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RYAN LISTER is a professor of theology at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of The Presence of God: Its Place in the Story of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives and serves as Director of Doctrine & Discipleship for Humble Beast, where he helped start the Canvas Conference. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Chase, and their four children.
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COURTNEY REISSIG is a writer and Bible teacher living in Little Rock, AR. She loves teaching the Bible, writing about the Bible, or talking about the Bible in any context she finds herself in. She and her husband are the proud parents of four sons, and together they serve at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, AR, where she is the Discipleship Content Director.
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ADAM GRIFFIN (DEdMin, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the lead pastor of Eastside Community Church in Dallas, Texas. He is the coauthor of Family Discipleship with Matt Chandler. He previously served as an elder and spiritual formation pastor at the Village Church. Adam lives in Dallas with his wife Chelsea, and their three sons Oscar, Gus, and Theodore.
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KAT SHULTIS lives in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, with her husband, Casey, and their son. Their company, HeWouldLoveFirst.com, answers the question What Would Jesus Do? She leads a ministry called Be a Blessing to help girls with body image and disordered eating habits and shares encouragement online for women with various struggles she has walked through as well.
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RACHEL BOOTH SMITH has a contagious love for God’s Word. Her passion to teach accessible theology has led her to develop curriculum and leadership summits, write Bible studies, and teach. Rachel has a Master of Divinity degree from Pillar Seminary, where she learned to study the Bible in its original languages while being trained in ancient Near East context for both the Old and New Testament.
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MIKE HANDLER serves as the Chief Innovation Officer for Awana. Prior to Awana, Mike was a pastor, a church planter as well as the principle of a creative agency. Mike is a coauthor of Resilient and the cofounder of the Child Discipleship Forum. Now in the Nashville area, Mike and his family are originally from Chicagoland and miss the food there.
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CLAYTON GREENE is CEO and cofounder of GoodKind. Together with friends, Clayton and his wife, Kristen, created Advent Blocks—a devotional practice to help them anticipate Jesus during the month of December. Clayton is also the Summit Collaborative Director, where he supports 70+ independent church plants. The Greenes live in Durham, NC, with their two daughters, Cara and Susan.
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JOHN HINKLEY has been married for more than 40 years to Tris and they have three adult children. For 35 years he has worked for Moody Publishers in Chicago, IL, where he currently serves as an acquisitions editor. John and Tris reside in Northwest Indiana and serve together as directors of their church’s counseling ministry.
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PAUL GUTACKER is a historian who lives in Waco, Texas. Since 2018, Paul, his wife, Paige, and their four children have been enjoying life with the Brazos Fellows, a community that studies, prays, eats, and discerns together. When he’s not teaching, he loves sharing in favorite pastimes with his kids: cooking, fishing, reading, and rooting on the Buffalo Bills.
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TOMMY SHELTON grew up joyfully as the son of a pastor in North Carolina and is thrilled that God called him to follow in his father’s shepherding footsteps. He loves his wife and six children. He also loves to preach the Bible, pray over people, and build things. Tommy is the pastor of Live Oaks Bible Church in Palm Harbor, Florida.
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LAURA BUSSE is a dynamic speaker, certified grief educator, spiritual coach, and podcaster who expertly overlaps biblical truths with practical strategies for healing and growth. She is the founder of The 3 O’Clock Wake Up Call, a nonprofit ministry growing gratitude to God around the globe every day at 3:00 p.m. Laura also supports people in bereavement, specializing in traumatic loss, suicide postvention, spiritual formation, resilience training, and post-traumatic growth.
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TREVIN WAX is the editor of TGM - Theology, Gospel, Mission, a gospel-centered small group curriculum developed by LifeWay Christian Resources. He blogs at www.trevinwax.com and is also the author of Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals. He has served in pastoral roles in churches in the United States and in Romania. His wife is Corina and they have two children.
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HANNAH FARVER is a college student, writer, website blogger, speech and debate coach, and she has even been interviewed on ABC. She also embarked on a national conference tour for young women. Like most people her age she doesn’t know exactly what the future holds, but for now she is planning on a career in media—and more writing, of course. She lives outside Dallas, Texas.
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MARY FRANCES BOWLEY is the Founder of Wellspring Living, an organization fighting childhood sexual abuse and exploitation since 2001. She has been a leader in bringing the fight against child sex-trafficking to Atlanta and is a founding member of the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. Mary Frances is the author of The White Umbrella and A League of Dangerous Women. She resides in Peachtree City with her husband, Dick.
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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.
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LOIS WALFRID JOHNSON is a speaker, teacher of writing, and former instructor for Writer's Digest School. She is the author of 38 books, including Girl Talk, the Gold Medallion Book Award winning Let's-Talk-About-It Stories for Kids series, the bestselling Adventures of the Northwoods mysteries, and the much-loved Riverboat Adventures. In her exciting Viking Quest series Lois' characters travel from Ireland to Norway, Iceland, and Greenland, then sail with Leif Erickson to what is now America. Lois' husband, Roy, is a gifted teacher and idea person for her writing. They enjoy time with their family, friends, and readers who have written from more than 40 countries to say, "I love your books. I can't put them down."
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