Intersection Conference
The Neglected Truth of One’s Profession and Calling
Los Angeles, CA, April 27—A powerful and often neglected truth is that one’s profession is both a personal and spiritual calling as part of God’s greater purpose for one’s life and His world. When understood and embraced, this truth unleashes incredible capacity for transformation that transcends one’s expertise or particular discipline.
The intersection where one’s profession and passion connect with God’s purpose was the focus of a three-day conference held April 12-14 on the campus of Baylor University in Waco. Participants included students and faculty from Baylor, the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor, Texas A&M University, Howard Paine University, Belhaven College and Dallas Baptist University as well as high capacity leaders in international business, the arts, science, education and communications. Keynoting the Intersection conference was Dr. Thom Wolf, a world leader in urban leadership and President of the University Institute based in Delhi, India.
“Lying underneath every conversation is the issue of worldview” according to Wolf. “Cultures and civilizations form the frameworks for the emerging global conversation which begins with the question, ‘What is the best way to live life on this planet?’
“The five hundred years period (1492-1992) of the Rise of the West has matured. We are now living at the beginning of the globe’s re-orientation to the East,” noted Wolf as he went on to describe the origins of worldviews via a presentation sub-titled History on a Page. “It is the insight of the judeo-christian worldview,” Wolf noted, “that history keeps uncannily unfolding according to the pattern anticipated by that Minority Voice of the first century.”
“Show me where the good news about Jesus has not yet gone and I will show you where history is yet go. The first century was a century of the ‘ordinary’, not the ordained, and they transformed their world as they offered their lives, opened their homes, operated their businesses and were dynamically one with God. And,” argued Wolf, “the 21st century has the potential to be a sister century to the first century.”
“God wants his good news to come in to the cultures of the world and transform them,” according to Colin Harbinson, Dean of the School of the Arts at Belhaven College, “by celebrating the natural, affirming the redemptive, opposing the demonic, and transforming the distorted.”
“God was in Christ to bring the cosmos, the whole world into harmony with his plan. Whatever our domain or profession, we are called to be ministers of that reconciliation. This is a time in history in which we find the doors to nations open that no one can close.”
One of the new realities of the 21st century is that the distinctions between sacred and secular are diminishing as believers come to understand the holistic nature of faith and discipleship. For the believer, a career becomes more than a paycheck or lifestyle but a response to the calling God has on their life expressed through their particular domain or profession.
The importance of living an intentional lifestyle was another conference theme. International business consultant Dave Weston encouraged students to be available, prepared, in the right position, to listen for God’s voice in a very noisy world, and live expectantly.
The conference also saw the first public introduction of the new “AIDS Cube,” a teaching tool about AIDS that will be used in Africa by e3 community partners. Dan Hitzhusen, Vice President of e3, debuted the tool and explained how a team of designers, engineers, medical, and communication professionals had developed it, based on the earlier success of e3’s EvangeCube.
Intersection was organized by Global Spectrum and co-sponsored by Baylor University’s University Ministries and WorldconneX, a Texas based activation network for International connections. Previous Intersection conferences have been held in Seattle, Houston, Tucson, San Francisco and the DFW Metroplex. Global Spectrum seeks to serve as catalysts for new initiatives that accelerate the transformation of nations.
For more information, contact:
Carol Davis, Global Spectrum
(626) 215-3435
http://www.intersectionconference.com