E. M. Bounds

EDWARD MCKENDREE BOUNDS (1835-1913) was born in Missouri. He studied deeply in the Scriptures and was greatly inspired by the writings of John Wesley. At the age of 24, he felt called to be a preacher and became a Methodist Pastor around the time of the American Civil War. At the age of 58, and for the next nineteen years (until he went home to be with the Lord at age 77), he began to write books. It is said that he prayed daily, from 4 A.M. to 7 A.M., before he would begin work on his writings. Bounds is author of many books, including Purpose in Prayer, The Weapon of Prayer, and The Reality of Prayer.

Lin Johnson

LIN JOHNSON is Managing Editor of The Christian Communicator, Advanced Christian Writer and Church Libraries and is the author and co-author of more than 60 books, including Christian Education: Foundations for the Future, Extracting the Precious from 2nd Corinthians, Encouraging Others, and The Book of John from The Smart Guide to the Bible Series. Lin specializes in Bible curriculum and is a Gold Medallion Book Award recipient. She also directs the Write-to-Publish Conference in the Chicago area and teaches at writers' conferences across the country and internationally. Lin resides in Elgin, Illinois.

Hannah Whitall Smith

HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (1832-1911) was born in Philadelphia to a Quaker family. Her life expressed the joy that is found in complete surrender to the Lord. The secret to a happy life, according to Whitall Smith, is to trust implicitly in the promises of the Bible. Her goal was not to impress the scholar, but to elevate the simple man or woman who longed for a more consecrated way of living. Deeply practical, her writings deal directly with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people. She is author of The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life and The God of All Comfort.

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.

Richard Ellsworth Day

RICHARD ELLSWORTH DAY was born in the United States in 1884. In his early life he was an apprentice at the Terre Haute Gazette in Indiana serving as an associate reporter. His first book was a biography on the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon entitled The Shadow of the Broad Brim, which he published with Judson Press in 1934. The book was an immediate success which led to subsequent biographies on Charles Grandison Finney (1942), D.L. Moody (1944), and Henry Parsons Crowell (1946). Richard Day and his wife Deborah would begin each project with extensive research and study and then retreat to their little cottage in Sunnyvale, California to write. In his day he was a noted Christian biographer, and between projects, traveled around speaking in churches and schools until his death in 1965.

Geraldine Taylor

W. Phillip Keller

W. PHILLIP KELLER (1920-1997) was born in East Africa and always loved the wildlife and the outdoors. Having spent many years in agriculture research, land management and ranch development in British Columbia, he later pursued careers in conservation, wildlife photography, and journalism. His experiences as a shepherd equipped him with the insights that are the basis for A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. His other titles include A Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer, Splendor from the Sea, Lessons from a Sheepdog, and A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit.

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.

Carl Trueman

CARL R. TRUEMAN studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Aberdeen in the United Kingdom. Prior to emigrating to the United States, he was on faculty at the University of Nottingham and King's College, University of Aberdeen. He is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA). His scholarly publications focus on the development of Reformed Orthodoxy in sixteenth and seventeenth century Britain. He is also a Council Member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. His latest books are Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative (Presbyterian and Reformed) and, Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History (Crossway).

Stan Best

John Stanton (Stan) Best was the author of four youth fiction books based upon life in the Amazon jungle.

John MacNeil

Richard A. Burr

Richard A. Burr was the founder of Pray-Think-Act Ministries, Inc., and former president of the late J. Edwin Orr's ministry, The Oxford Association for Research in Revival. He also served as the excecutive director for the "Here's Life" campaigns of Campus Crusade for Christ.

William Gurnall

WILLIAM GURNALL (1616-1679) was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, a university under strong Puritan influence. His life's work was as pastor of the Church of Christ, in Suffolk. He authored The Christian in Complete Armour: Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare.

Manny Mill

MANNY MILL is chief executive officer of Koinonia House® National Ministries (KHNM)m whose mission is to bridge the gap between the Christian inmate and the local church. For almost 25 years, KHNM has been facilitating the integration of the former inmate into the church, workplace, and society through biblical discipleship. Manny graduated from Wheaton College (B.A., M.A.) and has been privileged to proclaim the Gospel in churches, schools, conferences, and especially behind prison walls in the United States and abroad. The father of five adult children and grandfather of six, Manny resides with his wife, Barbara, in Wheaton, IL.

Hans Finzel

HANS FINZEL (D.Miss., Fuller School of World Missions; Th. M., Dallas Theological Seminary) is the president of HDLeaders. He served for 20 years as president of WorldVenture (formerly CBInternational). He and his wife, Donna, spent ten years as missionaries in Eastern Europe, working with WorldVenture to train pastors behind the Iron Curtain. Hans is the author of ten books, including Change is Like a Slinky, Launch Your Encore, The Power of Passion in Leadership, Unlocking the Scriptures, and his bestseller The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. He co-authored The Top Ten Ways to Love Your Wife with his wife. He is the host of the Leadership Podcast, The Leadership Answer Man and is a widely sought-after speaker as an expert in leadership development, change management and international studies. The Finzels make their home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado and have four children.

Harry A. Ironside

HENRY ALLEN IRONSIDE (1876-1951) was born in Toronto, Canada to parents who were both active in the Plymouth Brethren. From an early age he showed a strong interest in evangelical Christianity and was active in the Salvation Army as a teenager before later joining the "Grant section" of the Plymouth Brethren. He was influential in popularizing dispensationalism among Protestants in North America. Despite his lack of formal education, his tremendous mental capacity, photographic memory and zeal for his beliefs caused him to be called "the Archbishop of Fundamentalism."