Calvin hosts global conference for Christian leaders

Summary: Calvin College will bring together Christian leaders from around the
world at a global conference, "The Reformed Mission in an Age of World
Christianity," held June 15-17, 2010, on Calvin’s campus.

From June 15 through June 17, 2010, world leaders in Reformed thinking will
gather in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a global conference, "Reformed Mission in
an Age of World Christianity."

The conference, co-sponsored by Calvin College and the International
Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (IAPCHE), is
designed to strengthen the intersection between Reformed Christian faith
expressions and global movements in world Christianity. The goal is to learn
how Reformed Christian faith and work can effectively support the hopes and
address the challenges encountered across a variety of contemporary cultures.
The conference has already attracted registrants from 42 countries.

Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, will deliver the
conference keynote address at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15, 2010, in the Prince
Conference Center. The conference will also include a number of breakout
sectionals, which will weave together four core themes: living roots for living
water; translation across borders; the covenantal community and roles at the
table of the church. They will focus on Christian understanding and action in
the church as well as social and natural environments. Sectional leaders will
include educational, ministry and public leaders from around the world. For
example, one of the sectional leaders, Augusto de la Torre, is a former head of
the Central Bank of Ecuador and now chief economist for World Bank in Latin
America and the Caribbean.

Conference organizer and director of Calvin's Van Lunen Center for Executive
Management in Christian Schools Shirley Roels, said the conference is an unique
opportunity to think and learn about what it means to be a Reformed Christian
in relationship to a changing world, particularly when believers everywhere can
be more easily and deeply connected.

"This is a golden opportunity to explore the treasures of Reformed heritage in
relation to shifting world-wide faith dynamics," said Roels. "We want
participants to rediscover old jewels as they polish new gems of faith and
action."

The event is a pre-conference to the Uniting General Conference (UGC), a
nine-day assembly being held Friday, June 18, 2010, to Sunday, June 27, 2010,
at Calvin College. At the UGC, two networks of Reformed denominations,
representing 80 million reformed Christians all over the world, will merge.
With leaders from all over the world converging on Grand Rapids, Roels said it
made sense to take advantage of this opportunity.

"A Reformed Christian interchange of this type will not happen again in Grand
Rapids because the merger assembly is a one-time event," said Roels. "This is
an opportunity for us to create a very special space to think about being
Reformed Christians within a changing global culture."

"Reformed Mission in an Age of World Christianity" is open to all Christian
leaders and particularly welcomes those from Reformed denominations such as the
Christian Reformed Church, Reformed Church of North America, Presbyterian
Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ, all of which are supporting the
merger assembly.

The conference will be translated into French, Spanish, Korean and Bahasa, to
accommodate the many languages of those attending.

Registration for the conference extends through the first week of June. To
register, visit www.calvin.edu/go/rcc.

For more info on the conference, contact the Calvin College Seminars Office at
616-526-8558.

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Received on Mon, 10 May 2010 12:02:50 -0400