ligtenberg, Executive Director, Love INC of the Black Hills, SD. Read Bio.
Chris Jorgensen, Convergent Strategy. Read Bio.
Vision + Reality (Track One)
Audience: All Attendees
Theme: Mode
Our Vision & Reality Trainings casts vision and inspires your affiliate to engage in the various modes of Love INC as well as helps you understand what it takes for vision to become a reality. Track 1 is an Introduction to Transformational Ministry. This training requires participation by two people from your affiliate, one of which must be the Executive Director.
Led By:
Hilary Ford, Program Manager, Love INC of Treasure Valley, ID. Read Bio.
REGISTRATION DETAILS
PRE-GATHERING + NATIONAL GATHERING COMBO TICKET
$332.50 — until June 30
$350 — June 30–August 22
NATIONAL GATHERING ONLY
$266 — until June 30
$280 — June 30–August 22
BANQUET ONLY
$45
REGISTRATION DEADLINE
August 22
