22 Child Discipleship Forum

September 22 & 23. 2022.

Nashville, TN or Online.

2022 Child Discipleship Forum Speakers

John Mark Comer

Practicing the Way, Teacher

John Mark Comer is the teacher at Practicing the Way, founding pastor of Bridgetown Church and the New York Times bestselling author of Live No Lies.

His growing passion is the intersection of spiritual formation and post-Christian culture. The gnawing questions that get him out of bed in the morning are, How do we experience life with God? And how do we change to become more like Jesus? To that end, he is regularly found reading the desert fathers and mothers, ancient saints and obscure contemplatives, modern psychologists and social scientists, philosophers like Dallas Willard, and op-eds from the New York Times.

When he’s not reading, he can be found around a table with his family and friends, attempting to learn how to cook, drinking Heart coffee, and walking the family dog in the forest. Most important, he is husband to T and father to Jude, Moses, and Sunday.

Andy Crouch

Praxis, Partner for Theology and Culture

Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His two most recent books—2017’s The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place and 2016’s Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing—build on the vision of faith, culture, and the image of God laid out in his previous books Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power and Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.

Andy serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For more than ten years he was an editor and producer at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000. He lives with his family in Pennsylvania.

Catherine Hwang-Jin

Children’s Ministry & Research

Catherine Hwang-Jin is a passionate Children Ministry Pastor, with over 20 years of experience helping churches of all sizes make an impact in their community for God to reach and disciple the next generation. She has a M.A. in Christian Education, B.S. in Biology, and loves speaking, writing, and raising up leaders to work together to change the future for Jesus.

She is originally from South Korea and has worked with kids all around the world. Catherine grew up dreaming to be a K-pop star, teacher, CEO and medical missionary. So naturally, she lives in sunny California and is living out all of her dreams at Bayside Church, making a difference with her total opposite hubby Steve, eating yummy food and exploring God’s creation with their 3 super girls and tiny dog Mookie Betts (#gododgers).

Cindy Bultema

GEMS, Executive Director

Cindy Bultema is the Executive Director of GEMS Girls’ Clubs. She loves the Lord, loves life, loves her family, and loves to celebrate!

With over 20 years of ministry experience, Cindy has trained leaders and created programs within a variety of settings. Her previous work experiences include serving as the founding Children’s Ministry Director at a Michigan megachurch, equipping 1,000 volunteers, and ministering to 2,700 kids every weekend, as well as writing children’s curriculum for an international publishing house and traveling worldwide as a children’s ministry consultant. Cindy is also a sought-after women’s speaker, author, and Grief Share expert. Her best-selling Bible studies include Red Hot Faith and Live Full, Walk Free.

Cindy lives in West Michigan with her husband and four children. When not serving at GEMS, you’ll find Cindy walking her dogs, hosting a house full of teenagers, or trying to figure out what’s for dinner.

Shelly Melia

Dallas Baptist University

Shelly Melia is a Professor of Childhood Education and serves as the Associate Dean and the Program Director for the Master of Arts in Children’s Ministry and the Master of Arts in Family Ministry in the Graduate School of Ministry at Dallas Baptist University. Prior to coming to DBU she served for over 25 years in children’s and family ministry in Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas. Dr. Melia is also a Licensed Professional Counselor with a special research interest in grief and resilience. She holds an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma Baptist University, two master’s degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy from B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. Her dissertation was titled “The Development of a Faith Based Instrument to Measure Capacity for Resilience.”

Dr. Melia has spoken at national conferences such as ETCH Family Ministry Conference, D6 Family Ministry Conference, and the Children’s Pastor’s Conference. In addition, she is a frequent speaker for local churches and state conventions in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Missouri. Most recently, she contributed a chapter titled “The Role of Faith or Spirituality in a Child’s Response to Loss” to the new book Bridging Theory and Practice in Children’s Spirituality.

The Church has a child formational crisis.

Entertainment, relevance and moralism have proven insufficient to form lasting faith in our children.

Jesus, the Gospel as well as recent research are clear: the most effective way to impart faith to our children is child discipleship. But how?

Join like-minded speakers and attendees to discuss, pray and pursue more robust and purposeful child discipleship in our churches and homes.

Save Your Seat

Join Us in Nashville or Online

Come solo or gather your leaders for the most intentional conversations about child discipleship you will have all year. The Forum is complete with thought provoking talks, intentional conversations and live prayer and worship alongside thousands of others passionate about child discipleship.

Save Your Seat

Leading Voices On culture, children & local church ministry
New Practical Research Surprising results unveiled by Barna & Awana
Strategy & Resources Learn how to Biblically disciple kids in a changing culture
Community & Belonging Connect with like-minded leaders in this critical conversation

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.

Matthew 19:14

Forum Passes

Whether you participate in the Child Discipleship Forum in person or online, you will have live access to every presentation, opportunities for dialogue and collaboration, and resources.

Register by August 25, 2022 to take advantage of the Summer Discount for this year's Forum!

In Person

Individual

$249 Summer Discount Ends August 25, 2022

Save Your Seat

Online

Individual

$149 Summer Discount Ends August 25, 2022

Streaming License

Teams Of Two+

$249 Summer Discount Ends August 25, 2022

Streaming License

Event Details

Liberty Hall

The Factory at Franklin

Franklin, TN

September 22 & 23, 2022

Questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

The 2022 CDF will be held at Liberty Hall at The Factory at Franklin in Franklin, Tennessee!
The 2022 CDF will be held on Thursday and Friday, September 22nd & 23rd, 2022. You can purchase your tickets to be with us either in-person in Nashville, TN or join us via our On-Line experience.
We are still finalizing the agenda for this year’s event, but you can plan on two full days of great speakers, worship, and opportunities for discussion about the criticality of child discipleship for the future of the faith.

Founding Partners

About Awana

The Child Discipleship Forum has been organized by Awana. To many in North America, Awana is known as a “mid-week ministry” to children and youth. The reality is that Awana is a leader in global child and youth discipleship in 133 countries in a variety of curricula and leader equipping networks. Awana partners with ministries like Compassion International, World Vision, and numerous denominations in over 65,000 churches, engaging 4.9 million children and students weekly.

22 Child Discipleship Forum

September 22 & 23. 2022.

Nashville, TN or Online.

2022 Child Discipleship Forum Speakers

John Mark Comer

Rebecca McLaughlin

Derwin Gray

Andy Crouch

Catherine Hwang-Jin

David Kinnaman

Matt Markins

Trillia Newbell

Carl Trueman

Sam Allberry

Cindy Bultema

Sam Luce

Andrew Peterson

Shelly Melia

Ray Ortlund

Teasa Northern

Melanie Hester

The Church has a child formational crisis.

Join Us in Nashville or Online

Leading Voices On culture, children & local church ministry

New Practical Research Surprising results unveiled by Barna & Awana

Strategy & Resources Learn how to Biblically disciple kids in a changing culture

Community & Belonging Connect with like-minded leaders in this critical conversation

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.

Forum Passes

In Person

Individual

Online

Individual

Teams Of Two+

Event Details

Liberty Hall

Questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

Where will the In-Person 2022 CDF be held?

When is the 2022 Child Discipleship Forum?

Is there an agenda for the event?

Founding Partners

About Awana