A few weeks ago, I shared about some of my ministry plans and prayers for 2026 and beyond. And with the speed of life and the chaos of the world, a few weeks seems like 1000 years ago. But a lot has happened in that time, and I wanted to provide a couple of updates about the Fall ministry season.
New Speaking Events
The fall is a busy conference season with work. But this year, I won’t just be exhibiting with my coworkers—I’ll be leading workshops at two conferences as well. At the 2026 For the Church National Conference in Kansas City, MO, I’ll be leading a workshop called How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed as a Disciple Maker on September 29th at 12:30 and 1:30 pm. In this workshop, we’ll be exploring two stumbling blocks that prevent us from embracing our call as disciple makers (and what that actually means), and the mindset shift that helps us see that we are more qualified than we think.
At the 2026 Kidzmatter Conference in Evansville, IN, I’ll be leading a breakout on this same topic on October 7th at 11:30 am. I will also be leading a second breakout session on October 6th at 4 pm called Is Your Church Safe for an Individual With Autism? This session explores what autism is, the way autistic people experience the world and faith, and three ways our churches can help us—especially kids—feel welcome and safe.
If you’ve been considering either of these events, I’d love to see you there!
A New Partnership
In the late spring, I received some unexpected bad news: The literary agency that represented me for my last two books would cease operations at the end of May. Given that my then-agent and I had an active proposal out to publishers, this news hit hard. (In addition to my agent being a fantastic human being.)
Fast forward a couple of months, and I’m please to say that I have new representation with The Anchored Group. I’m very excited about this new partnership, especially because of Joy’s emphasis on career & platform development. “Platform” is often seen as a dirty word. And it kind of is, depending on how you use it. But in this case, it just means clarifying what makes me me in a way that makes sense to other people, and working to create opportunities for others to hear and read a message I have that will help them.
A New Teaching Opportunity
The last couple of years have been a bit of a necessary fallow period for active church ministry. It takes time to get settled and established in a new church. I began serving as one of our liturgists last year. (In this role, I lead the congregation in a call to worship, confession of sin, and assurance of pardon). This year, we’re starting a new adult learning hour (aka Sunday School), and I’ll be one of its teachers. It’s all very wet cement, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my local congregation.
Good Book News
Sadly, there’s no movement on the book I’m trying to find a home for at this time. However, there is some good book news about Faith Simplified. Over the last few weeks, sales have rallied to the point that this weekend (August 1), the book sold out on Amazon. I have no idea what caused this. Maybe Harvest House ran a new prompotion or it’s just finally caught on with people. But whatever the cause, I’m incredibly grateful.
On top of that, Faith Simplified finally passed 40 ratings and reviews, sitting at 41 as of this writing. I’d love your help keeping the momentum going on the book. You can do this by ordering a copy at Amazon (which will be shipped when new stock arrives) or the retailer of your choice, and by leaving a rating and review. I’d love to see this book reach 50 raitings & reviews by the end of the month. If you’ve read the book and can help, I’d appreciate it.
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
