Brenda Cannon

BRENDA CANNON was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1890. After teaching school for seven years in that city, she attended the Women’s Missionary Union Training School in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1919 she went to North Carolina to serve as secretary of a small mission school, which developed into a home for homeless children and continued to serve the young mountaineers of the area as a school. Except for two years spent as a field worker and young people’s leader in Oklahoma, Cannon remained in North Carolina, teaching school and doing community work. So when she wrote of mountaineers, she wrote understandingly of friends and neighbors. She died in North Carolina in 1965.

Lisa Jefferson

LISA D. JEFFERSON is an inspirational speaker, wife, and mother of two. She has received numerous awards and is currently involved in fundraising efforts for the Flight 93 National Memorial Project. It was on the morning of the 9/11 attacks on the US, that Lisa, a 17-year Verizon Supervisor and Chicago native, handled the emergency phone call that came in from Todd Beamer, one of the passengers who helped divert hijacked Flight 93. Called is her first book. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband, and two children.

Gilbert Peterson

Douglas M. Cecil

DOUGLAS CECIL (B.A., University of Cincinnati; Th.M., and D.Min., Dallas Theological Seminary) currently serves as a life stages pastor at Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas. A certified chaplain with more than 25 years of experience, Cecil is also an ordained minister and a former officer in the U.S. Air Force. He served as an associate professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary for 18 years and is a regular tour leader in Israel. Cecil’s interests include evangelism and pastoral care. The author of Seven Principles of an Evangelistic Life, Cecil resides in Fort Worth, Texas with his wife, Patty.

John Thornton

DR. JOHN THORNTON is a CPA with a Ph.D. in Accounting from Washington State University. He is the L.P. and Bobbi Leung Chair of Accounting Ethics at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian university with over 10,000 students near Los Angeles, CA where he directs the School of Accounting. He is a nationally recognized author and speaker on accounting ethics and has served as Chair of the American Accounting Association's Public Interest Section. His scholarship has been published in several top academic journals, winning multiple best paper awards from the AAA. He is married to Alyssa with three sons, Joshua, Benjamin, and Jacob.

John W. Mauck, JD

JOHN MAUCK, an attorney for 30 years, is a founding partner at Mauck & Baker, LLC in Chicago. He is an Allied Attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom and was a board member of Christian Legal Society. John received his B.A. from Yale and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago. He and his wife of 40 years have four adult children and are active church members. John also wrote Paul on Trial: The Book of Acts as a Defense of Christianity, which was a finalist for the Evangelical Book of the Year.

Jerry Vines

DR. JERRY VINES (B.A., Mercer University; Th.D., Luther Rice Seminary; PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) retired as pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida in 2006, where he served for 40 years. He served two terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jerry is author of a number of books including Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository Sermons, and A Practical Guide to Sermon Preparation. He and his wife, Janet, have four adult children and five grandchildren.

J. S. Park

J. S. PARK, (BA Psychology, Univ. South Florida; MDiv, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a hospital chaplain, viral blogger, and teaching pastor. As an interfaith chaplain at a large hospital in Tampa, he provides grief counseling and assists with end-of-life care. He also serves as a community care chaplain at Metropolitan Ministries, one of the largest nonprofit charities on the east coast, which serves the homeless in Tampa. He loves to play the drums and guitar, and has a sixth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He lives in Tampa, FL with his wife, Juliette, a nurse practitioner.

Dustin Crowe

DUSTIN CROWE (BA, Moody Bible Institute; MA, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) serves as the discipleship pastor at Stones Crossing Church, just outside Indianapolis, IN. He has written two books (with another forthcoming from Moody Publishers in 2025) and has written for websites such as The Gospel Coalition, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and Christianity Today. Dustin and his wife have two young kids. You can follow his blog www.indycrowe.com or find him on X or Instagram (@indycrowe) and Facebook (Dustin Crowe).

J. P. Moreland

J.P. MORELAND (B.S. University of Missouri, Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary, M. A. University of California-Riverside, and Ph.D. University of Southern California) is the Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University in La Mirada, California. He has co-planted three churches and he and his wife Hope attend Vineyard Anaheim church and are deeply committed to the body of believers there.

Ron Moore

RONALD MOORE serves as Senior Pastor of The Bible Chapel, a multisite church with 4,000 people meeting at four campuses throughout the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Before joining Back to the Bible, Ron's teaching was heard each week day on a national program called The Journey. Ron earned a Master of Theology (Th.M.) and a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. He also holds a masters degree in education from Texas A&M. He has written several books including Journey Through the Bible, Journey Through the Psalms, Journey Through the Gospels and Ignite. He and his wife, Lori, have been married since 1980 and have four adult children.

Ryan Lokkesmoe

RYAN LOKKESMOE PhD is the Senior Pastor of Community Church at Lake Wylie in the Charlotte area. He earned his master's degree in New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and his doctorate in New Testament at The University of Denver. Ryan is the author of Blurry: Bringing Clarity to the Bible (CLC Publications), and has written Small Group curriculum for LifeWay as well as articles for the Lexham Bible Dictionary. Ryan previously served as the Small Groups Pastor at a multi-site church, and as the Lead Pastor of Real Hope Community Church for seven years. He lives in Richmond, TX with his wife Ashley and their two children.

Jolene Philo

JOLENE PHILO grew up in a caregiving family and raised a son with medical special needs. As a teacher, she created an inclusive classroom for children with disabilities for 25 years. She's authored several books, including Every Child Welcome: A Ministry Handbook for Including Kids with Special Needs and Sharing Love Abundantly with Special Needs Families: The Five Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities. She hosts the award winning blog, www.DifferentDream.com. Jolene and her husband live in a multigenerational family in Iowa with her daughter, son-in-law and their two young children.

Candy McVicar

CANDY MCVICAR is an author, educator, speaker, and devoted advocate for parents who experience the loss of a baby or child. After the stillbirth of her daughter Grace in 2001, she committed to enhance the care bereaved families receive while in the hospital, to facilitate healing holistically, and to optimize outcomes for subsequent pregnancies. Candy is the founder of the Missing GRACE Foundation, a national nonprofit that provides support, resources, and education for families and professional care providers when there is loss of a baby, infertility, or adoption challenges. Find out more about Candy at www.candymcvicar.com.

Chris Swain

CHRISTOPHER SWAIN is the Disciplemaking Pastor at Long Hollow Baptist Church and the CEO of Replicate Ministries. After four years of service in the United States Marine Corps, Chris served in full-time ministry for two decades in Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee leading ministries ranging from students to collegiate to spiritual formation. He also served as the Director of Student Ministry Publishing at Lifeway Christian Resources, serving the church in its mission of making disciples. Chris has been with Replicate Ministries and Long Hollow Baptist Church since 2016, with a heart to expand the Gospel through disciplemaking in the local church. Along with his wife, two children, and Boston Terrier, Chris resides in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

Hannah Anderson

HANNAH R. ANDERSON lives in the haunting Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She spends her days working beside her husband in rural ministry, caring for their three children, and scratching out odd moments to write. In those in-between moments, she contributes to a variety of Christian publications and is the author of Made for More (Moody, 2014), Humble Roots (Moody, 2016), and All That's Good (Moody, 2018). You can connect with her at her blog www.sometimesalight.com and on Twitter @sometimesalight.