SHEPHERDS' CONFERENCE 2025

April 22-24, 2025

Discovery Alliance Church

2630 Connery Way, Missoula


Making Disciples........Like Jesus


“Go Therefore and Make Disciples…”  Matthew 28:19


Though the term “discipleship" is often used in church circles and ministry events, it still remains one of the greatest needs in the Christian church.  It’s one of the few things we have been mandated to do by Jesus.  Questions often arise like, What is a Disciple of Christ?  Am I truly a Disciple?  Why are there so few Disciples?  Am I supposed to be making Disciples?  How do you make disciples?  Why has this been so hard?


This year’s Shepherds’ Conference will be all about Discipleship.  Our speaker is a man who has devoted his entire  life seeking to be a disciple of Christ and then by God’s grace training others to do the same.  His technique is profoundly simple, study the Gospels, examine how Jesus made His disciples and then seek to do the same.  In a time when Christian discipleship is so needed in our lives and churches today you won’t want to miss this year’s conference.


A note about our main speaker.  Dr. Dann Spader has a B.A. in evangelism from Moody Bible Institute and a M.A. and D.Min from Trinity Evangelical Seminary.  He is the Founder of Concentric Global and Sonlife Ministries.  He has been a pastor, ministry trainer and leader in numerous discipleship initiatives.  Dann has authored over 20 books and manuals.  Over 1,000,000 leaders around the world have been trained with his discipleship materials.  Dann’s ministry is all about a vision of a having multiplying disciple-make ministries.  Dann has been married to Char for 45 years and has 3 daughters and 8 grandchildren.  His children and their spouses are all active in full time ministry. 



Conference speaker

Dr. Dann Spader


Dr. Dann Spader is presently serving as Founder of both Concentric Global (formerly Global Youth Initiative) and Sonlife Ministries, both ministries he started.  He has also served for 12 years in a pastoral role in churches.  Ten of these years as a youth pastor and then two years as an interim pastor in a church-planting situation.


Dr. Spader came to Christ on December 17, 1970 through the ministry of Campus Crusade at engineering school in Rapid City South Dakota.  Dann then moved to Chicago where he graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 1974 with a B.A. Degree in Evangelism.  He received both a M.R.E. and D.Min. at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield Illinois, and has also done graduate work at Wheaton College.  His wife Charlene (Char) also graduated from Moody in 1975.


Dann has written over twenty leadership-training manuals, contributed several chapters in books, written numerous articles, and produced multiple training videos.  Over 1,000,000 leaders have been through face-to-face training through Sonlife and GYI. Over 1000 certified trainers teach the material in 100 plus countries around the globe. Dann most recent book is “4 Chair Discipling” published by Moody Press.  Dann has also written a study called “Walk Like Jesus” and his most recent study is called “Live Like Jesus”.   Dann has served as a consultant to over twenty denominations in developing youth and emerging leadership. 


Dann has led over 50 trips to Israel with young leaders from around the world... where he specializes in the Life of Christ and how Jesus developed His disciples.


Dann and Char (his wife for 44 years) is the father of three daughters, Julie, Jamie and Christy.  Julie is married to Pete Goodman, Jamie is married to Brandon Grant, and the two couples together planted a church in Santee CA.  As of July 1, 2024 Brandon just accepted the Lead Pastor role at Eastview Christian Church in Bloomington IL.  Their third daughter Christy graduated from Moody in 2011 and served for 10 years on staff with CRU (Campus Crusade). She now leads the Women’s Ministry at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park IL and teaches part-time at both Moody and Wheaton.  Dann and Char have 8 grand-children.  Until recently he and his wife Char, lived in Louisville KY where Dann was also serving part time as training consultant to Southeast Christian Church in Louisville.   They now live in Lakeside CA, having moved near the grandkids.


ConcentricGlobal.com (formerly GYI) is an alliance of like-minded ministries around the globe, which are committed to creating indigenous movements of multiplication with younger leaders.  All of these international ministries are involved in advancing the training and values of the Son’s life—many of them having grown out of Sonlife Ministries in North America.   Concentric is currently involved in 194 countries… with a vision of multiplying disciple-making movements in 153 countries by 2030.  Currently they have multiplying movements in 96 countries globally.