Registration for the Global Leadership Forum 2008 is now open here.

The 2008 Global Leadership Forum will feature three conversations among leading evangelical thinkers and representatives from other faith traditions about the opportunities and challenges that face an American evangelicalism that is clearly evolving. What traits characterize the “new” evangelicalism? How is it defining, and being defined by, global trends? What are the implications for policy and practice in the public square?

Friday evening’s conversation examines the “newness” of the “new evangelicalism” as it seeks to define what is different about today’s evangelicals, what remains the same, and whether or not a different, blended, identity is emerging.

With this working profile as a foundation, Saturday morning’s first conversation considers the policy priorities of the “new” evangelical, and what impact these priorities might have on November’s presidential election.

The conference concludes with a conversation about how these ideas are practically lived out in a world suspicious of evangelicals. In particular, this conversation explores how deep differences with other faith traditions can be named and better understood in order to enable the coalitions of common values necessary to tackle today’s global challenges.

Dr. Chris Seiple of the Institute for Global Engagement (www.globalengage.org) will moderate each of these 90 minute conversations at Fairfax Community Church (www.fairfaxcommunity.net). Come listen, wrestle, and discern with us as we hear the different and thoughtful perspectives of those serving across the church, government, the media, the academy, and the world.

To register for this event, please click here

Confirmed Speakers

26 September, Friday Evening: First Conversation – Profile

Mark Galli – Senior Managing Editor, Christianity Today
Jay Hein – Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Dr. D. Michael Lindsay – Author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the Halls of Power

27 September, Saturday Morning: Second Conversation – Policy

Dr. Mary Habeck – Special Advisor for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform, National Security Council, White House
Colleen Caroll Campbell – Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.
Suhail A. Khan – Counselor, U.S. Department of Transportation

27 September, Saturday Morning: Third Conversation – Practice

Paul-Gordon Chandler – Author of “Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road”
Nicole Bibbins-Sedaca – Former Senior Advisor for Global Affairs, U.S. State Department
Bethany Hoang – Director of the IJM Institute for International Justice Mission

About the Speakers

Friday Evening

Mark Galli is managing editor of Christianity Today and author of Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God (Baker, 2006), Francis of Assisi and His World, and other books.

Jay F. Hein was named Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives on August 3, 2006. Prior to his position at the White House, Mr. Hein was the founding president of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, an international public policy research firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. In this capacity, he directed the Institute’s research portfolio focusing on a range of community-based policies such as welfare-to-work, access to postsecondary education, affordable health care, and crime prevention. Mr. Hein received a B.A. from Eureka College, where he was an inaugural member of the Ronald W. Reagan Fellowship program, and earned a Master’s degree in Political Studies at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

D. Michael Lindsay is a member of the sociology faculty at Rice University where he is also the Faculty Associate of Leadership Rice and Assistant Director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life. He is the author Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite, as well as two other books co-authored with George Gallup, Jr., and has written many scholarly and popular essays. He has received several awards for his writing, teaching, and speaking and writes a regular column for Rev! magazine.

Saturday Morning, First Panel

Dr. Mary Habeck is an Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies Dr. Habeck previously served as an associate professor of history at Yale University. She also coordinated the Yale Russian Archive Project to facilitate access to documents in the former Soviet archives. Her fields of expertise include American Defense Policy , Islamic Religion and Terrorism. Her publications include: Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (2006). Dr. Habeck received the 2001–02 Morse Fellowship and holds Ph.D. in history from Yale University.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, columnist, television and radio host and former White House speechwriter. She began her career as a reporter at the Memphis Commercial Appeal before becoming a news and editorial writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 2000, Campbell won a $50,000 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship to research and write The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola Press, 2002). A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Marquette University, she then began work toward a doctorate in philosophy at Saint Louis University but interrupted her studies to become one of six speechwriters to President George W. Bush. Campbell worked directly with the President on major policy addresses, writing his speeches on such topics as education, the faith-based initiative, the fight against AIDS and judicial appointments. Now a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, she is an op-ed columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a frequent commentator on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, a contributor to such national publications as The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, National Review Online, and First Things, and host of “Faith & Culture,” a television and radio interview show that airs on EWTN, the world’s largest religious media network, and Sirius Satellite Radio. She speaks to audiences across America and her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.

Suhail A. Khan was born in Boulder, Colorado, to parents who emigrated to Wyoming and Colorado from southern India. The oldest of five children, Suhail grew up in California and earned his B.A. in political science from University of California at Berkeley in 1991 and his J.D. from University of Iowa in 1995. He served as Policy Director and Press Secretary for U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA) where he worked closely on legislation relating to health antitrust reform, religious freedom, the preservation of the Second Amendment, tort reform, the reform of race-based affirmative action, and the 1998 impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. After the 2000 elections, he aided the White House Office of Public Liaison in the President’s outreach to the conservative, think-tank, military & veteran and Asian-American communities. He is currently serving as Counselor under U.S. Secretary Mary Peters at the U.S. Department of Transportation where he was awarded the Secretary’s Team Award in 2005 and the Secretary’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 2007. In a volunteer capacity, he is an active participant in the RNC’s 72-hour program and has deployed to key races in states including Colorado, Washington, Iowa, Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He serves on the Board of the American Conservative Union, the Indian American Republican Council, and the Islamic Free Market Institute. He lives in Washington, DC and enjoys movies, WWII history, and restoring and riding vintage Harley-Davidsons.

Saturday Morning, Second Panel

Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler, affiliated with the U.S. Episcopal Church, currently serves as the Rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist/Maadi in Cairo, Egypt, within the Episcopal Diocese of Egypt & North Africa. St. John’s Church/Maadi is the international English-speaking Episcopal/Anglican church in southern Cairo and its international congregation of over 20 nationalities welcomes people from many denominations and church traditions, primarily from the diplomatic, aid and business communities. Immediately prior to this role, he served as the President/CEO of Partners International (PI), an international and ecumenical Christian non-profit that exists to assist and empower indigenous Christian holistic non-governmental organizations in over 70 countries in the Two Thirds World, in areas where Christians are a minority, toward effectively meeting both physical and spiritual needs. Before serving with PI, he was the U.S. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of International Bible Society (IBS), a non-profit involved in publishing, distributing and translating the Scriptures in over 500 languages, and the sponsor of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, the best-selling English translation worldwide.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca serves as the Senior Director for Strategic Planning and External Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In this position, she manages the bureau’s long-range planning efforts and outreach to key partners, including Congress, non-governmental organizations, and media. Prior to this position, Ms. Bibbins Sedaca served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. Her portfolio included democracy promotion initiatives, as well as the Community of Democracies, the Millennium Challenge Account and Trafficking in Persons. She also served as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary, handling democracy, human rights, religious freedom, labor issues, and trafficking. From 1997-2001, she was the Special Assistant to the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, the Balkans Refugee Affairs Officer, and Special Assistant to Ambassador for Kosovo Implementation, each at the U.S. Department of State. She earned a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the College of William and Mary.

Bethany Hoang serves as Director of the IJM Institute ( [url=http://www.ijminstitute.org]http://www.ijminstitute.org[/url]) for International Justice Mission. IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems. Ms. Hoang received a B.A. in Religion and History from Miami University of Ohio, and she received a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary where she graduated with the honor of receiving the distinguished Fellowship in Theology. Ms. Hoang joined IJM in 2001. She travels globally, speaking and teaching to thousands on behalf of IJM at churches, conferences and universities. As Director of the IJM Institute, she is responsible for equipping leaders of the global church and academic communities with tools and resources for bringing others into a deeper level of understanding, passion, and commitment to seeking justice on behalf of those who suffer abuse and oppression in our world.

Ms. Hoang was recently featured in The Relevant Nation: 50 Activist, Artists And Innovators Who Are Changing Their World Through Faith. She was also featured in the September/October edition of Relevant Magazine.