Check Out the Justice Conference, Feb. 22-23 in Philly

Hey Justice Seekers, in case you haven’t heard, the Justice Conference is taking place in Philly February 22-23.  At the moment, I’m looking for solutions that will allow me to attend but if you go, I would love for you to guest post here. Let me know.

For now, here’s the 101:

About – “The Justice Conference is a two-day annual event to promote dialogue around justice related issues such as human trafficking, slavery, poverty, HIV/AIDS and human rights, featuring internationally acclaimed speakers, hundreds of humanitarian organizations and dozens of pre-conference workshops.” Further, I have become a recent fan of World Relief – glad they’re a big part of the organizing of it. Also love that Relevant Magazine is involved.
Speakers Everyone knows John Perkins, Shane Claiborne and Gary Haugen but I’d make sure you also listen to those like Eugene Cho & Sheryl WuDunn and so many others at the Breakouts.
Registration costs – Depending on when you register & if you are a student, you could do it for under $100. Even if you are no longer a student and procrastinate til the day of – the max cost is $210. They even post their conference budget breakdown on the site – very respectable.
Music Besides John Francis, I don’t know any of the musicians. Which in a Christian music context, is a good thing.
and Film Festival – More info is coming on this – sounds cool though.
Downtown Philly! – The Convention Center (PCC) is right in the heart of the Philly. A couple blocks away is City Hall and the William Penn Statue. Next to that is the famous Love Park. About a block from that is a La Colombe coffee shop. I hear that was Ben Franklin’s favorite morning stop. Just a heads up, everyone in Philly sincerely believes that he invented wifi – just go with it.

I am a firm believer of attending these types of events. I know some are in the habit of saying things like “Why go to a conference about justice, just go serve in your local soup kitchen or something” and then they go home and watch tv during the weekend of the conference. Or, “You don’t learn about justice by going to a conference, you learn by doing.” From my experience it’s both and much more. The learning helps your doing and doing drives you to learn more, among the reasons is that doing good isn’t that simple.

So you attend something like this for at least 3 reasons:
To listen to some sharp practitioners share their story. This should move us to reflect on if we can apply any of their wisdom to our context. It’s similar to why we read books – learning and thinking about ideas help us – we are reading right?
Two, to gather with those similar and not similar. We need to get out context and gather with those who have similar passions, contexts, values, and mission. But we also need to gather with those who have different perspectives on things and they need you. I truly believe there are only some things we can all learn only if we leave our zip code.
Three, to receive some encouragement, inspiration and motivation. I listen to a good number of sermon podcasts, the one thing they cannot capture is the energy of being in the room with people. It’s the difference between a band’s album and the concert. It’s not about the emotional high, but being emotional beings, we ought to be concerned if we live too much of our lives emotionally low or numb. Maybe it’s time to rediscover some of that idealism that you used to excite you.

Because the conference is taking place in the Convention Center, I’m hearing there could be 5000-6000 people there. Even if it’s half or quarter of that – it would be amazing to gather with that many people under the themes of justice, compassion and the gospel. Hope some of you can make it – if I get there, would love to say hey.

Here’s there video – probably one of the better promos I’ve seen: