The Empathy Encounter is a deeply interactive worship and justice experience. Worship, prayer, and scripture converge with film, photography, and artifacts to create an immersive evening capturing God?s heart for justice.

Tom Davis, Children's Hope Chest

Sandie Morgan, Global Center for Women & Justice

Chris Reyes, Life Network

Bishop Michael J. Sheridan, Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs

Kimberly Smith, Make Way Partners

In this session you will discover God's plan for His people to intervene in the circumstances that cause slavery, understand how the Church is uniquely situated to respond, and learn how you can personally take action that will make a difference.

Walk with Kimberly Smith through painfully intimate encounters with genocide, as she has personally recorded them in Darfur and Southern Sudan. Her unique insight has been hard wrought through nearly three years of living within the most extensive attempt of annihilation ever known to mankind. She will help us move from the 'valley of the shadow of death' mentality to living and working within the power Christ promised when He told us that His church would have so much energy, even the gates of hell would not be able to keep us out. In the end, we'll all have a clearer window through which to peer into the heart of God, finding our presence in, and our response to, this evil.

When you hear the word 'orphan', what do you think? Africa? Asia? South America? For some reason, we tend to assume that the phrase 'global orphan crisis' doesn't include the United States. Most people are shocked to hear that the US has more than 120,000 legal orphans - right in our own backyards. This session will explore that issue further and address ways we can have an impact on those orphans right in our communities

What if you haven't been called to adopt a waiting child, but you still want to help orphans and play a role in the adoption process? There is good news. You CAN play a role in the adoption journey, you can help a child, and you can make a world of difference for an adoptive family. This breakout will explore the many ways we can provide much-needed support to adoptive families in our churches and neighborhoods.

How do we see people with differing abilities from a Gospel Perspective? This break-out session will actively explore how to relate to one another from a Gospel Posture, and how to enfold people with disabilities-and their families-into congregational life by applying the Gospel in Practice.

Hope is not simply a matter of, 'Christ died for your sins,' but God's hope is here, it is in you and it now guides you and will take over every aspect of the new you. Hope that in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Jesus walks with us in the here and now, we are known, each one of us, by name. This is also true for the orphan and the forgotten. In the measure that we have received hope, we give hope to those who have been abandoned by all but God and it's the greatest adventure of our lives.

Ever wonder why some Christians emphasize the sanctity of human life while others emphasize justice? Does the Bible give an either-or option? Or, as Christ followers, are we called to a both-and approach? Why does it matter and what does it mean for the Church today? Ignite your passion, enhance your biblical understanding and become better equipped to be an advocate for those who can't speak for themselves - from the preborn to those at the end of life - and at all stages in between.