Session 1

The Origin: Church Begins When the church began, it was revolutionary. As a result, the majority of “God’s people” rejected the church and its revolutionary leader. Why? They had lost God in the predictability of their practices. They were satisfied with their conventions and put off by His unconventional behavior. Sadly, the same is happening today. If we’re going to experience God’s power in our churches today, we can’t make the same mistake. We must return to our roots by embracing and engaging in the revolution.

Session 2

The Nemesis: Villains Unveiled Read the first three chapters of the Bible and the reality is clear. God and His people have an enemy. And yet, God’s people continue to forget and fall prey to the same deceptions. When the church isn’t working right, it’s because God’s people fail to remember to prepare for spiritual warfare. We need to identify the enemy and arm ourselves for victory.

Session 3

The Hero: Behind the Mask As in comics, so it is in the church. There are heroes, but they are far from perfect. Sadly, we expect both too much and too little from our spiritual leaders these days. As a result, we rob the church of the kind of leadership it needs. We need to examine the life of those God holds up as heroes in His Word and learn from and follow them.

Session 4

The Fight: Battle Plan The church is in a fight for her life these days… not so much from without but within. In order to fulfill her God-given mission, the church must engage culture with God’s Truth. The Truth is the power to change lives. Engaging culture requires connecting God’s Truth to people in a language they can understand. Therefore, the fight is to “change without compromise.” Though this can be done successfully, it requires a workable plan.

Session 5

The Revelation: What's Your Kryptonite? The reality is that the DNA of all churches is different. No two churches are the same. They have different backgrounds, resources, gifts, settings, strengths and weaknesses. As a result, each church has to apply God’s Truth in different ways. The principles are the same but the appropriate practices aren’t. As a result, general information isn’t enough. In this session, there will be opportunity to address your specific questions.

Session 6

The Revolution: Church Rising A dead church is an oxymoron. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ has risen. The only churches that are dead are those that have locked Jesus out. When we hear His knock and open the door, the revolution begins. As promised, He builds His Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Let the revolution begin.

Designing Your Services

Come and get new ideas, walk through a mini brainstorming process, and see what new “ah-ha’s” we found this last year! Pastors, come and see if this is where you want your services to go, learn the value and process, and ask questions. We’ll let you know how to become more involved with and benefit from your creative team. Get all the handouts, forms, answers, vendors, sources that you need to start or continue along with us on this creative venture we call services!

Roxann Powell, Director of Creative Arts
Roxann is the Director over all areas of Creative Arts, which includes stage, drama, music, lighting, video and sound. In addition to overseeing the mid-week and four Weekend Services, she also leads out the Glory of Christmas concert each year with over 29,000 people in attendance.

Strategy and Ministry Plans

Do your ministry plans sometimes feel clouded and veiled? Do they lack believability? Are they changing faster than they can be printed? Does this year’s strategic plan bear a surreal resemblance to the one that went nowhere last year? This hands-on workshop will give you and your team practical steps to develop, communicate and engage a ‘living’ strategic plan.

Kevin McKenna, Executive Pastor
Kevin has served as Executive Pastor at NorthRidge Church since 2003. Serving at NorthRidge since 1992, Kevin was called to full time ministry from a senior level role in the automotive industry. With degrees from the University of Toronto and Notre Dame, God has coupled Kevin’s international business experience with a series of leadership roles at NorthRidge in Student Ministries, Prayer Partners, Outreach, Discipleship Ministries and the Elder Board.

Volunteers

Volunteers are the real “super heroes” in all churches … that are working right! When you really believe that “volunteers are gold…” you will do everything humanly possible to appropriately recruit, equip and maintain them! The Volunteer Workshop is an interactive session where we learn the how-to’s for identifying and recruiting, equipping and empowering, and retaining and maintaining a volunteer base that understands the vision and purpose of His Church!

Kevin Winningham, Administrative & LifeStage Ministries Pastor
Kevin has served at NorthRidge for the past 16 years and recently celebrated his 25th year of ministry. Kevin is a part of the NorthRidge teaching team, is a frequent speaker at both corporate and church events and has been published in Youthworker Journal.

Music & Worship

This workshop is for pastors, worship leaders, and volunteer musicians of any size church, looking to develop a dynamic, anointed, relevant, and authentic music ministry. Emphasis will be on helping you design a clear purpose and values for your music ministry, followed by practical musical tools for soloists, praise teams, band and choir using a live band and singers for demonstration. We will also share our recent learnings from last year with valuable handouts and resources. If you are connected in any way with the music program of your church, this is a must seminar for you.

Paul Black, Music and Worship Pastor
Paul has been on staff at NorthRidge Church for 17 years. He is responsible for the spiritual and musical development of music volunteers. He mentors worship leaders, coaches praise teams, soloists and bands. He also directs the choir and orchestra, and is also part of the weekend and midweek planning team.

Small Groups

Small Groups provide the G-force for spiritual growth and human connection. It is within the fabric of these healthy circles of friends God shows-up and injects life into His people. Here at NorthRidge we’ve done BIG really well, and now we are learning about the revolutionary power of small. Join us as we openly share our learnings, successes and go-forward strategies in the ever-changing landscape of Small Groups.

Steve Yarrow, Small Groups Pastor
Steve joined the NorthRidge team in January 2008 to provide directional leadership to the Small Group movement while also serving as a group life trainer and consultant to churches around the country. He has fifteen years of ministry leadership in churches of all sizes and locations ranging from the inner-city of Minneapolis, to Dallas, TX and the Chicago area. Steve and his wife, Elissa, have 2 daughters and love leading their own Small Group. God has literally used groups to change his life.

Unleashing Generosity

How do we unleash generosity in our churches for maximum impact? Biblical stewardship is so misunderstood today. Do you know what Jesus intended it to look like? How do the people in your church define it? For most churches the answers would be all over the map. Join this interactive workshop as we ask the important questions... How does a church develop a culture of generosity? What does a comprehensive stewardship ministry look like? Biblical stewardship can and should be a vital and vibrant part of your ministry – learn how to weave it into the fiber of your people and into all the ministries of your church.

Michael Miller, Executive Director of Maximum Impact
Michael has been a member of NorthRidge since 1997 and joined the NorthRidge staff as the Stewardship Director in 2007. He was called to full time ministry from the marketplace where he was a partner in a Paperboard Brokerage company. He received his degrees from Western Michigan (BA) and Wayne State (MBA). Mike has served as chairman Young Life’s Development Board and is a recent graduate of Lifestyle Giving’s Estate Design mentorship program. These qualifications combined with a Kingdom passion have prepared him well for his Stewardship role.