SOUL UNIVERSITY

Conversations, Seminars, and Workshops at SoulFest.

Social Justice is an ongoing theme within Soul University as well as throughout SoulFest. Even though there may be several subjective interpretations of what social justice means, we cannot turn a blind eye to the injustices that exist in our world today. Soul University will feature conversations that inform, inspire, challenge and renew our individual commitments to living a life that stands up for those who cannot stand for themselves. Whether it be in our own home, neighborhood, city, or anywhere else that crosses our path, we will examine the importance of living a life that is critically concerned and actively engaged in fighting injustice wherever we find it.

If you desire and dare to grow beyond the place you've been at for years, if you desire to live the revolution Jesus started, if you desire to be a water-walker, transformed by True Love and if you desire to truly experience and express God's unconditional and transforming love throughout your day to day life, join in the conversations at Soul University and discover.

LAST YEAR'S SEMINAR LINEUP

First Loved to Love

Thursday: 1:30 in Mercy Street Café, Saturday: 1:30 in Mercy Street Café, Worship on the Mountain Top Stage, Wed. 3:15pm
Guest speaker Mark Gordon Fee presents a summary of his "First Loved to Love" seminar. While sharing stories of his personal transformation, Fee examines the premise that we are only able to love others to the extent that we experience God's love for us. He offers practical steps to experience God at work in our everyday lives. First Loved to Love Experience is an invitation to begin pouring the water of God's love on our heart's soil, day by day, until we begin to feel and experience God's loving kindness toward us. This is a faith-filled, farming process; no leap of faith is required.
Seminar leader:

Mark Gordon Fee is currently a Pastor at Bethany Church in Greenland, NH. Mark is also the founder and director of First Loved Ministries, Inc. (www.firstlovedministries.org) which began as a work of God in his own life 18 years ago when he became the Sr. Pastor of the Vineyard MetroNorth in Melrose, MA. We seek to offer you tangible ways to become (re)acquainted with the deep, abiding love of God for you and through you. To that end, our mission is: To provide God's people with tools and experiences that move His amazing love from their heads to their hearts to the world! Married to Robin since 1982. Five birth children, Joshua, Julia, Cherisa, Nathan and Benjamin. One addition by marriage, Josh’s wife Emily and one informally adopted, Tammy Myers.

Learning to Scream

Saturday: 10:15 - The Underground
Have you ever wanted to make an impact in the world, but don’t know how to get started? Join founder of Global Benefit and members of Australian Band, Alabaster Box, as you explore ways to positively influence your culture, school, or place of work to become world changers. All it takes is YOU, plus a little ACTION, and together we can make a significant CHANGE in our world today. It’s time to “Not Be Silent” and to “Scream” for those who can’t be heard and desperately need a voice.
Seminar Leader:

Mark Warren is a social entrepreneur and the founder of Global Benefit. His passion is to engage this generation to positively impact our world to overcome some of the world’s largest challenges. He believes a collective movement of youth can radically transform our world by addressing issues of extreme poverty, clean water, AIDS, environmental sustainability, hunger and social justice.

In Communion: Where Worship Meets Relationships

Living worship renews a magnificent world of interlacing, interlocking face-to-face relationships. Becoming present to 1) God, 2) to ourselves, 3) the lives of others and even to 4) the created order lies at the core of passionate, living worship. This workshop on the power of worship to transform relationships will invite you into a wider worldview of worship than you ever imagined.
Seminar Leader:

Dan Wilt is the founder and Director of the Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick, Canada. Offering One Year, Intensive and Masters Degrees to worship leaders and decision-makers across the world of various experience levels, thus far the new program has hosted over 30 worship leaders in our local and translocal courses from the US, Canada, UK, Brazil and Germany. Dan is also the writer of a wide range of articles and devotionals on the topics of spiritual formation, worship and worship leadership for VerticalMusic.com, a division of Integrity Music - the world's largest Christian worship music publisher. Dan has worked closely with musicians such as Brian Doerksen (Come, Now Is The Time), David Ruis (You Are Worthy Of My Praise), Matt Redman (Heart Of Worship), Tim Hughes (Hungry), Kathryn Scott (Hungry), Brenton Brown (Everlasting God) and many others in various musical and training capacities

You Are Not Normal

Thursday: 3:15 - The Underground
God wants and requires action not actors. You long to shine a revolutionary love but you just don¹t know how. Christ¹s love can make you abnormal in the best possible ways. It is His love at the core of Christianity that is so ancient, so awe inspiring and powerful, it will change your world if you engage in it. Come learn how at this user friendly and upbeat crash course in world domination!
Seminar Leader:

Jim Trick is a performing songwriter speaker who uses his gift to challenge, encourage and inspire people from all backgrounds to live deep, love without cultural filters and fall in love with the One who loved us first. www.jimtrick.com

An Introduction to Alpha for Youth

Friday: 2:45 – Deeper Well
Today there are thousands of teens and youth leaders in youth clubs, churches, schools, and campuses of all denominations around the world running the Alpha for Youth or Alpha on Campus courses. They have seen God work through Youth Alpha to help develop teenager's faith, raise teen leaders to be a part of the teaching team and also reach young people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. Youth Alpha follows weekly topics from the Alpha course. Doing a live talk and making the main points using movie clips, stories, and object lessons means Youth Alpha can be adapted for any size and situation. This introduction will focus on Alpha for Youth but also include information on Alpha on Campus. It will also include a time for Q and A.
Seminar Leader:

Peter F. Carpentier is a retired attorney who has been active in various ministries for over thirty years, and active in Alpha ministries from 1991. Peter is the founder of North Shore Christian Ministries and has a Masters in Divinity from the Weston School of Theology. Peter has been married to Suzanne, his beautiful wife, for 28 years and they have two children, Cassandra and David and three amazing grandchildren. Steph Kiernan is the NH Alpha for Youth director and the mother of 5 including 3 teenage Alpha for Youth leaders. She is a graduate of Franciscan University with an AA in Theology and has many years of ministry experience. Her husband Dick co-leads Alpha for Youth with her and is the Field Ministry Director of Alpha NE.

Abortion - Stand True's Response

Thursday 1:45 pm – The Underground
Two years ago, a young pregnant woman came to Soulfest with a heavy burden. Contemplating whether or not to continue her pregnancy she spoke with Stand True Ministry and Bryan Kemper. During this time, Bryan came along side her, accepted where she was, offered understanding and compassion and talked with her during this difficult time. Last year, at Soulfest 2008, baby Abigail made her first appearance on Main Stage. Another life, another child of God, another loving Mom and more of God’s True Love evidenced in this new life. In this talk, Bryan addresses the 4,000 woman who struggle every day with this decision.
Seminar Leader:

Bryan Kemper is the founder and president of Stand True Ministries, a Christ-centered pro-life group determined to awaken the youth of this country and share the message of life and the Gospel of Christ. A passionate and compelling orator, he has spoken at high schools and colleges across the country, including Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Ball State and many more. He as also spoken to audiences as far away as Ireland and Austria. In the past, he was a regular guest on the television show Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and co-hosted his own call-in cable show in Portland, Oregon. Bryan has been featured on MTV, radio shows, newspapers, and magazines including the cover of the New York Times and a six-page layout in Swing Generation. He has also been featured in three documentary movies. Bryan Kemper has spent years reaching out to youth and encouraging this generation to get involved, and now he has endeavored to continue that outreach with Stand True Ministries.

Mercy Justice

Thursday 1:30 pm – Deeper Well Cafe
Come learn and be inspired by Mercy Ships, a global hospital ship charity. Social justice can only be achieved through the demonstration of the merciful power of True Love—men and women who know God and therefore share the character of our loving God with others. Mercy Ships’ Kathie Connelly will share how this life-changing ministry brings hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor.
Seminar Leader:

Kathie Connelly in her role as a public speaker for Mercy Ships, draws on her career as a critical care nurse and her hands-on experience in medical missions, to inform and mobilize medical and non-medical volunteers for both on and off ship positions. Serving with Mercy Ships for over seven years, she and her husband Peter are the regional development managers for Mercy Ships in New England.

The Contemplative Life

Saturday 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm - The Underground
Contemplatives are people who are fully alert, alive and astonished by the beauty that suffuses the world. They are increasingly awake to the dynamic presence of God in the present moment and live in grateful wonder. By practicing contemplative spirituality we increase our capacity to love God and serve others. Come hear Anglican priest and author Ian Morgan Cron (Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale, NavPress 2007) discuss how contemplative prayer practices can enhance your spiritual life and open your eyes to a new way of walking with God.
Seminar Leader:

Ian Cron - An ordained Anglican priest, Ian Morgan Cron serves as senior pastor and founder of Trinity Church in Greenwich, Conn., a non-denominational community committed to social justice as well as to communicating the Christian story through the arts. To introduce others to St. Francis, whom Cron has billed the "consummate postmodern saint," he authored Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale (September 2007, NavPress). Cron's literary debut has received praise from a host of both Catholic and Protestant thinkers including Brian McLaren, artist Makoto Fujimura, Friar Richard Rohr, Tony Campolo and Brennan Manning. Ian lives in Old Greenwich, CT with his wife Anne and three children Cailey, Madeleine, and Aidan.

The Journey Toward Justice

Friday 10:15 am – The Underground
Is God’s thumb in your back to get involved in the struggle for justice and equity? How does this fit in with “pure” evangelism? Do you get so overwhelmed with the many needs that you can’t figure out how to do anything at all? Do you wonder whether your efforts should be directed locally or globally? Questions like these and more will be explored in this workshop, with concrete examples to help us “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”(Hebrews 10:24)
Seminar Leader:

Rev. Lora Wooster works with adult and graduate students at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA. She and her husband David, also a minister, have pastored urban congregations and been involved with social justice issues over the years on a variety of levels. With a background in social work and program management, she is a regional coordinator for the Central America Partnership (CAP) and a founder of the ENC-MicroEnterprise Fund currently underway in Nicaragua.

Value and Love

Friday 12:15 pm – Deeper Well Cafe
These are two words many kids and adults struggle with in our culture. As the entertainment industry and our peers continue to diminish our worth through their high ideals and expectations, more and more people feel like they don't match up and start doubting their value. We often forget that God has made each and every one of us unique. Yet we try to blend in or become what the world tells us we should be easily forgetting our true identity. Love. A word that is so over-used by kids in relationships that many people become skeptical: even to the love of God. We find ourselves asking God to prove his love to us and he responds with, “What more can I do? Did I not prove my love for you when I died on the cross?
Seminar Leader:

Josh Knipple is the founder/pastor of Crucified Ministries. This Johnstown, PA based ministry focuses on taking the church to those who don't know the love of Jesus. Crucified Ministries has two main elements for local ministry. Life over Death Skatepark,which has developed into a church for most of these kids, is a free skatepark for anyone willling to listen to God's word spoken at the end of the session. Also, the newly formed Crucified Worship Center, which has Sunday evening services and small groups catering to a crowd that has never felt welcome in a traditional church. Josh also travels as a speaker for special events and tours with Crucified Skate Team to do outreach events anytime they are invited.

Children: The Chattel of Modern Day Warfare

Friday 1:30 pm – Deeper Well Cafe
This seminar will provide information about the diverse and traumatizing effects of modern day war on children and families. In recent years, children have become both its targets and increasingly its instruments. A firsthand account will be given by a former child soldier from northern Uganda, detailing the chilling use of children as armed combatants and sex slaves throughout the world. Various approaches and interventions to both shield and protect children from the horrific impacts of war as well as to help them heal will be discussed. Models of reconciliation will be presented, along with the role of the individual Christians and the church in the peace building process. The work of ChildVoice International in northern Uganda will be presented as a case study of a comprehensive approach to healing and restoration in a conflict zone.
Seminar Leader:

Conrad Mandsager has provided "on the ground" expertise to social service organizations in not for profit, for profit, and government sectors. His strong record of leadership and program development has assisted numerous organizations seeking aggressive growth in new and existing ventures that serve children at risk. Some of his credits include the development and launch of the first volunteer-run prison in the US, the development of the second largest mentoring program in the US for at-risk youth, design and launch of Wheels for the World, an international wheelchair refurbishing and distribution program providing wheelchairs to children in over 60 countries. In 2006, Conrad founded ChildVoice International (CVI) in response to the millions of children whose destinies are being destroyed by war. Please visit www.childvoiceintl.org for more information on CVI.

Charles Opiro was only 10 years old in 1995, when he and some friends were attacked by rebels and taken to Sudan where they were trained to become soldiers. Over the next several years, he made frequent trips into Uganda where the rebels attacked villages and abducted school children in order to add to their number. He became a bodyguard to a top commander so he spent a fair amount of time in the rebel leader’s encampments. He was shot in both legs during firefights. Charles’s escape in 2000 from the LRA was long and gruesome. During this time, he continued to ask, “Why God? Please change my life for good.” Eventually, upon reuniting with his family, he discovered his father had been killed. Today, Charles is going to technical school and giving voice to the thousands of children, like him, who were abducted as a spokesman for ChildVoice International.

Your Cash is His Cash: What He wants you to do with it

Friday 3:15 pm – The Underground
In our world today, there is a sharp contrast between the “Haves” and the “Have Nots”. How do we help those who are without the basics in life – food, clothing, shelter – and what does Jesus ask of those of us with financial stability to do? In this seminar, we’ll talk about money, how God views it, and how He wants us to engage the hurting and broken world with the True Love of Christ: the message of salvation and practical financial steps to make other’s lives more livable.
Seminar Leader:

Tim Carpenter is the Director of Family Ministries at Bethany Church in Greenland, New Hampshire. He came to New Hampshire in 2000 to complete his Master’s in sociology at the University of New Hampshire, and then joined the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at UNH. 4 years later, he began working at Bethany Church as the Director of Student Ministries and has recently been moved into his new role overseeing Family Ministries. Tim lives in New Hampshire with his wife Jenny and their 2 dogs, Griffin and Caroline. When not working, Tim enjoys reading, writing, almost anything outdoors, playing airsoft, and sharing the Gospel.

From Competition to Completion: The Power and Importance of Building Youth Ministry Partnerships and Working Together

Friday 1:45 pm – The Underground
This Seminar will look at the Scriptural Principles and very practical reasons youth workers and youth ministries MUST begin to work together if we are going to effectively reach teenagers for Christ and transform our towns and communities here in New England. We will see regional models that work and talk about practical steps to building a strong and effective youth ministry network in your area.
Seminar Leader:

Mark Orr has served in youth ministry for more than 30 years and has experience in both church and parachurch settings. From 1984 through 2005, he served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Young Adult Ministries on the staff of Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, Connecticut. Mark received his BS in Management Science and Organizational Behavior from Penn State University and his seminary training throughFuller and Pittsburgh Seminaries, earning his Master of Divinity degree in 1984. Prior to attending seminary, Mark served as an Area Director for Young Life in Beaver Co. Pennsylvania and also worked as a Drug and Alcohol Prevention Specialist in several school districts. He has completed his course work in preparation for the Doctor of Ministry Degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. Mark now serves as the Executive Director of REACH Youth New England and also as the New England Regional Coordinator for the National Network of Youth Ministries. Mark and his wife, DJ, have two adult children and reside in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The Quietest Voice

Thursday 10:15 am – The Underground
Statistically, at least 1 in 4 women in the United States has had an abortion and yet their voices are mysteriously quiet. We do not hear from them very often in church, at Christian events or on TV and it begs the question, where are they all? Should the church be comfortable with this silence? Do we have anything to say to these women? Do they have anything to say to us? Are we willing to listen? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, come and hear one woman’s thoughts on why women are so silent. Hear about God’s plan to set women free from the shame and self-condemnation of abortion and learn some things that can be done by or for women to help to lead them out of the darkness and shame of abortion and into the freedom Christ intended when He paid for our sins on the cross.