Lead Like Jesus Conference Equips Ministry Leaders for Church Renewal

Lead Like Jesus, an Illumin8 Collective conference for pastors, church staff, and ministry leaders, will take place January 26 through January 28, 2027, at Abiding Hope Church in Littleton, Colorado. The Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America published an event announcement on October 30, while the official Illumin8 Collective page describes three days focused on renewing leaders and strengthening congregations. Rebekah Simon-Peter, a United Methodist minister, author, church-renewal coach, and keynote speaker, will guide participants in exploring proactive vision and love shaped by Jesus. The conference is designed for leaders who feel the weight of isolation, uncertainty about the future, or the strain of maintaining ministry without a clear path toward greater vitality. Its content brings together the spirituality of the leader with practical questions facing churches. Keynote sessions and question-and-answer time will address the theology and practice of leading like Jesus. Breakouts will explore vision and leadership, worship, youth and family ministry, and other realities of contemporary congregational life. Intentional connection time is built into the schedule so participants can share burdens, form relationships, and strengthen a peer network. The event’s final-day emphasis moves beyond inspiration by launching small Illumin8 Cohorts, peer-led groups intended to provide continuing support, accountability, and clarity after the conference ends. The official event page identifies Abiding Hope Church in Littleton as the location and lists both full-conference and daily registration options. The published aim is a shift from merely sustaining institutional routines toward spiritually grounded leadership that helps congregations thrive, dream, and serve. Although the event meets in Colorado, its invitation is relevant to ministry leaders nationwide who need a setting for prayerful renewal, practical learning, and relationships that outlast a single conference.

The conference’s structure recognizes that church renewal cannot be separated from the health and spiritual depth of those who lead. Practical tools matter, but a leader who is isolated, exhausted, or disconnected from prayer may struggle to use those tools wisely. Illumin8 therefore gives explicit attention to tending the leader’s soul before tending the ministry context. That order is not self-indulgence; it is preparation for patient, loving, and theologically grounded service. Participants can make the gathering more useful by arriving with a concise picture of their congregation’s current reality: one sign of grace, one pressing challenge, one relationship that needs strengthening, and one ministry area where a clearer vision is needed. Breakouts on worship, youth and family ministry, and leadership can then be evaluated against real local questions rather than collected as disconnected ideas. The peer-cohort component is also significant because renewal often requires sustained encouragement and accountability after the energy of an event fades. Pastors and staff members can use those relationships to test assumptions, share experiments, pray for one another, and learn from different congregational settings. Rebekah Simon-Peter’s Dream Like Jesus: Deepen Your Faith and Bring the Impossible to Life is an especially relevant book because it is written by the keynote speaker and invites Christians and congregations to recover a faithful, Christ-centered vision for God’s work in the world. The book’s emphasis on vision complements the conference’s movement from sustaining to thriving, while the gathering’s practical sessions and cohorts provide settings in which vision can be clarified and acted upon. A useful post-conference plan would include one personal spiritual practice, one congregational conversation, one small ministry experiment, and a date to review what has been learned. That keeps renewal connected to discipleship and helps leaders resist the temptation to return home with more ideas than their church can faithfully carry. The event’s practical reason to attend is therefore clear: gain spiritual renewal, theological and ministry frameworks, and a network of peers for leading with greater vision and love in changing times.