The national Evangelism Matters Conference has wrapped up its second year, however those unable to attend the conference in Ohio, can watch some of the conference videos on  the conference YouTube Channel.

Many of the speakers hailed from the Dallas diocese, including Canon Evangelist Carrie Headington, Church Planter the Rev. Leslie Stewart, and the Rev. Ryan Pollock and the Rev. Ryan Waller, who spoke about attracting Millennials to church. Other speakers included the Rev. Samira Page, the Rev. Pedro Lara and lay leader Amanda Payne.

Headington was one of four speakers who headlined the opening plenary to discuss the definition of evangelism and its role in the Episcopal Church. She has served as consulting evangelist for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and traveled throughout the Episcopal Church teaching workshops on personal and parish evangelism as well as organizing diocesan revivals. "The high number of Dallas leaders speaking at the event is a credit to the good work of Dallas diocese churches, Headington said. "We contributed significantly to the ongoing focus on evangelism in the Episcopal Church," she said. "It was inspiring to see this renewed focus on mission and to see our diocese have such a strong voice shaping how the church takes the good new of Jesus Christ to a hurting world."

Headington and Stewart wowed listeners with their session on Systems to Cultivate an Evangelistic Parish. "It was an overwhelming positive response. People want to know how to create an environment for disciples of all types to participate with joy in their congregation's evangelistic efforts," Stewart said. "It was great to share Resurrection's story and our hard-earned lessons. It encouraged our church plant to see our impact and understand that the whole church is excited about what we're doing." 

In the session on Millennials, Pollock said he and Waller offered a frank picture of why Episcopal churches are not attracting that demographic. “I was steeling myself for a lot of pushback, since we were largely critical of current church practices - the products of vapid pretensions to theology. But our aim was ultimately constructive, and I think this came across because the response was overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

Payne's session focused on how to best help those refugee camps, both domestically and internationally, get to safety. Payne who is the minister for youth at St. James in Dallas, works with more than 60 youth who are resettled in Dallas from refugee camps in Myanmar. "Many people do not understand that with 22.5 million refugees in the world, more than half of them are children. There is a lot of ways that we can help, and it's important to remember that refugee resettlement is not just a social issue, but a Biblical issue -- Jesus himself was a refugee fleeing for his life." 

The is the second Evangelism Matters Conference, the first was held last year in Dallas. Anne Schmidt of Saint Michael and All Angels and Carrie Headigton Co-convened the first Evangelism Matters Summit in November 2016.