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REV. RAY WOOLRIDGE (M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Master of Strategic Studies, U.S. Army War College) is the Executive Director of Life Model Works. He is thrilled to serve in a role that combines his pastoral and leadership experience with his calling, giftings, and walk with God. Ray is a skilled public communicator and a leadership coach who enjoys helping leaders discover their uniqueness and unleash their potential. He is a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General with forty-three years of military and civilian service with the Department of Defense.Ray has been blessed by thirty-five years of marriage to the love of his life, Deborah. They enjoy life in Colorado and their five children and four grandchildren. A disabled veteran, he is a malignant melanoma cancer survivor, avid skier, coffee aficionado, and mentor to young leaders.
Read MoreSARAH LEW TIERNEY is a Canadian-American who was born to missionary parents and spent her childhood in the mountains of Eastern Congo (DRC). Due to political unrest, her family moved to Illinois where she met and married her high school sweetheart. Jake and Sarah have two children -- a ninja and an artist -- and continue to reside amongst the cornfields today. She is a licensed clinical counselor by day...and a passionate writer typing madly at her keyboard by night (after the ninja and the artist go to bed). Her writing includes fiction, nonfiction, and personalized birthday songs for friends and family, which she performs accompanied by her dashing mandolin-wielding husband. She loves to collaborate on book projects and especially enjoyed teaming up for The Stranger at Our Shore with her friend, Joshua Sherif.
Read MoreSALLY CLARKSON is a beloved and bestselling speaker, mentor, and author of over twenty books who has spent three decades encouraging and supporting Christian women. She hosts the popular podcast At Home With Sally, which inspires countless women around the world. She has been married to her husband, Clay, for over forty years with whom she raised four children. She lives between the mountains of Colorado and the cobblestone streets of Oxford, England.
Read MoreLEAH BODEN is wife to Dave and mother to four children. With over two decades of experience in church leadership, she has also devoted herself to youth, children's, and family work within the church and for the local education authority. Leah is a respected speaker, podcast host, and coach who passionately shares the transformative beauty of the Charlotte Mason approach to childhood, motherhood, and education. She is the author of Modern Miss Mason and lives with her family in the West Midlands, England.
Read MoreSTEVE 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.
Read MoreJOHN VAN SLOTEN is a Calgary-based writer, teacher, and pastor who is passionate about helping people engage God everywhere. Over the past ten years he has preached dozens of creation/bible-based sermons on topics like radiation therapy, DNA repair mechanisms, river hydrology, chemical catalysts, tree branches, human knees, and the Giant Squid. John is a regular columnist with the Calgary Herald and his books include The Day Metallica Came to Church and Every Job a Parable. Over the past ten years, he has been awarded three John Templeton Foundation subgrants for preaching science, has been part of an Ambrose Seminary Science for Seminaries, and has been a Sinai and Synapses fellow. www.johnvansloten.com
Read MoreMORGAN KRUEGER is a Jesus follower, wife, mother, and author who found her voice connecting with women seeking freedom from the brokenness of past shame. Passionate about the redemption found in following Jesus, Morgan aims to keep that at the center of all she does. Morgan works at Faithfully Restored, and is grateful to be a part of a ministry that offers the hope of Jesus in the midst of suffering. In her downtime, you can find Morgan enjoying the significance of the mundane, spending time with her two sons, encouraging women through words, and adventuring with her husband in Franklin, TN. Learn more about Morgan at morgankrueger.com.
Read MoreCHRIS PAPPALARDO, PhD, is the author and cofounder of GoodKind, the makers of Advent Blocks, an organization that helps people cultivate the good kind of habits and holiday celebrations. Chris is a pastor, editor, and writer at The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham, NC, area. He is married to Jenn and is the proud dad of Lottie (who wants to save the planet) and Teddy (who wants you to read him another book).
Read MorePAUL 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.
Read MoreNELL 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.
Read MoreCONWAY EDWARDS (Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent University) is Lead Pastor of the church, One, which ministers to the evolving communities of Plano, Allen, Frisco, and McKinney, Texas. He is also the Executive Director for the US-based ministry Caribbean Choice for Christ and the president of the National Center for Christian Leadership-Jamaica. Conway is the author of Leading a Turnaround Ministry: A Process for Exponential Growth. He co-authored When Love’s in View: Finding Focus in Dating and Relationships and The Undercover Woman with his wife, Jada. He and Jada reside in Allen, Texas.
Read MoreKARA DURBIN has enjoyed continually serving in various roles of children's ministries. She has a degree in elementary education from Texas A&M University and homeschools her children part time. Kara's inspiration for the book was her mother, who blessed her life by parenting her with Scripture. When thinking about how to best parent her own children, Kara looked for a reference book that would have Scriptures to use for specific parenting moments. Not finding one, she began work on Parenting with Scripture. Kara and her husband and two children make their home near Dallas, Texas.
Read MoreDAVID FISHER is a missionary radio broadcaster working jointly with Trans World Radio and the Slavic Gospel Association. He is director and editor-in-chief of Radio Academy of Science (RADAS). Fisher believed that scientific atheism was preventing many from accepting Christ, so he began writing scripts for a broadcast which countered atheistic spins on scientific issues, and included interviews with believers professionally involved in the sciences. Nearly 30 years later, TWR’s Truth in the Test Tube program and webcast continues to make a difference in the lives of students and young adults. He is co-author of Scientists Who Believed with Eric Barrett.
Read MoreMITCH GLASER (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary, M.Div., Talbot Theological Seminary) serves as president of Chosen People Ministries with his wife, Zhava, who is their director of publications. Together they work to share Jesus with Jewish people, not only in New York City, but around the world. They are co-author of The Fall Feasts of Israel. The Glasers reside in Brooklyn, New York with their two daughters.
Read MoreSoong-Chan Rah is Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. He is the author of The Next Evangelicalism (IVP Books, 2009). Prior to coming to North Park, Soong-Chan was the founding and senior pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church, a multi-ethnic, urban church in Cambridge, MA. Soong-Chan has a B.A. from Columbia University, a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from Harvard University, and a D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell. Soong-Chan serves on the boards of Sojourners, the Christian Community Development Association, World Vision, and the Catalyst Leadership Center. He lives in Chicago with his wife Sue, a special educator and his two children, Annah and Elijah.
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