Have you ever wanted to quadruple the influence of your church in your community?

The ACC Community Engagement Conference features community thought leaders who are addressing the needs of the nation using the strengths already in their communities. The Conference includes face-to-face convening, an opportunity to speak into ACC Community Engagement’s strategic directions and priorities, and a forum to showcase best practices.

Get ready to rethink, unlearn and relearn. Add onto your conference registration a one-day practical overview of the principles and practices that Build Strong Communities on Tuesday 4th September. Click "Building Strong Communities Workshop + 2 Day Conference Pass." Topics covered will include:

Working WITH the community
Gifts of individuals, community groups and institutions
Listening and asset mapping
Learning conversations to discover what people care about
Principles, practices, dimensions of building strong communities.

Speakers this year at the ACC Community Engagement Conference include:

Jarrod Mckenna: Jarrod McKenna is the co-founder of First Home Project, a community welcoming, housing and “giving a hand up not a hand-out” to recently arrived refugees, is the Teaching Pastor at Cornerstone Church in Perth, was a part of initiating the #LoveMakesAWay movement, and is a peace award winning nonviolent social change trainer, working primarily in the Middle East and Eastern Europe when not at home.

Paul Bartlett: Paul and Annette Bartlett took on the role of Senior Leaders of Lighthouse in 2000. Lighthouse sees things differently. They exist for people. They’re here to give. Not to get. They are multifaceted, multi purpose, multi platform. Lighthouse provides a number of community innovations including Lighthouse Youth Initiative and Lighthouse Community Kitchen. Their OBSESSION is to love their community. No strings attached. Lighthouse largely consists of volunteers ready and willing to do whatever it takes so that others can have the best life possible. Paul is also the National Leader for Community Engagement in Australian Christian Churches, overseeing some 1100 churches. Paul’s other roles include being the President of Cedars Christian College – a school of over 600 students – as well as the Chaplain to NBL basketball team, the Wollongong Hawks. Paul and Annette are both personal development coaches to many leaders and professionals in the broader community specialising in the area of leadership and vision development, team building and organisational change.

Lisa Sharon Harper: Lisa Sharon Harper, Sojourners’ senior director of mobilizing, was the founding executive director of New York Faith & Justice—an organization at the hub of a new ecumenical movement to end poverty in New York City. In that capacity, she helped establish Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice, a citywide collaborative effort of faith leaders committed to leveraging the power of their constituencies and their moral authority in partnership with communities bearing the weight of environmental injustice. She also organized faith leaders to speak out for immigration reform and organized the South Bronx Conversations for Change, a dialogue-to-change project between police and the community. She earned her master’s in human rights from Columbia University in New York City. Harper serves on the board of directors of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good and is a member of Metro Hope Church in New York City, an Evangelical Covenant Church.

Andy Gourley: Andy Gourley is the founder and director of Red Frogs Australia, a global support program that provides direct relief from alcohol and drug-related issues that are known to cause anxiety, suffering, distress and helplessness amongst young people. From an accountant by day and skateboarding youth worker at night, Andy Gourley saw a need for young people to be safeguarded - so he did something to meet that need.

Andy was listed in American AACSB's Top 100 Influential Leaders in 2015 and is highly acclaimed for his direction and leadership not only in Red Frogs Australia but in providing strategic direction for ministries nationally and internationally. Today, Andy is a local pastor at Citipointe Church Brisbane, and is driven to continue "safeguarding this generation of young people.”

Kara Martin: Kara Martin is Project Leader with Seed, MBA Curriculum Developer with Excelsia College, and former Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute at Ridley College in Melbourne. She has worked in media and communications, human resources, business analysis and policy development roles, in a variety of organisations, and as a consultant. She was Director of the School of Christian Studies for three years and has lectured with the Brisbane School of Theology, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Wesley Institute. Kara has a passion for integrating our Christian faith and work, as well as helping churches connect with the workers in their congregations.

Learn more about the ACC Community Engagement Conference here: http://acccommunityengagement.org.au/community-conference/