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Past Conference

2014 MAKING ALL
THINGS NEW

The 2014 Faith and Work Conference was a two day gathering of industry leaders, cultural commentators, and leading theologians to reflect on the vital, inevitable intersection of our work and faith. Through keynote talks, exhibitions, workshops, and cultural outings, we explored the role of imagination and innovation as expressions of God's grace in our world. Artists and educators, designers and technicians, homemakers, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and everyone in between were invited to help celebrate the remarkable reality that work matters.

David Brooks: Cultivating a Cultural Imagination

“… where my soul is floodlit by light which space cannot contain, where there is sound that time cannot seize, where there is a perfume which no breeze disperses, where there is a taste for food no amount of eating can lessen, and where there is a bond of union that no satiety can part. That is what I love when I love my God.” – Augustine

All human beings long for transcendence. The yearning for something holy, something higher than what we currently experience or know, can be the spark for so much of our work. But if that longing isn’t active, if our imagination atrophies and we can no longer see the unseen, work can seem meaningless. So how does the imagination stay active? And how does our common longing for what’s transcendent shape communities and industries? Author and cultural commentator David Brooks sheds new light on the reality of our common longings and the hope that it bears for our society.

J. Richard Middleton: A Sacred Calling for Sacred Work

To envision the New we must invariably look to the Old. Throughout the gospel, it’s made clear to us that God is renewing our world, which is leading towards a New Heaven and New Earth. If this world is to become His dwelling place, then our job is to cultivate it wisely, to manifest and capture God’s image in our work. In other words, what we create is meant to be sacred. Theologian Richard Middleton gives us the Why behind what we do and how the Holy Spirit employs our imagination to lead us to what we are created for.

Adam Wade: Another Saturday Night at the Clam King

“I think I’ve always been an old soul. My two best friends when I was little were my Grandmother and my Great Aunt. And now in my thirties, I look back at the things they did for me, an example is the story I’m going to tell, and those things have new (additional) meanings for me. When I was little, they showed their love to protect me and my confidence. Now as an adult, the new (additional) meanings (to the story I’m telling) define who I really am, an artist whose art comes from the heart.” -Adam Wade, Storyteller

As a child, storyteller Adam Wade spent his Saturday nights with his Grandmother and Great Aunt. As an adult, Wade reflects on what those times meant.

Nancy Ortberg: Innovation: Collaboration and Conflict Required

How does innovation proliferate? Conflict, tension, and failure are key hurdles that any business, team, or innovation must face in order to flourish. So what steps can we take to steward the imagination through human interaction? What makes collaboration click? Author and consultant Nancy Ortberg will give us practical tools for team dynamics, and will explore how apparent failure can become the greatest vehicle for redemption.

Robyn Shapiro: Innovation Underground

Robyn Shapiro, Director of Community at the Lowline, speaks at the Faith & Work Conference about how imagination and innovation have often led us underground. With beautiful design and inspiring architecture, the Lowline seeks to be the first underground park in New York City using a new type of solar technology.

Osso String Quartet

In an era of music where sound is increasingly processed and made to fit in as noise, Osso brings energy and the alluring, raw sound of acoustic live performance to the fun, dynamic world of indie rock. A string quartet with a modern pulse, members of Osso have collaborated and performed with an array of artists and genres, including Jay-Z, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, My Brightest Diamond, The Polyphonic Spree, The National, Devotchka, and Kanye West. Osso’s experiences performing contemporary music ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound and Ensemble Signal give them a gritty edge for extended techniques, and the precision and technical prowess of a classical string quartet, while bringing the fun, energetic power of performing with bands to the stage.

Christian Wiman: Surprised by Imagination

Woven into the gospel is a God that wants to know us personally through experience, through flesh and blood, through matter itself, in awe and wonder. A testament to this reality is the work of poet Christian Wiman. In Wiman’s writing, there lives a devotion to the wonder that words speak volumes more than their normative associations, allowing poetry to hold us in a state at once both meditative yet active with discovery. This is, at its essence, a devotion to God’s Spirit, that great unfathomable gift that is headstrong in its pursuit for us to meet our maker. We’re thrilled to experience that gift together through Wiman’s infectious and expansive imagination.

New Chamber Ballet: Newness

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day." - Emily Dickinson

“As dancers, Emily Dickinson’s line resonates deeply with us. Fully dependent on the human body as our instrument, we live in constant worry about the irreversible decays of aging. Yet, each day we experience growth, renewal, discovery. Unlike other professions, we experience this renewal physically inside our own body. We feel refreshed. We move deeper, rather than bigger. We take emotional risks in lieu of physical recklessness. We embrace our exhaustion and the fleetingness of our artistic life. And the next day we discover, with some surprise, that we are not older – but newer.” -Miro Magloire, New Chamber Ballet

Timothy Keller: Where Imagination and Innovation Meet

“Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.” - C.S. Lewis

If imagination is the organ of meaning, and if God orients our imagination, then the gospel offers a creative advantage when it comes to bringing meaning to our work. But what state must our imaginations be in to spark innovation? And what’s the best fuel to keep our imagination running? Tim Keller walks us through how the hope of the gospel is not only the source of our imagination, but the fuel and anchor we need to drive our imagination into innovative terrain.

Dave Evans: What Innovation is Not

What constitutes innovation from a Christian perspective? Innovation is a term widely used, but how does it line up with a sense of calling? Too often our concept of calling is stagnant and confined by individualism. In truth, calling is the Holy Spirit actively, continually calling out into our lives, guiding our work. This calling – of walking with the Spirit through the heartache of failure and the joys of entrepreneurship – journeys us through the redemptive work that God has designed for us. Stanford professor and former tech executive Dave Evans will tackle what role the Holy Spirit plays when it comes to our imagination, and how our intuitions and longings can help us both discern and actualize the work we’re created for.

2014 MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

David Brooks: Cultivating a Cultural Imagination

J. Richard Middleton: A Sacred Calling for Sacred Work

Adam Wade: Another Saturday Night at the Clam King

Nancy Ortberg: Innovation: Collaboration and Conflict Required

Robyn Shapiro: Innovation Underground

Osso String Quartet

Christian Wiman: Surprised by Imagination

New Chamber Ballet: Newness

Timothy Keller: Where Imagination and Innovation Meet

Dave Evans: What Innovation is Not

2014 MAKING ALL
THINGS NEW