ABF08 Conference CD Orders
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"Think Midsize" 2008 ABF Conference Summary - Cincinnati

What a weekend! The best way to describe the 2008 ABF Conference held on November 14-16 is that it was a spirit-filled, magical weekend of God’s people coming together to celebrate, network and equip the Church in midsize groups’ strategies, along with training small group leadership.

About 300 people were on the campus of Hope Church in Mason, Ohio in the Cincinnati area with church leaders and volunteer and paid staff representing over 70 churches and 22 states around the country stretching from California, Washington and Arizona, to Louisiana, Florida and Texas, then all the way north and east to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania!

The theme of the conference was “Think Midsize...for making authentic connections.” Main session speakers, Bill Johnson and Mike Breen set the pace with stirring messages on spiritual transformation and living the Christian life in difficult times. Other main session highlights included Hope Church’s, David Cain, www.christianjuggler.com, wowing the audience with incredible juggling tricks while communicating biblical truths. Then, on Saturday a fun and amazing jump rope team called the Mason Comet Skippers, led by midsize community leader, Jim Davis, did some creative and difficult routines.
Finally, the worship was led by our student ministries worship band and worship leader, Shawn Davies, www.boomerangdesigngroup.com (who designs our ABF Conference brochures).

Thirty-eight breakout workshops focused on all aspects of building midsize groups, developing leaders, equipping teachers and included two tracks on small group leadership. The Friday night Networking Event sponsored by Standard Publishing began with “grazing centers” featuring tacos, wraps, Cincinnati chili and cheese conies. After dinner a series of short 30-minute “Product Presentations” was followed by an hour of networking: 13 rooms were opened up for smaller groups to discuss best practices and greatest challenges for class/community leaders, care/prayer leaders, young adult leaders, senior adult leaders, Bible teachers, small group leaders, etc.

The overall evaluations were again incredibly positive with the highest marks given to the Hope Church volunteers who flooded the hallways with not only smiles and warm greetings, but also with lots of homemade baked goodies! 

Many of the conference attendees stayed over Saturday night and visited Hope Church midsize communities and worship services on Sunday mornings. The communities enjoyed guests from all over the country who just wanted to experience group life “Hope Church style!”

One of the conference participants mentioned in the Belayer’s Community that they couldn’t understand how Hope Church could offer this conference at such a low registration price. Just know that our heart is to provide an incredible equipping experience affordable enough that  the price would not keep anyone away. Many thanks must go to our sponsors including Standard Publishing, Next Step Resources, ABF Resources, LifeWay/Serendipity House Publishing and Logos Bible Software.

We give kudos to the Hope Church family for its vision and willingness to take the risk to host a conference of this magnitude. A local church pastor, along with a passionate volunteer team who love midsize groups makes this conference happen. Praise God!

The Main session messages were audio and DVD recorded. Most of the breakout workshops were audio recorded except for the several due to technical difficulties or reproduction restrictions. For an order form email jwarden@hope-church.org
 
For the cause of Making Disciples of Jesus,
Steve Lizzio
Pastor of Adult ministries, Hope Church  & Director of ABF Resources

Jim & Jean Kuhn, Coordinators of the ABF Conference Team:
Tom Powell                Bev Deem   
Shawn Davies            Vicki Deem
Terri Lautzenheiser    Todd Hinners
John Warden              Bob Williams
Brenda Dunn              Randy Crowe
Bob Benson