About this Event
1900 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27106
Register NowConVive 2026
The Yates Symposium
A CONference for congregational, clergy and chaplain leadership to renew, refresh and reVIVE
Thursday, October 1, 2026
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Graylyn Estate, Winston-Salem
1900 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
Register: brushfire.com/healthychurch/convive2026/637481
INVITATION
In honor of a visionary leader and beloved chaplain, the NC Baptist Hospital Foundation invites you to the second annual ConVive 2026: The Rev. Bill Yates Symposium Toward the Health and Wellness of Clergy, Congregations, and Communities, a day devoted to the health, resilience, and spiritual vitality of faith leaders across Northwest North Carolina.
Come as you are. Wear what is comfortable rather than clergy garb or a suit. The day is built for pastors, chaplains, congregational staff, and anyone carrying the work of caring for others.
HOW THE DAY MOVES
The schedule follows one arc, from awareness through reflection into action, with embodied experiences open the whole time.
Awareness
Opening worship and a grounding ritual name the whole day as spiritual engagement.
Reflection
Three workshop blocks and facilitated table conversations over lunch, each one making room for your own tradition.
Action
A closing plenary, then naming what you are committing to, and a final worship and grounding ritual to send you out with it.
Rather than a standalone session on spiritual health, every workshop leader builds theological reflection into the conversation, so the spiritual thread runs through the whole day.
THE DAY
Doors open at 9:00 a.m. and the day closes at 4:30 p.m.
9:00 | Arrival
Coffee and light snacks. The art exhibit and the embodied experiences are open as you come in.
9:30 | Opening worship and grounding ritual
Led by Joshua Bryan Campbell with Stacy Smallwood.
10:00 | Break, and the Grounding Room opens
10:20 | Workshop block one
Physical health, mental health, community health, and financial health, all offered at once.
11:10 | Break
11:30 | Workshop block two
Mental health, community health, and financial health repeat.
12:20 | Lunch and table conversations
Facilitated conversations on flourishing, with prompts that invite your own tradition into the discussion.
1:05 | Open time
A half hour for the Grounding Room, the exhibit, a massage, a conversation with a counselor, movement, or the partner tables.
1:35 | Workshop block three
The final round of workshops, with coffee and snacks available.
2:25 | Break
2:45 | Closing plenary: Lasting Wellbeing
Matt Bloom, with conversation to follow.
3:45 | Closing worship and ritual
Joshua Bryan Campbell and Stacy Smallwood close the day.
4:30 | Close
WORKSHOPS
Four subjects, three blocks. You can attend three of the four, and each session runs 50 minutes with room for conversation. What a leader presents may be recorded; the cameras stop before the conversation begins. Edited recordings are posted after the event.
Physical health and wellbeing
A mindful movement workshop built around a case study from the national Arts For EveryBody project and research on how the arts make people and communities healthier. It can be done standing or seated, and it is designed for any fitness level.
Shannon Stokes, holistic health coach, cultural organizer, and mindfulness practitioner. Offered once, in block one.
Personal mental health
Rest, resilience, and the wear of ministry, with counselors who work with clergy.
Leader to be announced.
Community health
Healing-centered work in congregations and neighborhoods, and what it asks of a leader when a whole community carries trauma.
Curated by the Faith COMPASS Center. Leader to be announced.
Financial health
Personal financial wellbeing for ministers, and how congregations reach the resources available to them.
Leader to be announced.
EMBODIED EXPERIENCES, OPEN ALL DAY
Each of these has its own room. Most are open from 9:00 to 4:30, with hours noted where they differ. Drop in whenever you like, including during the breaks. No appointments.
- Curated art exhibit, presented by the Delta Arts Center.
- Grounding Room: five stations, one for each of the senses, built on a grounding practice of five things you see, four you touch, three you hear, two you smell, and one you taste. Open 10:00 to 4:00.
- Health screenings: blood pressure and more, with our hospital partners.
- Chair massage: walk up any time.
- A CareNet counselor on site and available all day.
- Movement and yoga room: short guided sessions through the day.
CLOSING PLENARY: LASTING WELLBEING
Science-Based Practices for Tranquility, Authenticity, Meaning, and Joy
Matt Bloom
Matt Bloom is an award-winning teacher and wellbeing researcher, and professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He closes the day by tying the threads together and turning them outward, with your own wellbeing at the center.
The session shares its name with his newest book, and every person who attends goes home with a copy.
REGISTER
Registration is $15, and it includes lunch, the book, and everything offered during the day. Scholarships are available for anyone who needs one. Registration funds come back to you as drawings and door prizes during the day. Come in comfortable clothes. Space is limited, so reserve your place early.
Register: brushfire.com/healthychurch/convive2026/637481
Graylyn Estate
1900 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP BY:
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
Wake Forest University School of Divinity
Center for Congregational Health
Faith COMPASS Center
NC Baptist Hospital Foundation
The symposium honors the Rev. Bill Yates, who founded the Faith Health Division at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.