Q Chicago 2010

Concept   |   Benefits   |   Experience   |   Questions   |   Testimonies


Q is a gathering where innovators, church leaders, social entrepreneurs, and cultural pioneers come together to explore the church's role in positively contributing to culture.

In Chicago, April 28-30 2010, hundreds of remarkable leaders will collaborate around the biggest questions facing the church today. Q is not for content consumers, but for those who will contribute to the bigger conversation. We hope you will be one of them.

Apply and register for Q Chicago here.




Q was created as a place for Christian leaders in many different channels of society to become informed and exposed to cultural ideas and to one another. No other gathering exists that attracts the most influential leaders of the church and today's most innovative thinkers into one space for conversation, learning, invention, and collaboration.

Over the course of three days, Q introduces participants to various topics presented by over thirty experts. Presentations are short and powerful. Their ideas have been selected to heighten our awareness and challenge our creativity as we consider our roles, individually and corporately, in shaping culture. Practical application isn't always included; instead, ideas are presented that allow participants to collaborate with others about what this means for the future of the church.

Q is designed to expose leaders to the fundamental culture, social, and environmental shifts taking place in our world day. Exposure is the beginning of understanding. And understanding allows us to re-imagine how the gospel can be re-expressed in our own contexts – forever changing the landscape of our communities and cities.

Back to Top



Context drives everything. We need to regularly break away from our own context to see the world differently. Pastors and church leaders especially can become unintentionally sheltered from the exposure necessary to better understand how the gospel should be expressed in our culture at large.

As a result, at Q, we strive to help you:

Back to Top



Main Sessions
Our mentors and models will present their big ideas or stories in an eighteen-minute or less format to the entire Q community. These intense and fast-paced presentations ensure exposure to numerous ideas while challenging the presenter to stimulate one provocative thought that inspires conversation.

Keynotes
Throughout Q, there will also be a limited number of extended time periods for keynote presentations: ideas that are so transformational, we'll actually give the presenter a whopping thirty-six minutes.

Practitioner Panel
From time to time, during our main sessions, we'll host a panel of presenters and practitioners like you. Each person will be given the chance to offer an answer to one challenging question such as: how ought the church to respond to gay couples who want to get significantly involved in the church community?

Talkbacks
These intimate learning environments are designed to give you further interaction with the presenters from the main sessions. Each talkback will provide the opportunity to ask questions, engage the presenter and further dialogue about their big idea. Don't miss these chances to ask your “but, what about. . .” questions.

Conversations
Participants will also have the ability to engage in conversations with others in a smaller setting to converse on topics of interest as well as to reflect on the ideas encountered while in Chicago. We'll host opportunities for you to join other leaders who are working in a context similar to your own (e.g., church planters, businesspeople, artists, senior pastors, etc).

Back to Top



Questions create dialogue and fuel creativity. This is the essence behind Q. Participants engage in an environment where honest questions are asked, discussed, debated and even disagreed about. Q does not attempt to provide answers, but rather strives to prompt intelligent leaders to draw conclusions as a result of their own experiences, theological underpinnings, cultural contexts, dialogue and learning.

Back to Top



Q is a singularly important annual event both for its content, which is eclectic, unpredictable, and challenging, and for its form, which demands the highest levels of excellence from both speakers and participants. I wouldn't miss it.

Andy Crouch
Author, Culture Making


Q was a fabulous opportunity to connect with courageous and innovative people who are truly shaping our culture and our world.

Heather Larson
Leadership Team, Willow Creek Community Church


As a lead pastor in a church that is trying to walk the delicate line between cultural relevance and biblical truth, the Q has provided the opportunity to hear from top level leaders who are both thinkers and practitioners. The fast moving pace of the event is perfect for those leaders like myself that would rather act than just sit.

Tri Robinson
Pastor, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Boise, ID


"Q always serves as both a stretching and illuminating experience for me. So many variant perspectives are brought to the table. Even those in fields radically different than mine leave me in awe of what God is doing in the world. The speakers Q assembles are simply incredible. As a creative professional, I leave newly empowered and open to what God is doing and eager to be a part of it."

Elizabeth Paul
The Martin Agency


The Q experience was paradigm shifting in ways that felt so true, freeing, respectful and right. I don't believe I am overstating things when I say we are moving forward in life and ministry with greater passion, freedom, creativity and basically have had our world rocked as a result of Q.

Pam Pitt
Mentor and Photographer, MentorLink International


Coming over from the UK was really worthwhile, this was an awesome time. The big concepts that stood out for me were to just keep using the story (telling & listening to), business can be a force for good, there is a work for us to do in redeeming culture but the people shaping culture rarely set out with that as an ambition. Brilliant time, thanks.

Duncan McFadzean
Director, Bank of Scotland


Q is truly an amazing event!

Chris Seay
Author & Pastor, Ecclesia Houston


Pastor, Ecclesia I've shared my notes from Q with leaders all across the country and have received immediate feedback, including a number of which have been provoked to rethink the way they do ministry. Q was absolutely amazing! It's the kind of gathering I always dreamed of attending.

Jason Chatraw
Founder, Ampelon Publishing


The presenters brought a unique, well-rounded, cultural perspective that is needed to engage culture and create a "genuine" Christian culture globally.

Garry James
President, Oikos Community Development Corporation, Inc.


Q - Not just another conference. Q is the best "church conference" experience I have ever had - because it isn't a regular conference! No one talked about church growth strategies, formulas for success, or asked me how big our church is. It is so refreshing to be around a community of leaders who yearn for the church to be the holistic redemptive agent that Jesus dreamed it could be.

Chris Bell
Pastor, Northstar Church


Q is one of the most refreshing leadership gatherings … most unique and diverse from the presenters to the venue. The focus was not on "how to grow your church", but rather on how to empower the people in our churches to truly impact the local and global culture. Q was about what our role as pastors and church leaders look like in that context. There was a lot of humility floating around this gathering. Mostly learners. This humility even carried over to most of the speakers as well. Most of them (including Rick Warren) not only spoke - but also attended. The brightest and most innovative minds were gathered at Q. AND I'm convinced that some of THE MOST innovative people in the room were the ones sitting next to me - attending Q.

Scott Hodge
Pastor, Orchard Valley Community Church


Thank you for numbing my brain to the point that I actually couldn't think anymore. The incredible thing that stood out to me: The vast assembly of people who are thinking in love. I dig that. You helped expand all of my horizons.

Jonathan Brink
Managing Director, Thrive Ministries


God is really using Q in my life to reshape the way that I think about the culture, future, the church and the gospel. Q is having a huge impact on my life and my heart.

Todd Wermers
Youth Pastor, Summit Life Church


The goal of “Q” is to be a gathering for leaders in the church to become exposed and informed about future-culture. Why does this matter? We have gained more conversions in the United States over the last two hundred years than any other faith, while steadily losing ground in terms of cultural influence. The idea behind “Q” is critical, and one I have long embraced. In order to transform culture – to make it, create it, forge it – we must become agents of transformation ourselves.

James Emery White
Founder, Serious Times


Back to Top