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MICAH FRIES is the Senior Pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. Micah is married to Tracy and they have two daughters, Grace and Kessed, and a son, Haddon. Prior to serving at Brainerd, he worked for LifeWay Christian Resources, served as a Senior Pastor in Missouri, as an international church planter in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and as a Youth Director in Dothan, AL. He holds a Master of Divinity, a Bachelor of Arts, and is currently a Ph.D. student, studying North American Missiology. He is the author of a commentary on Haggai and Zephaniah in the Christ-Centered Commentary Series. Micah, along with Dr. Keith Whitfield, contributed and co-edited Islam and North America.
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BILL MOWRY (M.A., Ohio State University) has a passion for creating ministry cultures where relational disciplemaking is the norm. Bill and wife Peggy serve on staff with The Navigators Church Ministries in Columbus, Ohio. Both are avid "yardeners" and Peggy is a certified Master Gardener. Bill and Peggy have two adult children, two special grandchildren, and a coon hound named Ginger. They live on "Above and Beyond Acres" where they want to create a little place of beauty in a fallen world where people can reflect on the goodness of God. Bill is a published author in culture building, evangelism, and disciplemaking. You can contact Bill at his website: www.alongsider.com.
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SHAI LINNE is a recording artist who has released numerous acclaimed Christian hip-hop albums, including The Atonement and The Attributes of God. After completing a pastoral internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and serving as an elder at Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA, Shai co-founded Risen Christ Fellowship, an inner-city church in his hometown of Philadelphia, PA. Previously, Shai wrote God Made Me and You and co-authored It Was Good: Making Music to the Glory of God. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Blair and their three children, Sage, Maya, and Ezra.
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JIMMY DODD (B.A. Wheaton College; M.Div., Gordon-Conwell Seminary) is the founder and CEO of PastorServe. This organization works across denominational lines to strengthen the church by serving pastors. He is the author of Survive or Thrive, 6 Relationships Every Pastor Needs, and Pastors Are People Too, co-authored with Larry Magnuson. Jimmy and his wife Sally have five children and three grandchildren. He enjoys reading, taking walks with his wife Sally and dog Finn, and cheering on his beloved Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS.
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BEV GODBY is a senior associate and change management coach at The Giftedness Center in Dallas, Texas. She focuses on graduating students and women who are navigating challenging life transitions. She feels called to the role of an educator, teaching others about giftedness to help them find fulfilling lives. She serves as a consultant to schools and nonprofit organizations, and speaks and writes often on these topics. Bev holds degrees from Wheaton College and The University of Texas at Dallas. She is married to Dr. Dale Godby, with whom she has three married daughters and six grandchildren.
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JESSICA MANFRE is a licensed social worker, author, and Chief Financial Officer of the nonprofit, Inspire Up. She holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Central Florida and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Northwestern State University. Jessica is the proud wife of a U.S. Coast Guardsman, Scott, and mama to their two children, Anthony and Raegan. She is passionate about creating a kinder and more generous world—one that Jesus prayed and gave His life for.
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STEVE RICHARDSON has served as president of Pioneers-USA since 1999. Pioneers mobilizes and supports 3,200 missionaries and marketplace professionals who impact 500 unreached people groups in 95 countries. Steve was raised in Indonesia, where his parents planted churches in a jungle tribe. He witnessed the impact of the gospel on their war-like society, a story documented in his father's missionary classic, Peace Child. Steve and his wife, Arlene, also spent eleven years planting churches among an unreached people group in Southeast Asia. The Richardsons now live in Orlando, FL and have been blessed with four daughters and ten grandchildren.
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BRITTANY CRAGG has been editing and authoring marriage curriculum as the Director of Content for Grace Marriage since 2015. She has a degree in English Literature from Wheaton College and a law degree from Emory University, where she won the Golden Pen Award for excellence in legal editing. She has worked as an editor at Christianity Today in the preaching resources department and for investment firms in Chicago and Dallas. Brittany and her husband, Mark, have been married for over eleven years and live with their three children in Prosper, Texas.
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SUE HEIMER is an author, counselor, Bible teacher, and international speaker. She is the founder and president of Leaving Your Legacy Ministries, a ministry to encourage and support women in every stage of life. For the past 17 years, Sue has been a sought-after conference and retreat speaker, inspiring thousands of women each year with her messages of hope. In 2023, she was the keynote presenter at over 30 women’s conferences and retreats, with about 3000 women present and thousands more viewing online.
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ASHLEY ARMIJO is cofounder of Coffee and Bible Time, a ministry that helps women learn how to delight in God’s Word and thrive in Christian living. She is an alumna of the Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Ministry Studies. It is Ashley’s passion to teach women how to study and delight in God’s Word whether that is online through Coffee and Bible Time or opening up her home to young women in the community. When Ashley doesn’t have her nose in the Bible, she is spending time with her family, painting, and homemaking.
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ANDREW OSENGA is a songwriter, musician, record producer, and the leader of Anchor Hymns, a multi-generational community of artists creating new sacred songs for the church. He has worked extensively with Grammy and Dove award winning artists like Andrew Peterson, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jars of Clay, Sandra McCracken, and Caedmon’s Call. Beyond music, he can be found writing weekly on his popular faith and culture Substack and on his podcast, The Pivot. Andrew lives in Nashville with his wife and daughters and hikes at Radnor Lake every morning he can.
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JOE FERRINI and his wife, Cindi, live in Cleveland, OH, with one child at home and two married daughters and their families nearby. Together they spoke for FamilyLife Weekend to Remember for 20 years. Some of the best parts of their unexpected journey are coauthoring Unexpected Journey–When Special Needs Change Our Course and Love All-Ways–Embracing Marriage Together on the Special Needs Journey, being radio guests on FamilyLife and Focus on the Family, hosting their radio segment My Marriage Matters (Moody Radio Cleveland), and connecting with readers and listeners!
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CINDI FERRINI and her husband, Joe, live in Cleveland, OH, with one child at home and two married daughters and their families nearby. Together they spoke for FamilyLife Weekend to Remember for 20 years. Some of the best parts of their unexpected journey are coauthoring Unexpected Journey–When Special Needs Change Our Course and Love All-Ways–Embracing Marriage Together on the Special Needs Journey, being radio guests on FamilyLife and Focus on the Family, hosting their radio segment My Marriage Matters (Moody Radio Cleveland), and connecting with readers and listeners!
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NELL BRANUM is a former editor and elementary school librarian who is the daughter of both a World War II paratrooper and a Rosie the Riveter and believes God still uses lessons from history. She was married for 43 amazing years to her minister husband, and now she writes from a small town near Birmingham, Alabama, where she keeps chickens in the backyard, likes to go on adventures with her grown kids and their families (including nine grandkids), and enjoys watching sunsets on her front porch while drinking blueberry-flavored coffee.
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AUSTIN PRYOR is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky where he received a B.S. degree in Banking and Finance in 1967. Pryor founded his own investment management firm, Forum Investment Counselors, in 1978 where he saw his average client account more than triple in value during its first five years of operations. He is an American financial writer, speaker, and radio personality whose work focuses on investment counseling from an evangelical Christian point of view. In 1990 he founded the Sound Mind Investing newsletter to help Christians apply biblical financial and investing principles in specific ways to their personal situations. His written articles appear regularly on www.SoundMindInvesting.com as well as the Crosswalk, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Crown Financial Ministries websites.Pryor has been married to his wife, Susie, for 50 years; they have three grown children and ten grandchildren.
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CHRISTMAS CAROL KAUFMAN received her unique name in honor of her Christmas morning birth in 1901 in Elkhart, Indiana. She was raised in a Mennonite home and spent some time as a student at Goshen College. When she was 22, she married Norman Hostetler. However, tragedy struck when two months after their second anniversary, Norman was killed in an electrical accident. She worked in a sewing shop following the wake of her loss, but in 1928, her bishop recommended that she get away for a while and enroll as a Bible student at Hesston College. It was there that she met the man who would be her life partner—Nelson Kaufman. The two were married in 1929. Five years later they were commissioned by the Mennonite General Mission Board to start a mission church in Hannibal, Missouri. It was in their 22-year ministry in Missouri that she found the inspiration to write her many novels. In 1956, they returned to Elkhart where Kaufman wrote her last several books. She died in Elkhart on January 30, 1969.
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