Minnesota
Leader Lab
Three days for church leadership teams across Minnesota, honest input, sharper vision, and a real plan for what's next.
What is a Leader Lab?
A Leader Lab is a one-time, three-day gathering for a specific region: a space for church leaders to get honest input, sharpen vision, and walk away with a real plan for the next quarter. It's not a conference. Nobody's on a stage teaching at you all day. It's closer to sitting down with a handful of other church leadership teams who've faced what you're facing, for three unhurried days, with someone guiding the conversation so it actually goes somewhere.
It only happens once per region. That's on purpose. This is the first Leader Lab in Minnesota, built for lead pastors and church leadership teams as a whole, not just one ministry area.
What your church walks away with
Sharper vision
Three days out of the building, with honest outside input, surfaces what's actually true faster than months of internal conversation.
A real 90-day plan
Every leader leaves with two to four specific, written goals for the next quarter, not just inspiration.
Outside eyes on blind spots
A room of peer leaders with no stake in your status quo will name in twenty minutes what internal conversations have circled for months.
Real accountability
Goals are said out loud to the room, not kept private. That public commitment is what makes follow-through actually happen.
A wider network
Churches leave newly connected to other churches in the region wrestling with similar things; some regions have turned that into an ongoing Leader Community.
Free, no pressure
This Lab is fully sponsored by CNC Lakes Region and elementum, so there's no cost to your church. Nothing about attending obligates you to anything further.
Why bring your team, not just yourself
This Lab is built around teams, not solo attendance. Here's why that matters.
No re-selling vision when you get home.
When a team experiences the same three days together, everyone heard the same thing at the same time. The team can start moving Monday, not after weeks of trying to explain what happened.
Your team hears the real conversation.
When a staff member, board member, or volunteer leader is in the room for your Hot Seat, they hear the actual challenge and the actual thinking behind the next step, not a secondhand summary.
Buy-in is already built into the plan.
Goals set with your team physically present come home already owned by the people who'll help carry them out.
It multiplies the relationships built.
Staff build relationships with other staff, and board members or volunteers with their peers, not just lead pastors with other lead pastors.
Bring your team: your lead pastor plus up to four other key leaders, an executive pastor, a board member or volunteer leader, a staff member who shapes strategy alongside you.
Is this for you?
You're a lead pastor, executive pastor, board member, key volunteer, or key staff leader shaping your church's direction, not just attending it.
Your church has some existing connection to Converge North Central.
You can bring 1โ5 leaders from your church.
You want real input, not just inspiration.
You can commit to all three days, in the room, together.
This isn't a mass invitation. Every potential participant gets reviewed. We're looking for leaders genuinely carrying something worth investing three days in.
What actually happens
Dinner & Connection
No agenda pressure. Just a meal and the start of real relationship before anything else happens.
The Full Day
Welcome & Vision Casting, training built around what Minnesota's leaders need, Hot Seat Sessions in two blocks with lunch between, prayer and reflection, and an evening outing together.
90-Day Goal Setting
Every leader leaves with two to four real, written goals for the next quarter, and a team who was there when the plan was built.
What's a Hot Seat?
A leader brings one real, specific challenge to the room and the group works it with them, not advice from a stage, but a structured conversation: share the challenge, take clarifying questions, open it up for ideas, land on two or three takeaways. Every Hot Seat ends with a concrete next step for the next 30 to 90 days.
Who's leading the Leader Lab
Andy Abramson
Ken Abramson
Ben Pontius
Ready to bring your team to Minnesota's first Leader Lab?
Register Your TeamFrequently asked
Please bring your team. This Lab is built for church leadership teams, not solo attendance. See "Why Bring Your Team" above.
Not at all. Some leaders already know each other through the region, but you don't need to going in โ three unhurried days together is plenty of time to get to know one another.
Just showing up honest. If you're up for a Hot Seat, we'll send you a Hot Seat prep guide beforehand to help you get ready.
Reach out to Mike directly and we'll figure out what makes sense for your context.
