EC Glass Civic Auditorium

Lynchburg, VA

Friday, April 6 and Saturday, April 7

Doors open at 5:00pm

Admission is FREE!

Register now to reserve your seat!

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Speakers & Musicians

Shane Claiborne is a best-selling author, renowned activist, sought-after speaker, and self proclaimed “recovering sinner.” Shane writes and speaks around the world about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus, and is the author of numerous books including The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President, Executing Grace, and his newest book, Beating Guns (2018, forthcoming). He is the visionary founder of The Simple Way in Philadelphia, and Co-Founder of Red Letter Christians. His work has been featured in Fox News, Esquire, SPIN, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and CNN.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is the President & Sr. Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival; Bishop with the College of Affirming Bishops and Faith Leaders; Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary; Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and the author of three books: Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation.

Rev. Dr. Barber is also the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013. These weekly actions drew tens of thousands of North Carolinians and other moral witnesses to the state legislature. More than 1,200 peaceful protesters were arrested, handcuffed and jailed. On September 12, 2016 Rev. Dr. Barber led a “Moral Day of Action,” the largest coordinated action on state capitals in U.S. history, calling for state governments to embrace a moral public policy agenda. On February 11, 2017, he led the largest moral march in North Carolina state history, with over 80,000 people calling on North Carolina’s elected officials to embrace a moral public policy agenda.

A highly sought after speaker, Rev. Dr. Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention. He has spoken to a wide variety of audiences including national unions, fraternities and sororities, motorcycle organizations, drug dealer conferences, women’s groups, economic policy groups, voting rights advocates, LGBTQ equality and justice groups, environmental and criminal justice groups, small organizing committees of domestic workers, fast food workers, and national gatherings of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and other people of faith.

Rev. Dr. Barber served as president of the North Carolina NAACP, the largest state conference in the South, from 2006 – 2017 and currently sits on the National NAACP Board of Directors. A former Mel King Fellow at MIT, he is currently Visiting Professor of Public Theology and Activism at Union Theological Seminary and is a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary. Rev. Dr. Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and The Nation Magazine, among others. He is the 2015 recipient of the Puffin Award and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award.

Rev. Brenda G. Brown-Grooms is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she earned the Bachelor of Arts in Government and Foreign Affairs, with a concentration in Soviet Politics, in 1977. Reverend Brown-Grooms graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York, NY with a Master of Divinity in 1987.

After serving as Pastoral Ministries Intern at the Riverside Church in New York, NY, and, while serving as Ministerial Intern at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, she was licensed to preach on September 15, 1985. Reverend Brown-Grooms was ordained to Christian Ministry at Berean Baptist Church, on February 24, 1991, in Nashville, TN.

After graduating from seminary, she served Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, NY.

Reverend Brown-Grooms relocated from Mount Vernon, NY to Nashville, TN to pursue the Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) at the Vanderbilt University Graduate School of Religion, in August of 1988. She has served as a Visiting Professor and Consultant at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, VA. She served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Natural Bridge, in Natural Bridge, VA for eight years and as an Associate Minister at Sweet Union Baptist Church in Roanoke, VA.

Reverend Brown-Grooms believes very strongly in the work of the Church to create, mirror and maintain community, both among church families and the community where local congregations are situated. She believes that Church is the place where individuals can become strong enough and powerful enough to live life abundantly.

Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University and a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. For 40 years, he led the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, an organization which he founded to create and support programs serving needy communities. More recently, Dr. Campolo has provided leadership for the progressive Christian movement, Red Letter Christians as well as, for the Campolo Center for Ministry, a program which provides support to those the church has called to full-time ministry. He has written more than 35 books and can be found blogging regularly on tonycampolo.org and redletterchristians.org. Tony and his wife Peggy live near Philadelphia and have two children and four grandchildren.

Micah Bournes is a poet, rapper, and blues singer hailing proudly from Long Beach, California. His work often touches on themes of culture, justice, and faith.

Lisa Sharon Harper – From Ferguson to New York to Germany and South Africa Ms. Harper leads trainings and helps mobilize clergy and community leaders around shared values for the common good. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us (launching online Fall 2017), a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by convening forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment, and common action toward a just world. Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including: Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008), Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011), Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014), and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines.

Nehemiah H. Brown is a pastor, and gospel music singer, choral director, composer, and teacher. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA) Brown began singing at Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, the church where his father, the Rev. Charles Hunter Brown was pastor. He was “…practically born” in church according to his mother, Mrs. Angie Brown, mother of his other 11 siblings. He sang his first solo at six years old.

In Charlottesville, he directed The Lane High School Choir, The Trinity Episcopal Church Youth Choir, The Pilgrim Baptist Church Youth Choir, The First Baptist Church Gospel Choir, The HTYC of the Church of God in Christ. He founded The Interdenominational Gospel Choir (renamed the Dimensions of Gospel) and was co-founder and founding director of The Black Voices of The University of Virginia. Mr. Brown also founded the Genesis Gospel Choir at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Although he was accepted at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, he chose to study African American Vocal Technique with noted author and ethnomusicologist Professor Horace Clarence Boyer (editor of the Episcopal, African American Service Hymnal II), at the University of Massachusetts.

Mr. Brown holds a degree in Italian studies from San Francisco State University with overseas study at The University of Florence in Italy. He has also extensive piano and vocal study with the “Hollywood Vocal Coach,” Dave Grusin as well as Popular and Jazz Harmony studies at The University of Virginia. Since 1996, Mr. Brown makes his home in Italy where he founded the Florence Gospel Choir School. His work in Italy has included teaching in the public school system, leading countless workshops including lengthy projects in the Sollicciano Prison Complex. To read about the many exciting projects within Italy and internationally, please visit www.fgcschool.com. Nehemiah H. Brown travels extensively in Europe working with choirs and individuals who want to learn from an authority on gospel music. He continues to share his African American heritage, culture, and faith around the world.

Kaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author, speaker and worship leader. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Citizen Band and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Native American spirituality, mystic faith in everyday life, and decolonizing the church. She is an author with Paraclete Press and her recently released book is Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places. She is a contributor to Sojourners, Relevant Magazine and Patheos Progressive Christian, and was recently chosen as one of Sojourners Ten Women to Watch in 2018. While she isn’t traveling and writing, Kaitlin spends time with her partner, two sons and dogs in Atlanta.

Dominique DuBois Gilliard is the director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice (LMDJ) initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). He is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores. He also serves on the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association and Evangelicals for Justice. In 2015, he was selected as one of the ECC’s “40 Under 40” leaders to watch, and the Huffington Post named him one of the “Black Christian Leaders Changing the World.” An ordained minister, Gilliard has served in pastoral ministry in Atlanta, Chicago, and Oakland.

Greg Kirkland, Jr., a native of Brooklyn, New York, was once the lead singer of the chart topping gospel teen sensation, “Five Young Men” performing on Nickelodeon’s, “All That,” the heavyweight championship boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Vaughn Bean, the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Ball, BET’s “Bobby Jones’ Gospel Hour,” and a host of others. Greg Kirkland Jr. also toured with Pastor John P. Kee and the “STRENGTH 2000” tour, “N’SYNC’s Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” tour, and performed as the recorded voice of Boris Kodjoe in Rainforest Film’s hit motion picture, “The Gospel.” God has truly proven to Greg that “a man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.” Proverbs 18:16.

A 2000 Gospel Stellar Award nominee, a recipient and several nominations for the Atlanta Gospel People’s Choice Awards, a live performance on the late show with Conan O’Brien on TBS, BET’s “Let’s Stay Together,” Greg’s greatest achievement is he is the husband of Leslie, and father of two beautiful daughters, Kierstyn Michelle, and Kyla Marie. Along with a new bouncing baby boy, Karter Matthew!

Jon Huckins is the Co-Founding Director of The Global Immersion Project; a peacemaking training organization helping people move toward conflict equipped to heal rather than to win. He co-leads an intentional community in his neighborhood of Sherman Heights in San Diego and has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Jon is married to Jan and is a dad of four kids, speaker & writer. His latest book is Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World. Find Jon at jonhuckins.net, Twitter or Facebook.

Dr. David Anderson, founder and President of the BridgeLeader Network (BLN), is one of the world’s leading authorities on building bridges across the deep divides of race, faith, culture and wealth. His work has brought hope and healing to communities, families and people in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, including work in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, during recent civil unrest around issues of race and police brutality. Known as the bridge-building voice in the Nation’s Capital, Anderson hosts the daily radio talk show “Real Talk with Dr. David Anderson” on WAVA (105.1 FM) – the most listened to Christian Talk Station on the East Coast and the 2nd most listened to Christian Talk station in the nation. Dr. Anderson also hosted “Real Talk with Dr. David Anderson”each week on ABC in Baltimore, Maryland, for 4 seasons. Dr. Anderson is a highly sought-after speaker and the published author of several books, including the award winning Gracism: The Art of Inclusion. As the founder and senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church, Dr. Anderson reaches a dynamic, multicultural congregation of over 5,000 weekly attendees from more than 52 different nations, located in Columbia, Maryland.

Noel Castellanos has worked in full-time ministry in Latino, urban communities since 1982. He has served in youth ministry, church planting, advocacy and community development in San Francisco, San Jose, and Chicago. After serving on the Board of the Christian Community Development Association for many years, he established the CCDA Institute, which equips emerging church leaders in the philosophy of Christian Community Development, and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of CCDA.

Noel was appointed to serve on President Obama’s Council for Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is a speaker, motivator, and mentor to young leaders throughout the U.S.A., and has a deep passion to serve and invest in the lives of leaders committed to serving the poor.

Noel is the author of Where the Cross Meets the Street: What Happens to the Neighborhood When God is at the Center, which blends the art of story with firmly rooted theology and time tested praxis. He is also the co-author of A Heart for the Community, New Models for Urban and Suburban Ministry, and has contributed to various other books and publications, including Deep Justice in a Broken World, A Heart for the City, and Crazy Enough to Care. Noel and his wife of 30 years, Marianne make their home in the barrio of La Villita in Chicago, and have three grown children; Noel Luis, Stefan, and Anna.

Natalie Renee Perkins received her M.Div. in 2015 from Union Theological Seminary, where she was awarded the Karen Ziegler Feminist Preaching Prize. As a writer, lecturer, preacher, chaplain and composer, she now intertwines early Christian material with contemporary society through a social justice lens. She is a co-founder of the Tanho Center and steering committee chair of the Westar Institute’s Praxis Forum. Natalie is also a professional singer and has performed with major cruise lines, national tours, symphony orchestras, and the USO. She is in the process of recording an EP using the Odes of Solomon to be released in spring of 2019.

Rev. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner: Trusted advisor, public policy strategist, faith and community leader, author, lecturer, educator, executive coach, and mentor, Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner has made an indelible imprint in American public policy, government, diversity, and community relations. She has a long history of building bridges and advancing the inclusion of people of all cultures in both the private and public sector.

Considered one of Washington’s most influential leaders, Dr. Williams-Skinner is included in the “Presidential Who’s Who Among Business and Professional Achievers”, Dr. Williams-Skinner also served on President Barack Obama’s White House Faith Council. She was the first female Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, and continues to serve as spiritual advisor to CBC Members and to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She is also a frequent blogger with the Huffington Post. On a consistent basis, she prays with and for members of Congress from both political parties, following God’s mandate to pray for those in authority. Dr. Williams-Skinner also spends time at Ballou High school in Washington, DC, on a job readiness and life skills program.

Dr. Williams-Skinner is currently CEO of Skinner Leadership Institute, which she co-founded in 1992 with her late husband, Tom Skinner, former Chaplain of the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Washington Redskins sports franchises. Together they co-founded the highly popular CBC Annual Legislative Conference Prayer Breakfast, attracting over 3000 diverse national and local leaders annually. Dr. Williams-Skinner is a founding member of the Black Women’s Roundtable and is committed to advancing the interests of women in the public policy arena. Recently, she founded the Masters Series for Distinguished Leaders, a culturally sensitive program for moving talented African American middle managers, ages 25-45, to the next levels of their lives and careers while serving those less fortunate. She also founded the Masters Series for Distinguished Clergy Leaders to equip clergy across the nation as skillful public policy advocates.

Dr. Williams-Skinner has a B.A. Degree in Sociology from San Francisco State University; a Master of Social Work Degree and a Juris Doctor Degree from U.C.L.A; as well as a Master of Divinity and a Doctorate of Ministry Degree from Howard University School of Divinity. She works closely with multi-cultural leaders on policy issues such as health care, immigration, criminal justice reform, and voting rights reform. She is the mother of two adult daughters through marriage, grandmother of 11, godmother of 7, with countless mentees and protégés across the nation.