Registration has SOLD OUT! Use the link above to sign up on the waitlist.
Our registrar will be in contact if space becomes available.
You’ll receive a physical copy upon arrival at the conference.
Where is God when your heart aches? It can sometimes feel like he’s distant from our distress or disinterested in our despair. But God does not look at you with indifference. He does not stay far away. He comes close.
Join us as we explore the story of Ruth to see how Jesus offers us hope that lasts.
Schedule
Friday, October 21
| 6:00 p.m. | Registration |
| 7:30 p.m. | Hope Whispers (Ruth 1:1-22) - Clint Watkins |
| 9:15 p.m. | Campus Groups |
Saturday, October 22
| 8:00 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 9:30 a.m. | Hope Builds (Ruth 1:14-2:18) - Dave Royes |
| 11:15 a.m. | Morning Breakout Sessions |
| 12:00 p.m. | Lunch: Out on the Town! |
| 2:00 p.m. | Free Time |
| 4:00 p.m. | Afternoon Breakout Sessions |
| 5:00 p.m. | Dinner |
| 6:30 p.m. | Hope Arrives (Ruth 2:14-3:18) - Joel Martin |
| 7:45 p.m. | Worship Night |
| 9:15 p.m. | Campus Groups |
Sunday, October 23
| 8:00 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 9:30 a.m. | Breakout Sessions |
| 10:30 a.m. | Hope Lasts (Ruth 4:13-22) - Mark Fodale |
Registration
When you register, you should receive an email confirming your registration. If you do not receive this email, please email registrar@dm.org to let us know.
Payment
The cost of the conference for students is $199. The cost for guests is $240.
This covers materials and lodging, and meals from Saturday breakfast through Sunday breakfast (excluding Saturday lunch, which will be out on the town). To reserve your spot at the conference, you must make the minimum payment of $20 at the time of registration using a credit or debit card. You can pay the remaining balance in one of three ways:
- Pay online
- Mail a check or cash
- Pay in person when you arrive at the conference
If sending payment by mail, please make checks payable to DiscipleMakers and write “Fall Conference” in the memo line. Mail your payment to: DiscipleMakers, 365 Science Park Road, State College, PA 16803. Please send your payments before the start of the conference.
Cancellation Policy
You may cancel your registration at any time by emailing registrar@dm.org or by logging into your registration. Whether you are eligible for a refund depends on when you cancel.
If you cancel before the registration deadline (Friday, September 30th at 11:59 pm): You will be refunded the amount you paid when you registered.
If you cancel after the registration deadline but before Wednesday, October 19th at 5:00 pm: You will be refunded the amount you've paid, EXCEPT for the minimum payment. After registration closes, minimum payments are non-refundable.
If you cancel after Wednesday, October 19th at 5:00 pm OR you never cancel: You will not be refunded any payments previously made, and you will be responsible for paying any remaining balance.
What to Bring
When you pack your personal items for the weekend, bring along a pen and a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we will provide one for you at the conference.
Arriving at the Conference
If you're traveling by car, park in the Walnut Street Garage. (The cost to park for the weekend is $20.) In the garage elevator, press the button marked “LEVEL A,” which will take you directly to the Hilton. When the doors open you should see some friendly DiscipleMakers staff showing you where to go!
Breakout Sessions
Saturday Morning
Brian Parker
"Just don't worry about it!" Those can be well intended, but some of the most unhelpful and impotent words spoken to us when we are worried about something and anxious thoughts fill our mind. Are worry and anxiety just unwelcome guests that will never leave us, or is there hope to break free from them? Join us Jesus unpacks the root of worry, and equips us to live a life that is increasingly free from it!
Matt Geiger and Tom Hallman
Within the next few years (or months!!), you’ll finally be done with school and you’ll be starting your career. Whether you’ve dreamed of that career for many years or are still figuring it out... do you know what God has to say about it? In this session, we’ll seek to answer that question while offering lots of practical counsel for both short- and long-term career choices... from God’s point of view. Warning: may result in minds being blown.
Lincoln Fitch
Our default setting is to see the world as if what we see with our eyes is all there is. We go to class, work, and even church with little awareness of the spiritual forces that are at work in the world. The bible shows us that our world is bigger, deeper, and darker. Yet God is doing something epic, something cosmic, to save it. And you and I have a role to play. Together we will see, from Revelation 12, how the perspective of heaven reshapes how we see the world.
Mark Fodale
Its easy to make excuses or blame our circumstances. But let's face it: our biggest enemy is usually the one staring back at us from the mirror every morning. And, believe it or not, the gospel promises power for real change in our lives! Join us as we explore what the Bible says about living a disciplined life & developing a strategy for growing in self-control. Get the help you need now - your future self will thank you!
Kaylah Olshefsky
Praying can make you feel vulnerable. Maybe that’s because you don’t know what to say, or perhaps you have a hard time believing that God is a good Father who cares for his children. No matter where you are in your walk with God, Jesus has made a way and offers us a free invitation to pray to him. Join me as we explore what it means to believe that promise and respond to His invitation.
Saturday Afternoon
Zack Gugenheim
“I will never do that again. I never want to do that again. I just did it again. How could God love me?” Have you ever felt stuck in this pattern? You resolve to never do something again, only to find yourself back to longing for the same sins and patterns you just resolved to stop, wondering how God could ever love someone who does this. What if God still loves? What if His grace is far more powerful than you could imagine? What if there is hope even when you’ve failed for the 1000th time? Let’s find hope together, and find the God of grace who not only promises to change us, but give us a deeper satisfaction of our desires.
Clint Watkins
We are often pressured to suppress feelings like grief, depression, sadness, and anxiety. But God does not ask us to conceal our sorrow. He invites us to share our struggles through lament. Biblical lament reshapes our idea of strong faith—some of the most steadfast believers look at the world through tears and walk with a limp. Come learn how you can find rugged hope through honest faith.
Andy Cimbala
As human beings, we're deeply limited. We can only be in one place at a time, we have to sleep, it takes years to get through college, and we often experience illness, tiredness, or weakness. And yet our culture demands strength and ties our self-worth into our performance, which leads to anxiety, overwork, and sometimes burnout. Join us as we explore how the gospel speaks into our weakness and limits, and experience the good news of God's grace.
Tori Zbinden
Have you ever had an anxious thought that you found difficult to push from your mind? A thought that keeps you up at night? That takes up free rent inside your mind? The goal of this workshop is to take the overwhelming topic of overthinking, break it down into a biblical framework, and offer gospel hope and freedom from the thoughts inside our own mind.
David and Megan Royes
Dating. Sigh. The idea evokes such excitement, but also dread, confusion, and an abundance of questions. People for generations have wrestled with the exhilarating, mysterious, and sometimes painful topic of romance. But what happens when you add in a culture of smartphones and social media, with virtual relationships literally at your fingertips? This breakout session explores how to navigate the currents of our culture and the desires of our own hearts, while holding fast to the wisdom of the Scriptures and the security of knowing God.
Sunday Morning
Mark Fodale
Can shame be healed? Can glory emerge from brokenness? The compelling story of an abandoned woman's journey, recorded in Ezekiel 16, provides the setting for one of the clearest & most compelling pictures of the gospel in the Bible!
Brian Seay
We live in unsettled times. More than ever there is a call to good “self-care” to maintain ourselves in the midst of it. But how does this suggestion square up to the Biblical calling to “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow” Jesus? In this breakout we’ll explore the Scriptures to find the answer.
David Royes
God. Jesus. Bible. Sin. Grace. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed by these “religious words” and are unsure of how they all come together. For others, we’ve grown up with these things, yet have become numb to the reality of which they speak. The tangible world can seem so much more real to us than an invisible God. Yet understanding the gospel with clarity enables us to perceive what’s at stake in the world around us. This breakout will help you have confidence about the world’s most precious message. Join us to learn how the gospel is good news for the seeker, hope for the struggling, and life-changing for those bored with religion.
Tom Hallman
The Bible is full of commands to change. But what if you’ve tried to change... and it just doesn't “stick”? In this session, you’ll learn why that happens - and you’ll be equipped with a simple model for experiencing true, lasting change.
Learn the songs we'll be singing together at the conference!
Location
Hilton Harrisburg
1 North 2nd Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Parking: Walnut St. Garage
215 Walnut Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Mass Transit
The Hilton is a short walk from Harrisburg's train station/bus terminal.