At the “Just Church” workshop, Pastor David Myles, of New Hope Church and Christopher Brooks, of MERGE Twin Cities spoke on the Biblical foundations for being a church for all peoples. How we can be committed to fulfilling the Great Commission while also leading change in places of need, where the Lord has called us. Myles opened with the Biblical Mandate of why we are doing this for all people and Brooks finished with specific strategies for realizing this mandate.

Dr. Kenneth Young presented a compelling workshop called “What it Means to “Be In Christ” at the Do Justice Conference. Dr. Young is a systematic theologian at UNWSP. The workshop took an anthropological and sociological approach to looking at how the body of Christ is made up, and what it looks like when it is functioning for all people.

Fifteen-hundred people from Minnesota’s faith communities attended the Do Justice Conference with Bryan Stevenson presented by Transform Minnesota on November 8, and An Evening with Bryan Stevenson later that evening. Stevenson is an acclaimed civil rights attorney, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of Just Mercy. He gave two addresses to a packed sanctuary at Christ Presbyterian Church on the need for Americans to pursue racial justice and reconciliation in our country. Stevenson encouraged the Church to work to change the narratives of our society and to stay hopeful, while challenging people of faith to position themselves in inconvenient and uncomfortable places.