The Climb Small Church Leadership conference was held December 2-5 in Dallas, Texas. Two hundred small church leaders, missionaries, small group leaders, staff and future leaders gathered from as far away as Okinawa, Japan and San Salvador, El Salvador. The purpose of the conference was to provide spiritual support, encouragement and ministry tools to small ministry leaders. Seventy-five percent of churches in the ICOC are under 100 members.


Todd Asaad kicked it off Thursday night and talked about “Climbing Together.” Friday’s program was devoted to the leader’s spiritual health. Joel Peed, Jennifer Konzen, Tim Summerlin, Kyle Spears and Steve Saindon spoke on topics such as the leader’s view of God, trauma, grief, marriage and spiritual renewal. Tarik Burton from Santa Barbara preached on being anchored to God.

Joel Nagel started and finished the Saturday program with a complete tool kit for ministry planning, Bible study, online outreach and scheduling. He offered a free and comprehensive program to help leaders make 2022 their best year ever. John and Barri Lusk taught on how to preach more effectively. One presentation was devoted to a statistical survey of church size and growth as well as the importance of house churches.. David Jung spoke on conflict resolution. Glenn and Heather Geeting preached on Saturday night about “The Crux of the Matter,” and they shared how they planted and grew a church while working Glenn worked full-time as an ER doctor.

Josue’ Ortega closed out the conference on Sunday with most of the Dallas church in attendance. He talked about getting to the “Summit.” He inspired disciples of all ages to keep climbing no matter the obstacles and to keep making the mission central to our lives as disciples.

The lessons are available here. Please join us for our next Climb Conference! Location and time to be determined.

Rob Skinner, Joel Nagel, and Joel Peed

Conference organizers