Friday, August 7 at 10:30 am | Location: Love B

Abusing God? (How) Do our beliefs about gender affect the safety of our churches? 

Charles Read

This workshop will draw on examples from the UK to open a discussion about whether what we believe about gender roles and about God has an impact on the culture and practice of our churches around the safeguarding of children, women, and vulnerable adults. By looking at another country and setting, we can reflect on our own situation. 

Friday, August 7 at 10:30 am | Location: Kennedy

Rooted in the Same Soil: Flourishing as a Non-Hierarchical Woman in a Hierarchical Church

Paige Cunningham

For women whose understanding of gender-based roles and leadership has shifted while their church remains committed to a complementarian framework, this conversation explores how to remain rooted in the local church. The session will explore practical and spiritual strategies for moving beyond mere endurance toward a life of integrity, peace, and flourishing— sustained by love for Jesus and His people. 

Friday, August 7 at 1:30 pm | Location: Kennedy

Two Whole People: Building a Healthy Christian Marriage 

Taffi Dollar

Two Whole People: Building a Healthy Christian Marriage is focused on the importance of entering marriage as emotionally healthy, spiritually grounded, and personally whole individuals rather than expecting a spouse to complete or heal unresolved issues. The session emphasizes Christ-centered partnership, healthy communication, emotional maturity, mutual respect, shared leadership, boundaries, and personal accountability. Couples are encouraged to grow individually in their relationship with God while cultivating unity, trust, intimacy, and purpose together—building a marriage rooted in grace, healing, and biblical love rather than dependency or control. 

Friday, August 7 at 1:30 pm | Location: Love B

Understanding and Recovering from Religious Patriarchy 

Heidi I. Knapp and Patrick J. Knapp

The experience of religious patriarchy can be deeply painful for those affected. Focusing on both individual healing and marital repair, this presentation aims to offer an understanding of religious patriarchy and explore avenues for recovery. Drawing from personal history, client case examples, biblical narratives, and illustrative word pictures, this discussion outlines the foundational virtues essential to healthy relationships. Additionally, it critically examines false beliefs that often fuel religious patriarchal abuse. 

A structural framework is introduced to navigate the process of repair for individuals and couples, identifying essential healing principles that facilitate recovery. Restorative activities are suggested to address the damage caused by patriarchy within religiously abusive systems. These activities are designed to support healing and promote the restoration of well-being for all those affected. 

Following this presentation, the speakers will be available to answer questions, either within the group setting or individually, to provide additional support as needed. 

Friday, August 7 at 3:30 pm | Location: Kennedy

How the Subtleties of Patriarchy Set Up Marriages to Fail 

Sarah Ago

Patriarchy doesn’t always look like a brazen male seeking dominance over a compliant female. Sometimes, it subtly creeps in through the prevalence of teaching women to distrust themselves, repress their needs and wants, and keep their expectations in check. This seminar examines the way that movements such as the evangelical purity culture and the no dating/courtship movement have set up marriages to struggle. We will discuss how the expectation that a man leads and a woman follows can diminish a woman’s confidence in her ability to make her own choices.  

We will examine misinterpretations of Jesus’s command to deny oneself and passages about the wickedness of the human heart to see how they have laid the groundwork for self-betrayal and an incongruence of our inner and outer lives. We will seek to uncover the grace God offers in the midst of the pain of a marriage ending and explore how to become free of the toxic messages that many women and men have internalized, the fruit of which has often been brokenness in marriage. 

Friday, August 7 at 3:30 pm | Location: O’Hare III

What the Body Speaks: How Church Structures Communicate Biblical Equality 

Tara Korpi

Churches communicate what they believe about men and women not only through theology, but through the signs and symbols embedded in their shared life. This workshop invites men and women to explore how leadership structures, decision-making patterns, and everyday practices tell the story of their systems within the Church. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 12 and the biblical image of the Church as a living body, the session offers a way of reading church life attentively, asking what is being communicated about authority, trust, and belonging through repeated actions and arrangements. Participants will reflect on how individual and shared decisions shape culture, sometimes reinforcing inequality even when biblical equality is affirmed in theology. Rather than debating gender models, the focus is on cultivating interpretive discernment and practical wisdom. Attendees will leave with concrete questions they can use to read their own contexts more clearly and to realign leadership practices toward mutuality, shared responsibility, and the flourishing of the whole body of Christ. 

This in person session will also be available for LIVE virtual viewing.

Saturday, August 8 at 10:30 am | Location: Kennedy

“All Hands on Deck”—How Healthy Families Practice Mutuality, Grace, and Repair 

Kathy Myatt

Faith, hope, and love form the skeleton of a healthy family, and mutuality holds these together. Grace lubricates growth, especially when inevitable bumps and scrapes call for healing. This session casts a vision for happy loving relationships! 

Saturday, August 8 at 10:30 am | Location: O’Hare III

Making Us Whole: Practicing Honesty, Hope, and Hospitality in a Context of Hierarchy 

Joy J. Moore

Moving beyond simple platitudes, this session highlights the importance of context and empathy, aiming to help people see the world and scripture in a fresh, transformative way offering practices to become an answer to Jesus’s prayer for unity. 

This in person session will also be available for LIVE virtual viewing.

Saturday, August 8 at 1:30 pm | Location: Love B

In Sickness, Health, and Ministry: How Cancer Disrupts the Concept of Gender Roles in Marriage 

Amber Burgess

Just like Satan, cancer seeks to kill, steal, and destroy. It affects individuals, families, finances, and marriages. Drawing from personal experiences, an egalitarian understanding of Scripture, and sociological research, this session will explore how a patriarchal understanding of marriage can hurt women and men with cancer as well as their spousal caregivers. This session will conclude with what Christians and the church can do to help prepare and care for couples and families where a cancer diagnosis is present. 

Location: Available on YouTube and in the Band app

The Lament and Hope of a Biblical Egalitarian

Douglas Groothuis

The journey into egalitarianism can be challenging and lonely. This session will follow my own journey into egalitarianism, the challenges I have faced, and my hope that God will continue to call and equip women for all levels of ministry. I address how to work in ministry with those who do not share your perspective as well as finding like-minded Christians on biblical equality. 

Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 am | O’Hare III

Galatians 3:28 and the White Nationalism Movement: Healing a Wounded Body

Johnie Wood

Drawing on years analyzing extremist movements in counterterrorism as well as work training pastors, this session will show how White Christian Nationalism (WCN) misuses Scripture to sacralize hierarchy, protect group power, and sideline women and people of color in the name of “biblical order.” Contrast these distortions with the New Testament’s vision of a reconciled, multiethnic church where gifts are shared across genders, power is exercised as service, and no one part of the body is elevated over the rest (1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 3:28). Participants will leave with a simple diagnostic tool for spotting WCN “tells” in sermons and church life, and with concrete pastoral practices for responding with truth, humility, and courage rather than shame or contempt.

Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 am | Midway

Practical Insights for Empowering the Women in Your Life

Todd Korpi

This workshop aims to use a mix of personal experience, theological input, and original research to offer tips, perspectives, and best practices for people to better empower and advocate for the women in their lives.

Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 am | Love B

Justice, Mercy, and Healing: A Faithful Response to Domestic Violence

Elizabeth Beyer

This workshop begins with a brief overview of intimate partner violence (IPV) exploring what it is, how it manifests, and why it so often remains hidden within families and faith communities. Participants will examine common myths, warning signs, and the spiritual and relational dynamics that can complicate both disclosure and response. The workshop will conclude with a practical, action-oriented focus on how churches can move beyond awareness to faithful action by developing prevention strategies and thoughtful response plans for when domestic violence is disclosed. Attendees will leave with guidance for creating safer congregations that reflect compassion, justice, and a commitment to protecting the vulnerable.