By Tom Campisi, Tri-Stae Voice – Facilitating collaborative partnerships is a specialty of The New York City Leadership Center. And the annual Movement Day Conference in New York City has become one of the fastest growing and most influential gatherings of urban ministry leaders in the country.
Some of the nation’s most prominent city leaders will come together on October 10 New York’s Marriott Marquis to take part in the Movement Day Conference, hosted by Dr. Mac Pier, president of The New York City Leadership Center, and co-hosted by Redeemer City To City and the American Bible Society. An estimated 1800 congress participants representing ministries, churches, businesses, seminaries, universities and foundations will attend. These leaders will gather to collaborate, hear trends in urban ministry from renowned Christian thinkers, study the best models of urban gospel movements, and discuss how to work together to transform the spiritual and social climates in their own cities.
From its inception, the Movement Day vision has remained clear and its purpose rock solid. “Our mission is to facilitate collaborative partnerships among Christian leaders, foster networking and inspire catalytic leaders to maximize their own leadership potential,” explains Pier. “God has used these conferences to stir, encourage, and challenge us with dynamic, creative ways to meet the pressing needs of our rapidly growing cities. We fully anticipate that Movement Day 2013 will be no exception as God continues to unify us in purpose and inspire our hearts that we can make a difference in the lives of those people we are called to serve.”
A stellar lineup of speakers for the plenary sessions include: Dr. Tim Keller, senior pastor of the 5,000 member Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City; Dr. Raymond Bakke, Chancellor of Bakke Graduate University in Seattle, Washington; Connally Gilliam, Special Counsel to the National Metro Mission Director of The Navigators in Washington, D.C., Sherry Jones, President and Founder of Sonship Freedom in Philadelphia, PA, and Dr. Pier, initiator and host of the Movement Day project.
Seven interactive learning tracks, chaired by a diverse faculty of respected spokespeople from recognized ministries in the Body of Christ, will cover some of the most relevant and important social and spiritual issues faced today. This year a new track has been included with a focus on the arts. Afternoon track titles include:
- The Artist in Community: Something Beautiful is Happening!
- The Power of Authentic Communities in our Cities
- Successful Urban Church Planting
- Energizing City Movements Through Effective Community Development
- Global Missions Engagement: Strategies to Change the World
- Advancing Collaborative Gospel Movements in Cities
- Sacrificial Leadership: The Costs of City Transformation
Movement Day, launched in 2011, is a leadership development initiative of The New York City Leadership Center.
“It’s a fact that most major cities face many of the same spiritual and social issues,” said Dr. Pier. “These issues include vast populations unreached by the gospel, profound poverty and an emerging youth population that is struggling to surpass the 50 percent high school graduation rate. By challenging and activating Christian leaders in cities to step up and confront these issues collaboratively through a gospel movement we can transform the lives of marginalized peoples and ultimately change those cities and our entire culture for Christ.”
For more information or to register, visit www.NYCLeadership.com.
