Speakers
Obe Arellano 
– Obe is the Campus Pastor of the first bilingual campus of Community Christian Church, a multi-site church with 10 locations in the Chicago-land area. He is committed to a wholistic style of ministry that engages the church in addressing the physical, relational, and spiritual needs of the community.
Mark Batterson - Mark serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. NCC was recognized as one of the Most Innovative Churches in America by Outreach Magazine in 2008. One church with nine services in five locations, NCC is focused on reaching emerging generations. Approximately 70% of NCCers are single twenty-somethings. The vision of NCC is to meet in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the metro DC area. NCC also owns and operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. In 2008, Ebenezers was recognized as the #1 coffeehouse in the metro DC area by AOL CityGuide. Mark has two Masters Degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of a best-selling book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. His latest release is Wild Goose Chase. And he is a daily blogger @ www.markbatterson.com. Mark is married to Lora and they live on Capitol Hill with their three children.
Joe Beam - Joe founded Family Dynamics Institute in 1994 and in 2008 he founded LovePath International, and serves as its president. He has spoken to millions of people worldwide in personal appearances as well as appearances on television and radio, including ABC's Good Morning America, Focus on the Family, the Montel Williams Show, NBC's Today Show, The Dave Ramsey Show, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and magazines such as People and Better Homes and Gardens. He is currently involved in research to complete his Ph.D in Biomedical science at the University of Sydney. The emphasis of his research is in sexology. Joe is the author of several books; national bestseller Seeing the Unseen, Getting Past Guilt, and Becoming One: Emotionally, Spiritually, and Sexually and The Real Heaven: It's not What You Think, Fantastic Families, and his most recent book, Your LovePath.
Randy Beckett - Randy is Assistant Dean of the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development. In this capacity he works closely with churches as they develop multi-level leadership training strategies. His theological education was entirely church-based, occurring non-formally under the leadership of Oakwood Road Church in Ames, IA. He has served the last 15 years as Assistant Pastor of Oakwood Road Church, working extensively with young adult ministry. Randy and his wife Carol have three daughters.
Rick Bezet - Rick is the founder and lead pastor of New Life Church in Central Arkansas. A former professional golfer, Rick set aside his future to follow God's call and move his family to Conway, AR to start NLC in 2001. New Life is a fast-growing church with 4 campuses and an average of 6,000 in weekly attendance. Rick is one of the founding pastors of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), an organization designed to plant churches and impact the world through missions. In 2009, they are on their way to planting over 50 churches, the equivalent of a new plant every 7 days. In Rick's spare time, he likes to golf and watch the LSU Tigers. Rick has been married to his bride Michelle for 20 years, and they have 4 children.
Marcus Bigelow – Marcus is the President at Large of Stadia. He has been involved in church planting for the past 25 years and with Stadia and it’s predecessor, NCEA, has been involved in over 120 church plants in a variety of roles, from planter, to coach, to catalyst, to fundraiser.
Ken Blanchard - Ken has been recognized as a premier thinker and writer on leadership for nearly four decades. The three-dozen or so books (including The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans and Gung Ho!) he has authored find places of prominence on bookshelves and bestseller lists here and abroad. Since coming to a personal faith in Jesus Christ, Ken’s passion and priority has become inspiring and equipping people to lead like Jesus. He has come to recognize and lift up Jesus as the greatest leadership role model of all time. Along with Phil Hodges, he founded The Center for Faithwalk Leadership in 1999, now better known as Lead Like Jesus. The mission of this ministry is not to run ministries or businesses or to start churches. It has one mission: To inspire and equip the leaders who do so that, God is glorified, people are served, and organizations are more effective in impacting the world for the Kingdom of God.
Brian Bloye - Brian is the Founder and Lead Pastor of West Ridge Church. In just 12 years, West Ridge has grown to over 4200 in regular weekly attendance. The church has been involved in planting 49 other churches around Georgia and the US. Five years ago, West Ridge launched the West Ridge School of Church Planting. Brian also has a passion to network churches together to transform communities here in the US and around the world. He is the Founder and President of Engage Atlanta, an organization that is bringing the pastors of Atlanta together for the purpose of community transformation. Brian has a B.S. degree from Liberty University and an M. Div. from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He also did two and a half years of further Masters work at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA. Brian and his wife Amy have two boys.
Bill Burns - Bill serves as Associate Dean of Partnerships and Training for the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development. Bill has served as a pastor for the last twenty years within local churches in State College, PA; Staten Island, NY; Clifton, NJ; and now in Ames, IA. He also served on the faculty of New York School of the Bible as an instructor in the Institute for Biblical Leadership for twelve years. Bill has earned a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Literature at Philadelphia Biblical University, a Master of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, and is currently completing the Doctor of Ministry degree at Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife Kathy are raising five children.
Matt Carter - Matt serves as lead pastor at Austin Stone Community Church, which he planted in 2002. The first meeting of 30 people now encompasses 4000 worshippers on Sundays, making Austin Stone one of the 100 fastest growing churches in America. Matt’s vision is to foster the churches passion for Christ, love for each other, and outreach to their communities – ultimately planting churches throughout America and the nations, supporting missionaries who are loving the peoples of the world and bringing them the hope of the gospel. In addition to pastoring at The Austin Stone, Matt is a cancer survivor, author and speaker for camps and conferences nationwide. Matt holds a MDiv from Southwestern Seminary and lives in Austin with his wife Jennifer and their three children.
Noel Castellanos - Noel has worked in full-time ministry in urban communities since 1982. He has served in youth ministry, church planting, and community development in San Francisco, San Jose, and Chicago. He is co-author of the new book: A Heart for the Community, New Models for Urban and Suburban Ministry (May, 2009 release). After serving on the Board of the Christian Community Development Association for many years, he established the new CCDA Institute, which is working to equip emerging church leaders in the philosophy of Christian Community Development. Noel currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of CCDA and as a member of the President's Council on Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships. He and his wife, Marianne, have three children and make their home in the barrio of La Villita in Chicago.
Francis Chan – Francis is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, where he has been serving for the past 15 years. He is also the Chancellor of Eternity Bible College and serves on the board of directors for Children’s Hunger Fund and World Impact. Francis spends much of his time speaking to high school and college students and is the author of Crazy Love and Forgotten God. His commitment is to teach directly from the words of Scripture. It is his passion to see the next generation of American Christians display a much deeper love for Jesus and their neighbors. Francis is married to Lisa and they have three daughters and one son.
Matt Chandler – Matt serves as Lead Pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX. He describes his six-year tenure at The Village as a re-planting effort where he was involved in changing the theological and philosophical culture of the congregation. The church has witnessed a tremendous response growing from 160 people to over 6,000 including satellite campuses in Dallas and Denton. Alongside his current role as lead pastor, Matt is involved in church planting efforts both locally and internationally through The Village and various strategic partnerships. Prior to accepting the pastorate at The Village, Matt had a vibrant itinerant ministry for over 10 years where he spoke to thousands of people in America and abroad about the glory of God and beauty of Jesus. His greatest joy outside of Jesus is being married to Lauren and being a dad to their three children. On Thanksgiving, Matt suffered a seizure and was found to have a tumor in his brain. Follow his progress at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/. We pray that Matt’s recovery will bring glory to God!
Steve Childers – Steve is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training (including training in Foundations & Essentials for Church Planters, Starting and Strengthening New Church Networks & Parenting Church Networks, Coaching Church Planters, etc.), consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 40 countries (curriculum in five major global languages) representing over 120 denominations and mission agencies. Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the director of the doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida. Steve and his wife Becky live in Orlando, Florida, and have three daughters.
Shane Claiborne – Shane is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. He graduated from Eastern University, and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. Shane’s ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta, to a year spent serving a wealthy mega-congregation at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. During the recent war in Iraq, he spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team. Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. He is featured in the DVD series Another World Is Possible and is the author of the several books including The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President, and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. Shane speaks over 100 times a year in a dozen or so countries and nearly every state in the US.
Neil Cole - Neil is an experienced church planter and pastor. He co-founded Church Multiplication Associates (CMA) and the Greenhouse Movement which has grown to thousands of churches in 40+ states and 30+ nations. Neil has authored Organic Church, Organic Leadership, Search & Rescue, Cultivating a Life For God, TruthQuest and co-authored Raising Leaders for the Harvest, and Beyond Church Planting: Pathways for Emerging Churches with Dr. Robert Logan and Organic Church Planters' Greenhouse with Paul Kaak. He will be releasing Church 3.0 in February 2010. Neil lives in Long Beach, California with his wife Dana and their three children.
Caleb Crider – Caleb is a missionary, writer, and teacher. After serving as a church-planting strategist in Barcelona, Spain, Caleb returned to the U.S. to help prepare the American church for the challenges of ministry in a post-Christian context. He is co-founder of the Upstream Collective, a collection of churches that think and act like missionaries. He leads vision trips to help church leaders see how they fit into what God is doing around the world. Today, he lives in Portland, OR and is a part of the Evergreen Community.
Mark DeYmaz - Mark is the founding pastor and directional leader of the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, a multi-ethnic and economically diverse church. Mark is also co-founder of the Mosaix Global Network, an organization dedicated to inspiring unity and diversity in the local church throughout North America and beyond. His book, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church provides the Biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church and outlines seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark is a contributing editor for Leadership Journal and posts weekly on his blog, Glue, at www.markdeymaz.com. His next book, Ethnic Blends will be released in April 2010.
Bill Easum - Bill is the President of 21st Century Strategies and is a highly respected international church consultant and Christian futurist. Bill has been a pioneer in the church growth movement with 35 years of pastoral ministry in four churches and two denominations. During his 24 years at Colonial Hills Church in San Antonio, the church grew from 35 in worship to over 1,000...with 2,200 members. His record of service in evangelism and social justice ministries has been acknowledged by the Industrial Areas Foundation in New York as one of the finest records in North America. Since 1987, Bill has consulted in over a 1,000 churches and conducted seminars for small group work, church planting, multiple sites and mentoring leaders for the ministries of the future. He is the author of seventeen books, including Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Starts.
Dave Ferguson - Dave Ferguson and four friends from college launched Community Christian Church, a church that is passionate about "helping people find their way back to God". This church has grown to 650+ leaders with more than 5,500 in attendance at eleven sites every weekend throughout Chicagoland. Dave serves as a resource for other churches and leaders seeking to expand through multiple church sites and provides visionary leadership for the NewThing Network, a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches. He is also the co-founder and serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Community who partner with real estate developers to accomplish their mission of "helping people build quality relationships where they live and work through the power of genuine community". Dave is the co-author of The Big Idea: Focus the Message, Multiply the Impact and Exponential: How you and your friends can start a missional church movement both with Zondervan.
Jon Ferguson - Jon is co-founder of Community Christian Church, a multi-site church with nine locations in the Chicago area. He serves as teaching pastor and leads the Strategic Team of executive staff champions for adult, student, children's, and creative arts ministries across all CCC locations. Jon is also the co-founder and executive director of NewThing, a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches. In addition to its network of reproducing churches, NewThing serves thousands of churches through its conferences, coaching and creative resources. He resides in Naperville, IL with his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Graham and Chloe. You can check out his blog at jonferguson.org.
Sue Ferguson - Sue is passionate about helping people find their way back to God through small groups. Sue, along with her husband Dave, the lead pastor, was one of the original six people who planted Community Christian Church that is now a multi-site, missional community with eleven locations and more than 6,000 people. A former middle school teacher, Sue has served in a variety of leadership roles and is currently the Director of Term Small Groups at the Yellow Box campus. But more than all this stuff – Sue loves Jesus and her family, which includes three terrific kids.
Dave Gibbons - The fringe, the artists, the poor, urban and rural innovators, international students, business executives, community development specialists and non-profit leaders are the domains Dave intersects with. He is an executive coach and expert on culture, strategy and social movements. He is the CVO and founder of YangDang.com, a new cause driven, east/west social tool to enable people to radically make a difference. He is the Lead Ethos Architect of the NEWSONG Global Alliance (Third Culture communities in major cities around the world). Dave serves on the Board of World Vision US and is also the Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) of Xealot, an organization that develops movement leaders. Dave is the author of The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for Third Culture Leaders. He is the father of four and has been married to his best friend Rebecca for 25 years.
Louie Giglio - Louie is the Visonary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, which includes the collegiate gatherings of Passion Conferences, Atlanta based Passion City Church and EMI CMG label partner sixstepsrecords. Louie is the author of The Air I Breathe and I am not, but I know I AM and is widely known for the Passion Talk Series DVD messages Indescribable and How Great is Our God. As a communicator, Louie speaks for events throughout the US and around the globe. Louie and his wife, Shelley, live in Alpharetta, GA.
Rich and Dori Gorman - Rich and Dori are seminary students at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, TN. As students, Rich and Dori founded a relationship-centered urban ministry in a low-income housing facility, the John Sevier Center, located in downtown Johnson City, Rich and Dori believe that one of the greatest impacts of poverty in the United States is the sense that you have nothing to contribute, that you are, in every way, ‘disabled’ and useless. To engage this reality, "Friends at John Sevier" was established to mobilize church communities to enter into meaningful relationships with those living “on the other side” and to see lives changed through Christ-centered friendships.
Larry Grays – Larry is the Senior Pastor of Midtown Bridge Church. He moved his family to Atlantic Station in August of 2006 and began to recruit a core group of people for small group studies and prayer. They looked for ways to serve the community. They recruited over 20 church partners to help reach the city of Atlanta and they prayed for every home listed in the Atlanta phone book. Midtown Bridge Church officially launched in August 2007 at Fox Sports Grill in Atlantic Station and in January 2008 moved into Regal Cinemas in Atlantic Station. This congregation is continuing to grow a church that looks like the city and like the kingdom of God. They believe it will take a church planting movement to transform their city and are currently helping lay a foundation for other church plants.
Mike Hall - Mike serves as the Director of Engagement for Halftime. His focus is to develop relationships between Halftimers and Parachurch organizations. He is experienced and skilled in helping create ministry growth. Prior to joining the Halftime team Mike was on staff with Young Life, where he served as the Regional Developer. Mike received his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and later acquired a Master’s of Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his lovely wife of 10 years, Heather, live in Frisco with their four active children.
Hugh Halter – Hugh is the national director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing, and apprenticing Incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Hugh co-directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for Incarnational leaders, pastors, and church planters. Hugh is also lead architect of Adullum, a local movement of missional communities in Denver, CO. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Hugh is an advocate for disoriented God seekers and loves to inspire and re-orient leaders around the mission of God.
Bob Harrington - Bob is Director of Restore Training Network (formerly Church Coaching Solutions). An experienced church planter and lead pastor, Bob has coached lots of church leaders and church planters. Bob also is the Director of Church Planting Networks and Research and Development for Stadia. He is also Director of Restore Training Network (formerly Church Coaching Solutions). An experienced church planter and lead pastor, Bob has coached lots of church leaders and church planters. He is also the current and founding pastor of Harpeth Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
Sarah Hatfield - Sarah, along with her husband, Scott, moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2006 to plant Resonate Church in Bonney Lake, WA. She has partnered with Scott in marriage and youth ministry for the prior 15 years at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY., and Southland Christian in Lexington, KY. Sarah is passionate about using her valleys - a battle with breast cancer & depression, infertility & miscarriages, and moving 2500 miles across the country - for the glory of God! She wants to use her story to encourage ministry wives to partner boldly with their husbands and embrace their calling into ministry as a privilege. Sarah serves at Resonate on the worship team and as the Associate Life Groups Pastor.
Alan Hirsch - Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of Shapevine, an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. He is also part of the leadership team of Christian Associates, a missional church-planting agency with focus on Western Europe. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized, as well as, heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S. He is the author of several books including The Shaping of Things to Come, The Forgotten Ways, ReJesus (with Michael Frost), and Untamed (to be released January 2010).
Scott Hodge - Scott is the lead pastor of The Orchard, an 80-year old church community located in Aurora, Illinois. Scott has a fascinating story of leading The Orchard through a painful, yet rewarding, journey of cultural change and transition over the past four years. Today, The Orchard has become a healthy, growing and innovative church that is committed to making a missional impact both locally and globally. Besides his family and church, Scott is also passionate about Starbucks Coffee and Apple computers. Learn more about Scott by visiting his blog at www.scotthodge.org.
Chris Hodges – Chris is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Church of the Highlands. Planted in 2001, Church of the Highlands offers ten worship services each weekend at four different locations in Alabama and has grown to over 12,000 members. Chris has a deep passion for developing leaders and planting life-giving churches. He co-founded ARC (Association of Related Churches) in 2001 which has planted over 75 churches all across the USA. Chris and his wife Tammy have five children.
Billy Hornsby - Billy is a minister that has worked for over 30 years with church leaders nationally and internationally. He is a published author who directs a nationwide church planting organization, Association of Related Churches, and serves as the Senior European Consultant for EQUIP, John Maxwell's global leadership training organization. He is a keynote speaker for churches, conferences, and business groups speaking on the topics of team management, leadership and how to maintain productive relationships. He has been married for over 42 years to his wife Charlene.
Rick Howerton – Rick has been a small group pastor, church planter, and senior pastor. He is the National Director of Events and Training and Small Group-ologist for Serendipity by LifeWay. Rick leads over 40 conferences nationwide per year and has authored or co-authored three small group studies including Small-Group Kickoff Retreat: Experiential Training for Small Group Leaders, Great Beginnings: Your First Small Group Study, and Redeeming the Tears: A Journey Through Grief and Loss. Rick is also the co-author of Small Group Life Manual and the author of Destination Community: Small Group Ministry Manual, an all-encompassing guide to creating a small group ministry and starting and leading passionate, life-changing small groups.
Troy Jackson - Troy has served as Senior Pastor of University Christian Church (UCC) in Cincinnati, OH for more than ten years. UCC is a part of Christian Community Development Association, a network of churches and organizations working to reshape urban neighborhoods. Under Troy's leadership, UCC established Rohs Street Café, a seven-day-a-week community coffee shop committed to community engagement, the arts, and social justice. He is the author of "Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr and the Making of a National Leader" (University Press of Kentucky, 2008).
Galen Jones - Galen lives with his wife Cathy and their dog Mercedes in Winder (Northeast of Atlanta). Galen has planted churches in Ohio, Arizona and formally worked as a Church Planting Strategist in Alabama. He currently works with associations and churches in the Western portion of Georgia.
Lisa Jones - Lisa has been a part of three church plants. Together with her husband Brian they launched Christ’s Church of the Valley in the suburbs of Philadelphia nine years ago. Today over 2,000 people call CCV home. Lisa is a middle school teacher and earned her master’s degree in educational leadership. She is a contributing author to Church Planting from the Ground Up. Lisa has worn many hats in her church planting endeavors and is passionate about helping everyone involved in new church work successfully navigate the trials in order to experience real joy.
Steve Kemp - Steve is the Academic Dean of the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development, a degree-granting institution for churches, ministry teams, and church networks using the church-based theological education resources of BILD International. Previously, he served Moody Bible Institute as Vice-President and Dean of Distance Education and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School as Associate Dean of Nontraditional and Distance Education. Now, he is leveraging his expertise in situated learning to support leadership development that is truly church-based. He is also the Associate Pastor of Oakwood Road Church in Ames, Iowa and has planted a church on the north side of Chicago.
James King, Jr. – James stepped away from full-time ministry to rest, reconnect with his family and gain perspective on a new journey that God was preparing for him and his family in April of 2003. During this time Rev. James joined the Urban Ministries, Inc. staff as an associate editor and later editor of InTeen® magazine. On February 22, 2005 a new vision was born. Teaming up with his wife, Patricia, and former ministry partner, Rev. Alise Barrymore, God had given him a new vision to establish a Community of Faith whose heart beats for the disconnected and disenfranchised and whose Core Passions are Relationships, Collaboration, Creativity, Simplicity, Integrity, Grace, Growth and Fun. Redefining pastoral leadership and structures, both James and Alise serve collaboratively as the Pastors of The Emmaus Community in Chicago Heights, IL.
George Klippenes - George has served as student pastor on Red Lake Indian Reservation, Youth For Christ Director, Missionary in Ethiopia, pastor of a rural church, small town church, and planted an urban church. George served the North Central District as a district director of church planting and has served the Evangelical Free Church as the National Director of Church Planting since 1998. George has a passion to see the EFCA become a major church planting movement in the United States where every EFCA church will become a reproducing church and no EFCA church planter will be left alone. By God's grace, last year we began 45 new works which bring our total church plants to 148.
Charles Lee - Charles is the lead cultural catalyst and pastor for New Hope in Torrance and Los Angeles. He is also the vice-president and founding member of JustOne, a non-profit organization committed to addressing issues of poverty, orphans, and human trafficking (modern-day slavery). In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp and the Freeze Project. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creativity, innovation, leadership, ministry, community development and compassionate justice.” You can find him at www.charlestlee.com.
Brad Leeper - Brad is drawn to innovative, growing churches and the challenges of helping them expand practically and spiritually. He uses his understanding of the multi-site church strategy and other pioneering and other pioneering church movements to assist them with building the finances needed to reach their ministry goals. Brad is a senior strategist with Generis, and has experience as a consultant to churches across the nation, a staff leader in resource development for local ministries, a Campus Director for Campus Crusade for Christ, and a church elder in his own 5,000-member home church, Perimeter Church in Atlanta.
Shawn Lovejoy - Shawn is the founding and Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church, Co-Founder of churchplanters.com and author of shawnlovejoy.com. In the last 10 years Shawn has led his church to go multi-site, plant churches, and into some of the most challenging places in the world. Churchplanters.com has become one of the most influential church planting ministries in the world, and he gives Jesus all the credit. Shawn loves his wife, his kids, the church, pastors, & Playstation. In that order.
Will Mancini - Will Mancini emerged from the trenches of local church leadership to found Auxano, a first-of-kind consulting ministry that focuses on vision clarity. As a "clarity evangelist," Will has served as vision architect for hundreds of churches across the country. Will's style blends the best of three worlds: the process thinking from the discipline of engineering, the communications savvy as an ad agency executive, and the practical theology as a pastoral leader. His education includes a ThM in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State. He is the author of Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement, a Leadership Network Publication, and of Building Leaders.
Marc McCartney - Marc has a passion to connect his generation to God’s heart for the nations. Through his ministry at the Rightnow Campaign, Marc has launched two unique events that help Pastor’s & Leaders mobilize this generation and help his peers put their faith in action. Marc has also worked as an Area Manager and Event Manager for Promise Keepers and as the Director of the Next Generation Department for Global Missions Fellowship. He is married to Robin and has two girls.
Larry McCrary – Larry and his family have lived in Europe since 2001. They have been a part of church planting in the states and in Europe. He is co-founder of The Upstream Collective. He is passionate about seeing the church think and act as a missionary both in their community and internationally. This year he launched another network called the Skybridge Community which is focused on followers of Jesus who desire to live and work in Europe. He and his wife Susan have two children.
Mel McGowan – Mel is President and founder of Visioneering Studios, a national architecture, urban and interior design firm which recently was given the Solomon Award for “Best Church Architect.” Visioneering is a sister ministry to Stadia: New Church Strategies and has offices across the US. Mel speaks extensively on sustainable Christ-centered community and is the author of Design Intervention: Revolutionizing Sacred Space and Saving Suburbia: From the Garden to the City.
Janet McMahon - Janet, a former social worker, joined the staff of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL as a ministry director in 1996. Over the years she has served in various ministries including Children's, Support and Recovery, and Small Groups. In March of 2008, Janet joined her husband Troy, and a staff team of 5 others, to plant Restore Community Church in Kansas City, MO where she serves as Director of Community. Janet and Troy do life and church with their three kids.
Reggie McNeal - Reggie is the Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network of Dallas, TX. Reggie’s past experience involves over a decade as a denominational executive and leadership development coach. He also served in local congregational leadership for over twenty years, including being the founding pastor of a new church. Reggie has lectured or taught as adjunct faculty for multiple seminaries, including Fuller Theological (Pasadena, CA), Southwestern Baptist (Ft. Worth, TX), Golden Gate Baptist (San Francisco, CA), Trinity Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), and Columbia International (Columbia, SC). In addition, he has served as a consultant to local church, denomination, and para-church leadership teams, as well as seminar developer and presenter for thousands of church leaders across North America. He has also resourced the United States Army Chief of Chaplains Office, Air Force chaplains, and the Air Force Education and Training Command. Reggie’s work also extends to the business sector, including The Gallup Organization. He is the other of several books; his latest is Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. Reggie and his wife Cathy, have two daughters.
Kem Meyer – Kem used to think church was for out-of-touch people who just needed to “get a life.” Now? She believes the local church is the hope of the world—it just needs some help. She believes it so much that after a 15 year career in corporate communications, Kem left the marketplace and joined the staff team at Granger Community Church. As the church’s Communications Director, Kem leads creative, information and technology teams to champion a clutter free, cohesive and unified experience across departments and campuses. While her faith is primary in her life and what drives her to achieve more, she doesn't believe in huddling inside church walls. She’s an advocate for applying these same principles and insights in businesses, schools, not-for-profits or any organization struggling to find ways to get the word out and, simply, do better. She even wrote Less Clutter. Less Noise. Beyond bulletins, brochures and bake sales. to help churches find ways to remove the barriers that keep people from connecting with Christ. Keep up with her riffs about improving quality of life and church at KemMeyer.com.
Brian Mosley – Brian is the Executive Vice President of Product Development for Bluefish TV, which has worked closely with Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Margaret Feinberg, Les and Leslie Parrott, Todd Phillips, David Nasser, Louie Giglio, and a host of other great communicators. Brian is also the Director of The RightNow Campaign which has established a network of 75 mission agencies and service organizations and from what we can track, the campaign has connected over 2000 people to specific opportunities to make a difference in their neighborhoods, cities and the world. Brian is married to his high school sweetheart, Julie. They have two children and are also foster parents.
Brenda Salter McNeil – Brenda is a dynamic preacher, evangelist and thought-leader with over 20 years of experience in the field of racial and ethnic reconciliation. She is the president and founder of Salter McNeil & Associates, which partners with organizations to transform them into reconciling communities. Their mission is to produce inter-culturally competent leaders on college campuses, in churches and in organizations around the world. Brenda earned a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry from Palmer Theological Seminary. She is the author of A Credible Witness: Reflections on Power, Evangelism and Race, The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change, and Women’s Liberation Jesus Style: Messages of Spirituality and Wisdom.
Mary Nelson - Mary is the founding President and CEO of Bethel New Life Ministries on the West Side of Chicago, where she has lived and served for four decades. Nelson is a sought-after speaker in the areas of asset-based community development and social justice. She serves as a board member with Sojourners and with the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA).
Dave Olson - David T. Olson is director of the American Church Research Project. He planted four churches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Florida and now leads the church planting movement for the Evangelical Covenant Church as its director of church planting. His new book, The American Church in Crisis, has just been published by Zondervan.
Larry Osborne - Larry Osborne is a Senior Pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, California, and the Founder and President of North Coast Leadership Network. Under his leadership, weekend attendance has grown from 128 to over 7,000. Recognized nationally as one of the Ten Most Influential Churches in America and one of the most innovative, North Coast Church pioneered the use of Video Worship Venues and is one of the leaders in the Multi-Site movement with over 20 worship options each targeted at a different missional demographic. Their Sermon-Based Small Groups incorporates 80% of their average weekend attendance and is spreading across the nation as an alternative to traditional small group methodologies. Larry's book's include, Sticky Church; A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality For The Rest of Us; 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe and The Unity Factor: Developing A Healthy Leadership Team.
Darrin Patrick - Darrin serves as lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, MO, which he founded in 2002. Darrin also serves as Vice President of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and is a regular contributor at The Resurgence. His passion is to help the church understand and live the gospel in the world. Today, The Journey runs eight services across four campuses and continues to aggressively plant new campuses and churches in the Saint Louis region and beyond.
Vanessa Pugh - Vanessa and her husband Scott recently started Velocity Church in Cleveland, Ohio. She has developed and led women’s ministries and has taught at several different churches across Ohio, as well as a workshop at the 2009 FIND Conference. She is passionate about evangelism and loves working with teenage girls. In her free time she loves playing competitive softball.
David Putman - David is a pastor at Mountain Lake Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he focuses on issues related to growing the church's impact in its community and around the world. He also trains, coaches, and consults churches across North America and is a cofounder of ChurchPlanters.com. He is the co-author of Breaking the Missional Code along with Ed Stetzer and the author of Breaking the Discipleship Code. David and his wife Tami have two children.
Lloyd Reeb – Lloyd is a successful real estate developer and primary spokesperson for the Halftime movement. He has helped thousands of men and women redefine success and infuse their lives with eternal significance. As director of leadership development at Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, N.C., Lloyd helps Guide high-capacity marketplace leaders on a journey from wealth-building to kingdom-building - one Halftimer at a time. Author of Success to Significance and The Second Half, Lloyd is also the co-author of Unlimited Partnership with Bill Wellons, a unique flip book design to facilitate partnerships between high-capacity marketplace leaders and ministry leaders. He and his wife Linda have three children.
Dino Rizzo – Dino is the founding pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a church with over 7,200 people in 11 campuses and 18 weekend services. HPC has been named one of America’s Top 25 Most Innovative Churches - a reflection of his overwhelming drive to reach the unreachable and to engage with others to show God’s love to the poor and hurting - wherever they are. His book, SERVOLUTION, exposes his passion to see believers join together in a revolution of serving others - Jesus style. Dino and his wife DeLynn have three children. Visit his blog at http://www.dinorizzo.com to learn more.
Rick Rusaw – Rick has been the Senior Minister at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado since 1991. He is also the co-founder of the Externally Focused Network. During Rick’s years at LifeBridge, weekly worship attendance has grown from 600 to 3,000. Rick has spoken for a variety of ministers’ conferences, retreats, and leadership seminars, as well as Christian and business conventions. Topics include church growth, motivational speaking, CEO coaching, and sales and management training. In addition, he owns a business consulting company and real estate development company, oversees group homes for mentally and developmentally disabled adults in three states, and serves on the board of a number of business and Christian organizations. Rick co-author of The Externally Focused Church, Living a Life on Loan, 60 Simple Secrets, and the Windows on Worship Devotional Series. He and his wife Diane have three children.
Matt Smay – Matt is the co-director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing, and apprenticing Incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Matt directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for Incarnational leaders, pastors, and church planters. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Matt balances his time and energy between leading Adullum, a local movement of missional communities in Denver, CO and working directly with church planters and existing pastors as a mentor, coach, and consultant.
Dan & Shannon Smith – Shannon is the chick with a huge Bible in the popular online video “Baby Got Book.” Dan is the pasty-white rapper who’s hittin’ on her. They’ve been married for 13 years and, after thinking they would never be able to have children, God blessed them with three. In 2005, Dan & Shannon led a team to start Momentum Christian Church in Cleveland, OH and continue to help plant other churches. When Shannon isn’t toting a huge Bible (or a grande, 6-pump, 180-degree, no-water chai latte from Starbucks), she is a small group coach, helps lead worship on Sunday mornings, and hosts a small group at their house. Dan is a speaker, rapper, storyteller and comedy writer. His comedy has been featured on CNN, VH-1, The New York Times, Glenn Beck, and Yahoo! Dan has two albums “The Caucasian Invasion” and “DEB’S Kid” available at iTunes or his website, www.whiteboyDJ.com.
Efrem Smith - Efrem is an internationally recognized leader and speaker who uses storytelling, comedy, and passion to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a level that people can understand as well as presents principles for living the life on a daily basis. He also consults on diversity and multi-ethnic issues. Currently, he serves as Pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church and board chair of The Sanctuary Community Development Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also hosts the radio program, “A Time for Reconciliation” and is author of the book, Raising-up Young Heroes. His column, The Urban Take is featured in Youth Worker Journal. Efrem is married to Donecia and has two daughters.
Wayne Smith – Wayne is the Director of the Strategic Church Initiative for Halftime (Leadership Network). Prior to joining the team, Wayne served as an Executive Pastor for several years, but the majority of his career was with Young Life. He served Young Life for 23 years in multiple leadership roles. Wayne is a graduate of Texas Christian University (B.A.) and Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M) and is an ordained minister. He and his wife, Debbie, have three adult children, and one grandson. Wayne and Debbie reside in the city of Dallas and attend Irving Bible Church where Wayne serves as an elder.
George Stagg – George is Lead Pastor of Twin Cities Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Director of Church Planting Partnerships for BILD International, and a Senior Faculty member of the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development. George has been on staff with BILD since 1997 and served as Associate Pastor of Oakwood Road Church in Ames, Iowa, the headquarters of BILD, until being commended to plant Twin Cities Church in 2007. George’s knowledge and experience in the church-based philosophy of BILD has enabled him to build solid foundations for generations of growth and church planting in the Twin Cities and beyond. George and Anna have been married 15 years and they have four children.
Ed Stetzer - Ed has planted churches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, and holds two masters degrees and two doctorates. He has written dozens of articles and books, including Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns), Strategic Outreach (with David Putman), Planting Missional Churches, Comeback Churches, and most recently Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them (with Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes). Ed served for three years as a seminary professor at the Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and has taught as fifteen other seminaries. He is currently the President of Lifeway Research and Lifeway's Missiologist in Residence.
Tim Stevens – Tim is the Executive Pastor for Granger Community Church. For 15 years, his leadership has helped Granger connect with people who think church is irrelevant. He has done this through the creative blending of architecture, strategy and technology. He’s acutely tuned in to popular culture and is instrumental in balancing operations, building creative teams and inspiring artists to brand each message series and sharpen the weekend experience. He has co-authored three books in the Simply Strategic series, and is author of a new book, Pop Goes the Church, released in 2008. You can find Tim blogging at www.LeadingSmart.com and on Twitter @timastevens.
Kirsten Strand – Kirsten is the Founder and Director of Community 4:12, a community development focused non-profit of Community Christian Church. She and her family relocated into the under-resourced community of East Aurora, IL two years ago. They are working towards establishing a community center focused on economic, cultural/artistic, and spiritual development in East Aurora. 
Greg Surratt - Greg is the founding pastor of Seacoast Church, one of the early adopters of the multi-site model. Located in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Seacoast has been recognized by various media as an innovative and influential thought leader in future strategies for church growth and development. It combines a unique approach to highly participatory worship with a heart for missional evangelism. Seacoast currently has 29 weekend worship experiences in 13 separate locations. Greg is also a founding board member of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), a church planting network that has given birth to 60 churches in the last 6 years. Greg is married to a very hip grandma, has 4 children, 7 grandchildren and enjoys reading, photography, fishing, golfing and rooting for lost causes...specifically the Cubs, Broncos, and Gamecocks.
Ron Sylvia – Ron is the founding and lead pastor of Church at The Springs in Ocala, Florida, and the Director of NEXT Churches and Next Coaching Networks. The Springs started in an office building in 1994 with only 21 people and now averages 3,000 in weekly attendance. While leading a fast-growing church, Ron learned first-hand the value of mentoring and coaching. As a result, Ron started NEXT Churches, an organization that provides coaching networks, conferences and resources to lead pastors nationwide. Certified in the Tom Paterson Strategic Planning Process, Ron helps pastors think and act strategically in the local church. He is the author of Launching a Purpose Driven Church conference curriculum, NEXT Coaching curriculum, and the book, Starting New Churches on Purpose.
Scott Thomas - Scott is the Director and Chairman of Acts 29 Network and Executive Elder at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He planted and replanted churches for 16 years as a lead pastor before moving to Seattle in 2006 with his wife Jeannie of 27 years and two sons. Acts 29 has planted almost 300 churches—250 in the last four years. Acts 29 recently launched Acts 29 Western Europe.
James Wafford III – James has been the Worship Arts Pastor at the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas for the past four years. In addition, he serves as the Minister of Music for the Central Arkansas Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), an organization founded by Gospel music pioneer Reverend James Cleveland more than forty years ago. Many well-known Gospel artists including Kirk Franklin, Kurt Carr and Yolanda Adams birthed their music at this workshop; and one of James' own songs, My Everything, was premiered at GMWA's National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee (2008). James' most recent demo CD entitled, In Tune is available through his website: jameswaffordiii.com. James and the Mosaic Church team are leading worship for the 2010 Exponential Conference.
Scott Williams – Scott is the Campus Pastor of the Northwest Oklahoma City Campus of LifeChurch.tv, in which he successfully planted in 2007. Since launching, the campus has grown significantly with an average weekly attendance of over 3,000. Scott had unique entrepreneurial and leadership experiences prior to ministry. One of those experiences included becoming one of the youngest Prison Wardens in the country. Scott is passionate about Church Diversity and has a gift for developing leaders. He is an avid blogger and leverages social media to make a kingdom impact. Check out his blog, http://BigIsTheNewSmall.com to learn more. Scott and his wife LaKendria have two sons.
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