Date: March 7, 5 PM - March 9, 10 AM

Place: Central Church of the Nazarene Lenexa, Kansas (Nearest airport - Kansas City International, Kansas City, Missouri)

Lodging: Hawthorn Suites, Overland Park, KS

Speaker: Gerardo Marti 

Cost: The conference itself is free. Housing and meal costs are held to a minimum. 

Theme:  The Multicultural Church: Are We Better Together?

As neighborhood demographics change, local church congregations are facing new challenges. Should the local church change to reflect its community, and if so, how? Should we become more multicultural, creating blended congregations, or worship in separate, homogeneous groups? What kinds of churches should we be planting? What do sociology and research findings have to say to help local and district leadership who are being affected by these cultural shifts? How does what is happening to local congregations and neighborhoods inform a denomination that is facing increasing internationalization? 

Gerardo Marti is L. Richardson King Associate Professor of Sociology at Davidson College. Prof. Marti is the author of three books: A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church (Indiana University Press, 2005), Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church (Rutgers University Press, 2008), and Worship Across the Racial Divide: Religious Music and the Multiracial Congregation (Oxford University Press, 2012). As an engaged scholar of religion, Prof. Marti works amidst the worlds of both \"church\" and \"academy.\" His current book project, The Deconstructed Church, focuses on characteristics of emerging Christianity and is under contract with Oxford University Press.