February 28 - March 1

Parenting with Purpose in an Internet Age with Guest Speaker Kristen Hatton.
Come join us for a weekend of insightful discussions and practical tips on how to navigate parenting in the digital era. Learn how to raise resilient and responsible kids in today's technology-driven world. 
This event will take place at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Cost: 
Individuals $35
Couples $55
Register here

Meet our Keynote Speaker

Get to know Kristen Hatton

Kristen Hatton, M.A., LPC, is a professional counselor and author passionate about helping families. Her books include Parenting Ahead, Get Your Story Straight, Face Time, and The Gospel-Centered Life in Exodus for Students. She lives with her pastor-husband, Pete, in Dallas, Texas, and together they have three young adult children, a son-in-law and as of Feb 2025 a daughter-in-law. For more of Kristen’s work, visit her website www.kristenhatton.com and the @Redemptiveparenting Instagram account.

Session Descriptions

Session 1 - Parenting with Purpose
In our over-scheduled, hamster wheel schedules, it is easy to fall into short-sighted, reactive parenting.
But for the ultimate good of our children and families, slowing down to consider where we are headed on this parenting journey and hope by God’s grace to get is important.
In this keynote Kristen will provide an overview of long-haul, gospel-centered, foundational-laying parenting.
 
Session 2 - More Than Profiles & Followers
Today, social media demands our attention, informs our identity, and provides our entertainment among other things.
Not engaging in this realm in a very real sense can lead our teens to feel isolated. But social media is shaping us, often in ways we are unaware.
To this end, Kristen will help us uncover the lies and reorient to the truth using God’s word to evaluate how to think about social media and parent in this age.

Session 3 - The Porn Pandemic
Twenty-twenty taught us all too well about the silent spread and far-reaching implications of a pandemic.
Porn is no different. In fact, it is the silent infection wreaking havoc on our kids and culture.
As parents we must not keep our head in the sand about where porn is, how it can be accessed and by whom.
We must also be educated about the effects of porn on our brains, bodies, relationships, and culture.
In this talk Kristen will discuss these things plus offer a proactive preventative plan and a gospel approach for addressing porn at every and any point.

Breakouts 

This year’s breakouts include sessions on the following topics:

The Importance of Real World Play vs. Digital Entertainment with Ashley Wilkinson

 So much has changed since we were kids. Internet access has exploded, smart devices are the norm, global pandemics, pervasive and invasive social media… sometimes it’s hard to relate to our kids lives. But have you ever considered this as a strength? Think of your own childhood, what image comes to mind? For me - my house in Tennessee, a back yard that backed up to a field of soy beans, and a culvert. But to me? A castle or a ranch (depending on my mood that day), a magic bean field, and river of life keeping me and my friends alive in our stick fort. Imagination and play. The foundations of childhood learning. Now zoom back to present day - most kids that I see in my office struggle to engage in such imaginative play. What if you, their parent, were their greatest playmate? An ally in crafting and protecting the problem solving, joy inducing, learning magic that is… PLAY. Join me as we take chances, make mistakes, and get messy learning about the power and wisdom of a play based childhood.
PS. Kids all grown up? Don’t worry play is ageless!

Video Games with noah wiersema 

Why do people even like video games? How should we think about video games from a Christian perspective? How do I help my student(s) who only wants to play video games? If you've ever asked any of these questions, this elective is for you. Moving beyond the simple do's and don'ts, this class aims to dig deeper into the phenomenon of video games and how to approach them as parents.


Modeling Digital Wisdom for Our Kids with josh fikkert

We all want our kids to have healthy relationships to their devices, but so often we can fail as parents to model what this looks like in our own lives. This workshop will invite parents to (1) consider our own digital habits and examine how those habits might be subtly informing and shaping the hearts and minds of our kids and ourselves and (2) to discuss some small, practical ways to implement and model healthy digital habits in our family lives. 

Meet the Breakout session Speakers

ASHLEY WILKENSON

M.C, LPC-S at Generations Counseling
 Ashley is married 11 years to Dave and mom to 6 year old Clark and 4 year old Wesley. She never knew she would love being the only girl but it’s a total blast (and exhausting and why does everything smell like pee??). Ashley is a local licensed counselor who practices at Generations Counseling seeing individuals, families, and couples. She loves to use creative expression and play based therapy in conjunction with trauma treatments to provide holistic care for all ages. Ashley also works as the Internship Coordinator at her Alma mater Covenant Theological Seminary. It’s a joy to be a part of the education that transformed her own life and shaped her career. For fun Ashley loves to play board and imaginative games with her family as well as her friends. Favorites include Candy Land (Wesley is the reigning champ), Guess Who (Clark takes the cake), Superhero’s, and Dungeons and Dragons!

NOAH WIERSEMA

Senior Pastor
Noah Wiersema is the senior pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church and former youth pastor.
 He is married to Amy and they have one young daughter.
Noah takes great joy in opening God's word with others and enjoys walking, reading, and playing soccer in his spare time.

JOSH FIKKERT

Assistant Pastor of Youth Ministry
Josh Fikkert is an assistant pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church
and has been working in student ministry in a variety of
cultural contexts since 2014.
He is married to his wife Morgan and is a proud girl dad
of his twin daughters, Edith and Johanna.

Conference Schedule

Friday, February 28: 6:30pm -9:00pm
6:30pm Session 1: Parenting with Purpose - Kristen Hatton
Q & A with Kristen Hatton
Break
7:45pm Session 2: The Porn Pandemic - Kristen Hatton
Q & A with Kristen Hatton
 
Saturday, March 1: 8:30am-12:00pm
8:30am Session 3: More than Profiles and Followers - Kristen Hatton
Q & A with Kristen Hatton
Break
9:45am Breakout Session A
Break
10:45am Breakout Session B
11:45am Closing
If you are interested in receiving financial assistance to attend this event, please email Josh Fikkert (office@cpcstl.org) for more details how we can help.
Contact Us:
office@cpcstl.org | (314) 432-8700