Paul Michalski transparently shares his amazing faith journey and the lessons he has learned about ambition, priorities and identity. He talks about a life of performance, achievement and control that had to face the reality of a marriage crisis in 2003 and near-divorce in 2004. Paul explains the promises of God that he leaned on through that crisis, the way that his life priorities were perfectly upside down, and the stages that eventually culminated in a miracle reconciliation in 2004 (chronicled in Eric Metaxas's book "Miracles").

The next turning point in his journey came in 2009 when he felt God's prompting to leave his prestigious Wall Street legal practice for "a different plan". Paul discusses what he believes to be a critical identity choice for every follower of Jesus--whether you see yourself as "what you do" or "who you are". He also shares the implications of that choice in the workplace. Paul's ensuing nine-year journey since 2009 has included helping NCS in its transition from a regional to a national organization and, most recently, has led to the formation of Integrous LLC (integriosity.com)--an advisory and legal practice helping faith-inspired leaders integrate their work into their faith by pursuing "Integriosity".

Will Haughey shares the journey of a man who is touched deeply by faith at a young age and who dreams of being an entrepreneur. Coming from a high-achieving family, Will put high expectations for "success" on himself and went from excelling in college to landing a dream job and excelling at Goldman Sachs. He was chasing success and living a charmed life.

The next stage of the journey was joining his brother to marry his faith passion with his entrepreneurial passion through a new company, Tegu, manufacturing toys in Hondura--a "triple bottom line" venture. With expectations for continued success, Will describes how he moved painfully through the cycle of an entrepreneur, from "uninformed optimism" (certain Tegu would quickly become profitable) to "informed pessimism" (struggling with the setbacks that made him feel like he had let down his stakeholders).

With great transparency, Will explains the "absolute surrender"--the "death of Will"-- that was required to find peace with the rhythm of the journey. He shares in detail the excruciating but liberating surrender at God's altar of everything precious to him--children, family, wife, business, house. Anyone who reads "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers has read about what Chambers calls a "white funeral" or "the burial of the old life". Will Haughey shows us what that actually looks like and means in one man's life.  Listen and be inspired.

Scott Semple, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction, shares with great humility, transparency and emotion how the loss of his 15 year old son to cancer equipped him with the boldness to accept the position of Commissioner and take on the challenge of reforming Connecticut's correctional facilities.

Together with Connecticut's Governor, Semple visited prisons in Europe and witnessed "dignity, hope and humanity" in the system. He vowed to find a way to bring those qualities into the culture and operation of the Connecticut correctional system. In addition to sharing his heart for reform, Semple explains the six pillars he is instituting to complement Connecticut's Second Chance Initiative. He also shares the reform journey that he and his staff have been on for the past few years, including a pilot project unlike any other prison experiment in the country. After 13 months, the results of the pilot are nothing short of extraordinary.

Dave Blanchard shares a "redemptive" vision for business--what Praxis calls "Redemptive Entrepreneurship". He walks through the elements of redemptive strategy, redemptive execution and redemptive leadership and explains the key pathways to redemptive work--leaders transforming their internal script and then pursuing the redemptive edge of their business. After sharing his own story of realizing his pursuit of wealth lacked meaning, Blanchard asks us to reflect on the "good life" we are pursuing through our work? Is it one of material wealth and consumption or one of sacrifice and virtue? He then presents the stark contrast between businesses that seek to exploit culture and use people and businesses that seek to renew culture and honor people. Recognizing that redemptive work is not easy, Blanchard challenges us to consider what the redemptive edge of our work might look like?

Session 4 from the 2013 New Canaan Society Washington Weekend

Session 1 from the 2013 New Canaan Society Washington Weekend

With great humility and vulnerability, Kevon Saber shares his incredible faith and life journey as an entrepreneur and a follower of Jesus--from the miraculous healing of his brother to an unexpected and unbelievably successful business meeting that was prophesied years earlier. Kevon describes huge steps of faith in which he and his partners did what they believed to be the right thing, even at the risk of their entrepreneurial ventures failing. And he testifies to how God showed up in unexpected and inexplicable ways, seemingly to honor that obedience and trust. Most importantly, Kevon shares his heart for the redemptive and God-glorifying potential of business.

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One element of the NCS slogan is "right wrong", and NCS brudder Dr. John Robb shares, with great humility and faith, the inspiring story of how he has been standing up to "Goliaths" for over six years in a heroic effort to "right a wrong" that endangers the health and lives of pets every day--over-vaccination for rabies. Those Goliaths have come in the form of a huge multi-national corporation as well as the State of Connecticut. Dr. Robb explains how God has guided his steps and protected and provided throughout the journey as he has been called to lay down his medical license and livelihood in honoring his Hippocratic Oath and fighting for the animals God created. He also shares how the setbacks have allowed this effort to spread not only nationwide but worldwide.  A Facebook video about Dr. Robb's efforts has been viewed 34 MILLION times and five states and some foreign countries are now considering legislation to address the wrongs Dr. Robb has been fighting.  As a modern-day David battling a giant or a modern-day Daniel doing what he believes is right no matter the personal cost, Dr. Robb knows that the the God of the Universe is standing with him in the battle.

A. T. shares some lessons learned from his upbringing in communist Poland, including the prophetic words of a grandfather who was introduced to the Bible in a Russian gulag in Siberia--what we see in the world is an illusion and only Scripture allows us both to see the world accurately and see the path forward. A. T. suggests that in order to fulfill God's purpose in our generation like David, we must have an understanding of the times like the mighty men of Issachar "who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do". A. T. also talked about efforts in the area of artificial intelligence to create "Humanity 2.0"--a promise of eternal life without God. This is proceeding with the resources of Google behind it. A. T. posits that technology is attractive because it provides optimism, albeit optimism based on an illusion. Christianity has a bigger and better story, but many Christians don't know it or don't know how to tell it. That bigger story is a four-part Gospel (rather than the two-part Gospel of sin and redemption) that starts at God's creation of a beautiful world and goes past sin and redemption all the way to God's restoration plan for his Kingdom. A.T. urges us to stay faithful, to keep each other accountable, not to fear what is coming because our God is in charge, and to learn to tell the bigger and better story.

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On the eve of the release of his new book "The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church", John Seel shares the amazing story of how he came to study Millennials, the courageous story of how he learned about Millennials and the inspiring story of how the book became a reality. Most importantly, however, he shares what he came to learn about Millennials, particularly how misunderstood they are by Boomers. While Dr. Seel believes that Millennials hold the key to the life of the church, he is also convinced that the "frame" through which Millennials view the world has the potential to bring the rest of us closer to the way of Jesus.

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