You Didn't Lose Your Community. Your Community Lost Its Rooms.
Every leader used to have a place where a few people knew what they were carrying. Most of those rooms are gone now. On October 1 we're building one for a morning — six West Michigan leaders, honest stories, and a room full of people who lead something too.
$39, breakfast and Chick-fil-A lunch included. Doors at 8:00, program 8:30 to 1:00, lunch after — take it to go if you need to.
Backed by 26 West Michigan businesses and organizations
- Beacon
- Blue Trust
- Capital For Compassion
- Cedar Forest Products
- Christian Business Men's Connection
- Christian Healthcare Centers
- Critter Barn
- Fabtec Enterprises
- Faith Driven Entrepreneur
- Fostering Faith
- Freedom For Men
- K&R Truck Sales
- Mercantile Bank
- Movement West Michigan
- Nothing Bundt Cakes
- Positive Options
- Request Foods
- Shoreline Manufacturing
- Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge
- Startup Garage
- Strategic Vision Mapping
- Teagles Consulting
- Tiberius Images
- Top Grade
- True Summit
- West Michigan International
You Already Lead Something
You Carry Real Influence, Even When It Doesn't Feel Like It.
Leadership isn't reserved for people with a bigger platform, a larger budget, or a louder voice. It usually belongs to whoever keeps showing up where they already are.
Honest Stories
Six leaders from West Michigan on the small steps that actually changed something — and what those steps cost.
People Who Get It
A room of business owners, pastors, principals and managers caring about what you're carrying.
One Clear Next Step
You'll leave with something specific to do on Friday, not four pages of notes.
What This Actually Is
A Half-Day Gathering For People Who Lead Something In West Michigan.
Not a seminar, not a retreat, and not a church service. It's one morning — six talks, breakfast partway through, and a Chick-fil-A lunch at the end — built to help leaders connect what they believe with what they actually do on a Tuesday.
Who it's for: leaders in business, church, school, home and community. If people depend on you somewhere, you belong in the room. No title required.
Last year's room: business owners, pastors, principals, nonprofit directors and managers, in the same room for a morning.
Nobody performing. Just people who lead something, talking honestly about what it costs.
Hear from six leaders who live and work right here.
Talk it through over lunch with people who lead something too.
Leave with one clear next step for work, home, church or community.
The Part Nobody Says Out Loud
More People Depend On You Than Ever. Fewer People Can Tell You The Truth.
Every hard question ends up at one desk. The payroll. The hire. The call nobody else wants to make. And somewhere along the way, being responsible for people turned into being alone with it.
You can't be fully honest with the team — they'd hear layoffs. Home is already carrying plenty. And whoever used to tell you the truth about how you lead probably stopped the day you started leading.
Most people file that under busy, or a rough season, or — most often — my own fault.
It isn't a character flaw. It's something that happened to nearly everybody.
Why Nothing Has Quite Stuck
The Rooms That Used To Hold Leaders Quietly Closed.
The Rotary lunch. The Wednesday breakfast. That pew three rows back where the same six families sat for thirty years. Those rooms did something no book or podcast has ever managed — people in them knew what you were carrying, because they'd carried some of it themselves.
Nobody took them away. They just closed, a little at a time, over about forty years.
Here's the part that surprises people: Americans are actually moving less than they used to — about 11% relocated in 2024, the lowest rate in roughly fifty years. Nobody left. The rooms closed anyway.
You read the books. You played the podcasts on the drive in. And three weeks later nothing had really changed. That was never a discipline problem — about three quarters of anything a person hears is gone inside a week. Content was never what changed a leader. A few people close enough to tell you the truth is what did it.
“When You're In Charge Of Others, You're Really In Their Charge.”Be The One Conference, 2025
Why This One Is Built Differently
Local Voices. Honest Conversation. People Who'll Still Be Here In November.
Three things, and it takes all three. Any two and you've got something that already exists and already doesn't work.
Everyone's About Twenty Minutes Away
Same labor market. Same winter. Same customers. Same schools. You can get coffee with any of them on Tuesday. MIT looked at 20 million professional connections and found the most useful ones aren't your closest friends or a famous name — they're people about ten mutual connections out. Which is basically the leaders in your own county.
Honest, Not Polished
West Michigan is a warm place that isn't always a candid one. Every speaker here has agreed to talk about the small steps and what they actually cost — the part that usually gets left out of the highlight reel.
These People Are Still Here In November
A speaker flown in from out of state is on a plane by four. The people you meet on October 1 run businesses, churches and schools you drive past every week. That's the part that lasts after the morning ends.
2026 Speakers
Six Leaders From West Michigan. Nobody Flown In.
These names may be new to you — that's rather the point. Each one is speaking to the question they think you're already lying awake with.
The Jesus-Shaped Life
Steve Rusticus · Executive Director, Movement West Michigan
“How do I live in a way that has the greatest impact on my family and community right now — and leaves a lasting legacy once I'm gone?”
What's In Your Hands?
Dana Roefer · Vice President, Faith Driven Entrepreneur Coaching Services
“Who has God made me to be, uniquely? And what could I be doing with it?”
All Work Is A Holy Calling
Kevin Foster · Founder, Capital for Compassion
“Will my life have eternal significance? Or, more simply — does my life matter?”
The Gap Between Faith And Work Is Your Story
Kevin DeVries · Founder, True Summit
“How does your story matter at work?”
Free To Live Fully Alive
Jon and Kerrie VerLee · Founders, Startup Garage
“How much money do I need to make before I stop worrying about money?”
From Last Year's Room
What People Said Afterward.
Two of the leaders who came in 2025 — one of them for the third year running.
“I want to figure out how to deploy my faith effectively in the workplace. What brings me back is the connection I feel to God and the people around me.”
John MulderMaster Finish · multi-year attendee“Leaders don't realize that you are not alone, and don't always see how everything fits together. Talking to other leaders, seeing the impact the event had on their lives and realizing we shared the same issues — pretty amazing, really.”
Aaron GeurinkHolland Equipment Service380 leaders came through Be the One and Anchor Point events last year.
One More Thing, Since Nobody Says It
Coming Doesn't Mean Something's Wrong.
Think about the leaders you've watched come apart over the last decade. It usually wasn't talent, or drive, or belief. It was that nobody was close enough to say the hard thing early.
A room like this isn't where struggling leaders go. It's where wise ones go — the ones who plan on still standing in twenty years.
You don't need a title to belong here. If people depend on you somewhere, this room is for you.
The Morning
Here's Exactly What October 1 Looks Like.
Walk in carrying questions. Leave with clearer direction and a few people worth calling. Doors at 8:00, lunch at 1:00.
- Doors open — coffee, name tags, and half an hour to meet somebody before it starts.
- Welcome and prayer — Eric Fogg
- Steve Rusticus — The Jesus-Shaped Life
- Dana Roefer — What's In Your Hands?
- Break — breakfast food provided
- Kevin Foster — All Work Is A Holy Calling
- Kevin DeVries — The Gap Between Faith And Work
- Jon and Kerrie VerLee — Free To Live Fully Alive
- Closing — prayer, sponsors, and thank yous
- Chick-fil-A lunch — stay and talk it through with people who lead something too, or take it to go. For a lot of people this ends up being the part they remember.
Times are approximate and may shift slightly on the day.
General Admission
Or bring someone new — 2 tickets for $39
- Six talks, six local leaders
- Breakfast and Chick-fil-A lunch, sponsored by Blue Trust
- Lunch after the last session — stay and connect, or take it to go
- Engedi Church, Holland — free parking
- Can't make it? Send a colleague instead.
Takes about two minutes. You'll go to our ticketing page, then get a confirmation email with parking and arrival details.
Lunch Is At The End On Purpose.
Most conferences put lunch in the middle, when nobody has anything to say yet. Here it comes after the last talk — so the conversation has something to be about, nobody is watching the clock, and you can sit with whoever you want. Or take it to go and be back at your desk by 1:15.
On the price: the other leadership programs around here run $3,000 to $5,000 and nine months of mandatory Thursdays — paid before anyone knows whether it's a fit. This one is $39, breakfast and lunch included. That's roughly what two people spend on dinner, for a morning that might change how you lead the next ten years.
Two Tickets For $39
Bring Someone Who'd Never Come On Their Own.
Most people end up here because one person asked them. So there's a ticket built for exactly that — your seat and one guest who has never been before, both for $39.
Choose “Bring Someone New” at checkout. Their name can come later.
Before You Decide
Questions People Actually Ask.
Is this a business thing or a church thing?
Both, on purpose. Last year's room had contractors, principals, pastors, nonprofit directors and managers in it. That mix is what keeps the morning from turning into either a sales meeting or a service.
I've been to leadership conferences and nothing changed. Why would this be different?
Because you're right, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. One-time events don't change behavior on their own — that's well documented. What tends to stick is the people. So this morning is built around who's in the room with you, not just who's on the stage.
I don't know anyone who's going.
Most people don't. Doors open a full half hour before anything starts, specifically so there's time to meet somebody, and lunch at the end is unhurried. If you'd rather not walk in alone, the Bring Someone New ticket covers two seats for $39.
Will I be sold anything?
We'd rather be straight with you: there are sponsor tables in the lobby. They're local businesses and organizations who paid for your breakfast, your lunch, and sponsored seats for pastors and nonprofit leaders who couldn't otherwise come. Stop and talk to them, or walk right past — both are fine. There's no exhibit hall, nothing sold from the stage, and nothing to sign up for on your way out.
Where is it, and what does parking look like?
Engedi Church in Holland. Parking is free and on site. You'll get arrival details in your confirmation email.
Can I send someone from my team instead?
Yes — tickets transfer right up to the day. Better still, there's a Bring Someone New ticket: two seats for $39 total, as long as your guest hasn't been before. Most people who come end up here because somebody asked them.
What happens after I register?
You'll get a confirmation email right away with your ticket, then a note closer to the date with parking, arrival time and what to expect. We use your information to run the event — that's it.
Made Possible By
Twenty-Six Local Businesses Put Leaders In This Room.
They cover breakfast, lunch, and sponsored seats for pastors, principals and nonprofit directors who couldn't otherwise come. That's how a morning like this stays $39.
You'll See Their Tables In The Lobby.
No exhibit hall, nothing sold from the stage. Just a handful of local businesses in the lobby who made the morning possible, there if you want to talk to them.
One Morning. Once A Year.
If October 1 goes by, the next one is a year out — and next year tends to look a lot like this one. $39 is not the thing standing in the way.
Reserve Your Seat — $39Thursday, October 1, 2026 · Doors 8:00am · Program 8:30–1:00 · Chick-fil-A lunch after · Engedi Church, Holland MI
Be The One — October 1, Holland$39, breakfast and lunch included. Takes about two minutes.
Reserve Your Seat