guest speakers

This is the entire lineup of special guest speakers that will be on the monthly conference calls with Bobby: (click on their name to see their full bio)

Greg Atkinson, John Atkinson , Eric Bryant , Jenni Catron , DJ Chuang , Brandon Cox, Alan Danielson , Mark DeYmaz , Margaret Feinberg , Chris Forbes , Rowland Forman, David Francis , Rick Howerton , Dr. Greg Kappas , Shaun King , Tommy “Urban D” Kyllonen , Mac Lake , Dr. Robert Lewis , Will Mancini , Jonathan Merritt , Bobby Minor, Bill Oechsler , Dr. Larry Osborne, Ben Reed, Tim Ross , Zak White, Scott Williams , Eric Willis, Lance Witt , Dr. George Yancey

 

Bobby Minor has 20+ years of success in sales and marketing in Corporate America with several Fortune 500 companies, 10+ years as an entrepreneur, 2+ years as a social media and marketing consultant, and almost two years as a church  consultant. He also is a pastor/elder at Waves of Faith in North Fort Worth, a church that focuses on reaching 3rd generation Hispanics and beyond and has grown from one service and 185 in attendance to three services and a weekly average of almost 500 in attendance in the past 24 months. He is unlike anyone you’ve ever met and are likely to meet. If you don’t believe it just ask the people closest to him. He’s a guy that’s passionate about using his 20+ years of marketing experience in Corporate America with several Fortune 500 companies to advance the Kingdom of God and help the local church do everything they can to connect the community they’ve been called to reach with Christ. He has a natural ability that enables him to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows him to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, he plays out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps him see around the next corner. There he can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where he sees each path leading, he starts to make selections. He discards the paths that lead nowhere. He discards the paths that lead straight into resistance. He discards the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. He culls and makes selections until he arrives at the chosen path — his strategy. Armed with his strategy, he strikes forward. This is Bobby’s mind at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

“Bobby Minor brought a message that opened my eyes in a significant way.”
Zig Ziglar, Author of the best selling book, See You At The Top.

Bobby has corporate marketing experience with Sprint, Charter Communications, the Dallas Morning News, Sport Supply Group, and Pitney Bowes, just to name a few and ministry marketing/consulting experience working with Waves of Faith, the Tarrant Baptist Association, the BGCT, in addition to speaking at churches and events as opportunities present themselves. He is the founder of both C3 Church Consulting and iamonlyone.org.

His heart is to use his skills and abilities to help grow the local church and help them become a connection point between the unchurched and Christ.

 

Enough about Bobby, let’s take a quick look at some of the bios of the very-special featured guests on the conference calls:
Dr. Larry Osborne
Dr. Larry Osborne has served as a Senior Pastor and Teaching Pastor at North Coast Church since 1980. He has helped oversee the growth of the church from a fledgling group of 128 meeting in a rented school, to a multi-site ministry that reaches nearly 7,000 in weekend attendance.

Larry is also an author and a nationally recognized trainer of pastors. His books include STICKY CHURCH: Slamming the Back Door Shut, 10 DUMB THINGS SMART CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, SPIRITUALITY FOR THE REST OF US and THE UNITY FACTOR: Developing A Healthy Leadership Team. He travels extensively speaking at conferences and mentoring pastors and church planters across the country. His latest book, STICKY TEAMS, was released by Zondervan in April 2010.

In addition to his work as a pastor and writer, Larry also serves as an adjunct professor in the doctoral program at Trinity Evangelical Seminary and as president of the North Coast Training Network – an arm of North Coast Church dedicated to helping pastors across the country maximize their ministry.
North Coast Church has been recognized as one of the ten most influential churches in America as well as one of the most innovative. Pioneers in the use of Video Worship Venues, North Coast launched the first ever Video Venue in 1998, starting what is now known in ministry circles as the “Multi-Site Movement.” Each weekend, North Coast offers over 20 different worship options on multiple campuses – each targeted at a specific demographic or geographic audience.
North Coast Church’s Sermon-Based Small Groups take the weekend sermon and dig deeper into its application with a participation rate of 80% of the weekend adult attendance. It’s a model that has spread across the nation as churches discover its power to both disciple and slam the back door shut.
The church also has an extensive community outreach, averaging nearly two service projects a day throughout the year. In 2007 and 2008, they closed the doors for the largest weekend of service ever held by a single church. During a 48 hour span, over 5,000 members from North Coast Church fanned across the community to complete nearly 100 projects and over $1,000,000 in finished work.
Larry holds both a Master of Divinity degree and a Doctorate from Talbot Theological Seminary. He and his wife Nancy live in Oceanside. They have three grown children.
Dr. Robert Lewis
Dr. Robert Lewis was a Teaching Pastor and Directional Leader for Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas for over 20 years. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Leadership  Network, and is on the Board of Fellowship Associates, a church consulting and leadership training organization.

Graduating from the University of Arkansas in 1971 with a degree in Management, Robert went on to obtain both an M.A. in New Testament Greek and M.Div. degree from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon in 1977, and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Talbot Theological Seminary in LaMirada, California in 1985.

Robert is passionate about helping men discover the biblical principles of authentic manhood. He founded and developed Men’s Fraternity in 1990, and today this significant area of ministry is reaching men worldwide in churches, on college campuses, in corporate boardrooms, and in prison cellblocks via his three one-year video curriculum published by LifeWay: Quest for Authentic Manhood; Winning at Work and Home; andThe Great Adventure. In response to great demand, Robert developed the feminine counterpart to Men’s Fraternity, The New Eve. Robert was awarded Pastor of the Year in 2001 by the National Coalition of Men’s Ministry headed by Patrick Morley.

He has authored a number of publications including Raising a Modern-Day Knight(Focus on the Family), the Raising a Modern-Day Knight Video Training Series with Dennis Rainey (Sonlight Productions), Rocking the Roles: Building a Win-Win Marriage(NavPress), Real Family Values (Multnomah Press) and The Church of Irresistible Influence (Zondervan). Robert’s most recent book is Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church From the Inside Out published by Jossey-Bass. He is also a contributing author to Building Strong Families edited by Dennis Rainey and Faith Factor in Fatherhoodedited by Don Eberly. His most recent publications are the Men’s Fraternity Bible, and The New Eve.

Robert has been featured on radio programs such as FamilyLife Today and Focus on the Family, and in a number of magazines including Leadership, Real Man, and Stand Firm.

Married since 1971, Robert and Sherard Lewis reside in Little Rock and have four children.
Alan Danielson
Alan Danielson was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and became a follower of Christ at age 15.  Having 20+ years of ministry experience, he now serves as the Senior Pastor of New Life Bible Church in Norman, Oklahoma.  Previously he served as the Central Team Leader for LifeGroups at LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Oklahoma where he led over 1,000 Small Groups on LifeChurch.tv’s 14 campuses in 5 different states.

As well as pastoring, he is currently an independent small group ministry consultant and leadership coach with a passion for helping leaders achieve the highest levels of effectiveness.  He’s coached corporate executives, business owners and pastors using his proprietary Triple-Threat Leadership Spectrum (© 2010).

He loves to communicate and he’s spoken at both Willow Creek and Saddleback Small Group Conferences as well as the RightNow Conference alongside Francis Chan, Mark Batterson, George Barna, Matt Chandler and more.
Scott Williams
Scott Williams served as a key leader and Campus Pastor for LifeChurch.tv.  Under his leadership, the Northwest Oklahoma City Campus grew to a weekend attendance of over 3,500 people. Currently, he is the Chief Solutions Officer for Nxt Level Solutions, a consulting company he founded to help businesses, non-profits and individuals with both internal and external growth. Scott is speaker, strategist, consultant and a respected thought leader. He is an avid blogger at BigIsTheNewSmall.com, and leverages Social Media to make a Kingdom impact. Scott is passionate about leadership development, organizational growth and diversity. He is the author of “Church Diversity – Sunday The Most Segregated Day Of The Week.”

Prior to ministry Scott served in various leadership roles as an entrepreneur, lobbyist, professor, and leadership consultant.  At the age of 25, Scott served as one of the youngest Prison Wardens in the country.  Scott is consistently in demand as a communicator, strategist and consultant to help move people and organizations from where they are to where they want to be.
Ben Reed
Ben Reed is Community Groups Pastor at Grace Community Church serving under Strategic Pastor Ron Edmondson. He is a frequent conference speaker on small groups and social media and when he’s not blogging he’s writing stuff for ChurchLeaders.com.

 
Mark DeYmaz
Mark DeYmaz is the founding pastor of the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, multi-ethnic and economically diverse church where significant percentages of Black and White Americans, together with men and women from more than 30 nations, walk, work, and worship God together as one.

AUTHOR / MOVEMENT LEADER

A recognized leader in the emerging Multi-ethnic Church Movement, his first book, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church (Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2007), provides the Biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church and outlines seven core commitments required to bring it about. The book was chosen as a finalist in 2008 for a Christianity Today Book of the Year Award and for a Resource of the Year Award sponsored by Outreach Magazine, in both cases a nominee in the Pastoral Leadership category.

In his second book, Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity Into Your Local Church (Zondervan/Leadership Network, 2010), Mark identifies seven common challenges of a multi-ethnic church and demonstrates, through sound exegesis of Scripture, culture, and experience, how to overcome the obstacles.

Mark’s latest book (a self-published, e-book) is entitled, HUP: Should Pastors Accept or Reject the Homogeneous Unit Principle? This book challenges long-held, erroneous, assumptions concerning the HUP, and provides long-overdue straight talk about what the it is, what it’s not and how it applies biblically to the local church.

In addition, he is a contributing editor and columnist for Outreach Magazine, and as well a contributing editor for Leadership Journal. He is also a co-founder, and currently the Executive Director of the Mosaix Global Network, an organization dedicated to inspiring unity and diversity in the local church throughout North America and beyond. He posts regularly on Glue, his personal blog. Mark is a former member of Little Rock’s Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission and past chair of the city’s Faith Alliance.

BACKGROUND

Following graduation from college in 1983, Mark served as a youth pastor in churches throughout the western United States and in Germany. From 1993 to 2001, he was the Student Ministries pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, before leaving to launch Mosaic. He has been a full-time pastor for nearly 28 years.

EDUCATION

Mark is a graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA (B.S., Psychology), Western Seminary in Portland, OR (M.A. Exegetical Theology) and Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, AZ (D. Min.).

PERSONAL
Mark and his wife, Linda, have been married for 21 years and together they have four children – Zack, Emily, Will and Kate. Linda is the author of two books, including Mommy, Please Don’t Cry (Multnomah, 1996), an anointed resource providing hope and comfort for parents who grieve the loss of a child.
Eric Bryant
Eric Michael Bryant serves with Gateway Church in Austin as the team leader for the Central Austin region, the South Austin campus, and as part of the teaching team. Known for their mottos: “no perfect people allowed” and “come as you are but don’t stay that way,” Gateway has created a church out of the culture by helping a spiritually diverse group of people connect, grow, and serve.

From 1998-2010, Eric served as a speaker, navigator, and an elder with the leadership team at Mosaic in Los Angeles, a church known for its creativity and diversity. The four years prior to that he helped plant a church in Seattle, WA.

Eric serves as part of the The Origins Project, a movement of people committed to Jesus, Humanity, and Innovation.

Eric has taught at the Southern California campuses of Golden Gate Seminary and Fuller Seminaryand earned his Doctorate of Ministry in Entrepreneurial Leadership with Bethel Seminary.  Trained in Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, the Myers Briggs Temperament Indicator, and the Birkman Method, Eric has coached leaders in the ministry, non-profit, and business sectors. Eric is one of the co-authors of The Uprising Experience, a workbook developed for Promise Keepers based on Erwin McManus’ book Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul. His book, Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing a Diverse World, is a guide for overcoming the negative Christian stereotype by embracing the people Christians “love to hate.”

Eric lives with his wife, Debbie, and two children, Caleb and Trevi near downtown in Austin, TX.
Shaun King
A techie-humanitarian, Shaun King is widely regarded as one of today’s leading voices on how social media and a little bit of courage can make our world a radically better place.  He speaks a message of hope and action over 150 times a year, has appeared in dozens of national press outlets, and is the founder of TwitChange, aHomeInHaiti, and Courageous Church in Atlanta, GA. Shaun is married to his high school sweetheart, Rai, and they proudly home-school and travel with their four young children. Oh yeah, Shaun is also a walking miracle (w/ pictures to prove it

Social Good

A serial entrepreneur, Shaun has launched nearly a dozen different successful startups designed to help empower and show compassion to hurting people throughout his hometown of Atlanta, as well as Haiti and other developing nations.  A fearless leader with an open heart, Shaun will do virtually anything (and ask you to join him) short of porn or the electric slide to solve problems too often assumed to be impossible to address.  These startups include

• 500toys:: Has provided a brand new toy and school uniform to every child of an inner city Atlanta elementary school for the past 2 years.
• hopeATL :: Provided over $1 million of emergency flood relief support to victims of the Atlanta floods
• GiveThemAGoodStart :: Provided every child at an inner city Atlanta elementary school all of their school supplies to start the year
• FreeBreakfastChurch :: Has provided tens of thousands of hot free meals every Sunday morning for over 2 years
• aHomeInHaiti :: Sent nearly $2 million worth of emergency aid to post earthquake Haiti.
• TwitChange :: Has received over 70 million hits in 8 months, received international acclaim for its creativity, and raised nearly $1 million for Haiti, families of American soldiers, and the education of girls in developing nations.
• Courageous Church :: Launched in January of 2009, Courageous Church is an exciting, diverse community of faith empowering people to use their faith to change the world.

Social Media

Shaun taught his high school classmates in the 90s how to get an email address.  He began developing web projects in 1997 as a freshman at Morehouse College. He has believed in the power of social media since MySpace was cool.  Shaun was the first pastor ever featured on the official Facebook blog and has been active on Twitter since its inception.

Both a thought leader and practitioner on how to use social media for social good, Shaun also empowers businesses and organizations on how they can employ life-changing social media strategies.

Connect with Shaun on Facebook here & Twitter here.  Email Shaun directly @ shaunking@gmail.com

Awards

• Mashable Award Winner for Most Creative Social Good Campaign :: TwitChange
• Doris J. Harris Humanitarian Award :: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
• Power 30 Under 30 :: Atlanta Apex Society
• Hometown Hero :: Atlanta Journal Constitution
• MSNBC’s The Grio Top 100 History Makers
• Man of the Year :: Morehouse College African American Studies Department
• Man of Distinction :: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority

What Others Say

“Shaun is one of the most dynamic, entrepreneurial, creative and passionate leaders on the American scene today.” – Scholar & Author, Leonard Sweet

“Shaun is and will be a great leader in Atlanta and beyond.” -The Late Honorable Maynard Jackson, Mayor of Atlanta

“Shaun is a shining star. A gifted, compassionate teacher and leader.” – Dr. Joan Wynne, Education Professor, Florida International University

“I was amazed and overwhelmed by the presentation Shaun made to a diverse group of professionals grappling with educational issues in Metro Atlanta.” – Dr. Janie Smith, Southern Regional Education Board

“An incredible human!” – Dr. Cindy Lutenbacher, Morehouse College

Read dozens of endorsements of Shaun King in his LinkedIn profile here.

See articles about Shaun from CNN, Wall-Street Journal, Mashable, Fox News, Forbes, and more here.
Rick Howerton
Rick Howerton is one of the premier leaders in the small-group movement. Having facilitated an untold number of small-group journeys over the last 17 years, his passion is contagious. This guy honestly believes that small groups can and will change the world! An experienced small-group pastor (he built one church’s small-group ministry from nothing to 450 members in just a few short years), Rick is also a church planter. Right now he serves as senior pastor of The Bridge, a church plant he started that is built around healthy small groups.

Additionally, Rick is a highly sought after small-group speaker leading thousands of people in scores of conferences nationwide every year including breakout sessions at the recent Saddleback Small Groups Conference.

Rick has authored or co-authored three small-group studies:
 

Rick is also author of Destination Community: Small-Group Ministry Manual, an all-encompassing, 172-page guide to creating a small-group ministry and starting and leading passionate, life-changing small groups. The book has been enthusiastically received:

“Rick spreads a fresh canvas for envisioning small-group ministry. It reaches beyond the how-tos and into the heart and soul of living in community. Destination Community will challenge and equip you to do life together and not just play church. A great tool for leaders who are serious about experiencing redemptive, culture-transforming community!” - Steve Gladen, Saddleback Church
Margaret Feinberg
Margaret Feinberg is a popular speaker at churches and leading conferences such as Catalyst and Thrive, Margaret Feinberg was recently named one of the ’30 Voices’ who will help lead the church in the next decade by Charisma magazine and one of the ’40 Under 40′ who will shape Christian publishing by Christian Retailing, she has written more than two dozen books and Bible studies including the critically-acclaimed The Organic God, The Sacred Echo, Scouting the Divine (Zondervan) and their corresponding DVD Bible studies. She is known for her relational teaching style and inviting people to discover the relevance of God and His Word in a modern world.

Margaret and her books have been covered by national media including: CNN, the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Denver Rocky Mountain News, Newsday, Houston Chronicle, Beliefnet.com, Salon.com, USATODAY.com, MSNBC.com, RealClearPolitics.com, Forbes.com, and many others.

Margaret currently lives in Morrison, Colorado, with her 6’8″ husband, Leif. When she’s not writing or traveling, she enjoys anything outdoors, lots of laughter, and their superpup, Hershey. But she says some of her best moments are spent communicating with her readers. So go ahead, become her fan on Facebook or follow her on twitter: @mafeinberg.
Tim Ross
Tim Ross speaks both nationally and internationally with over 15 years of ministry experience.

Tim began preaching at the age of 20 years old and has already impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. His dynamic teaching style and uncanny ability to make people understand the gospel message is the reason why he has been such an asset to ministries across cultural and denominational lines.

Tim’s gift to communicate developed under two dynamic ministries: God’s Way Holiness Fellowship Church in Valinda, California and The Potters House in Dallas, TX. It was under the leadership of these two great ministries that his gift to speak developed and now touches lives around the world.

Tim is an articulate preacher, profound teacher, and incredible mentor. His ability to “play to all fields” is why he is invited to speak at conferences, colleges, and churches around the world.

Tim is happily married to Juliette, his bride of 12 years. The fruit of this marriage includes two sons, Nathan and Noah. The Ross Family are members of Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. Tim is the founder of Tim Ross Ministries which facilitates his evangelistic endeavors.

 

 

David Francis is a well-known and trusted champion for Sunday school ministry. He travels across the country each year, speaking at churches and events to educate ministry leaders on how to begin and grow healthy Sunday schools.

Each year David contributes a brief booklet focusing on a particular aspect of Sunday school ministry. LifeWay provides free training resources based on these booklets, which your church can use to equip Sunday school leaders of every age group – from preschoolers to senior adults.

His latest book, Missionary Sunday School is the second book in a series that takes key principles from LifeWay’s Transformational Church research initiative and offers practical suggestions on how your church’s Sunday school ministry could become transformational. While the first book, Transformational Class, briefly addressed all of the elements of Transformational Church and how they affect Sunday school, Missionary Sunday School takes a closer look at just one of the elements: Missionary Mentality. Author David Francis strives to answer the question: “What might a Sunday school class or small group look like if it saw itself as a missionary enterprise – thinking and acting out of a missionary mindset?”
Jonathan Merritt
Jonathan Merritt is a faith and culture writer who has published over 300 articles in respected outlets such as USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, BeliefNet, Christianity Today, The Huffington Post, and CNN.com. He is author of Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet (2010), which Publisher’s Weekly called “a must-read for churchgoers,” and the forthcoming A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars (April 2012). As a respected Christian voice, he has been interviewed by ABC World News, NPR, CNN, PBS, Fox News, The New York Timesand The Washington Post.

Jonathan first entered the public eye when a classroom epiphany prompted him to organize a national coalition of Christian leaders who care about the creation, founding the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative. Since then, he’s been on the front lines of pressing cultural conversations from poverty to orphan care. He is a member of the national board of directors for Bethany Christian Services, America’s largest adoption agency.Outreach magazine recently named Jonathan one of “30 Emerging Influencers” reshaping Christian leadership.

Known for his ability to tackle difficult issues through both the written and spoken word, Jonathan has become a sought after speaker by colleges, seminaries, churches and conferences on cultural and religious issues. He holds a Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC) and a Master of Theology from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology (Atlanta, GA). Jonathan resides outside of Atlanta, GA where he serves and teaches at Cross Pointe Church.

You can follow Jonathan, but please, only on twitter: @jonathanmerritt
Lance Witt
Lance Witt has been called a Pastor’s Pastor. He loves those who serve on the front lines of ministry and is committed to helping them stay healthy and “finish well”. He is committed to the church and passionately believes in the transformational power of Jesus through the local church. Lance’s experience includes

• over 25 years as a local church pastor
• 20 years as a senior pastor
• serving as an executive pastor at Saddleback Church
• being one of the weekend teaching pastors at Saddleback Church
• helping develop and lead the 40 Days of Purpose and 40 Days of Community campaigns
• developing the training materials for these campaigns that have now been used around the world
• writing and teaching several DVD small group curriculums
• writing articles that have been published in various magazines, newletters and websites
• teaching national and international conferences on topics such as Small Groups, Spiritual Formation, Preaching, Leadership, and Purpose Driven Church
• consulting with churches in the U.S., Canada and Asia
• providing Life Coaching for pastors
• developing the content for the Live Like You Were Dying campaign
• extensive experience in missions and training pastors around the world in more than 15 countries

Lance’s broad spectrum of ministry experience, his strategic thinking gifts, and his passion for spiritual formation give him a unique ability to peer into the soul of a leader and the soul of an organization.

Lance has been married to his wife, Connie, for 33 years. Connie loves pastors wives and has written a book about mentoring the next generation called That Makes Two of Us.
Mac Lake
Mac Lake is the Chief Launch Officer of The Launch Network, a new church planting network based out of West Ridge Church in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area.  His role is to get The Launch Network up and running, networking with churches and planters to establish healthy church starts across the U.S. and the world.  Their goal is to plant 1,000 churches in the next 10 years.

Mac felt a call into ministry when he was 17 years old. Growing up in a small church in rural West Virginia he was surrounded by a loving group of people who believed in him and encouraged his spiritual journey.

In 1981 he packed my bags and moved to the Windy City, Chicago to attend Moody Bible Institute. After graduating Moody it was time to head south, where he took a position as a youth pastor at Northwood Baptist church. It didn’t take long for him to realize he needed more training so, along with his new bride Cindy, they moved to Dallas, Texas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary.

After graduating seminary they moved back to South Carolina where he served for seven years as an Associate Pastor at Pawleys Island Community Church. An incredibly supportive group of people poured their best into him and gave him amazing opportunities to grow in ministry. It was there God birthed a vision in his heart to plant a church 30 miles North of Pawleys Island.With the support of Pastor Bob Barrows and the church, they launched Carolina Forest Community Church in 1997. Mac served for seven wonderful years as the Senior Pastor at Carolina Forest before God began to lay a huge burden on his heart for Leadership Development. In 2004 after having lunch with Greg Surratt, Senior Pastor at Seacoast Church, he invited him to join Seacoast Staff to help develop leaders for their multi-site movement. Mac remained there as the Leadership Development Pastor for nearly seven years before accepting the call to start The Launch Network.

Today, Mac and his wife Cindy live in Dallas, Georgia. They have three children Brandon 20, who is on staff at Seacoast Church as a Worship Leader. Jordan 17, an aspiring graffiti artist and Junior at North Paulding High School. And Brianna 15, who has an amazing eye for fashion and design and Sophmore at North Paulding High School!

In his free time he enjoys going on long walks with Cindy, working out, reading, family fun night on Thursdays when they all gather in the den for snacks, Survivor and The Office.

His passion is growing leaders for the local church. Every time he hears Bill Hybels say “The local church is the hope of the world” his heart comes out of his chest and it increases his sense of urgency for developing leaders who produce leaders.
Will Mancini
Will Mancini emerged from the trenches of local church leadership to found Auxano, a first-of-kind consulting ministry that focuses on vision clarity. As a “clarity evangelist,” Will has served as vision architect for hundreds of churches across the country including the leading churches within Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Non-denominational settings. His clients include notable organizations like Leadership Network and Upward Unlimited and pastors like Chuck Swindoll and Max Lucado.

Will’s style blends the best of three worlds: the process thinking from the discipline of engineering, the communications savvy as an ad agency executive, and the practical theology as a pastoral leader. His pastoral experience includes helping lead two different congregations to over 3,000 in weekend attendance in 10 years- Clear Creek Community Church and FaithBridge UMC. Will’s education includes a ThM in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State. He is the author of Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement, a Leadership Network Publication, and of Building Leaders.
Jenni Catron
Jenni Catron serves as the Executive Director of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, an 8-year old multi-site church. She leads the staff of Cross Point and oversees the ministry of its five campuses. Prior to joining the staff of Cross Point, she worked as Artist Development Director in the Christian music industry for 9 years.

Jenni’s passion is to lead well and to inspire, equip and encourage others to do the same. She is the founder of Cultivate Her, a community whose purpose is to “connect, engage and inspire” women leaders. She speaks at conferences and churches nationwide, seeking to help others develop their leadership gifts and lead confidently in the different spheres of influence God has granted them. Jenni blogs at www.jennicatron.tv and www.cultivateher.com and contributes to a number of other online publications as well.

Jenni loves a fabulous cup of tea, great books, learning the game of tennis and hanging out with her husband and their border collie.
Dr.George Yancey
Dr. George Yancey (Ph.D., University of Texas) is associate professor of sociology at the University of North Texas, specializing in race/ethnicity and biracial families. He is the coauthor of United by Faith (Oxford), coeditor of Just Don’t Marry One (Judson) and the author of Beyond Black and White (Baker). He is the founder of Reconciliation Consulting, helping churches and ministries develop and sustain a multiracial emphasis.

 
Brandon Cox
Brandon Cox, and along with his wife Angie, are planting Grace Hills Church in Bentonville, Arkansas. They have talked in hypothetical terms about church planting for nearly a decade, but when he joined the staff of Saddleback Church in southern California, almost immediately God began to make His calling on their lives a concrete reality. By the fall of 2010, they knew that God wanted them to plant a new church in northwest Arkansas. They talked with the leadership of Saddleback, who were not only supportive of this calling, but have sent them out on this mission with their support and blessing.

Brandon also oversees the content and online community of Pastors.com and Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox. This was the role to which he was called in the summer of 2010 and he now continues this ministry remotely while planting Grace Hills. He has a passion for connecting with and encouraging Pastors, so to assist Pastor Rick Warren in doing so is an awesome responsibility!
Greg Atkinson


Dr. Kappas

Dr. Greg Kappas has coached over 200 leaders in starting hundreds of multiplying, reproductive churches around the globe since 1991. He emphasizes the need for each church planter and their team to view their new work in the Gospel as a church planting center reproducing around the globe. He stresses the need for the church to be multi-ethnic, cross-cultural and multi-generational.

Greg co-authored Twenty-Five Questions for Planting a Healthy Church, a popular and extensive CD/Workbook resource for church planters. This resource is used around the world and provides church planters with everything from teaching on the church planting process, to templates and materials you can adapt to your local church planting project. Greg also co-authored the book Somewhere Inside the Rainbow, a primer on the what, why, and how of developing dynamic churches that intentionally combine Biblical, multi-ethnic, cross-cultural and multi-generational values.

Urban D
Tommy Kyllonen, also known as Urban D. (Disciple) to his music fans, founded the youth ministry at Tampa, Fla.-based Crossover Church in 1996. Starting with just four teens, he and his wife developed a first-of-its-kind Hip-Hop Youth Ministry which over the span of six years grew to 200, far outpacing attendance in the main Sunday worship. In January 2002, Tommy became the lead pastor at Crossover and a new vision was birthed specifically to reach those influenced by Hip-Hop Culture.

Crossover Church became Purpose-Driven in their structure and began to truly engage the culture in their community. Tommy and his team carefully incorporated music, dance, visual arts, media and relevant messages into the worship context and campus without compromising the truth of God’s word. The ministry has seen incredible growth as they soon maxed out their former campus doing 3 Sunday services. In January 2010 they sold their former campus and became a portable church meeting at a hotel for 9 months as they continued to grow. In October 2010 they moved into their new 43,000 square foot facility (A former Toys R Us Store) in the inner-city of Tampa. The church has now grown to over 1,000 people. Their Thursday night teen service reaches hundreds more as the new church campus has become a haven for the community youth.

Tommy also pioneered an annual Urban Leadership Conference called Fla.vor Fest. Over the past 10 years the event has attracted thousands of pastors, youth pastors, lay leaders and artists from around the world to the musical festival and conference to fellowship, network and get equipped to better reach this culture. Urban D., has recorded seven solo Hip-Hop albums since 1996 and has traveled across the U.S., Germany, Japan, Africa and England performing and speaking. His latest project “Un.heard” is now available at his website and at itunes and all other digital outlets.His 2007 project covers print, music and film with “Un.orthodox – church.hip-hop.culture” as a book published by Zondervan and a CD/DVD distributed through EMI. The book serves as a great resource for church leaders, parents, and hip-hop fans that want to better learn to engage the culture. The CD features innovative Christ-centered hip-hop and the DVD is a full-length documentary on Crossover’s un.orthodox story along with Urban D.’s Un.orthodox music video.

In addition to his role as pastor and artist, Tommy’s perspective as a Christian leader and pioneer in reaching the Hip-Hop culture has led him to be a featured speaker at more than 50 church leadership, youth and worship conferences and workshops. As a writer he continues to reach the culture through print as he is the publisher of “S.O.U.LMAG” Magazine. Now in it’s 17th issue the magazine has become the voice of the Christian Hip-Hop Community in print. Tommy regularly writes for The American Bible Society (Elementz of Life) and several websites. His new book “Next” for urban new believers was recently independently released. Tommy and his wife Lucy and two daughters call Tampa, Florida their home.
DJ Chuang

DJ Chuang is a web strategist, currently working with Worship Leader Magazine (as Network Developer). He’s also recently worked with Leadership Network (as Leadership Community Director for Multi-Site Churches and next gen Asian American churches) and with L² Foundation developing leadership & legacy for Asian Americans. He has various professional experiences in web strategy, pastoral ministry, and software engineering, mostly in non-profit contexts. He is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Virginia Tech. He has been blogging at his personal website [www.djchuang.com] since 1999, with links to resources pertaining to churches multiethnic and/or Asian American. His hobbies include digital photography, grilling, and conferencing. He resides in Orange County, California, with his artistic wife Rachelle, and their 14-year old son Jeremiah. Lastly, DJ’s often spotted wearing orange at conferences.

Eric Willis
Eric Willis is the son of a pastor, having grown up in the proverbial “glass house” since the age of seven. He has seen and experienced ministry related stress growing up as a “PK” and having served as a pastor himself. Eric is the Lead Community Pastor at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton Texas; a northern suburb of Dallas. Since his first year in ministry, 1988, he has served churches in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. Eric ran from God early in his ministry years, only to be reclaimed by God’s grace and mercy. He went from a college dropout to earning two seminary Masters Degrees in Christian Education and Marriage & Family Counseling, respectively.

As God’s plan unfolded, it became apparent that life experiences and God’s mercies would burn a passion to minister to fellow ministers around the globe struggling through emotional and spiritual defeat.  As Founder/President of Reclaim Leadership, Eric encourages fellow servants to focus on their identity in Christ through the difficulties of ministry life; challenging Christian leaders to rediscover their calling and reignite their passion to pursue it.

God has blessed Eric with the spiritual gifts of encouragement, teaching, and mercy.  As an encourager, Eric’s transparency will lift you up.  As a teacher, he will challenge you to see God’s Word as active in daily life, and with his gift of mercy, Eric will call you to restore relationships in a way which honors God.

He and his wife, Jennifer, have five sons, two dogs and nothing breakable in the house because it has already been broken!
John Atkinson
John Atkinson first and foremost is a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Secondly he’s a husband to an amazing woman named April, and a Dad to three awesome boys named Cody, Cory, and Caleb. The first two are 17 yr old twins who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and are living out that faith as leaders in Element Student Ministry every day. The little guy is 5 and John is 50, further proof that God does indeed have a sense of humor. He brings so much joy to all their lives and he can’t imagine his life without him.

John’s a pastor, and the Multi Site Ministry Director at Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi Texas serving under a great leader and friend in Pastor Bil Cornelius. He has been on staff for 7 1/2 years, and at the church for almost 10 of it’s 12 years. BAF started 12 years ago with 5 people in the living in a one room of a one bedroom apartment with nothing but a dream to reach the unchurched in South Texas. Twelve years later almost 7,000 people a weekend call BAF their church home, and over those 12 years 6,000 people have asked Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior and 3,500 have been baptized, which is why he’s there.

He spent the first five years on staff building a growing and multiplying small groups ministry that began with 7 groups, and grew to 200. In 2007, John co-wrote “Go Big With Small Groups” with Bill Easum which chronicled both of their small groups journeys.

Since 2007, he has been focused on building the BAF Multi Site Ministry. Over that time they have grown from one church all in one location, to one church in six locations. The BAF Multi Site vision is one church in 30+ plus locations.
Zak White
Pastor Zak White is a creative, visionary leader with a passion in life to see those who are far from God connect into a real and growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Zak is the founding and lead pastor of a new church plant in the Schertz / Cibolo Texas area called Revolution Church, a church with a vision to love God, love people, and start spiritual revolutions in one life at a time.

In 2002, Zak graduated from Wayland Baptist University with a degree in Biblical Studies. Zak’s desire is to use his creative leadership skills to help churches become devoted to Christ, committed to one another, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those outside of God’s family.

He says, “Church should ultimately be about sharing Christ with those far from God and shifting our mindset to inspire change in our daily lives.”

He is married to Amber and they have one son, Couper. When not spending time with his family or church he enjoys biking, running, magic tricks, shooting, and wakeboarding.
Rowland Forman
Rowland Forman M.A. (Auckland University), M.A (Christian Education) M.A. (Biblical Studies) (Dallas Theological Seminary), Dip. Tch. Rowland brings experience as a Primary and Secondary teacher, Bible College Principal, Teaching Pastor, Church-Planter, Curriculum Director for Church-Based Training, author, and ministry coach and mentor to his role in Living Stones. He is married to Elaine and has three married children and seven grandchildren.

 
Chris Forbes
Chris Forbes is a 20 year veteran of communications, ethnographic research, and nonprofit marketing. A slightly frustrated ex-stand-up comedian, Chris writes and speaks about nonprofit marketing. Through his humorous and unique perspective, he makes learning about nonprofit communications fun, interesting, and practical. He helps people become better at marketing.

He has developed contextualized marketing and media strategies on five continents. Today he uses his skills as a contextual marketer to help advocates, influencers, and anthroprenuers make more impact with the people they want to reach. He has helped nonprofits, politicians, and business leaders effectively reach people of all kinds with astounding results.

He has a varied background of work in nonprofit marketing, including extensive experience in the faith-sector. He has pioneered multiple global and national media initiatives in internet, public relations, radio, and television while working as a ministry communication strategist and marketplace researcher with various organizations and ministries within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Bill Oechsler
Bill Oechsler is president of EthnoGraphic Media (EGM), an educational nonprofit that produces and distributes films exploring the critical issues of our times like the AIDS pandemic and Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Films include Little Town of Bethlehem, Miss HIV, The Grandfathers, End of the Spear, and Beyond the Gates of Splendor. Bill is also president of XLER | Marketing & Brand Consultancy and an adjunct instructor in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Masterʼs Degree Program at the Perley Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.

He was previously executive vice president of marketing at Zondervan, an international leader in Christian communications. West Michigan-based Zondervan is a HarperCollins company owned by NewsCorp. While at Zondervan, Bill oversaw all marketing efforts spanning the companyʼs Bible, book, academic, children’s, and new media groups. He was also responsible for all branding, corporate communications, Internet marketing, market research, creative services, and events.

Before joining Zondervan, Bill served as president and chief strategic officer of Hanon McKendry/The Brand Consultants. In that role, he led many of the strategic initiatives for corporate clients like Owens Corning, Hush Puppies, Furniture Row, National Heritage Academies, and Rubbermaid as well as nonprofits including World Vision, Promise Keepers, Alliance Defense Fund, Focus on the Family, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, Bethany Christian Services, and Knights of Columbus.

Bill began his marketing career at Leo Burnett USA, one of nationʼs foremost advertising agencies. While there he managed research and planning efforts for McDonald’s, Sony, Philip Morris (Marlboro), Reebok, P&G, and Walt Disney World. National recognition for his marketing communications efforts includes twoEffies, an Obie, Gabriel, Silver Anvil, New York Festival World Medal, two Pollies, two Print Magazine Awards, a Web Award, Webby Worthy Award, Marketing Sherpa Silver Mouse, four Audies (including Audiobook of the Year), and more than a dozen Telly Awards.

Bill has served on multiple corporate and nonprofit boards including Life International, Catholic Human Development Outreach, Grotenhuis, Global Publishers Alliance, Orphan Justice Mission, Ferris State Universityʼs Advertising/Business Program, and AimWest. He is a published author and invited speaker before academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, trade and professional associations.

Bill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in speech (organizational communications sequence) and an MA in journalism (public relations major and statistics minor with an emphasis on health communications/social marketing). While with the University of Texas, he served as project director at the Office of Survey Research where he led research teams on telephone, face-to-face, and mail surveys for clients including the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and the Texas Department of Health. Bill was also a research consultant for the South Texas Health Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. There he managed qualitative and quantitative social science research studies among Hispanics living along Texasʼ border with Mexico.