SEEK FIRST

Dear friends,

"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

These radical, counter-cultural words of Jesus anchor our theme this year: Seek First. Throughout Matthew's Gospel, Jesus calls ordinary workers—fishermen, tax collectors, administrators—and transforms their daily labor into Kingdom participation. When Jesus issues this instruction at the Sermon on the Mount, He reminds His disciples of the primacy of the Kingdom of God, above all their earthly motivations and wants. In praying about this year's conference, we felt compelled to share that same instruction: that Jesus was calling us, as a community, to Seek First.

In a climate that urges us to optimize, accumulate, and advance, Jesus reorders our ambitions. That reordering is especially critical as business school students and young professionals whose loves can so easily become disordered. As we come together as a community committed to the Kingdom and his righteousness, we encourage you to open your hearts, be expectant, and to prayerfully consider what a life—and career—committed to Christ might look like.

Throughout the next two days, you will connect with peers, professionals, mentors, and speakers who have navigated the same questions you are exploring. We hope that connecting with and hearing from them will be an encouraging reminder of what seeking first looks like. We carry the primacy of the gospel not as a slogan, but as a lived reality—even, and especially, in our work: Christ before anything.

We gather to recalibrate our loves, to reimagine our work, and to seek first together. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to meeting you!

With gratitude,
The BiB Leadership Team