CFX 2026 brings church leaders and ministry teams together for practical education on everything from building projects and technology to safety, content and leadership.
Vice President
CFX
Church Executive: The format for this year’s CFX is two co-located conferences: the Church Production Conference and Worship Facility Conference. What are the primary differences between them?
Jim Wagner: Oh, the primary distinction is the audience and the topics covered. We want to make it easier for the audience to understand what topics and education are offered and how they’re tailored to them.
So, we structured these two events around, more or less, the production team and the facility-related team. That could include operations, maintenance, as well as safety.
Where they overlap is around leadership, as well as planning and executing projects and upgrades. Our general philosophy is that, particularly in a building project, there are a lot of parties who need to be part of the process. And because churches don’t do projects all the time,
Event Director
CFX
they have a lot to learn and understand. They will benefit from seeing and hearing from experts who’ve been through it.
CE: The location for this year’s CFX is Birmingham, Alabama. What makes this city a great host city?
Wagner: Birmingham sits right in the heart of the Bible Belt, so the density of churches within a drivable radius is good. CFX is still a national event, and we have attendees from every state in the union. But we know that attendees also come from the region, so Birmingham is a good location for that.
In addition, from an airport or flight standpoint, there’s good availability. It’s a good city for vendors to fly in and out of.
Stephanie Lippi: And then, on the flip side of that, it’s kind of an up-and-coming city. The food options there are really great, and there’s a lot of hiking opportunities outside of the city. So, it’s just a nice place to visit, not just for a work trip like attending CFX would be, but also to bring your families.
CE: Let’s talk about some of the keynote and session highlights / speakers that senior and executive pastors, in particular, might find most beneficial.
Lippi: Our keynote theme this year is “Built to Last,” and it revolves around First Corinthians 3:10-15, which talks about what we throw into the fire: Is it going to be consumed, or will it last and endure and be something that is beautiful and useful for the Kingdom?
All of our sessions are helping us make sure that we’re focusing not peripherally on the tasks but on making sure that our identities are grounded in Christ. That’s where our keynote sessions are going to take us.
Beyond that, we have some really powerful sessions. Our building projects track is probably the most popular, I would say, for pastors and executive pastors who are planning any sort of facility upgrade, building project or large system upgrade. We’re covering a lot of things, from multisite expansion and renovations to AV upgrades, as well as capital campaigns and financing options — not just for building projects, but also for upgrades to your existing facility.
We also have some really powerful sessions on helping people stay connected, from first-time visitors to getting connected with serving teams, and communicating really well with your team leaders so that you’re able to make better decisions.
We’ve done some research recently and discovered how vital it is for so many churches to create interesting content for social media or church services. We’ve got some really great sessions to give pastors, specifically, ideas on how to create some of that video content really well.
And then one last thing — one thing our safety track focuses on is helping people better understand the
health and safety aspects of their churches. One session in particular that I’d like to highlight is one that will help
people understand how to handle it when a church member discloses that there’s violence happening inside their home.
CE: Tell me about the Church Filmcraft Festival awards that will be given out at CFX 2026. Is this a new program?
Wagner: The Filmcraft Festival has been something that the Church Production team has been doing for a number of years. Our research shows — and I think everyone’s aware — that the importance of creating content is growing and growing and growing, not just in sermons, streaming and broadcast, but in things like series introductions, various announcements and various creative things people need to do now to attract and serve those in the building, as well as on social media.
So, what we’ve done is put an effort into growing the Filmcraft Festival in order to show attendees and our audience good examples of what churches can do and are doing — not just big churches, but regular churches. The Filmcraft Festival is an effort to recognize, demonstrate and celebrate this evolving art and media form, while also getting dialogue going around its importance: how to do it well, how to do it cost-effectively, and how to do it in a way that doesn’t grind your whole church to a halt.
We’ll recognize the winners of the festival on site, including the new CFX People’s Choice Award, where CFX attendees will get to vote on their favorite project.
CE: Is there anything else potential attendees of CFX 2026 should know?
Wagner: We didn’t talk about the impact and value of the Collectives when it comes to ministry teams. Philosophically, we understand this: When people go away and talk to other people, they learn, reveal and are supported in what they’re struggling with. We know this.
Accordingly, Collectives are smaller groups focused on learning, networking, mentoring, discussion and experience. People can come from the executive pastor group, the facility group, the tech group and really dig into leadership and development challenges — how they grow as a personal leader and how they grow their team. The group and the mentor help them develop a pathway to go home and approach these challenges. Let’s take the executive pastor as a scenario. Many executive pastors might go to a church administrator conference, but many don’t. So, the Collectives are sort of a hidden gem offered at the show.
Our hands-on masterclasses are also very, very popular. Audio and video, safety and security — these are good, strong offerings of experiences and education that really can transform a ministry.
Lippi: I think what CFX offers is a really unique opportunity for church leadership — who oversees all the decision-making processes for the church itself — to attend with their team leaders who understand the unique challenges they’re dealing with, who understand the needs of the church, and who understand the equipment needs, facility needs and so on.
Having an opportunity in the Leadership Collective itself for each of those groups to connect with like-minded peers, and then be able to attend sessions together, walk the floor together and experience that team opportunity, allows them to have really great conversations that they wouldn’t get to have if only one person attended.
So, I know, like Jim mentioned, that an executive pastor might or might not attend a conference. But the value of attending CFX, specifically, with your facilities team, production team, safety, creative — all those people — is that it offers an opportunity to make an even bigger impact when you all get home.
As a senior or executive pastor, when you send your tech director or facilities manager to a conference, they’ll have to try to convince you why changes need to happen. This approach gives you a chance to be a part of the experience yourself.
