On Thursday 12th June, Ken Costa spoke to more than 180 guests at the 13th annual ‘Bishop of Guildford’s Dinner for Lawyers.’
The event was hosted and chaired by the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, at the Guildford Cathedral Refectory.
Ken spoke on the subject, ‘Winning at Work without Losing in Life.’
Ken Costa has been invited by Business Matters to speak about ‘finding purpose at work.’
The event will be held at The Roxburghe Hotel, Edinburgh on the 25th September. For more information, click here.
Ken Costa addressed more than four hundred students, alumni, and friends of the Ivy League universities at the annual Ivy League Congress on ‘Faith and Action.’ Sponsored by the Christian Union, the event was held at the Yale Omni Hotel from the 11-13 April.
Ken spoke about how faith should lead to action, how his career had taken shape and he also gave some advice to those about to embark on careers and how to make decisions.
Matt Bennett, founder of the Christian Union, said, ‘Ken Costa was an incredible and wonderful blessing to us all! We loved having him!’
Another delegate said, ‘[Ken's] presentation challenged many students - their feedback was ecstatic. [The] message could not have been more aligned with the purpose of the weekend. Thanks for making the trip to Yale.’
Listen
Listen to the talk here.
Read the talk here.
The New York Times
‘Three years ago a group of evangelical Ivy League alumni formed the Christian Union, an organization intended to “reclaim the Ivy League for Christ,” according to its fund-raising materials, and to “shape the hearts and minds of many thousands who graduate from these schools and who become the elites in other American cultural institutions.”
Founder Matt Bennett says, The Christian Union’s immediate goal, was to recruit campus missionaries. “What is happening now is good,” Mr. Bennett said, “but it is like a finger in the dike of keeping back the flood of immorality.”
“Trends in the Ivy League today could shape the culture for decades to come,” he said. “So many leaders come out of these campuses. Seven of the nine Supreme Court justices are Ivy League grads; four of the seven Massachusetts Supreme Court justices; Christian ministry leaders; so many presidents, as you know; leaders of business - they are everywhere.”
He added, “If we are going to change the world, we have got, by God’s power, to see these campuses radically changed.”‘
Published May 2005, read more here.
Ken Costa was in Johannesburg on 28-29th February speaking on the subject of God in the workplace at the ‘Radical Christianity’ conference hosted by Rhema Church. It was the first time in 40 years since Ken had publicly addressed an audience, commenting that such a multi-racial gathering would have been illegal during his days as a student leader at the University of Witwatersrand.
Ken Costa has been invited to speak at the Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action. The conference will be held at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, April 11-13, 2008.
Also invited from the UK is Baroness (Caroline) Cox. The Emcee for the Congress will be Eric Metaxas, author of New York Times bestseller Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.
The Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action 2008 is expected to be the largest gathering of Christian Ivy League students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, and friends in history. The weekend is designed to increase people’s vision and ability to advance the kingdom of Christ in their vocations and society.
The Plenary sessions aim to motivate delegates to change the world for Jesus Christ and keep Christ Lord of all, with a realistic expression of the costs associated with being used of God to build His kingdom.
Ken Costa has been invited to speak at the Rhema Conference 2008: Radical Christianity, near Johannesburg.
The conference takes place from the 26th to 29th February at the 7,600 seater auditorium at Rhema Church in Sandberg, taking place over 4 days with approximately 4000 delegates attending. Other speakers include Brian Houston from Hillsong, Joseph Prince, John Bevere and Jentezen Franklin.
Ken will be speaking at two workshops and a breakfast event.
Rhema Church is South Africa’s largest church and is led by Pastor Ray McCauley.
Click here for flyer.
10th June 2007
Ken spoke at Bar Ha! Ha! to over 100 people at an evening event hosted by All Souls, as part of their ‘Workplace Sunday.’ Jago Wynne, Associate Minister said the night was a great success, ‘very practical and real.’
Talks given that day at the church included: Vision for Work and A Vocation to Work.
Ken Costa spoke to more than 80 people from the Birmingham business community on Wednesday 21st March. The breakfast event was hosted by ChaplaincyPlus at the Hotel du Vin.
ChaplaincyPlus, led by Chris Dinsdale, serves the professional business community by being part of daily business life, seeking to encourage and support professionals in Birmingham’s City Centre.
Ken spoke briefly about the challenges of the workplace today and why he was motivated to write God at Work. He then took questions from guests, ranging from the issue of ambition to the challenges of long working hours.
Ken Costa addressed The Trinity Forum at The St Stephen’s Club, London on the subject, ‘Success, Stress and Purpose in Today’s Business World’ on Monday 19th March.
Founded in 1991, The Trinity Forum is a leadership academy that works to cultivate networks of leaders whose integrity and vision will help to renew culture and promote human freedom. Their programs and publications have offered the opportunity for leaders to consider together the big ideas that have shaped Western civilization and the faith that has animated its highest achievements.
Hosted by Jonathan Aitken, the Executive Director of The Trinity Forum in Europe, Ken was introduced by a long standing friend and competitor, Lord Griffiths, Vice-Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.
Read the speech here.
Publishers Continuum and Alpha International celebrated the launch of God at Work by Ken Costa on Thursday 15th March at The Law Society, London.
Robin Baird-Smith of Continuum paid tribute to Ken Costa for writing an honest account about the difficulties of applying the Christian faith in the cut-throat world of the City.
Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton and pioneer of the Alpha Course, said that there was ‘no one more qualified than Ken’ to write about the Christian faith in the workplace. A friend of Ken Costa since their days at Cambridge, he recalled the time when Ken was considering his future career.
‘Ken was praying about what he should be doing. Full time Christian service or whether it was banking or the City? He turned to the book of Luke and right at the end of the gospel, where Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power from on high. Ken got to this verse and got stuck on the first four words of that verse where it said ‘stay in the city’ and here we are over 30 years later and Ken has stayed in the city all those years! That is what has enabled him to write this book - he has stayed in the city and has combined that with this strong faith in Jesus Christ. It is what makes this book such an important book.’
Following his Vicar, Ken Costa gave a brief talk:
“Why write this book? Why does one want to do it? There was a moment when I asked honestly, ‘do I really want to do this to write something of this kind – some kind of practical help to others who struggle like I struggle?’
Well, the stakes are high, they really are and I think that unless we find the church is relevant to the workplace where people are spending all their time, then we should not be surprised if the churches are empty if we have got nothing to say to people doing their day to day work. This is a tiny little piece that might help in trying to work it out. I think that’s the first thing.
The second is much more exciting, I think society has just run out of energy. It really has. It hasn’t begun to understand the power of the resurrection, the newness of life, the throbbing excitement of living a life with God in a difficult and struggling place - the harshness of commercial compromise - that we all have to do every day in our workplace. And yet, this is where it is now.
We know the stakes are as high as they are. What are we going to do about? Well, we are going to live a life and we have got a life. I remember our wedding sermon which was preached on the text, ‘I came that you might have life in all its fullness.’ Sure it’s tough and sure its stressful but there is a fullness that I don’t know anyone else has. I look around at the bankruptcy of the ideas and the lack of oxygen and the lack of sense of hope for the future and I wonder to myself ‘if we don’t take a grip on this, then who is?’”
Ken ended by thanking the congregation of HTB and paid tribute to those who had helped to bring the book to publication and also to his family.
“They have been an amazing support as have you. I really want you to buy as many copies as possible! Check out the website. Buy the book! I want to thank you very much for being here.”
God at Work is developing a course, which will look at some of the issues discussed in the book, for use in small groups. Please contact us if you're interested in receiving more information about this.
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God at Work has been featured in The Times, Radio 5 Live, the FT and Business Day.
