Seeking God and Serving The City: Spiritual Disciplines In Action

The majority of Americans now live in forty metropolitan areas. These metros are deeply impacted by the challenges of high school drop outs, climbing prison populations, and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Parallel to these social realities is the weakening of the spiritual and social impact of churches and the decline of vibrant spiritual disciplines in the lives of Christians. Less than 5% of young people have a favorable view of the church. The Reveal Research indicates that less than 20% of our church attendees live their lives practicing vibrant spiritual disciplines. The thesis of this track is that God longs to speak to His people through Prayer and Scripture, and to unite them to incarnate the gospel among cities through Service. 

Objectives: 

•  Catalyzing a Movement of Scripture Engagement: The American Bible Society will present the latest __national trends regarding the vibrancy of Scripture reading among churches. They also will describe what __is happening among diverse church communities to compel a national movement of Scripture __engagement, as well as key elements in a City Scripture Engagement Model. 

•  Catalyzing a Movement of United Prayer: Concerts of Prayer Greater New York and Christian Union will __provide case studies of how God is using diverse prayer models to impact cities and college campuses. 

•  Catalyzing a Movement Of City Service: The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association will provide case __studies of city wide service expressions in multiple cities. These models have involved as many as __100,000 people to impact their cities and have been written about in USA Today.

Format: 

This is a highly interactive session with gifted thinkers and practitioners in city transformation. There will be a blend of panel and small group discussions and case studies. The goal of the session is to have each participant leave with next steps to advance movements of Scripture Engagement, United Prayer, and Service in their respective cities. 

 

Track Speakers:

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Matt Bennett, Founder & President, Christian Union 

Matt Bennett grew up in Houston, Texas and earned B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Cornell University. After working for Campus Crusade for Christ at Princeton University for 12 years and developing the ministry into one of the largest in the history of the Ivy League, he resigned to study at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for a Masters of Divinity. In 2002, with fellow Ivy League alumni, he founded Christian Union with the mission to change the world by bringing sweeping spiritual transformation to the Ivy League Universities.   

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Pura Coniglio, Esq.: Minister of Prayer at Love Gospel Assembly

Pura has served as the Minister/Member of Prayer at Love Gospel Assembly for 27 years. Pura leads with her husband, Deacon John, of the New Generation In Christ Int’l Ministries. This ministry administers the “Regional Bronx House of Prayer (BHOP)”, Men’s House of Prayer (MHOP), Operation Bronx/NYC Restoration, Pray NY-Bronx region and the NGIC School of Prayer. Pura, has been anointed with an apostolic and prophetic mantle to intercede and minister to individuals, families, church leadership, and regions and territories. She carries a prophetic message which inspires and empowers a “remnant” which has come into the Kingdom “for such a time as this. 

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Gary Frost, President, Concerts of Prayer

Rev. Gary Frost is the President of Concerts of Prayer Greater New York. Prior to accepting this position, Gary was the Director of Emerging Leadership for The New York Leadership Center, and the Executive Director of the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. Gary also served nearly three years at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, GA as the Vice President of the Strategic Partnerships Group. Reverend Frost served 18 years as the Senior Pastor of Rising Star Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio. He has stood out among his peers as a man who has been used by God to impact work in the city, as is evident from his community involvement in Youngstown. He also has served as a board member at Southside Community Development Corporation as well as a member of the Executive Committee with the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Reverend Frost and his wife, Lynette, have 6 children. In addition to their own family, the Frosts have served as foster parents during the past 19 years, taking over 40 children into their home. 

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Jim Herrington, Lead Coach, Faithwalking

 

Jim Herrington is the lead coach with Faithwalking. He is a husband, father, pastor, author, mentor, and coach. Jim works with a small team of coaches with personal experience in mission living. He has been married to his childhood sweetheart for 36 years and they have four children, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren. Jim holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Arkansas and a Masters in Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. This is his Personal statement: Jesus is my King, and I love His Church. I have lived in a very authentic community of followers of Jesus for a decade. I work for justice, live simply and embrace equality. I am committed to reconciliation, and I live a radically inclusive life.

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Kevin Palau, President, Luis Palau Association

Kevin Palau is the president of the Luis Palau Association, a worldwide ministry named after his evangelist father who has shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with more than 1 billion people. 

Kevin joined the team in 1985 and under his leadership, LPA has produced events worldwide drawing crowds of up to 1 million people. Along with his younger brother Andrew, they have developed LPA’s festival approach to proclamation evangelistic events. In 2008, Kevin added a massive, area-wide outreach called the Season of Service into this festival model. A collaboration between corporate, civic and church leaders, the Season of Service allows the love of Christ to be displayed through substantial community service efforts.

Despite graduating from Wheaton College, Kevin is a huge University of Oregon fan. He and his wife, Michelle, have three children and live near the LPA headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

 

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Chris A. Thyberg, Director, New Ministry Initiatives

Chris Thyberg serves as Director for New Ministry Initiatives in Global Scripture Ministries and oversees Armed Services Ministry and “nextChurch” partnerships to implement high-impact Scripture projects and programs designed to bring God’s Word where it is needed most. Chris comes to this position having helped launch Global Scripture Ministries in January 2007, and before that served in the Development Office as Director of Church Partnerships. He began his ABS tenure as Director of Church Relations for Domestic Ministries and lead architect of “ABS Digital Ministries”, providing resources for online Scripture engagement. Prior to joining the Bible Society, Chris did graduate studies in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and worked in academic computing at Penn State University and Carnegie Mellon, leading initiatives in web-based instructional design and distance education. He is a graduate of Wheaton College. Chris is married to Leslie; they have four grown children and make their home in Pittsburgh, PA, where they are involved in nurturing a missionary movement in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh to the ex-churched, de-churched, and never-churched.

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 Jody Wood,  Director, New York City Intercessors

God has been using Jody Wood as a prayer leader since January 2001 in the regional, national and global prayer movement. Jody’s passion is to equip individuals with practical prayer tools that affect local churches and strengthen the regional prayer movement. One of Jody’s strong leadership abilities is to help bridge the gap between many different ministries for the greater purpose of their region. Her deepest desire is to see God's blueprint for a multi-generational prayer force raised up across the earth to establish His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

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