Calvin To Host NCMSLC
EDITOR'S NOTE: Read the November 9 GR Press story.
Calvin College will host the National Christian Multicultural Student Leaders Conference (NCMSLC) from November 8-10.
Dr. Herma Williams, Associate Provost at Gordon College and an activist for race relations and community building, and Rev. Dr. John Perkins, well known in civil rights and social justice circles for his work with the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi, will be featured speakers.
"Thy Kingdom Come" is the theme for this year's conference.
"We pray the Lord's Prayer all the time, but how is that actually worked out in our lives right now?" asks Chris Overvoorde, chairman of the Calvin Committee organizing the conference. "It goes right back to the Biblical concepts of justice, equality, and righteousness. That's what leadership is all about."
The NCMSLC began in 1986. Today a National Steering Committee runs the financially self-sufficient conference. Both Overvoorde and Calvin Director of Pre-College Programs Rhae-Ann Booker (above), who attended the conference as a Calvin student, sit on NCMSLC's National Board of Directors.
The 2001 Conference will include not just keynote addresses for the expected 250-300 attendees, but also smaller sessions.
For instance there will be workshops on such topics as:
- And Justice for All: Race History in the Kingdom
- Conflict Resolution: A Biblical Perspective
- Who's My Neighbor: A Place for International Students
- Asian is not Oriental: Debunking Stereotypes
- Is There Room for Rap: Does Reconciliation Include Music?
- The Latino Student Experience: A New Study
There also will be "racial caucuses," in which participants split off to discuss issues particular to their ethnic groups, often foster exciting discussions and debates which are reported back to the rest of the conference. There will be a Teach-in on the events of September 11 and the surrounding issues. And there will be many informal interactions between conference participants, who come from a wide variety of colleges and ethnic backgrounds, and the Calvin students who host them in their dorm rooms.
Overvoorde notes that the NCMSLC begins and ends with a worship service.
The bottom line, he says, is not that we are minorities or members of any other group, but that we are "Christians, gathering to discuss the Kingdom."