We were made for relationship.

We were made to know God, to know who we are before Him, and to live in meaningful relationship with others. Yet many of the deepest struggles in our culture are found exactly here.

Who am I? Where do I belong? What gives me worth?
How should I approach dating, marriage and family?
What if I am single?
Why do relationships that promise so much often leave us hurt or lonely?
What should church life look like when Christians disappoint one another?
And when relationships break, is forgiveness and reconciliation really possible?

These are not merely theoretical questions. They touch our homes, churches, friendships, marriages and everyday lives.

Our culture tells us to look inward to discover who we really are and then build our relationships around our own desires. The Christian gospel gives us a very different starting point: we were created by God, for God, and for one another — and in Christ, broken people and broken relationships can be redeemed.

That is what CONNECTED: Living God’s Design for Relationships is about.

Across three days, our speakers will explore both who we are and how we are called to live, showing how the gospel speaks into identity, singleness, dating, marriage, family, church and relationships that have gone wrong.

Thursday, 1 October — Youth Night

CONNECTED — A Night for Youth and Young Adults

We begin the conference with an evening especially focused on the questions facing young Christians.

Young people are growing up in a world filled with competing voices telling them who they should be, what relationships should give them, and where they should look for belonging. Youth Night will bring the gospel into these pressures in a direct, practical and accessible way.

Expect short, engaging talks, honest questions and biblical encouragement about living as a Christian in a culture where it is increasingly difficult to know who you are, who you can trust, and what healthy relationships should actually look like.

Thursday, 1 October | 6:30–9:00pm

Friday, 2 October

Part I — CONNECTED IN CHRIST: Who Am I? God’s design and redemption for identity, purpose and belonging

Before we ask how our relationships should work, we need to ask a more basic question:

Who am I?

Our answer to that question shapes almost everything else. If we do not know where our identity, worth and purpose come from, we will inevitably ask other people, achievements, romance, sexuality, work or approval to tell us who we are.

Friday evening begins by putting identity back where Scripture puts it: in our relationship with the God who created us and, through Christ, redeems us.

Speech 1 — CONNECTED: Known, Loved and Secure.

Speaker: Hilmer Jagersma

What makes you valuable? What gives your life meaning? And where can you find an identity secure enough to survive failure, rejection, disappointment and change?

Hilmer will explore the extraordinary security of being known by God, loved by God and belonging to God. Rather than endlessly trying to create ourselves or prove our worth, the gospel invites us to receive our identity from the One who made us and has redeemed His people in Christ.

Speech 2 — DISCONNECTED: From God, From Others, From Ourselves

Speaker: Steve McAlpine

Our culture promises freedom: be yourself, define yourself, follow your heart. But what happens when each person must construct their own identity — and then constantly defend it?

Steve will examine some of the consequences of a world increasingly disconnected from God. When we reject a given identity, we can also become disconnected from our bodies, our communities and even ourselves. This session will ask whether the modern search for complete personal autonomy has actually made us more secure — or more anxious, isolated and uncertain.

Speech 3 — CONNECTED: Singleness by Design

Speaker: Anson van Delden

Is marriage the normal Christian life while singleness is simply the waiting room?

Scripture gives a much richer picture. Jesus Himself lived a fully human life without marriage, and the apostle Paul speaks of singleness as bringing particular opportunities for service and undivided devotion to Christ.

This session will consider how single Christians can live lives of genuine purpose, intimacy, service and belonging — not as incomplete people waiting for life to begin, but as full members of the family of God whose deepest identity is found in Christ.

Saturday, 3 October

Part II — CONNECTED TO ONE ANOTHER: How Should We Live? God’s design and redemption for our relationships

Once we understand who we are before God, another question follows:

How should people created and redeemed by God actually live together?

Saturday turns from identity to relationships. We will consider some of the relationships that shape us most deeply — dating, marriage, family and church — before finishing with the difficult reality that even good relationships can become painful and broken.

The goal is not to present an unrealistic picture of perfect Christian relationships. It is to discover God’s good design, the ways sin distorts it, and the grace of Christ that enables us to live differently.

Speech 4 — CONNECTED: Dating by Design

Speaker: Anson van Delden

What is dating actually for?

In a culture where romance can easily become about self-fulfilment, experimentation or simply finding someone who makes us feel good, Christians need a clearer vision.

This session will consider how dating can be shaped by love for God and genuine love for the other person. We will explore attraction, character, purity, wisdom, commitment and the importance of asking not only “Do I want this person?” but “How can I honour Christ and seek this person’s good?”

Speech 5 — CONNECTED: Marriage by Design

Speaker: Mark Powell

Marriage is celebrated by some, dismissed by others, and misunderstood by many.

What did God actually intend marriage to be? And what sustains a marriage when feelings change, expectations are disappointed and two sinful people discover just how difficult lifelong love can be?

Mark will explore marriage as covenant — a relationship designed by God and sustained not merely by romance, but by faithfulness, sacrifice, forgiveness and grace. More than that, Christian marriage points beyond itself to the love of Christ for His people.

Speech 6 — CONNECTED: Home by Design

Speaker: Steve McAlpine

Families can be places of extraordinary love and security. They can also be places of tension, disappointment and hurt.

What is a Christian home meant to be? How do parents, children and family members navigate changing cultural expectations while remaining shaped by Scripture?

Steve will explore God's purposes for family life while recognising the reality of imperfect homes and imperfect people. This will be a call not to romanticise family, but to recover the home as a place of love, formation, responsibility, forgiveness and faithfulness before God.

Speech 7 — CONNECTED: Church by Design

Speaker: Mark Powell

We often say that Christianity is about a personal relationship with Jesus. It is — but it is never merely private.

Christ saves us into a people.

Why does the church matter? Why should Christians commit themselves to other believers when church relationships can sometimes be frustrating, disappointing or even painful?

Mark will consider God's design for the church as a family and body in which very different people worship, serve, forgive, encourage, correct and carry one another. Rather than treating church as a product we consume, Scripture calls us into a shared life of belonging and responsibility.

Speech 8 — RECONNECTED: When Relationships Break

Speaker: Hilmer Jagersma

What happens when the relationship does not work?

Friends betray us. Marriages struggle. Families fracture. Christians hurt one another. Sometimes the wounds are deep and the path forward is complicated.

Hilmer will bring the conference to its conclusion by considering the gospel's answer to broken relationships. What does forgiveness mean? Is forgiveness the same as reconciliation? What about trust, repentance and boundaries? And how does the grace we have received from God reshape the way we respond when others sin against us?

The Christian hope is not that relationships will never break. It is that because Christ reconciles sinners to God, brokenness does not always have to have the final word.

Why CONNECTED?

Behind every session is one conviction:

God's design for our relationships is not an outdated set of restrictions. It is good.

And where we have ignored that design, failed to live it, or been wounded by the failures of others, the answer is not simply to try harder.

We need redemption.

CONNECTED 2026 will therefore do more than talk about relationships. It will ask how the gospel of Jesus Christ reshapes the way we understand ourselves and every person around us.

From identity to intimacy, singleness to marriage, home to church, connection to disconnection and brokenness to reconciliation, we want to rediscover what it means to live as people who are:

Connected to Christ.
Connected to His people.
And learning again to live according to God's good design.