North American Baptists, Inc.

Bonfire 2025
2025-04-29 - 2025-05-01 | Chicago Theological Seminary, 1407 E 60th St, Chicago, IL, 60637
Bonfire is part of Super Week, a handful of annual events for key NAB leaders from across the conference.

Bonfire is a gathering of NAB leaders who have given themselves to joining God on mission in their various contexts. It is a time to build into deep community with one another, receive inspiration, and continue training together. All the leaders who attend Bonfire are also invited to arrive a day early to take part in Multipliers Summit as well.
We are excited to be at a new venue this year – Chicago Theological Seminary! Located in the Hyde Park neighborhood, CTS is within walking distance of great places to explore and is only a short train ride from downtown Chicago!
Registration Now Open!

Fit Assessment: May 2025
2025-05-21 09:00 - 2025-05-23 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | McKernan Baptist Church, 11103 76 Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 0J9, Canada
What is Fit Assessment?
NAB’s Fit Assessment is a multi-step process that delivers insights to any current or potential missionary, church planter, or revitalization pastor, reporting on their “fit” for the ministry they are endeavoring to engage. Read more about our proven methods and tools here.
If you’re interested in beginning the Fit Assessment process, your first step is completing the online application, either in English or in Spanish.

Is there an in-person component of Fit Assessment?
To complete the NAB Fit Assessment, candidates meet together for a multi-day, in-person experience hosted by a diversity of trained leaders. These three days together help us communally discern your best next step.

There is an upcoming Fit Assessment taking place May 21st-23rd in Edmonton, Alberta.
Contact Carissa Steinhart with any questions!

Year of Equipping: Year 2 (Application Deadline)
2025-06-20
Apply for Year of Equipping: Year 2
For over a decade now, the NAB has intentionally developed and delivered spaces for training, discussion, and spiritual growth. Our strategy has included Blue Ocean, Discovery, and Ethos, each of which involve training leaders and members of NAB churches, helping them to live into a missional and formational vision for their communities.
For the past year, a group of twenty- and thirty-something leaders from across the NAB have been gathering monthly as part of the inaugural Year of Equipping cohort. (You can read their reflections from the Vancouver, Detroit, and Chicago in-person gatherings.) They have shared how much they have appreciated the conversations and the readings and how their experiences in the Year of Equipping have shaped their ministries. Great friendships have formed, connections that will season and guide their ministries in the NAB in the years and decades to come.
The time has come for us to begin putting together the Year 2 cohort of emerging leaders within the NAB, those individuals in their twenties and thirties who hold some position of ministry leadership in the church, or even in a parachurch organization.
The Year of Equipping consists of three, three-month modules, each reflecting the three modules in Blue Ocean.
The first will address questions of who God is and what he is up to; we want to bring revitalization and a fresh biblical vision about the nature and character of the God who wants to reach the world with his mercy and love.
The second module takes on the topic of spiritual formation, as we will discuss how we are (re-)formed in God’s image; if God truly desires his people to be conformed to the character of Christ, then it is incumbent upon us as his people to really process what this means for us and those we are reaching with his good news.
Module three addresses how Christian community flows from the first two; we will discuss what we are to do in light of who God is and how we are formed.
Each module will have multiple components: a book pertaining to the subject matter, Zoom discussions, and one in-person meeting. The goal of this experience is to develop and enrich the relationships of our emerging leaders, to provide instruction and conversation about the movement of God in the world and how we participate, and to deepen the preparation of our emerging leaders for the future of the NAB.
The application deadline is June 20, 2025.
Apply for Year of Equipping: Year 2

The Gathering 2025
2025-07-13 - 2025-07-18 | Hope University in Orange County, 2500 E. Nutwood Avenue, Fullerton, CA, 92831, United States
Register for The Gathering Register for The Gathering
Every three years, middle and high school students from across the NAB come together in Orange County for an experience unlike any other. For five jam-packed days, students hear from gifted speakers, sing praises to God, dive into the Word, engage in service projects, and interact with others from across Canada and the US.
This is The Gathering, a youth conference and missions experience that provides students with a variety of thoughtful encounters to dive deeper in faith, community, and service as an opportunity to become ambassadors for Jesus in Orange County, with the ultimate goal of inspiring them to serve God and others when they return home. The Gathering is the only venue that assembles students from across the NAB in one place for a time of worship, service, transformation, and fun.
The Gathering takes places July 13–18, 2025.

Register for The Gathering Register for The Gathering

Registration Cost per Student
$575 USD (by January 10)
$625 USD (after January 10)

A non-refundable $100 deposit per person is due at time of registration. Online payments will be available, as well as by check. Canadian churches will pay based on the daily exchange rate.
Shuttles for groups to/from airports/hotels will be $30 for regional airports and $40 for LAX. Extra night stays are being confirmed with the university. More details are available in the registration packet.

For more information, including the Registration Packet, links to promotional videos, and more, you can check out The Gathering page.
The Gathering The Gathering

Fit Assessment: August 2025
2025-08-05 08:00 - 2025-08-07 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Heartland Community Church, 3400 Weymouth Road, Medina, OH, 44256, United States
What is Fit Assessment?
NAB’s Fit Assessment is a multi-step process that delivers insights to any current or potential missionary, church planter, or revitalization pastor, reporting on their “fit” for the ministry they are endeavoring to engage. Read more about our proven methods and tools here.
If you’re interested in beginning the Fit Assessment process, your first step is completing the online application, either in English or in Spanish.

Is there an in-person component of Fit Assessment?
To complete the NAB Fit Assessment, candidates meet together for a multi-day, in-person experience hosted by a diversity of trained leaders. These three days together help us communally discern your best next step.

There is an upcoming Fit Assessment taking place August 5–7 in Medina, Ohio (near Cleveland).
Contact Carissa Steinhart with any questions!

Reframe: Equipping Your Congregation for Evangelism
2025-10-01 10:00 - 23:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Assess your congregation’s evangelism readiness with this four-week, online training.

How well equipped is your congregation for the ministry of evangelism?
How do you evaluate your church’s health in that regard?
How would you identify equipping gaps in your congregation’s evangelistic faithfulness?

This training will provide an evaluative framework to help you assess your evangelistic equipping efforts. It will help you to recognize gaps you may need to fill and distortions you will want to correct and provide a clearer path forward towards helping your church become more evangelistically faithful.
This online training consists of four sessions that will be 90 minutes each.
Dates: Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22
Time: 10:00–11:30 p.m. (Pacific)
Training is free for NAB ministry leaders.
Register closed September 30.

Blue Ocean: 2025/26
2025-10-21 - 2025-10-24
Sign Up for Blue Ocean Sign Up for Blue Ocean
Blue Ocean is a transformative one-year learning experience. You’ll be part of a cohort that journeys together throughout the year, exploring what it means to join God on mission, be formed into the character of Christ, and dwell in your neighborhood – sharing and living out the Gospel.
Blue Ocean includes pastors, leaders, and regional ministers from across the NAB. Each cohort represents a cross-section of regions, church sizes, and ministry styles. The discussions are both encouraging and challenging.
Module 1
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Dates: October 21–24, 2025
Topic: Missional Theology – Joining in with the God of Mission
Module 2
Location: TBD
Dates: February 1–4, 2026
Topic: Missional Formation – Becoming Like Christ
Module 3
Location: Medina, Ohio
Dates: May 5–8, 2026
Topic: A Missional People – Becoming a Sent People
There is no cost for Blue Ocean, though participants are responsible for covering their travel and accommodation costs. All other costs are covered by the NAB.
Sign Up for Blue Ocean Sign Up for Blue Ocean

International Missions Pop-Up
2026-01-26 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | First Baptist Church in Lodi, 267 N. Mills Ave., Lodi, CA, 95242, United States
NorCal churches of the NAB are cordially invited to attend the first-ever International Mission Pop-Up.
Experience an evening of engaging conversation and connections around international missions. Hear from Joel David, the NAB VP of International Missions, and Shan Reed, NAB mobilization director and former NAB missionary to Japan.
It can be easy for our churches to feel isolated or like what we do doesn’t seem to make any kind of global impact, particularly when it comes to the Kingdom efforts regarding international missions. This Pop-Up will help your church grasp the larger picture of NAB International Missions, help connect you with other local NAB churches who share a similar interest in missions, and hopefully promote awareness of and engagement with NAB International Missions and missionaries.
This pop-event will take place 6:30–8:00 p.m. on January 26 at First Baptist Church in Lodi, California. Refreshments will be served.

International Missions Pop-Up
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Fit Assessment: February 2026
2026-02-24 08:00 - 2026-02-26 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Grace Collective Church, 1219 Pleasant Grove Blvd, Roseville, CA, 95678, United States
What is Fit Assessment?
NAB’s Fit Assessment is a multi-step process that delivers insights to any current or potential missionary, church planter, or revitalization pastor, reporting on their “fit” for the ministry they are endeavoring to engage. Read more about our proven methods and tools here.
If you’re interested in beginning the Fit Assessment process, your first step is completing the online application, either in English or in Spanish.

Is there an in-person component of Fit Assessment?
To complete the NAB Fit Assessment, candidates meet together for a multi-day, in-person experience hosted by a diversity of trained leaders. These three days together help us communally discern your best next step.

There is an upcoming Fit Assessment taking place February 24–26 in Roseville, CA at Grace Collective Church.
Contact Carissa Steinhart with any questions!

Bonfire 2026
2026-05-05 - 2026-05-08 | Heartland Community Church, 3400 Weymouth Road, Medina, OH, 44256, United States
Bonfire is taking place May 5–8, 2026, in a new city and with a new format.
What we call Bonfire has taken on several different iterations over the years. At its core, Bonfire was always designed to gather NAB leaders together around a shared purpose – a commitment to our missional/formational journey as the NAB.
Just like a bonfire itself brings people together who may not otherwise interact, these gatherings have morphed and expanded as different NAB groups – Multipliers, Governing Board, Missions Advisory Team, just to name a few – have caught wind of and bought into the shared purpose of mission and formation.
This year, based on much feedback, we are streamlining this event in a way we hope reflects this purpose. Bonfire will now be the name we use to refer to the overarching event, the main umbrella under which these various gatherings of NAB leaders meet. There will be two main evening sessions for the entire group, including dinner, fellowship, worship, and a unified speaker. During the days, each attendee will join their specific group gathering, or Ministry Track – Multipliers Summit, MAT, Missional Initiatives Collective, etc. – to engage with each other.
It is our hope that Bonfire 2026 will serve you, equip you, and encourage you in ways both specific to your individual group but also in broad ways as a vital member of our conference of churches.
Registration is now closed.
However, if you need help with your registration or aren’t sure if you signed up or not, reach out to Carissa Steinhart for assistance.

International Missions Pop-Up
2026-05-08 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Detroit) | Cross of Hope Church, 8971 W Ridgewood Dr, Parma Heights, OH, 44130, United States
NAB churches in northern Ohio and the surrounding area are cordially invited to attend the next International Missions Pop-Up.
Experience an evening of engaging conversation and connections around international missions. Hear from:

Joel David, NAB vice president of International Missions
Maureen Moody, NAB missionary to Cameroon
Shan Reed, NAB mobilization director
Lyndell Campbell Réquia, NAB missionary in Brazil

It can be easy for our churches to feel isolated or like what we do doesn’t seem to make any kind of global impact, particularly when it comes to the Kingdom efforts regarding international missions. This Pop-Up will help your church grasp the larger picture of NAB International Missions, help connect you with other local NAB churches who share a similar interest in missions, and hopefully promote awareness of and engagement with NAB International Missions and missionaries.
This pop-event will take place 7:00–8:30 p.m. on May 8, 2026, at Cross of Hope Church in Parma Heights, Ohio. Refreshments will be served.

International Missions Pop-Up
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Reframe: Equipping Your Congregation for Evangelism
2026-06-03 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Reframe is a four-week, online training for pastors and leaders to help you assess your congregation’s evangelism readiness. This training will provide an evaluative framework to help you to recognize gaps you may need to fill and distortions you will want to correct, and it will provide a clearer path forward toward helping your church become more evangelistically faithful.
Reframe is not a training that will focus on how to better do evangelism but instead will focus on how to be evangelistic.

How well equipped is your congregation for the ministry of evangelism?
How do you evaluate your church’s health in that regard?
How would you identify equipping gaps in your congregation’s evangelistic faithfulness?

Each training consists of an online, 90-minute session. They will take place each Wednesday in June.
Dates: June 3, 10, 17, 24 (Wednesdays)
Time: 10:00–11:30 a.m. (Pacific)
Training is free for NAB ministry leaders. For more information, connect with Deb Judas.

Reframe Workshop
Four-week online training to help you assess your evangelistic equipping efforts.

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Sister-Church Partnership Orientation
2026-07-18 09:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Christ Community Church, 8016 746th St. E, Pyuallup, WA, 98372, United States
Register for This orientation

The context for a global missional lifestyle is to be found not in independent single church efforts (short-term mission and otherwise) here and there in the world but in partnering in each other’s communities and networks globally for the long-term.
Defined in this way, sister-church partnerships, with their intended focus on long-term relationships first and foremost, present churches with a consistent way to apply missional living on a global scale. If you are a pastor or a church leader who is passionate about giving your church opportunities to live missionally in your own community, think about how a relationship-based approach would look lived out in your community.
The first step in the process for a church/ministry partnership is taking part in a Sister-Church Partnership Orientation. This four-hour session focuses on cross-cultural understanding and education for pastors, staff, and church/ministry leaders. It will help you understand how to lead your church to participate in long-term, cross-cultural, relationship-based, mutual partnerships to empower everyone involved.
This orientation is being hosted by Christ Community Baptist Church in Puyallup, Washington, on July 18, 9:00–1:00. Check out the flyer for more information.

Register for This orientation

Fit Assessment: August 2026
2026-08-11 09:00 - 2026-08-13 11:00 (America/Edmonton) | Heartland Community Church, 3400 Weymouth Road, Medina, OH, 44256, United States
What is Fit Assessment?
NAB’s Fit Assessment is a multi-step process that delivers insights to any current or potential missionary, church planter, or revitalization pastor, reporting on their “fit” for the ministry they are endeavoring to engage. Read more about our proven methods and tools here.
If you’re interested in beginning the Fit Assessment process, your first step is completing the online application, either in English or in Spanish.

Is there an in-person component of Fit Assessment?
To complete the NAB Fit Assessment, candidates meet together for a multi-day, in-person experience hosted by a diversity of trained leaders. These three days together help us communally discern your best next step.

There is an upcoming Fit Assessment taking place August 11–13 in Medina, Ohio (outside Cleveland).
Contact Carissa Steinhart with any questions!

Year of Equipping
2026-08-15
apply for year of equipping

Year of Equipping consists of three modules, each comprised of two Zoom calls and one in-person meeting, in which we read and process the missional character of God, our formation as we join him on mission, and the ways we live into this identity as a community of God’s people on mission.
The first session is in September and will be online. The first in-person gathering will take place in October.
We are seeking younger leaders – those between the ages of 20 and 40 – to participate in this cohort.
If you are interested, or you know someone who might be, reach out to Wayne Stapleton.
The deadline for applications is August 15, but the entire cohort takes place over a nine-month period beginning in September.

email wayne

Sending Church Cohort
2026-09-15 17:00 - 2026-09-16 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | Central Baptist Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
The NAB’s Sending Church Cohort is a peer-led cohort that meets twice in one year on location at two of our sending churches to learn from their triumphs and mistakes in sending out multipliers. Stu Streeter, VP of Church Multiplication and Ministry Advancement, hosts the gathering, but the core of training, discussion, and workshopping is led by the pastors and leaders of the host churches. This is an opportunity to learn at the feet of NAB leaders who are actively sending out church plants, campus launches, and revitalization efforts.
The first gathering of this year’s Sending Church Cohort took place in Fargo, North Dakota, in April, where we learned from Pastor Jake Peterson of River City Church, who is working alongside Jackson Hankey to plant a new congregation in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The second gathering, which takes place September 15–16 in Edmonton, Alberta, will be led by Pastor Jeremy Putz of Central Baptist, which has used the multi-site model to great effect in their city. Currently, they are working on their fourth and fifth sites in the area. Their fourth site, which is set to launch this year, is an extraordinary story of a downtown historic site that sat largely empty for sometime. They are set to revive the space and the downtown life in the process.
We are so committed to the process that the NAB International Office covers all the cost of the cohort once you arrive in the host city. Simply, let us know you’re coming through the link below, and who you are bringing from your church to learn with you, and we will take it from there. If you need more than two hotel rooms for your church’s representatives, please reach out soon so we can explore options with you.
i’m interested in attending the cohort

Reframe: Equipping Your Congregation for Evangelism
2026-09-16 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Reframe is a four-week, online training for pastors and leaders to help you assess your congregation’s evangelism readiness. This training will provide an evaluative framework to help you to recognize gaps you may need to fill and distortions you will want to correct, and it will provide a clearer path forward toward helping your church become more evangelistically faithful.
Reframe is not a training that will focus on how to better do evangelism but instead will focus on how to be evangelistic.

How well equipped is your congregation for the ministry of evangelism?
How do you evaluate your church’s health in that regard?
How would you identify equipping gaps in your congregation’s evangelistic faithfulness?

Each training consists of an online, 90-minute session that will take place across four consecutive Wednesdays starting September 16.
Dates: September 16, 23, & 30; October 7 (Wednesdays)
Time: 10:00–11:30 a.m. (Pacific)
Training is free for NAB ministry leaders. For more information, connect with Deb Judas.

Reframe Workshop
Four-week online training to help you assess your evangelistic equipping efforts.

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Online Short-Term Mission Leader Workshop
2026-09-18 19:00 - 2026-09-19 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
register for the training
If you are a leader planning to lead a short-term mission, this online workshop is designed to train you in best practices for short-term missions. This includes:

Missional theology and the goal of short-term mission
Best practices in leading a short-term mission
The timeline of a short-term mission team/trip
What it looks like serving with NAB Gateway

This workshop spans two days:
7:00 – 9:30 p.m. (Central) on Friday, September 18
9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (Central) on Saturday, September 19
This training will be led by Gateway Director Randy Schmor. Randy has led and trained short-term mission teams for over two decades. He is on the board of Mission Excellence and uses these guidelines to empower others with the knowledge and skills of how to build appropriate and thriving global partnerships.
You can find out more about NAB Gateway, including the various trainings available, by visiting nabonmission.org/get-involved/nab-gateway, or simply register for the training at the link below.
register for the training

International Missions Pop-Up
2026-09-30 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | 18th Street Church, 2400 W. 18th Street, Sioux Falls, SD, 57104, United States
Southeastern South Dakota and Northwest Iowa churches of the NAB are cordially invited to an International Mission Pop-Up. This event is for all ages!
Experience an evening of engaging conversation and connections around international missions. Hear from NAB missionaries Brandon and Marci Jones from Brazil and Shan Reed, NAB mobilization director and former NAB missionary to Japan.
It can be easy for our churches to feel isolated or as if what we do doesn’t seem to make any kind of global impact, particularly when it comes to the Kingdom efforts regarding international missions. This Pop-Up will help your church grasp the larger picture of NAB International Missions, help connect you with other local NAB churches who share a similar interest in missions, and hopefully promote awareness of and engagement with NAB International Missions and missionaries.
This pop-event will take place 6:30–8:00 p.m. on September 30, 2026, at 18th Street Church (formerly Trinity Baptist Church) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Refreshments will be served.

International Missions Pop-Up
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Blue Ocean 26/27
2026-10-20 - 2026-10-23
The 2026/2027 cohort of Blue Ocean is now accepting applications.

apply for blue ocean 26/27

Blue Ocean is a transformative one-year learning experience. You’ll be part of a cohort that journeys together throughout the year, exploring what it means to join God on mission, be formed into the character of Christ, and dwell in your neighborhood – sharing and living out the Gospel. This program includes three in-person learning modules, each held in a different location:

Vancouver, British Columbia, October 20–23, 2026.
Sacramento, California, February 2–5, 2027.
TBD, May 4–7, 2027.

Participants come from across North America, each of whom serve in leadership roles at NAB churches of varying sizes and ministry styles.
Our modules are thoughtfully designed to integrate teaching, conversation, hands-on activities, shared experiences, and meals, creating a holistic and immersive experience.
Find out more about Blue Ocean on the NAB website. Or reach out to Deb Judas with any questions.

apply for blue ocean 26/27
