shift: Student Ministries Leadership Conference @ Willow Creek

Bo Boshers is the Executive Director of Student Ministries for the Willow Creek Association and leads the Student Ministries Conference. He coaches, trains, equips, and mentors ministry leaders worldwide. Bo's twenty-plus years in youth ministry include a decade leading 1,000 students at Willow Creek, and he has authored many books including The Be-With Factor (with Judson Poling) and G-Force. (Session 3?Calling: A Leader's Guide to Preparing for the Long Haul)

For more than a decade, Mark Matlock has ministered fulltime to youth pastors and students using his remarkable teaching style to present biblical truths in ways that motivate change in believers' lives. He is president and founder of WisdomWorks Ministries, creator of planetwisdom.com, columnist for Ignite Your Faith magazine, author of What Does God Want from Me?, Don’t Buy the Lie, Smart Faith (coauthored with J.P. Moreland), Freshman, and Living a Life that Matters. Mark has spoken face to face with thousands of students, nationally and internationally, at his PlanetWisdom events. He resides in Flower Mound, Texas with his wife, Jade, and his two children, Dax and Skye. (Session 4?Technology: Get Wired, Get Connected, and Other High-Tech Clich?s)

Jeremy Del Rio is the co-founder and director of Generation Xcel, a holistic youth outreach program based in the housing projects of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Xcel serves hundreds of children through afterschool education, summer programs, and community outreach. Jeremy and his wife are youth pastors at Abounding Grace Ministries. He also worked for two years as an attorney at Dewey Ballantine LLP. (Session 5?Activism: From the Fellowship Hall to Full-Contact Faith)

Efrem Smith is senior pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has also served as executive director of The Park Avenue Foundation (Minneapolis) and urban ministry director of Minnesota Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Smith is a member of the CORE seminar training team of Youth Specialties and a speaker with Kingdom Building Ministries. (Session 6?Truth: Stop Telling Me About Jesus, and Show Me What He Looks Like)

Breakout Speakers