Students to Gather for Imagine What’s NEXT in Atlanta

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., October 26, 2016 – College students from around the world will gather next week for the Imagine What’s NEXT conference in Atlanta’s historic Tabernacle Theater. The collegiate conference, November 4-6, is designed to help students discover their passions and put them into action for Christ around the globe. The event offers leadership development and exposure to various areas of service where the students can use their gifts to effect immediate change.

While Imagine What’s NEXT is an event, on a broader scale, NEXT is a community of United Methodist students, friends and leaders who are called to make a difference by living the conference theme, “Dream. Go. Do.” This movement is led by the collegiate ministry office of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM).

Imagine What’s NEXT features inspirational guest and student speakers purposefully selected to motivate attendees to look beyond the familiar to make a change.

Speaker Highlights

Main stage speakers include worldwide traveling peacemaker, Shane Claiborne; global advocate for water rights, Farhana Sultana; and sought after communicator and community strategist, Romal Tune. The Saturday night featured musical performance is the highly acclaimed band, Stars Go Dim.

  • Shane Claiborne is a peacemaker. His journeys have taken him to some of the most troubled regions of the world – from Rwanda to the West Bank – and he’s been on peace delegations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  • Farhana Sultana is broadly interested in nature-society relationships, political ecology, development studies, feminist theories, climate change, water governance, and South Asia. Her latest book is “The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles.”
  • Romal Tune is the embodiment of living beyond the label. After overcoming the setbacks of his upbringing and the destructive choices of his youth, he is now a sought out communicator, community strategist, and inclusion consultant. Romal is a cultivator of hope and dignity, moving individuals from setbacks to success as leaders — something he knows full well.

See full speaker bios at nextumc.org/#_speakers.

Attendees are guided by pre-event curriculum leading up to the conference, and have an opportunity to participate in community gatherings throughout Atlanta during the event. Distinct nonprofit and community service partner organizations have been chosen for the community gatherings to give attendees a chance to hear from local experts and engage in a time of learning and service.

Curriculum

To help attendees prepare for the event, an interactive curriculum is available leading up to, through, and following the conference. The six-week study can be used individually, but it is highly recommended that those using it take the journey in a small group setting. The NEXT study guide intertwines the Dream. Go. Do. theme, and focuses on sustainability of the Church, self and creation care. Following the conference, attendees will be encouraged to continue the NEXT movement with the final curriculum component. The curriculum is available for download at: nextumc.org/next-resources.

Community Gatherings

Attendees are invited to participate in community gatherings on the afternoon ofSaturday, November 5. These gatherings are a time for participants to learn from partner community organizations and engage in a time of learning and service. Partner organizations include:

At the Atlanta Community Food Bank, participants will work with Food Bank staff to increase their awareness of hunger and poverty on the local, state and national levels. They will learn how to address hunger in their own communities and help the Food Bank sort thousands of pounds of food for distribution to community members in need in 29 counties. "We are so excited to have students and staff from Imagine What’s NEXT join us at the Food Bank," said Lindy Wood, senior education and outreach manager at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. "NEXT students from all over the world will dive into local and national hunger issues and identify the many ways they can continue to actively and powerfully address hunger within their own communities."

At another gathering, participants will have an opportunity to engage in the Clarkstonrefugee community, learning how non-profits are empowering refugees through unique opportunities.

Global Frontier Missions is partnering with Friends of Refugees and Proskuneo School of the Arts to host this community gathering. Participants will rotate through three experiences: refugee orientation and loss simulation, biblical worldview, and multi-ethnic worship experiences. “Global Frontier Missions offers summer internships and missionary training school for college students and adults interested in exploring a call to cross-cultural ministry,” a spokesperson for Global Frontier Missions shared. “We partner with churches and community organizations to meet the physical and spiritual needs of refugees and internationally born immigrants in the Atlanta area."

The Center for Civil and Human Rights will host a community gathering, providing a platform for powerful conversations that connect the American Civil Rights Movement to today’s Global Human Rights Movements.

With the recent slew of natural disasters and global conflicts, the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, or UMCOR, and having relief kits available is vital. Students participating in this community gathering will assist in packing relief kits, which provide basic necessities to people who have been forced to leave their homes because of human conflict or natural disaster. Health kits are also used as learning tools in personal hygiene, literacy, and cooking classes.

General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) is the Mission Agency of the United Methodist Church. GBGM will host two community gatherings. First, during a guided stations community gathering, participants will have a chance to walk a labyrinth, name their gifts, confront oppression and address fears at the Fear Wall or prayerfully journal or doodle. Guided stations give participants the space to commune with God and lead them one step closer to saying, "Here I am, Lord, send me.” The second GBGM community gathering, Health: Local Actions, Global Impact, will serve as a platform for discussions around Global Health. What can be done? What is being done? What can I do? The gathering will teach participants how to be a part of the global health movement.

Attendees will have an option to participate in several roundtable discussions about issues that are directly related to their faith and who God is calling each person to be in the world. Topics will range from ethnic concerns, immigration, and black lives matter to financial resources available to help students budget and pay for college. More information about the community gatherings and roundtable discussions can be found at nextumc.org/community-gatherings.

Imagine What’s NEXT encourages and supports students who dream of making a difference in the world right now for Christ. The combination of community gatherings, interactive curriculum and motivational speakers, guides students on a journey to truly imagine what’s next as they intentionally follow their call. The conference is organized by a “dream team” consisting of college students, campus ministers and other creative disciples from across the United Methodist connection and was created out of The United Methodist Student Movement.

Campus ministers can receive 1.3 CEU's by attending NEXT, and will also receive a free admission by registering five students.

Follow Imagine What’s NEXT on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and participate on social using the following hashtags: #next16, #roadtonext #nextumc.

Ebony Lincoln serves as director of communications for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn.