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How this conference is unique ...
A message from Rick and Kay Warren
Since HIV/AIDS was first identified, there have been countless conferences addressing the pandemic from medical, social, political, and religious perspectives by health professionals, NGOs, governments, and para-church ministries.
We believe this conference is both strategically and historically unique.
To our knowledge, no HIV/AIDS conference has ever been built entirely around a local church-based strategy designed to mobilize millions of congregations around the world for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. This conference is first and foremost for pastors of local congregations in our Purpose Driven Network looking for a practical plan of care, treatment, and prevention to use in their own communities.
One of several revolutionary ideas we are bringing to the table is that lay people in local congregations worldwide can be trained to administer peer-to-peer treatment for HIV/AIDS, and because of their longevity and trust in the community, churches can actually do a better job long-term than either governments or NGOs.
BACKGROUND
Around the world, 40 million people have HIV/AIDS; more than 1 million of those individuals live in the United States. Beginning in 2002, a series of circumstances convinced us that God intended for us to use whatever influence we might have to help those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. At first, our hope was simply to add another voice in speaking up for those who are being ignored. But as we studied the pandemic and the related problems such as the lack of a grassroots global distribution network for medicine and nutrition and the need to mobilize millions of volunteers, we realized that the missing part of the solution was right in front of our eyes! The answer is local congregations.
Long before businesses ever began thinking of “globalization” the Christian church was already there. In fact, the Christian church is the only truly global organization, existing in every country and in thousands of indigenous people groups that are not represented by the United Nations or any multinational corporation. With 2.1 billion people claiming to be followers of Christ, Christianity is the largest organization, has the widest network, and offers the biggest volunteer force on the planet. The church is larger than any country, government, or business. In many parts of the world, the church is the only civil society structure.
This annual conference was planned for one simple reason: We believe the HIV/AIDS pandemic will never be eradicated without mobilizing and equipping the millions of local churches that already exist around the world.
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