The Fermi Project, based in
Atlanta, Georgia, is a loose collective of Evangelical innovators, entrepreneurs, and faith leaders who pursue endeavors that advance Christian goals. It was founded by Gabe and Rebekah Lyons in 2003, and has no direct connection with the physicist Enrico Fermi.
Fermi's main influence is exerted in "Q" conferences, which invite world leaders from a variety of areas to share "ideas that create a better world." Conference presenters have included people like authors
Donald Miller,
Rob Bell,
Scot McKnight
Scot McKnight (born November 9, 1953) is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and Christian living. He is currently Profes ...
and
Rick Warren, model Jon Passavant, media personality
Jeff Johnson and social entrepreneur Majora Carter.
Fermi and its projects have made national headlines when they asked
Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel is an American Ismaili of Gujarati Indian heritage and founder and president of Interfaith America (previously known as Interfaith Youth Core), a Chicago-based international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation. Pate ...
, a Muslim leader and thinker, to present to their ambitious Christian audience. Founder Gabe Lyons has also been interviewed about faith patterns amongst the young on national news programs such as CNN.
Publications
The Fermi Project offers a paid subscription t
Fermi Words a digital magazine about faith and culture. They also collaborated to publish a recent best selling book, ''unChristian'' by Lyons and David Kinnaman of the Barna Group, which featured contributions from Christian thinkers like
Jim Wallis,
Margaret Feinberg, Mike Foster and Sarah Cunningham.
Origin of name
A Fermi is an extremely small unit of length equal to one quadrillionth of a meter. It is named after
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
, the Nobel Prize winner and physicist who produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. Lyons uses this name because they seek to use small, incremental changes to create a series of large changes in how the church views its mission.
References
2003 establishments in the United States
Organizations based in Atlanta
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