Our speakers are individuals who are currently influencing mainstream culture with the gospel message.
Alan Hirsch
The church as we know it is changing. We live in a post-modern, post-Christian and post-American world, where the church is no longer at the center of society. Our influence is waning and our basic understanding of church function must drive the way we interact in this new reality. It begs the question, what should the church look like and how does the mission of the church adapt within this context? Author of The Shaping of Things to Come, Alan will give us a new picture of the church.
Bethany Hoang
Today, more children, women and men are held in slavery at this moment than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade. Trafficking in humans generates profits in excess of 12 billion dollars a year for those who, by force and deception, sell human lives into slavery and sexual bondage, including nearly 2 million children. Compelled by the biblical call to “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17), Bethany works to do exactly that, challenging the church to greater compassion and involvement.
Andrew Marin
While the subject of gay rights frequently makes headlines, the church has sometimes struggled to find an appropriate response, or perhaps ignored the issue altogether. At one extreme protesters wave “God hates fags” posters. At another, we hide behind the old adage “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” Author of Love is an Orientation, Andrew Marin will show us how the first step towards a compassionate, biblical response is not to change the gay individual, but rather to change our own hearts. By renewing and refocusing our intent and approach, we can build a God-centered bridge that tangibly demonstrates an unconditional and trustworthy one-on-one relationship with the Creator.
Sandie Morgan
Human slavery is alive and well, right here in America in the 21st Century - populated by victims of force, fraud, or coercion. As founder and president of Live2Free, Sandie provides additional insight on how conscious consumers can learn how the choices we make and the products we buy can help resist the demand for "ordinary girls... bought and sold like the daily newspaper."
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson
More than 20,000 nuclear weapons currently exist – but the physical, environmental and economic fallout from even one nuclear explosion would devastate the world as we know it. Security experts now agree that we are approaching a fork in the road, at which we must decide between eventual catastrophe or a new sense of possibility. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, a preacher, author and activist with a decade of experience in nuclear weapons issues, will show how spiritual principles such as protecting innocent life, love for the lost, and creation care should impact the course we choose.
Naomi Zacharias
From the red light districts in Amsterdam, Bombay, and Bangkok, to children's HIV/AIDS foster homes and women’s prisons in South Africa, to refugee camps in Uganda and Pakistan, women and children are often the most oppressed and abused victims in the world. As director of Wellspring International, a humanitarian initiative of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Naomi works to provide funding for rescue, rehabilitation, education and support for women and children in various countries, and the opportunity to discover their God-given potential.