High Tech Prayer Breakfast draws 1500
Published: October 17, 2005
Rising at the crack of dawn Oct. 7, more than 1,500 Atlanta technology executives crammed into the Cobb Galleria Centre to hear Miami Dolphins executive Wayne Huizenga Jr. speak. Only they didn’t come to hear tales of the gridiron; they came to hear the word of God.
Since the High Tech Prayer Breakfast was first showcased in 1992 by Atlanta real estate broker Bill Leonard, other industry-specific prayer breakfasts have been started in Atlanta: commercial real estate, residential real estate and financial events are now held once a year.
And on Nov. 11, the Hospitality Industry Prayer Breakfast will hold its first-ever event, with Ritz-Carlton co-founder Horst Schulze as the guest speaker.
Prayer breakfasts are also growing in other cities. One popular event is the DC Metro High Tech Prayer Breakfast, fashioned after Atlanta’s, and now in its fourth year. The group putting on this year’s event in December has tapped beer baron Adolf Coors IV to speak. About 650 tech execs showed up for last year’s breakfast and 800 are expected this year, said founder Carl Grant.
In California’s Silicon Valley area there are several small industry events, including a chemical engineers’ prayer breakfast. In November, Fremont, Calif.-based NAEN Ministries is putting on a high-tech prayer event in the San Jose Sharks’ stadium.
Janet Goodman, vice president of the ministries, said the industry galas she puts on generally attract around 200 people. That’s a high number for any city outside the Bible Belt, she said.
“I don’t think there’s anything going on across the country like what’s happening in Atlanta,” Goodman said. “Most of the leaders are looking at Atlanta as the leader.”
Os Hillman, director of the Cumming, Ga.-based International Coalition of Workplace Ministries, a fellowship of workplace Christians, said Atlanta could consider itself the inventor of the genre.
“We are setting the pace,” said Hillman, who has written 10 books on religion in the workplace.
Hillman said industry events are so popular because attendees are more connected with each other than at more generic gatherings. They almost become the place to be seen, drawing executives from InterContinental Hotels Group Plc and The Home Depot Inc. to BellSouth Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc.
For Leonard, there is little good in being godless at work and religious at home.
“If we leave our faith at home, then what kind of faith is that?” asked Leonard, whose regular job is president of Wm. Leonard & Co., a real estate broker for emerging technology companies. He also founded the nonprofit High Tech Ministries Inc., which attempts to bridge the technology community toward a “deeper relationship with Jesus Christ by creating business environments where God can be discovered,” and is led by entrepreneur and venture capitalist Charlie Paparelli.
At the recent High Tech Prayer Breakfast, speakers, including Huizenga, were emotional and honest, drawing tears from themselves as well as from many in the audience.
Such functions certainly aren’t for everybody. Michael Kogon, CEO of interactive marketing firm Definition 6, was invited but sent someone else from his company to attend.
“Would I be happier if it were more inclusive? Sure,” said Kogon, who is Jewish. “That would be better. But I wouldn’t put it in any category that would make me lose any sleep over.”
Ricky Steele, chief development officer for information technology staffer Thompson Technologies Inc., a Christian-centric firm, contends that the organizers do not mince words about the purpose of the breakfasts. Nor do the speakers preach fire and brimstone, he added.
“We’re not tricking anybody into coming in, then telling them ‘You’re going to Hell in a handbasket if you don’t get right with God,’ ” said Steele, who has been active with the prayer breakfasts since 1996.
Hillman said that now, more than ever, there is a place for business and religion. One big catalyst, he said, is President George W. Bush, who has been open concerning his faith. Another is diversity and the fear of companies having unhappy Christian employees or getting sued by those employees for discrimination. Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, in 2001 instituted a Christian fellowship group. That’s from an agency that the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries says deemed the word “holiday” offensive because it reminded people of Christmas. In 2001, The Coca-Cola Co. instituted a similar program.
Possibly the biggest reason, though, is the “M” word. “Morally, we’ve fallen,” Leonard said. “That’s evident in Enron.”
When asked if such huge Christian events made Atlanta look backward, he said “backward” was the wrong word.
“I would call it a recovery,” he said.
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