About the Summit

Bishop James Tindall, Founder of the Urban Summit 

In January 2008, Bishop James Tindall, Sr., 2nd District Jackson County Legislator, convened the first Urban Summit.  It brought together elected officials and urban residents to discuss Economic Development; Crime and Substance Abuse; Education; Health Care; Neighborhood/Housing; and Integration.  Foremost on the minds of the Urban Summit planners and participants was the need to elevate African American families and provide a blueprint of how community and elected officials could help.

Be the change we need!! Today, we are empowering all Urban Summit attendees to be full participants in changing our community.  May the knowledge and wisdom you acquire from the speakers, workshops and networking, equip you to develop your personal roadmap to making a difference in our community over the next decade.

The Mission of the Urban Summit is to develop initiatives to foster community relations, enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the Urban Core.

2013 Luncheon Keynote Speaker: Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock

Senior Pastor of Historic  Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA 

Pastor of Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia  

To Give 6th Annual Urban Summit Address in Kansas City, Missouri

 

Raphael G. Warnock, Pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, will give the annual Urban Summit address Saturday, January 12, 2013, at Penn ValleyCommunity College, Physical Education Building, 3201 Southwest Trafficway, Kansas City, Missouri. The theme is “Many Voices, Many Leaders, Linking Partnerships and Community”.  The Summit will be held from 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

 

Since 2005, Pastor Raphael Warnock has served as Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Pastor Raphael Warnock became, at age 35, the fifth and youngest person ever called to the senior pastorate of the congregation, founded in 1886.

 

Pastor Raphael Warnock graduated from Morehouse College cum laude in 1991, receiving a B.A. degree in Psychology.  He holds a Master of Divinity (M.Div.), a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in the field of systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, from which he graduated with honors and distinctions.  His research interests and writings include the activist ministries of two Twentieth Century martyrs: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer; their challenges to the church and the world in their time and ours.

 

Pastor Raphael Warnock sees the whole community as his parish.  Accordingly, he has defended voting rights in his own state of Georgia.   In 2006, when the State of Louisiana failed to protect the voting rights of recent Katrina evacuees, he led a “Freedom Caravan” of citizens back to New Orleans to vote.  Pastor Rapheal Warnock has addressed his ministry to urban men through a barbershop ministry called “Cutting Thru Crisis” and has been featured in Newsweek magazine for his unconventional ministry methods.

 

“Rev. Warnock is apart of a new energized generation pursuing the mantle of leadership for social justice and activism,” states Dr. Gayle Holliday, Urban Summit Planning Committee Chair. “Now is the time for us to mobilize young leaders and senior leaders to continue our diligent struggle on behalf of the oppressed,” continues Dr. Gayle Holliday.