Most church conferences are built around one seat: the lead pastor's. The volunteer kids director, the part-time communications person, the deacon who also happens to run the church's finance meetings, they're rarely who a conference has in mind when it builds its schedule. The Elevate Church Conference started with a different question. What if a conference were designed so a pastor could bring their whole team, and every single person in that group found breakout content tailored to their actual job?

That's the short answer to "what is Elevate?" Here's the longer one.

Content for every seat, not just the front one

Elevate offers breakout content across nine ministry tracks, covering everything from general leadership to communications strategy to executive pastor questions. The point isn't just variety. It's that a pastor doesn't have to leave their admin, their strategic thinkers, or their key volunteers at home. Paid staff, unpaid staff, lay leaders, deacons, and Sunday school teachers all have a track built for them.

That matters because most churches aren't running with a large, fully staffed team. Many ministry leaders are bivocational, wearing several hats at once, with limited time to invest in their own growth. Elevate is built to hand that whole group something specific to take home, not a single generic keynote everyone has to translate into their own context on the drive back.

Led by people still doing the work

Every Elevate speaker, keynote and breakout alike, is currently serving in ministry. Not conference circuit veterans who left a church staff a decade ago. People leading breakouts at Elevate are leading real ministries right now at churches of every size, including some of Brentwood Baptist's own campuses that run at 100 or 400 people on a Sunday, not just its largest locations.

That's also part of why Elevate draws leaders from well beyond Middle Tennessee. Partners have come from Germany, Brazil, Chicago, and Utah, alongside churches just a couple of hours down the road. The conference is designed for both: a chance to build a local ministry partnership with someone from your own region, and a chance to learn from leaders doing similar work across the country and around the world.

What leaders actually walk away with

Ask what a successful Elevate looks like, and the answer comes down to two things.

First, leaders need to actually feel filled up. Worship, meals, and connection time are planned so the person who always has to be "on" gets to just receive for once, whether that means going to the altar for prayer or simply sitting in a room without being the one responsible for it. This year's theme, Healthy Leaders Help Shape Healthy Churches, shapes the whole schedule around that idea. If leaders aren't cared for at the conference, the content doesn't matter.

Second, leaders need specific answers for their specific ministry. A kids minister who's already consuming curriculum and attending kids ministry conferences might still be missing coaching on leadership development, something outside their usual lane. Elevate's breakout structure is built to hand people exactly that kind of targeted help, not just more general inspiration.

A new two-day format for 2026

Last year's feedback was clear: leaders wanted more time in breakouts and more room for real questions. So 2026 adds a second day.

Day one starts with check-in at 1:00 p.m., followed by a two-hour workshop session. These sessions go deeper than a typical breakout session, with real dialogue and practical application rather than a short lecture followed by a rushed Q&A. A worship and production team might spend that time learning how to run effective, unified worship-planning meetings. A solo communications person might walk out with an entire communications plan and strategy for their church. The evening continues with dinner together and an extended time of worship.

Day two adds a keynote session, three breakout options (with some tracks doubled up so leaders wearing multiple hats can catch more than one), and an extended Q&A session built for more dialogue, not less.

Because an overnight stay is an added cost for some churches, Elevate now offers both a two-day and a one-day ticket, so a team that can only make the drive-in for a single day still has a full conference experience available to them.

Beyond the content

Ask what Elevate is really building toward, and the answer goes past a single weekend. The hope is that leaders walk away knowing they're part of something bigger: a movement of healthy churches, moving in the same direction, alongside other leaders doing similar work. Some of that shows up in the moment, meeting someone facing the exact same challenges you are. Some of it plays out over years, as churches build longer-term partnerships with Brentwood Baptist, whether that's a young staff member finding a residency program, a leader exploring seminary options, or a church looking for an ongoing ministry partner.

That's the fuller picture behind a simple question. Elevate isn't just a conference. It's an invitation to bring your whole team, get specific help for your specific role, and connect with other leaders doing the same work you are, wherever in the world you're doing it.

Elevate Church Conference is September 21 and 22, 2026, at Brentwood Baptist. Learn more and register at elevatechurchconference.com.