UpStream Seminars

How do parents and the local church make the spiritual waters flowing from them purer than they typically are? How can we lower the alarming statistic of 50-80 percent of young people abandoning the faith during their college years?

In this six-hour seminar of three two-hour sessions, Jim will share the biblical principles of raising kids spiritually, and then help parents and the church come up with the best solutions to implement these principles and help their young people develop deep and lasting faith.

Parents often feel inadequate being the spiritual leaders of their children, and thus often turn that job over to the “spiritual professionals” in their local church. The only problem is this goes against the biblical teaching of parents being disciplers of their children.

In this four-hour seminar of two 2-hour sessions, Jim will help parents learn the why’s and how’s of parental spiritual leadership.

After years of spiritual investment in our children, how can we help make that investment see spiritual returns beyond their high school years? With 60-80 percent of young people abandoning their faith after high school, what can be done?

In this 2-hour seminar, Jim will share from his experience as a campus pastor for nearly 40 years how to prepare young people to continue growing in their faith during their college years.

It is easy for youth pastors to assume their graduates will move on to college and continue to grow in their faith. Statistics tell us otherwise. In this two-hour seminar, Jim will help youth pastors (and volunteers) recognize some of the realities downstream and offer solutions to improving the percentages of graduates continuing to grow in their faith.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced local churches to adapt in ways they had never done before. With that proof of adaptation, what a great opportunity to change the focus of local churches to one of equipping the saints for ministry! (Ephesians 4:12)

In this eight-hour seminar of four two-hour sessions, Jim will explore how churches can get back to being equipping churches where members/attendees are doing widespread ministry in their communities and around the world.

This can be particularly helpful to pastors and elders, but also to congregations in general.

Many elder and deacon boards spend most of their time in governance of their congregations, while their biblical role seems to be defined as shepherding their flocks—discipling and training them in spiritual disciplines and living holy lives.

How do we get back to that? In this four-hour seminar of two 2-hour sessions, Jim offers his own experience as a church elder as a guide of what not to do, and uses his decades-long experience visiting and being involved with church leadership through his campus ministry to offer guidance on how to train up elders and deacons to learn how to train others.

In this two-hour seminar, Jim offers practical ways in which churches can be more than just financial support providers to missionaries. In his nearly 40 years of being a missionary on the University campus, Jim shares insights only a missionary can have when it comes to interacting with church mission committees.

Jim has led mission trips all over the world and around the country. He has experienced some great trips, but also some disappointing trips. In this two-hour seminar, he will share from the lessons he has learned how to organize a great and possibly life-changing mission trip.

Over the course of his life as a follower of Jesus, Jim has experienced many losses (death of his parents before age 25, divorce, and loss of a ministry due to the divorce); yet he has held onto his faith in the Lord. In this two-hour seminar, Jim shares his life’s journey and the lessons he has learned to remain faithful in difficult times.

Jim is available for scheduling as a guest preacher within a 3-hour range of his home in Lewisville, NC.