Star-Studded Men's Conference is Making Men Better Husbands, Brothers, and Leaders Through Christ

A powerful Catholic conference is about to take place in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, March 25, 2023. Known as the National Men's Conference (formerly the Cincinnati Men's Conference), this one-day-only event is packed with all-star motivational speakers. Organized by Joe Condit, (of The Catholic Speakers Organization fame) this conference is sure to inspire and ignite Christian passion in every attendee. 

Highlights

By Marshall Connolly (Catholic Online)
3/6/2023 (1 year ago)

Published in Living Faith

I had the incredible privilege to sit down with Condit, the organizing force behind this event. I found him to be a courageous, passionate, faith-filled man of star-quality talent. His God-given purpose is to inspire people like you and me to pursue Christ. This is not cliche Condit has a record of producing events that make him a leader in producing Catholic conferences. Affirming this, the Catholic Speakers Conference is set to be the largest one-day Catholic men's conference in the country. It comes as no surprise, however, Condit's background runs deep in the event space having founded the largest Catholic-focused talent agency in the world known as the Catholic Speakers Organization.

As Christians, we forget that it's called "following" Christ for a reason. We must pursue Him. We must chase after Jesus Christ with greater motivation than we pursue careers, money, love, or any other interest. Just as we would forsake many things for those we love, we must be prepared to forsake everything, even life itself, for Jesus Christ. And the National Men's Conference will motivate you to do precisely that.

Anyone who seeks this kind of passion cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to supercharge their faith and make the difference most people spend their whole lives wanting to make.

Condit describes the upcoming event as a "Superbowl" of Catholic Conferences, and he has the lineup to back the claim. Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in The Chosen, headlines the conference. He will be joined by Archduke of Austria, His Royal Highness Christian Habsburg-Lorraine, the grandson of Blessed Karl of Austria giving his first ever talk in the United States, the Most Reverend Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, the President of the Magis & Spitzer Center and a new youngster on the scene, Maison DesChamps, known as the "Prolife Spiderman" giving his unbelievable testimony.

Guests will enjoy a fantastic opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with Coach Mark Duffner (Cincinnati Bengals Defense), Ted Karras (Center), and Joe Reitz (Indianapolis Colts, Offensive Lineman). They will offer autographs for fans. Fr. Tom Wray, the team chaplain will also join the panel discussion.

Special messages will be presented by Fr. Jonathan Meyer, the Director of Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, and Fr. Ethan Moore, Director of Campus Ministry, Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He will serve as the emcee for the event. And a highly anticipated message from entrepreneur Jeff Schiefelbein, founder of Undivided Life.

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The main celebrant of the event will be the Most Reverend Dennis Schnurr, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He will be the main celebrant and homilist.

During my interview with Condit, I asked several questions relating to the conference, the speakers, and the purpose of the event. I felt I was speaking to a man who "gets it." Who understands the challenge of being a Catholic man in a world that is secular, atheistic, and feels like it is teetering on the brink of the abyss. Rather than despair, I felt motivated, and was filled with the same Christian hope described by Saint Paul. (See: Hebrews 10:23-25.)

If this sounds like something that will help you, read further for more details, then click the link at the bottom of this article and prepare to be inspired by an event unlike any other. Tickets and more information available at NationalMensConference.com.

What is the purpose of this conference?

The purpose of the conference is for men of all faiths to join their Catholic brothers and grow closer to Jesus Christ. We are doing this by providing men an annual meet up opportunity where Catholic-Christian leaders from all over the country can come together in person to grow in faith, fellowship, network, share best practices and resources.

We are calling on all the Catholic conference leaders from across the country to use this event as an opportunity to bring the men from their hometown conferences to come meet others from around the United States. Thousands of men used to travel to Cincinnati back in the 90's to attend this event, which at that time, was the first and only Catholic men's conference in the country. We've built it back even bigger, establishing it as the "Super Bowl" of all the men's conferences in the country. If you look at our speaker line-up this year, and in past years, you will see that our speakers we bring through this conference are the best on the circuit.

What can you share about this history of this event, its numbers, and the difference it's making?

It is technically the first and oldest Catholic men's conference in the United States. It began in Cincinnati in1994 and can be viewed as the Godfather of all Catholic Conferences. Every Catholic conference we have today in the United States can be traced back to the original Cincinnati Men's Conference. But we've transformed it into the National Men's Conference because it was, and still is, a leading event for men to grow in Christ. Since reviving it in 2018, it has grown to become the largest Catholic men's conference in the country. In 2022 we sold 3,589 tickets, gave about 1,300 away and had 507 walk ups on the day of. Men from all over came to see our speaker lineup of Jim Caviezel, Raymond Arroyo and David Bereit. It was an incredible experience and many of the men who attended were transformed by the experience.

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Why did you invite Archduke Christian to speak to an American audience?

There are so many reasons but mainly because he is an incredible inspiration and example of what it means to be a good Catholic leader in the face of enormous adversity. He's led by example his entire life. As the grandson of Blessed Karl of Austria, he is a world-renowned Catholic leader. He will be speaking about what it means to be a leader and how to inspire others by living out one's faith, just as his grandfather Blessed Karl did.

And you know, rumor has it that the acclaimed movie actors, David Henrie and Lorenzo Henrie might be making a movie about Blessed Karl. I'll just leave that teaser hanging.

I also noticed you invited a whole bunch of NFL offensive linemen to the event. Is this a post-Super Bowl all-star game or what?

Yes, I wanted to wrap the excitement of the Super Bowl into a message of faith as one of the many unique aspects viewers will experience. My idea was to collect offensive lineman because of the nature of their position and what they do. Most offensive lineman will tell you that St. Joseph is their unofficial patron saint.

Why?

Because he protected Mary and the baby Jesus, did his job humbly with grace and with pure obedience as he was called to do by God the Almighty. I saw similarities in that with offensive lineman like Ted Karras for the Cincinnati Bengals who protects Joe Burrow and former offensive lineman, Joe Reitz, who protected Payton Manning for the Indianapolis Colts. These guys have one job, protect the ball and the quarterback. Arguably the most important job in the game, full of unsung heroes. We are going to tie that together for the men with protecting the most important things in their lives, their Faith (the ball) and their family (the quarterback). And, like St. Joseph, doing it with humility, grace and pure obedience to adhere to the Will of God the Almighty.

This particular segment of the event is going to be extremely motivating, challenging the men to look and find the St. Joseph within themselves.

What are your local Church officials saying about this event? I understand you have Archbishop Schnurr leading Mass, and Bishop Fernandes coming, along with several other fantastic priests.

The Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati and Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus absolutely love the vision and are completely 100% behind me, my team and the event. The Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis Schnurr is presiding as the main celebrant for the Mass, and will also be giving an inspirational homily. We are so thankful to him and his entire staff at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for the support we are receiving this year and working together with us to make the National Men's Conference the best it can be.

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Bishop Earl Fernandes, Columbus, Ohio, is also a main speaker at the event and if you have not heard him speak yet, you are in for a real treat. In my humble opinion, he is one of the best clergy speakers in the United States.

Jonathan Roumie is coming! What can we expect to hear from him?

Jonathan is our headline speaker and his TV series, The Chosen, has been viewed well over 400 million times according to stats in 2022. He plans to share exclusive insights on his journey with finding his place within the Body of Christ as an actor. The theme of the National Men's Conference this year is "Finding Your Role As The Body of Christ" and what that means to all of us as men and what God calls us to do. His message is going to provide powerful insight on what it means to surrender to Christ, sharing insights about his journey to The Chosen. We also have some very exciting sneak peaks and fireside chat-style discussion planned with Jonathan that I cannot leak any secrets about quite yet, but trust me, you are going to want to be there to see what we have in store.

You have a social platform. How does it work, and who is invited to join it?

Anyone can join it. You can find it on our website under the link Social Connect and we created it so men from anywhere, whether they attended in person or virtual, can connect with each other, network, stay in touch with each other and our sponsors and all together grow in Faith year around. We are launching this first of its kind tech for this type or event and we know it will help revolutionize the follow up and follow through for events such as this. We plan to provide this technology to other men's conferences across the country as a "white label" option so they can do the same for their conferences and drastically increase participation and outreach beyond the event. With this technology, we are building a movement and a culture, much greater than the event itself. Men can now have direct access to each other, our sponsors and the resources we provide them at any time.

What is the impact of this conference? Is it making a difference? How?

The impact has been tremendous over the past 5 years since I revived it back in 2018. Hundreds of emails come to us every year with stories explaining how the event changed lives. I know that the event literally had an influence on stopping someone from committing suicide, saving a baby and converting a father son duo to the Faith. Ultimately, only God can do these types of supernatural works and I believe the National Men's Conference is a tool He uses.

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How interactive will the conference be? Will guests be able to ask questions of the speakers?

Yes, we launched our social platform to enable men to communicate in real time during the event. Not only can they connect with each other in real time within our platform, like Facebook, and message directly. But they will also be able to post their take-away notes for each talk for all men to benefit from and share. The platform will also be used by anyone, virtual or in-person, to ask questions during the discussion panel Q&A's with the speakers. This is a first of its kind technology we built, in the Catholic conference space anyway, that will be used to enable all of these unique features. We are excited to lead the charge on this and venture into uncharted waters with it. The platform will connect everyone and allow them to communicate like never before. I encourage everyone to sign up right away to participate, Social Connect.

As a man, why should I attend?

Every man should constantly strive to improve themselves and do what God calls us to do in the Bible in Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect''. We are called by God for excellence and based on all the advice from past saints and Church leaders, you cannot do it alone. You need your fellow brother to walk in faith with you. You need a coach, you need accountability, you need fellowship and camaraderie to get you through life and grow in God's grace for the better. That is what the National Men's Conference provides and that is why EVERY man should attend this conference in-person or virtually.

It is really awesome to see that we are getting hundreds of signups for offsite watch parties for this event where families and friends will be watching the event live from their homes, churches and community centers. We have had virtual passes already bought from Australia so we are legitimately global with this National Men's Conference.

Are women welcome?

The right answer every man knows to anything in life is, "Women are always welcome." But asking if they are welcome specifically for this conference is not quite the right question for this conference. Women are a priority and the entire reason this Conference was created. Think about it, we strive to be better men for God and then for women in our lives as men and leaders. In other words, the reason men attend this conference is to become better versions of themselves for God and for their families (their wife, their sister, their mother). So when you think about it, right after God as being the first priority, women are our next highest priority and there is just no substitute for men sharpening men to make each other better for the women in their life.

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Women can definitely tune in virtually and watch the conference live, which is how they can participate by going to NationalMensConference.com. The in-person attendance is for men only so men can share, fellowship and work together as men through Jesus Christ to become better versions of themselves for their women. As an interesting side note and how impactful women are toward this men's conference, one of the common feedback comments I get EVERY year is a guy saying to me, "You know, I was not going to come to this conference but my wife made me and my sons attend. I am so glad she did as this turned out to be incredible, something I never expected. I am coming back with my sons every year." And that was all because of a loving woman!

What can people do to support this conference if they cannot attend?

Very simple, take 3 seconds and share our posts on social media. You can access our posts to promote the conference on facebook, instagram, youtube and more. A simple message via email and text to all your friends and family to encourage them to consider going is the best thing we can ask next to prayer. I urge everyone to take three seconds and evangelize the Word of God by sharing the conference with everyone in their circles. It is amazing how many people can be reached just by taking that simple step.

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Ticket information about the event and who is speaking is on NationalMensConference.com

A one-day event on Saturday, March 25, 2023
7:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Cintas Center (10,500 seated arena)
1624 Musketeer Dr.
Cincinnati, OH 45207

Cost is $30-60 per ticket

LIVE online streaming will be available for only $10 so anyone in the world can tune in live.

After the Conference, recordings will be available for purchase on the "store" page of NationalMensConference.com.

The National Men's Conference is a highly anticipated event for all Men anywhere to come together with their Catholic brothers in Christ and grow in Faith. The National Men's Conference will provide resources and connections to help any organization or any man. Get tickets now and sign up on our social platform to start interacting today on NationalMensConference.com