Darryl Williamson is the lead pastor of Living Faith Bible Fellowship in Tampa, Florida, and serves on the Board and Council of The Gospel Coalition. He coaches churches on fostering cultural and generational diversity and integrating vocation with discipleship. Darryl speaks and writes on contextualized spiritual formation, gospel-centered justice, and the formation of character and work ethic in leadership. Before entering pastoral ministry, he was an executive in the software industry. He holds an MA in Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Friends University and is currently a PhD candidate in Leadership at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Darryl has been married to his wife, Julie, for 37 years, and they have an adult daughter.

Drawing from Romans 8:18–25, this session examines how eschatological hope shapes the inner life of the believer. As the soul is stretched between present suffering and promised glory, God forms resilient disciples marked by endurance, stability, and courage for life and ministry.

This session explores how churches can move from a program-centered model to a culture centered on discipleship and spiritual growth. We will examine the practical roles, decisions, and responsibilities of pastors and lay leaders in shaping ministries that intentionally form believers into Christlikeness.

This workshop explores the many challenges to discipleship and unity within multicultural congregations. We will examine how discipleship can and ought to heal hurts that have been experienced by people of color, and identify pastoral and formational practices that help churches nurture healing, dignity, and Christ-centered unity.

Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College and Associate Priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Author most recently of Ordinary Time: The Season of Growth in the Fullness of Time Series (IVP, 2026), Hebrews in the Commentaries for Christian Formation Series (Eerdmans, 2024) and Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans, 2022), her next major projects include a book on Paul, Incarnation, and Gender dynamics in the church and a commentary on the Pastoral Epistles in the New International Commentary on the New Testament Series. She serves as a member of the New Living Translation Committee and on the Board of Center for Pastor Theologians. Married to church organist and liturgical scholar, Lance Peeler, they enjoy time with their three children, hiking, and CrossFit.

The majestic proclamation of Christ’s divinity and humanity at the beginning of this Biblical letter segues into the unique presentation of Christ’s Priesthood. The author of Hebrews presents this vocation with erudition, but the depth serves not only to develop the intellect but, most importantly, to strengthen the tenuous faith of these weary Christians. From the seemingly arcane Epistle to the Hebrews comes vital lessons for our vulnerability before God, mercy from God, and endurance with God.

Jesus’s teaching on the Good Shepherd presents several models of leadership to avoid and to embrace. Learn how to spot the characteristics of a wolf, thief, and hired hand as well as differentiate what aspects of his leadership he fulfills and which he asks his followers to embrace.

Jesus made it clear to his followers that they should lead very differently than the authority figures around them. Hence, servant leadership is the distinctive of Christian Leaders, whose vocation is defined by gentleness rather than force. On the other hand, leaders need strength to protect the people in their care. Join us to learn how Scripture holds on to both these aspects as it directs leaders to be the kind of people who guide others to Jesus.

Tish Harrison Warren is a writer and an Anglican priest. She is the author of several books, including Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, which won Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep, which She formerly wrote a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, which focused on faith in public discourse and private life. She was also a columnist for Christianity Today, and her articles and essays have appeared in Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, Religion News Service, and elsewhere. She is a senior fellow with The Trinity Forum. She won Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year and the 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year. Tish has worked in various churches and Christian non-profits for over two decades, serving as a parish priest, a campus minister, and with those affected by poverty and addiction. She now serves as Artist-in-Residence at Immanuel Anglican Church, and lives in Austin, TX, with her husband and three children.

Spiritual formation, therefore, is never merely about our own spiritual growth. It is about becoming the kind of person who can participate in God’s mission. In this session, we will explore how Willard’s theology offers a “roomy” vision of the Christian life – one that integrates personal transformation, everyday vocation, and participation in God’s redemptive work in the world.

Jesus did not leave behind a book. He left behind a community. The purpose of the church has always been to produce people who resemble Jesus in character and lifestyle, and whose shared life embodies and announces the good news of God’s kingdom.
Many churches today struggle to connect spiritual formation with the actual life of the church and its mission in the world. What might it look like to recover the church as a school of life that forms us in the way of Jesus?

In this workshop, we will explore formational ecclesiology: the church as a people shaped together in Christlikeness for participation in God’s mission. Drawing on themes that will appear in a forthcoming book, we will consider the metaphor of the church as a “pirate island,” a distinct community with its own rhythms and practices that forms disciples and sends them into the world to spread the holy mischief of God’s kingdom.

We are constantly tempted to lie. On the one hand, we can be tempted to lie and downplay the real challenges and painful heartbreak in this world. Things are not all “good,” and as Christians, we can be tempted to pretend they are. On the other hand, we can be tempted to lie about how good God is, imagining he really isn’t kind, compassionate, near, and full of grace. Yet in the biblical practice of lament we discover the beauty and freedom of honoring both these truths together (i.e., the world is deeply broken and God is genuinely good), even when we can’t reconcile them in our lives. A Christian vision of how they come together is both stunningly unique and beautiful. [Drawing from When the Journey Hurts and Embodied Hope]

Kelly explores how Jesus, the Messiah, is not merely the object of our worship but also the chief worshiper. Drawing on sources from both scripture and historical theology, the lecture demonstrates that Christ, in his full incarnate life, loves the Father for us, weaving our fragmented prayers and imperfect praise into his own perfect faithfulness, thus providing a steady foundation for our uneven faith and life. We will have time for discussion as we consider how these matters affect our corporate and personal lives. [Drawing from Christian Life]

Artist | Writer | Speaker
Bette creates visual parables of the spiritual life through her art and writing. As a gifted communicator, she leads people on a journey of divine encounters. She has a knack for creating and facilitating embodied and sacred spaces of connection and transformation.
Over the past 15 years, she has partnered with various ministries and organizations like World Vision, Barna, Infinitum, and various churches to create resources and encounters that awaken the souls of ministry leaders and beyond.
Bette has an MDiv. in Pastoral Studies from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and is the author of Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder (IVP, 2022) and The Art of Vinemaking: Spiritual Flourishing in a Productivity-Driven Culture (Boundless, 2025). Bette lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with her husband and their two boys.
Learn more at www.bettedickinson.com

In this guided mini-retreat inspired by Bette’s new book, The Art of Vinemaking, participants will slow down to abide in Christ, the True Vine, and prayerfully discern where they find themselves in the vine’s rhythm of life, death, and resurrection. Rather than treating spiritual growth as linear, this experience invites you to notice the cyclical, organic way God forms us over time.

This intensive combines teaching with creative prayer exercises to help you explore the vine’s cyclical rhythm through the seasons and how this mirrors our own formation in Christ. You’ll engage both imagination and body as you listen for the Spirit’s invitations in your present season.
This spacious intensive is designed for those longing to reconnect with Jesus beneath the noise of productivity and performance. You’ll leave with greater clarity about your current season, language for your spiritual journey, and simple practices to help you remain rooted in the Vine.

In this highly experiential workshop, we will explore how engaging the imagination and the body can deepen our awareness of God’s presence and nurture more holistic formation. In Participants will be gently guided into practices that move beyond thinking about God to encountering God.
Together we will practice visio divina (praying with sacred images), imaginative prayer (entering the Gospel story), and simple embodied prayer rhythms that integrate movement, breath, and attention.

Whether you are new to contemplative practices or longing to deepen your spiritual journey, this session offers spacious, guided time to quiet the mind, awaken the heart, and cultivate a lived sense of God’s nearness.

Come ready to slow down, engage your senses, and encounter God with your whole self.

Before the conference unfolds with its rich conversations and impactful learning, what might it look like to begin by settling your soul in God’s presence? In this interactive intensive, Alan and Gem Fadling will guide you in creating space to slow down, listen to God, and arrive fully present before the conference begins. Through thoughtful teaching, guided reflection, scripture, and conversation with others, you will have the opportunity to notice what God may already be stirring in your heart and life. Together we will begin the conference in a grounded and attentive posture, open to the work God may want to do in us during our time at TAG.

Danielle Wheeler is a spiritual director and retreat leader who delights in walking with others in an ever-deepening awareness of God’s love. She is a lead mentor for The Companion: Apprenticeship in Spiritual Direction with Apprentice Institute. She is also the founder and the director of spiritual formation for Velvet Ashes, a ministry providing community and encouragement for women serving cross-culturally. She served as a missionary in Asia from 2006-2015. She has led a ministry of spiritual formation in the local church in the U.S. She enjoys co-teaching spiritual formation with her husband at Ozark Christian College. She and her husband Aaron live in Missouri with their two daughters, two sons, and one cat-sized dog.

In addition to leading Restoring the Soul and equipping Christian organizations around the world, Michael formerly served as an adjunct professor at Denver Seminary and full-time professor at Colorado Christian University. He holds an MA in Biblical Counseling from Colorado Christian University and an MA from the College of Education at the University of Denver. Michael lives with his wife Julianne in the foothills of Colorado where he enjoys the Rocky Mountains and a host of other outdoor activities with friends and family.

Dr. Amy Bragg Carey (EdD, Azusa Pacific) is the president of Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. She serves on the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities board and the International Friends Missions board. Amy lives in Kansas with her husband, Bryan

Dr. Amy Bragg Carey and her daughter Anna Marie Carey, authors of the newly released book Claimed by God, will detail the roundabout journeys that led them to step joyfully into their identities as daughters of the King. Together they will lead you through some powerful Scriptures and coinciding declarative statements to help you build life-giving, faith-strengthening disciplines into your day. Come be refreshed and reminded of who God has distinctly created you to be!

He has been interested in the theology and “science” of spiritual formation since his undergraduate days at Wheaton College and has since worked with a variety of churches, most of which during his 22 years on the European continent. He founded the Sanctus Institute in 2017 out of a decade-old desire to see spiritual formation come out of the retreat centers, conferences and niche masters programs and enter churches as a serious and central enterprise. For most of his adult life, pastors have only smiled and nodded as he spoke about this vision.

He can be found most regularly on Sanctus Institute’s YouTube channel, recorded from his home in Munich, Germany. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he dreams of playing the guitar really well and touring the world, not necessarily at the same time.

Two things stand out here. First, Willard had a lot to say about the letters of Paul, enough that one can put together his views on most Pauline themes (law, righteousness, grace, sin, gospel, spirit, flesh, cross, resurrection, life, etc.). Second, Willard’s interpretation has stayed under the radar and out of the fray of scholarly research on Paul. He seems to be doing his own thing that presents Paul as a master of spiritual formation and theology.

This intensive will look at the many places where Willard is interpreting Paul’s letters and putting together his own views of the central themes of Christian teaching. Is there a unique Willardian perspective on Paul? Maybe. If there is, it is one that finds an easy fit with Protestant spiritual formation in the 21st century.

There are many factors that play a role in Christian spiritual formation, but one that exerts outsized influence is desire, or the human capacity to want. There is a profound lack of honest discussion about desire; as a result, we often find ourselves scrambling alone to figure out what to do with our wants. But just because desire is out of sight and out of mind doesn’t mean it isn’t influencing our life, work, and faith in profound ways. This preconference will introduce René Girard’s mimetic theory of desire. We will explore how the desires between us press on us more than we could know or say, and how working with these desires could be one of the most important keys to being formed in Christ’s likeness. You will be equipped with exercises and a biblical framework for navigating the pitfalls of desire, giving you access to tools for your own formation and for partnering with others in their formation, too

Rev. Dr. Rebecca Letterman is an apprentice of Jesus Christ and a lover of God and all God’s beloved world. She is a wife and mother, and delights in the gifts of family and friendships, creation, hiking, gardening, playing the mandolin, cooking, and learning new things. She is Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation at Northeastern Seminary, a certified spiritual director and embodiment coach, and is ordained in the Free Methodist Church of North America. She is a frequent retreat facilitator, podcast guest, and workshop leader. She is a specialist in Christian embodiment and in Formative Spirituality, and is the author of the eBooks Being Like Jesus as a Body and Dust and Breath. She is co-author with Dr. Susan Muto of Understanding Our Story: The Life and Legacy of Adrian van Kaam in the Field of Formative Spirituality. She is also the founder of Embodiment Consulting Services (embodimentconsulting.com); and founder of the Christian Embodiment Consortium – a gathering of Christian spiritual directors, therapists, coaches, pastors and other leaders who intentionally integrate embodied awareness into their ministry contexts.

In this Intensive, we will introduce the life of Adrian van Kaam and the field of Formative Spirituality. Van Kaam was a lover of God, a Dutch priest, a survivor of WWII, and a world-renowned psychologist and scholar who made unique contributions to the study of Spiritual Formation. His experiences and commitments to Christian formation led him to a lifelong study of human unfolding, resulting in his founding of the field of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University during the middle of the 20th century. We will introduce the life of van Kaam and his groundbreaking work in a truly holistic understanding of theological anthropology and Christian formation. Formative Spirituality provides an integrative model that is strategically poised to serve the church and world in the rapidly shifting sands of the 21st century.

All sincere Christians want to “become more like Jesus,” more the person whom God wants us to be. But how does this actually happen? Practicing spiritual disciplines? Getting good therapy? Simply living life and getting more mature as we age? Dr. Adrian van Kaam spent a life-time living in intimacy with Jesus. He dedicated his long life as a WWII survivor, priest, psychologist, and scholar to observing and researching the ways that Christians across times and cultures found themselves growing in intimacy with God and being formed into the image of Christ. He summarized and shared his findings through the field of study he founded, formative spirituality. In this workshop, we will explore some of the most significant patterns van Kaam observed, what he identified as formative events and the spiritual dynamics surrounding them. We will explore formative events through scripture, stories from our shared Christian heritage, and reflection on our own lives. We will learn together how to identify everyday formative events in our own lives, and proven ways to cooperate “in real time” with God’s grace offered to us in such events to grow in intimacy with God. If you want to learn biblically grounded, experiential, integrative ways to become more like Jesus in daily life, “come and see.”

In this Intensive, we will introduce the life of Adrian van Kaam and the field of Formative Spirituality. Van Kaam was a lover of God, a Dutch priest, a survivor of WWII, and a world-renowned psychologist and scholar who made unique contributions to the study of Spiritual Formation. His experiences and commitments to Christian formation led him to a lifelong study of human unfolding, resulting in his founding of the field of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University during the middle of the 20th century. We will introduce the life of van Kaam and his groundbreaking work in a truly holistic understanding of theological anthropology and Christian formation. Formative Spirituality provides an integrative model that is strategically poised to serve the church and world in the rapidly shifting sands of the 21st century.

Both Patrick and Susan have master’s degrees from Friends University in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership. Susan served as a teaching fellow for the same program for 5 years, and they have returned annually to present the rhythms of attention at the final residency of the master’s CSFL program. Patrick, who is also a spiritual director, has an additional master’s in Christian ministry from Abilene Christian University.

Since leaving staff with CRU, Brian has served with multiple ministries and partnered with many churches and organizations. He is also a clinical supervisor at Denver Seminary. He has a deep love of entering the stories of people in ways that move them toward restoration, healing, and wholeness. Brian enjoys a good time with friends, being outdoors, and finding empty nest adventures with his beloved wife Crystal. They enjoy living in Colorado and have two adopted adult daughters.

In this seminar, we will take time to explore these differences and consider their impact on our spiritual lives and formation.

Mike King, M.A., M.A.T.S, D.Min. Mike serves as President/CEO of Youthfront, a church assisting organization. Youthfront provides youth ministry programs, services, resources and training. Mike is an adjunct Professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City where he earned a Doctorate in Spiritual Formation. Mike is currently Primary Investigator for three Lilly Endowment initiatives on Christian Parenting and Caregiving; A Theological Turn in Children’s Ministry; and Faith Formation and Service among Emerging Generations. Mike’s book Presence Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation (InterVarsity Press) has received widespread critical acclaim. Mike and his wife Vicki live in Kansas City. They have two sons and a daughter, all married, and eleven grandchildren. Website – www.youthfront.com

“The heart overflowing with joy in God cannot be silent; it must sing, laugh, and play.” Martin Luther

For many of us, our calendars are full, and our daily schedules feature back-to-back tasks, planning, and meetings. We’re too busy to play. And when we find those rare moments of free time, we often fill them with leisure activities. If we’re honest, much of today’s leisure looks like doom-scrolling, show-binging, or solo-gaming. Today’s forms of play often leave us feeling more disconnected, unrested, and anxious.
More than ever, we need a robust theology of play that helps shape our understandings of work, play, and rest. Theologically, play reminds us that human beings are not created merely for productivity or survival but for relationship, delight, and communion with God. When practiced in community, play also strengthens relationships, fosters unity, and reminds believers that faith is not only serious devotion but also joyful participation in the life God has given. Moving from a belief of “play as leisure” to one of “play as presence,” we will discover how a play-infused spirituality connects us with the perichoresis of the Trinity while deepening our relationships with others.

Instead of ministry “to,” “for,” or even “with” children, the theological turn calls for ministry “beside” children. The posture of “mutuality” emphasizes a move away from pushing and downloading content into children’s developing minds, and instead focuses on sharing life together and the mutual experience of encountering a living God in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to us as a helpless baby who had to be carried by Mary and Joseph. Jesus grows up, declares we are all “children of God” and calls us to embrace the humility of a child. We need a new imagination for Children’s Ministry, prayer, and worship through embracing the ontological reality that we are all God’s children and the children we minister beside have much to say to us. The posture of a church community embracing that we are all children of God who need to carry each other in mutual interdependence is at the core of a flourishing community of Christian practice. When we interact with children in a posture of mutuality they minister to us, perhaps, even more than we minister to them.

Mike will share information gleaned from a Youthfront project funded by Lilly Endowment involving thousands of children, hundreds of churches and a hundred Children’s and Family Pastors.

For many of us, our calendars are full, and our daily schedules feature back-to-back tasks, planning, and meetings. We’re too busy to play. And when we find those rare moments of free time, we often fill them with leisure activities. If we’re honest, much of today’s leisure looks like doom-scrolling, show-binging, or solo-gaming. Today’s forms of play often leave us feeling more disconnected, unrested, and anxious.
More than ever, we need a robust theology of play that helps shape our understandings of work, play, and rest. Theologically, play reminds us that human beings are not created merely for productivity or survival but for relationship, delight, and communion with God. When practiced in community, play also strengthens relationships, fosters unity, and reminds believers that faith is not only serious devotion but also joyful participation in the life God has given. Moving from a belief of “play as leisure” to one of “play as presence,” we will discover how a play-infused spirituality connects us with the perichoresis of the Trinity while deepening our relationships with others.