Pastors Conference: Soul Care for Ministers & Teams

The 8th Annual LEAD Where You Stand Conference kicks off with a one-day conference for those in ministry. 

Pastors, clergy and members of ministry teams pay just $49 each to attend one or both conferences (the regular ticket price for Lead is $299). To encourage and enable ministry teams to attend together, every fifth group registrant is FREE

 

Online registration has closed. Please reach out to Toni at (805) 565-6050 tramos@westmont.edu for more information about attending.

Pastors Conference
May 30, 2023
First Presbyterian Church
21 E Constance Ave, Santa Barbara

Lead Where You Stand Conference
May 31 - June 2, 2023
Global Leadership Center
Westmont College, Santa Barbara

Lead website

The work of pastoral ministry is essential to the life and witness of the church. Where can pastors and ministry teams go to be encouraged and edified? Come to Westmont College for one day of soul care; a Pastor's Conference dedicated to soul care for you and your team.

Ministry can require not only a depth of spiritual training but an extraordinary variety of administrative ability and leadership capacity. In light of these tremendous requirements, we invite you to remain with us following the one-day conference for the annual leadership development Lead Where You Stand conference. The lineup of speakers will equip with you with additional leadership insights and skills. 

For 85 years, Westmont College has worked to develop Christian ministers and leaders to serve in every sphere of society. We're delighted to offer this one-day conference to encourage, refresh and support you in your invaluable ministry leadership and pricing for the joint conference specially for those in ministry. Please join us.

Speakers

Gayle Beebe

Gayle D. Beebe
President of Westmont College

Westmont president since 2007, Beebe has spent more than a quarter century in higher education. He has authored or edited more than 40 articles and 10 books including, “The Shaping of an Effective Leader: Eight Formative Principles of Leadership.” Leading unprecedented growth at Westmont while facing significant challenges, he has loved attracting new resources to build out the campus, developing new academic and co-curricular programs, and pursuing the next horizon. Under Beebe’s leadership the college has raised more than $400 million dollars for various projects and added 390,000 square feet in new or renovated facilities on campus and in downtown Santa Barbara.

Steve Bell

Steve Bell
Songwriter & Storyteller

Steve Bell is a Canadian Christian songwriter and storyteller who has produced 20 solo CDs and won numerous music-industry awards, including Gospel Music Association of Canada Covenant Awards: 2018 Album of the Year (Where the Good Way Lies); 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award; 2018 Collaboration of the Year (Where The Good Way Lies); and 2018 Inspirational Song of the Year (Wait Alone in Stillness). He has performed more than 2,000 concerts to more than a half million people in 15 countries. Steve has written and co-authored a number of books, including a seven-book series on the Christian calendar called Pilgrim Year

Malcolm Guite Poet in Residence

Malcolm Guite 
Poet in Residence

Malcolm Guite is an English poet, singer-songwriter, Anglican priest, and academic. He is  Life Fellow, and former Chaplain, of Girton College (Cambridge) where he also teaches for the Divinity Faculty. He lectures widely in England and North America on theology and literature. Guite has published poetry, theology, and literary criticism, and worked as a librettist. His books include Word in the WildernessFaith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination, and Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He has written seven collections of poetry, including The Singing Bowl, and Sounding the Seasons. Guite has a decisively simple, formalist style in poems, many of which are sonnets. He also performs as a singer and guitarist for the blues, rhythm and blues, and rock band “Mystery Train”. Guite earned degrees from University of Cambridge (BA, MA) and Durham University (PhD). In one interview, he described his work as a “full-time poet at the service of the church, trying to sing the Christian song into the world and make it attractive to the world, and draw people in.”

Kim Denu

Dr. Kimberly Battle-Walters Denu
Westmont Provost and Dean of the Faculty

Dr. Kim Denu has over 25 years of experience in executive leadership in higher education. Denu worked as vice president for educational programs for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. At Azusa Pacific University she served as vice president and chief diversity officer. A two-time Fulbright alumna, she has conducted research projects in South Africa and Ethiopia. She has published in the areas of African-American issues, women and family matters, leadership, welfare reform and international relations. She speaks on these topics at various national and international forums and conferences. In addition to serving on local and national committees and boards, Kim has taught undergraduate and graduate students on five continents. Denu earned a Doctor of Philosophy in sociology at the University of Florida, a Master of Social Work from Temple University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology at Vanguard University.

Schedule

Noon-1:00 pm  Check-in and light luncheon

1:00-1:10 pm    Welcome, Reed Sheard and Introduction of President Beebe

1:10-2:00 pm    Westmont President Gayle D. Beebe on Loving God and Leading People: The Role of Spiritual Formation in Leadership 

2:00-3:00 pm    Malcolm Guite and Steve Bell present Psalms, Saints and Ancient Prayers: Part 1

3:00-3:15 pm    Break

3:15-4:15 pm    Malcolm Guite and Steve Bell present Psalms, Saints and Ancient Prayers: Part 2

4:15-4:45 pm    Kim Battle-Walters Denu on Scripture, Spirit and Sacred Rest: Finding Renewal in the Midst of Chaos 

4:45-5:15 pm    Q&A with Malcolm Guite, Steve Bell, Kim Battle-Walters Denu and Gayle D. Beebe

5:30-6:45 pm    Dinner and Fellowship

7:00-8:00 pm    Concert with Steve Bell and Malcolm Guite

8:00 pm             Retreat Concludes

Two Conferences for One Reduced Rate

After attending the Pastors Conference, stay for some or all of the 8th annual Lead Where You Stand conference. Each year the Lead conference speakers represent a range of industries and disciplines, including nationally known speakers, as well as Westmont faculty and leadership, offering insights and application that help you think in fresh and impactful ways about how to address perennial leadership challenges and opportunities. The conference format combines presentations, Q&A, and discussions to allow you to hear, reflect and process with fellow attendees. Pastors and clergy will be encouraged by the leadership development content. Bring your ministry staff teams or lay people. The conference is discounted for ministers and ministry teams.  Lead Where You Stand conference details.

Additional Programs & Resources

Thanks to the generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc., Westmont offers a number of enrichment opportunities for congregations and pastors, all at no cost to participants: Frontiers provides retreat, relationship, and mentoring for pastors nationwide; the Westmont Center for Thriving Communities gathers congregations on the Central Coast for new conversations about ministry in our area; and the Westmont Young Adult Leadership Lab supports California churches who want to engage creatively with people in their twenties.

Learn more about how you and your church can partner with Westmont by contacting the Gaede Institute at libarts@westmont.edu.


To learn more about the Pastors Conference or the Lead Where You Stand conference, call (805) 565-6050.