Nextgen Ministry Conference
ROOTED 2025
a gospel-centered conference for youth, children’s, and family ministers
October 23-25, 2025 | Chicago, ILAbout the Rooted Conference
Rooted Ministry offers a unique, simple annual conference for both youth, children’s, and family ministry workers. Rooted Ministry begins with the Gospel as the starting point and considers all matters in student ministry and youth culture from that axis. These conferences feature main sessions, practical workshops, and the most intimate atmosphere you’ve ever encountered at a conference. Just the Gospel, relationships, and conversations.
Rooted Ministry organizes our annual conferences for parents and nextgen ministers to offer great teaching and an ideal venue for relationships and the interchange of ideas. The hope is that attendees will leave feeling that they learned a great deal, both from the program and from conversations.
Conference Location: Christ Church Lake Forest | Chicago, IL
Looking for Rooted 2024 Virtual Access? Purchase below:
Rooted 2024 Virtual Access Past Conference MaterialRooted 2025
The Church in the book of Acts
The dominant narrative shaping teenagers today is that they are totally free individuals who are responsible to craft their own identity and determine their future. The resulting pressure this creates is proving to be crushing. The book of Acts demonstrates an alternative to the burden of radical individualism with a great benefit of the gospel: the institution of the church, formed on the basis of Jesus’ death and resurrection and filled with his personal presence and power. Our prayer is that by looking back at the major themes of the early church, our modern churches will be encouraged to look forward with renewed boldness, perseverance, and confident optimism for the next generation.
Register Today!Rooted 2025 Main Session Speakers
ROOTED 2024 VIRTUAL ACCESS
Virtual Access to Rooted 2024 is now available for purchase. This access includes all six main sessions and 20+ workshops and panels. Purchase your access today, and download the Rooted App today to watch conference content from years prior.
Main Session Speakers
Our 2025 main session speakers includes Jim Davis, Cameron Cole, Joel Kim, Syler Thomas, Liz Edrington and Chelten Carter. Each of them will walk through different portions of the book of Acts, focusing on The Church.
Workshops
The workshops involves 30-45 minutes of instruction from the speaker as well as discussion time, for two different tracks: youth ministry and parenting. View all the workshop descriptions and speaker bios on the Workshops Page.
Meals & Dine-arounds
Each year, we offer several meals for our attendees to connect and fellowship with one another throughout the conference. One dinner and a boxed lunch are included in your registration fee. One night attendees will have the option to attend a dinner group, called a dine-around, at a local restaurant. Youth ministry teams practicing in various contexts lead the dine-around and share how they do ministry in that context.
Pre-Conference Options
Join us for extra fellowship and teaching for specific groups of people, whether you are working in an Asian-American church, or those interested in becoming Rooted Writers.
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Claim your spot here!
Asian American Pre-Conference
Join us for extra fellowship and teaching for people specifically working in an Asian-American ministry context. For the 8th year, we are offering a pre-conference exploring the theme of “Thriving in Ministry,” specifically for volunteers and youth ministers in the Asian-American church. This preconference will be held on Thursday, October 23 from 11:30am – 3pm. Lunch will be included. Join us and our speakers, President Joel Kim of Westminster Seminary California and Pastor Jason Tarn from Houston, TX, for this preconference experience, designed to encourage us to “press forward in gospel-centered youth ministry for the Asian-American church.
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Claim your spot here!
Teach With Confidence, a Pre-Conference with Youth Pastor Theologian
Do you teach God’s Word to youth? Do you want to teach it with greater clarity and confidence? This preconference with Mike McGarry and John Gardner from YPT will help you move from studying Scripture to crafting a message and delivering it with depth and clarity. This preconference will be held on Thursday, October 23 from 11:30am – 3pm. Lunch is included with your registration.
Accommodations
Rooted has partnered with a number of hotels near the conference site in order to provide our registrants the best discounts available. See below to view all of our discounted room blocks, distances from the hotel properties to the venue, amenities, special offers, and more.
Travel Plans
Rooted is partnering with several hotels near the conference site in order to provide our registrants the best discounts available.
View all of our discounted room blocks, distances from the hotel properties to the venue, amenities, special offers, and more.-
Homewood Suites
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- Distance: 11 minutes from the conference site
- Location: 10 Westminster Way, Lincolnshire, IL 60069
- $129/night
- Book by calling 847.945.9300
- Hotel Code:
- Go to Hilton.com
- Where to: Lincolnshire
- Check in date: Enter date
- Check out date: Enter date
- Click on Special Rates:
- Group Code: Enter 90B
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Hilton Garden Inn – Lake Forest
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- Distance: 8 minutes from the conference site.
- Location: 26225 N. Riverwoods Boulevard Mettawa, IL, 60045
- $169/night
- Book here!
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Residence Inn Chicago Lake Forest/Mettawa
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- Distance: 8 minutes from the conference site.
- Location: 26325 N. Riverwoods Boulevard Mettawa, IL, 60045
- $169/night
- Book here!
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