Thank you for a wonderful experience together at Karam Forum 2022 – watch the ON monthly newsletter for updates on our next gathering!
Join us at Karam Forum 2022 this November 17-18! Gather with us live in Denver, or join by Zoom from wherever you are.
You don’t need to decide ahead of time which way you’ll participate! Reserve your ticket today, and decide later whether you’ll join us in person at Park Church or via Zoom.
Members of Karam Fellowship get discount admission to Karam Forum. Find out more and join the Fellowship to enjoy great benefits, like a subscription to our peer-reviewed journal Faith & Flourishing, and support our work for the future of theological education.
Thank you for a wonderful experience together at Karam Forum 2022 – watch the ON monthly newsletter for updates on our next gathering!
Karam Forum 2022 will take place at Park Church in Denver.
You can also choose to participate by Zoom from wherever you are! You don’t need to decide ahead of time which way you’ll participate. Reserve your ticket today, and decide later whether you’ll join us in person at Park Church or via Zoom.
Thank you for a wonderful experience together at Karam Forum 2022 – watch the ON monthly newsletter for updates on our next gathering!
Q. What are the ticket prices?
Ticket prices for Karam Forum 2022 are:
General admission: $65
Karam Fellowship members: $50
Q. Do I buy a different ticket if I want to participate by Zoom?
Nope, you buy the same ticket regardless of which way you want to participate, live in Denver or by Zoom.
Q: Do I have to choose which way I’m going to participate before I buy my ticket?
Nope! Reserve your ticket today and decide which way you’re going to participate whenever you like.
Q. What is Karam Fellowship and how does the special price on Karam Forum tickets work?
Karam Fellowship is a community of theological educators cultivating theology for the life of the world. Members enjoy lots of great benefits, including a subscription to our peer-reviewed journal Faith & Flourishing, our weekly email The Grapevine, full access to our monthly newsletter and webinars.
One of the benefits of becoming a member of Karam Fellowship is to qualify for a discount ticket to Karam Forum. The general admission ticket to Karam Forum is $65, while tickets for Karam Fellowship members are $50. (There are no other differences between the tickets.)
All you have to do is join Karam Fellowship and then, when you register for Karam Forum, click on the $50 ticket for Karam Fellowship members instead of on the $65 general admission ticket. That’s it!
Q. Are there any coupon codes or other discounts?
No. Even the director of the Oikonomia Network is buying his own ticket out of his own pocket. For background on why we can no longer offer the coupon codes we have offered our partners in the past, check out the ON’s official history to see how our work has changed in the past year.
Q. Are meals included in the event?
One meal is included: We will provide a boxed lunch immediately after the event concludes on Friday. Attendees will be on their own for other meals. We encourage you to connect for fellowship with colleagues!
Q. What is the dress code?
The sacred text says “business casual.” You are free to exegete that text however you wish, and develop your own systematic and practical theology on that basis. We regret to report that we do not possess the power of infallible interpretation, but we trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to bring God’s people into harmony at Karam Forum, as he always has in ages past, in a spirit of diversity-in-unity and unity-in-diversity.
Q: Where is Karam Forum taking place?
Park Church in Denver, very close to where ETS and AAR/SBL are taking place.
Q. Are hotel arrangements available?
Karam Forum does not have its own hotel arrangements, but note that ETS conference hotel rates are typically available through the dates Karam Forum is meeting.
Q. What about ground transportation?
Attendees need to provide their own ground transportation. We recommend using your preferred rideshare service.
Q. How does participation via Zoom work?
Anyone who purchases a ticket to Karam Forum can join us either live or via Zoom. You don’t have to buy a special ticket; we extend the Zoom option to all ticketholders. Everyone who buys a ticket will be sent a link allowing them to join us by Zoom.
We will have staff on site whose responsibility will be ensuring that the Zoom feed is functioning properly at all times, and fielding any problems that arise.
Those who join us via Zoom will get to see and hear all presentations during Karam Forum.
During table discussion periods, Zoom participants will engage discussion with colleagues in Zoom conference rooms.
During Q&A sessions, Zoom participants will be able to send in their questions using the same system in-person participants use.
Q. How do I keep up to date on further announcements?
At Karam Forum 2022, Denise Daniels of Wheaton College presents findings from her multi-year research on Christians in the business world, especially Christian entrepreneurs, to see what’s going well and where growth is still needed. This presentation leads into her interview with Helen Young Hayes (our next video).
At Karam Forum 2022, Helen Young Hayes of Activate Workforce Solutions tells Denise Daniels of Wheaton College about her revolutionary experience leaving the heights of Wall Street to start a business in Denver that hires former convicts and others on the margins who need a path into the workforce, creating “triple wins for job seekers, employers and the community.”
At Karam Forum 2022, Michaela O’Donnell talks real talk about the challenges theological educators are facing today in their vocational formation, as well as the opportunities to serve the world that flow from refreshing our vocation. More and more of our jobs as theological educators consist of doing things that we didn’t sign up for back when we entered this sector of service; how can we become the leaders that the church and the world need us to be?
At Karam Forum 2021, David French of The Dispatch and Michael Wear of Public Square Strategies – both of whom operate at the highest levels of American politics, and have made big personal sacrifices for the sake of Christian integrity – joined us digitally to discuss the intense pressures that political polarization is bringing to bear on the church. How can we create a faithful public witness and also maintain our prophetic independence? Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College moderated the discussion.
At Karam Forum 2021, Jennifer Woodruff Tait of St. John’s Episcopal Church and Charlie Self of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary discuss our divergent historical views of the Industrial Revolution – the bad news and the good news – and consider how the response of the Wesleyan movement can help us hold together both affirming what is good in major social changes and opposing what is wrong. Panel discussion follows with Jay Moon of Asbury Theological Seminary and P.J. Hill of Wheaton College. Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College hosted the session.
At the live meeting of Karam Forum 2021, we held a Global Session to hear from colleagues in theological education across Asia about their work bridging the sacred-secular divide. Speakers included Edwin Tay of Trinity Theological College (Singapore), Havilah Dharamraj of South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (India), Ivor Poobalan of Colombo Theological Seminary (Sri Lanka) and Sutrisna Harjanto of Bandung Theological Seminary (Indonesia). Kara Martin of Alphacrucis College (Australia) hosted the session.
At Karam Forum 2021, Nathan Hitchcock discusses how coming together around a meal – whether at the Lord’s Table or sharing a “Snickers salad” – can be the starting point for really living into the calling to justice.
Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, and John Nunes, president of Concordia College-New York, share their vision for how Christian higher education can flourish in the 21st century. This is the morning session of the Karam Forum 2021 Virtual Meeting.
Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary and an interdisciplinary panel discuss how theological learning can be more effectively connected to the way people live their lives. This is the afternoon session of the Karam Forum 2021 Virtual Meeting. The traditional closing hymns of Karam Forum are also included. Panelists include: Peter Cha of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Charlie Self of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Lynn Cohick of Denver Seminary and Gerry Breshears of Western Seminary.
The Karam Forum 2021 Virtual Meeting included a special two-hour Global Session. Our longtime Australian partners took over the content for the Global Session, and the result was a rich discussion of the past, present and future of whole-life discipleship and faith/work integration in theological education from outside the North American context. Speakers included Kara Martin of Alphacrucis College (who also hosted), Keith McPherson of Alphacrucis College, Thomas Kimber of the Melbourne School of Theology, Ian Hussey of Malyon College, Dave Benson of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (who stayed up to 3am to be with us!) and Andrew Sloane of Morling College.
At Karam Forum 2020, Rachael and Jacob Denhollander challenged the church to embrace a bigger vision of justice and the gospel, so the church can respond to injustice with holiness as well as with compassion. They discuss the atonement, eschatology, the relationship between justice and vocation, and a right understanding of the role of pastoral leadership, to show that justice is woven together with everything the church is and does. Patrick Smith of Duke Divinity School moderated the discussion. See also our shorter video for classroom use.
At Karam Forum 2020, Lisa Slayton of Tamim Partners and Terry Timm of Christ Community Church of the South Hills discuss how the new economy is reshaping the task of discipling believers in their whole life’s work. Panel discussion follows with Christeen Rico of Apple, DeLano Sheffield of Macedonia Baptist Church, and Michaela O’Donnell Long of Fuller Theological Seminary. Debroah Gill of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary hosts the session. See also our shorter video for classroom use.
In this session from Karam Forum 2020, Charisse Jones of Asbury Theological Seminary offers a Christian vision for entrepreneurship as a key part of the church’s mission to the world, grounded in God’s creative love. Joe Gorra of the Veritas Life Center points to a broader set of theological questions for understanding entrepreneurship, such as pneumatology and eschatology; and Dean Blevins of Nazarene Theological Seminary shares how his school is training future church leaders to support entrepreneurship. Lawrence Ward of Abundant Life Church hosts the session.
David Miller address at Karam Forum 2019 on the state of the faith and work movement, and how theological schools can be part of what’s going on, followed by testimonies from Fernando Tamara and Helen Kim.
Four pastors, three seminary professors and two economists discuss theology and economic issues…sitting on only six chairs. Discussing topics that range from the image of God and technology to justice and the modern economic order are Kevin Dudley of The Church at North Pointe, Isaac Frere of The Font, P.J. Hill of Wheaton College, Lawrence Ward of Abundant Life Church and Brent Waters of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Tom Nelson of Made to Flourish moderates the discussion.
To tee up the topic of the gospel and human flourishing at Karam Forum 2018, Chris Armstrong argued that a well-rounded Christian view of flourishing is essential to nurturing the faith in the coming generation. Too often, the church has treated people as if they were “souls on sticks” – addressing their eternal fate, but not their whole lives. Many young people leave the church today not because they think Christianity is false but because they think Christianity is irrelevant to anything they care about; our problem is not so much “intellectual atheism” as “practical atheism.” Bringing in big, delightful doses of wisdom from C.S. Lewis, and pointing to the origin of these insights in the earlier ages of the faith that Lewis studied, Armstrong made a case for Lewis’ maxim that “because we love something else more than this world, we love even this world better than those who know no other.” (This video is a reshoot – nefarious gremlins sabotaged the audio feed during the original presentation.)
Vincent Bacote told the audience at Karam Forum 2018 that, being in Los Angeles, they were sitting not far from the most influential seminary in the world: Hollywood. The movies win hearts and minds by showing people an imaginary world on a screen for two hours. Theology may not have big special effects budgets, but it can do something even more impressive than the movies; it can show us the real world. Bacote argued that theological education needs to recover a sense of how big the mission of theology is – a mission as big as the whole world, as big as life itself. Only then will it reverse its reputation as a storehouse of lifeless abstractions and decaying formulas.
P.J. Hill shared with Karam Forum 2018 the story of his journey as an economist who slowly discovered that moral and even theological questions were not secondary to his discipline; they were right at the heart of it. From a starting point where he struggled to connect his faith to his economic studies, producing “cognitive dissonance,” Hill eventually concluded that economic understanding had to begin with questions of justice, rights and morally ordered desires. Hill also described some insights the economic discipline provides on market economies that can inform theological evaluation of their functioning, such as the role markets play in coordinating social activity among people who don’t know each other well.
Greg Forster described at Karam Forum 2018 how his conversion to the faith as an adult forced him to reevaluate what it meant to live the life of a scholar and educator. In a universe where God cares about building bridges and feeding the hungry as much as he cares about knowledge and insight, how can we have a Christian life of the mind? Forster argued that reason must have a place in the oikonomia theou, God’s plan for all things, because we use reason to discover the oikonomia theou. Everyone in the kingdom of God, in all vocations, has valuable knowledge; nonetheless there is an indispensable role for those who live the life of the mind – as Self put it, raising up poets and prophets for God’s people and world.
Panel discussion of Kevin Vanhoozer’s address at Karam Forum 2017. Featuring Rudy Estrada, Will Messenger, Lisa Slayton and Lawrence Ward. Hosted by Darrell Bock.
Jay Moon memorably illustrates at Karam Forum 2017 how changes in a culture’s economic and technological life affect its beliefs and ideas, and vice versa. See also his TED-style talk expanding on this idea.
Christians have always recognized that the gospel calls us to stand up for justice – as difficult and complicated as that can be. Gavin Ortlund of First Baptist Church of Ojai draws on Gregory of Nyssa’s prophetic stand against slavery to help us see how we can stand up for justice in our own time.
Luther and Calvin said justification by faith alone sets us free to love and serve others, working to bring life to the world, with special care for those most in need – and in their churches and communities, they practiced what they preached. In this stirring talk, Jennifer Powell McNutt traces the connection between justification and social action in Reformation theology.
Being the church means bringing life to the world, but how do we help our students lead churches that do that? In this stimulating talk, Oikonomia Network Director Greg Forster argues that “economic life is the most powerful way to bring life to the world,” because “the economy is where people mostly live.” Drawing on the ancient Letter to Diognetus, Forster unpacks fruitful paradoxes to help Christians think about how to bring life to the world in the modern economy.
Consider assigning in: Ethics, Pastoral Leadership, Culture, History
When the church is divided by ethnic separation and political polarization, the kingdom of God is revealed less fully to our neighbors, and has a gravely diminished impact on communities. In this powerful and personal talk, Jules Martinez of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School points us toward essential kingdom virtues and practices that help local churches grow together and make the kingdom visible and effective.
The Trinity isn’t about counting to three, Fred Sanders tells us, it’s about the God who sends his Son and his Spirit, and then sends his people. Far from a dry abstraction, the doctrine of the Trinity shows us that we do our daily work within the work of God himself.
Michael Wittmer shows us how to leave behind tired debates (evangelism v. justice) and false dualisms (“I left my job to go into full-time ministry”) by seeing that the call to receive forgiveness through faith in Christ and the call to serve Christ with good works in the world are the same call.
What if we’re getting the whole sacred/secular problem backward? Chris Armstrong invites us to rethink what the church really is – a visible sign of invisible grace – before we roll up our sleeves to change the world.
Drawing on Isaiah 5, Andy Crouch speaks about the challenge of separating real flourishing from mere material prosperity in the midst of economic growth and technological innovation. In a world of instant gratification, what is of lasting importance?
Consider assigning in: Culture, Ethics, Spiritual Formation, Old Testament
Deborah Gill of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary carefully unpacks the Greek text and biblical/cultural context of the church’s original misison statement, the Great Commission, to show how the church’s task is to “discipleize” in every area of life.
Consider assigning in: New Testament, Spiritual Formation, Theology, Culture
Nathan Hitchcock of Sioux Falls Seminary unpacks the meaning of the biblical term oikonomia. He points out that Paul uses this term frequently; reviewing Paul’s use of the phrase oikonomia theou in Ephesians, Hitchcock argues that God’s creation plan – the economy of God – is an audacious enterprise.
Drawing examples ranging from the book of Acts to modern Africa, W. Jay Moon of Asbury Theological Seminary unpacks how Chrsitian involvement in the economy is vitally interdependent with Christian witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Consider assigning in: Culture, Pastoral Leadership, New Testament
Keith Reeves of Azusa-Pacific University describes the connection between the household, family structure, land ownership and economic opportunity in the Old Testament law and prophets, and how these connections apply today.
Consider assigning in: Old Testament, Ethics, History
Why isn’t Monopoly as fun as it should be – grabbing everything for ourselves should be fun, shouldn’t it? Eric Tully of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School brings wisdom from Proverbs to help us rethink the role of money in our lives and in our economies.
In this highly personal talk, Joshua Jipp of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School shares stories of his grandfather on the Iowa farm where he grew up. Grandpa Wayne had absorbed key economic teachings from Jesus, prioritizing contentment, productivity and community.
Made to Flourish President Tom Nelson speaks on the integral relationship between faithfulness and fruitfulness, reviewing passages including the Genesis creation account, Proverbs 31 and the teachings of Jesus.
Consider assigning in: Spiritual Formation, Pastoral leadership, Theology, Old Testament, New Testament, Ethics
In this very personal talk with a surprise twist at the end, Bruce Fields of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School reflects on a childhood model who helped him learn that striving to bear the image of God more fully is what it means to flourish as a human being.
Constantine Campbell of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School describes how Peter calls us “chosen sojourners” because we can make a bigger difference for Christ in this world when they live more fully for the next world instead of this one.
Celeste Cranston of Seattle Pacific University demonstrates how the story of the prodigal son invites us into a life of kingdom work marked by abundance and gratitude, not scarcity and fear.
Consider assigning in: Spiritual Formation, New Testament
Mark Roberts of Fuller Theological Seminary draws on the Genesis creation account to invite us to resist the cultural narrative that “work” only happens in a job, contending that all good work is God-valued work – including the critical task of raising children.
Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College invites us into a more full understanding of how worship can form us for a lives of Christian discipleship in a pluralisic world, marked by imagination, hospitality and hope.
At Karam Forum 2022, Amos Yong of Fuller Theological Seminary delivers the keynote address on how theological education can thrive in a networked and pluralistic world by looking to Pentecost as a model of Christian life – including academic life. The address is followed by a panel discussion featuring Philip Thompson (Kairos University), Lisa Slayton (Denver Institute for Faith & Work) and Fernando Tamara (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary).
Greg Jones of Duke Divinity School speaks at Karam Forum 2020 about “traditioned innovation” in seminaries, building new modes of theological education to carry the legacy of the church’s scriptural knowledge tradition into future generations. Panel discussion with Charlie Self of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Nathan Hitchcock of Sevensided Consulting and Charisse Jones of Asbury Theological Seminary. J. Michael Thigpen of the Evangelical Theological Society hosts the session.
Richard Mouw delivers the closing lecture at Karam Forum 2020, speaking about the future of theological education and its contribution to the common good, including the challenges we face to building stronger connections between the theological academy and vocation in the world.
Miroslav Volf address at Karam Forum 2019 on how Christians can work for flourishing in a pluralistic world, followed by panel discussion with Vincent Bacote, Gerry Breshears and J. Michael Thigpen. Hosted by Charlie Self.
Mark Greene’s closing address at Karam Forum 2019, on what kind of people we need to be and what life practices we need to adopt if we want to be theological educators who equip people with a whole-life disciple-making gospel.
Charlie Self’s closing address at Karam Forum 2018, laying out a big vision for what kind of leaders – poets and prophets – the church and the world need theological education to raise up by God’s grace.
Kevin Vanhoozer’s address to Karam Forum 2017 on how the structure of theological knowledge that currently dominates the academy may be hindering our ability to understand and apply that knowledge with coherence. See also our panel discussion video for this talk.
This video combines two delightful, fresh, funny and pragmatic talks given by Amy Sherman at Karam Forum 2017, exploring a variety of ways Christian professors can connect the classroom to real life, in order to have an impact on the way people live.
Greg Forster’s closing address at Karam Forum 2017, laying out the Oikonomia Network’s vision of the essential role of Christian higher education in addressing the challenges of the advanced modern world, for the sake of sound discipleship in the church and fruitful mission beyond its walls.
Karam Fellowship is a community of theological educators working together to cultivate scholarship, teaching, mentoring, institutional service and personal wholeness as people who embrace a calling to steward theological knowledge seeking wholeness, well-being and flourishing for our students and for the individuals, organizations and communities around us.
Karam Forum is the annual gathering of the Oikonomia Network and Karam Fellowship. The Forum was originally created in 2017 by the Oikonomia Network. You can read the full story of how the Fellowship emerged from the ON community in the announcement of its launch in April 2021.
Karam Fellowship is now carrying forward both the ON and the Forum. We rely entirely on the support of Fellowship members to continue this mission!
If you want to be part of a community that cultivates theological education for the flourishing of God’s people and God’s world, please join Karam Fellowship today! It’s only $4 per month – a small price to help build a bright future for theological education.
Not to mention a small price for the great benefits you’ll receive!
Subscription (digital and hard copy) to our new peer-reviewed journal of theology for the life of the world, Faith & Flourishing, launching in Spring 2022;
Discount on tickets to Karam Forum;
The Grapevine, a weekly email of inspiration and equipping for our members;
Webinars with leading voices on the future of theological education; and
Full access to all articles in our long-running monthly newsletter, new and archived.
