A conference motivated by selfless motivations, an opportunity to show compassion through serving, a chance to discover the joy behind loving others. City Impact Conference invites you to join the 2,000 others to make an impact in the lives of 37,000 residents and 6,000 homeless in the poorest and most densely populated district of San Francisco – the Tenderloin.
San Francisco City Impact will hold a one-day conference at historic Warfield Theatre, where participants will be filled with worship and then dispatched throughout the one square mile in Tenderloin at 43 outreaches on August 17, 2013. These outreaches include praying for the guests, minister to homeless one-on-one, cutting hair, cook thousands of meals, provide medical services (dental, vision, general health), washing feet, food and grocery delivery, act as security guard, help people reconnect with family, plant trees, play music and worship walking through neighborhood, throw sports bash with kids, and listen to someone’s story, etc. A new venue is to cheer for tenderloin residents as they compete with pro-athletes in basic sports abilities.
City Impact Conference has invited New York Times best-selling author and pastor Francis Chan, Brian and Jenn Johnson of Bethel Music, Reality SF lead pastor Dave Lomas, and SFCI executive director Christian Huang. Together, they will lead the participants in worship and prep them to hit the streets to put into practice the Greatest Commandment – “To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Volunteers praying before handing out meals to residents in Tenderloin. (City Impact Conference)
(City Impact Conference)
(City Impact Conference)
“Ultimately we just want to see a spiritual awakening in San Francisco. This might be a spark to create a movement,” said Roger Huang, SFCI founder, in an interview with The Gospel Herald. “Our work is to go into the building and interact with the homeless, the kids. We do the physical work. In that, we see the lives being transformed.”
Francis Chan is the author of books, Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell. He is also the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is working to start a church planting movement in the Tenderloin district through Adopt-a-Building project and to launch a countrywide discipleship movement.
Brian and Jenn Johnson are the Senior Worship Pastors at Bethel Church, where they also oversee Bethel School of Worship and represent Bethel Music. They are featured on all of the Bethel Live albums and The Loft Sessions, and have written popular songs including “For the Sake of the World,” “Come to Me,” “One Thing Remains,” “God I Look to you,” “Love Came Down” and “O Taste and See.”
Dave Lomas is the lead pastor of Reality SF, a church community that started in 2010 in the Castro District. The Reality family of churches is a small movement committed to relational church planting and serving the broader body of Christ.
Huang’s father Roger Huang started SF City Impact 30 years ago in Tenderloin. Christian helped co-found Adopt-A-Building, which is a movement to adopt every building in the Tenderloin by mobilizing volunteers to pray, meet tangible needs and make disciples. In 2012, Huang became executive director of City Impact which has grown to 5 major departments: Rescue Mission, City Academy, Adopt a Building, Volunteer Center and City Impact Church.
City Impact Conference 2013 will be held the 86-year-old historic Warfield Theater, where artists such as Bob Dylan, Faith No More, Prince, The Killers, Kings of Leon to Adele, as well as played host to charitable fundraisers for organizations such as GLIDE Memorial Church and Tipping Point.
Registration begins at 8am at the Warfield Theatre, followed by prayer and morning session at 9am. Then, the outreaches in the Tenderloin begin at 11am and end at 3:30pm. The night session at the Warfield will resume from 6pm-8:30pm.
City Impact organizers are asking participants to donate supplies to help underwrite the cost of the outreaches through purchasing them on City Impact Outreach Amazon page here. The special summer registration cost is $79+$4.94 fee. Group registration (10+ tickets) is $59 plus $3.94 fee.
For more information including registration, visit 2013 City Impact Conference website.
