G. P. Taylor is a New York Times best selling author. His works include Shadowmancer, Wormwood, Tersias, The Curse of Salamander Street, and The Tizzle Sisters. He lives on the banks of a river in the midst of a dark wood, an arrow’s flight from the Prince Regent Hotel near the ‘town at the end of the line’. He spends his days writing and collecting firewood.
Learn more about him at http://gptaylor.info.
Karen Spears Zacharias had her first kiss in a trailer, smoked her first and last cigarette in a trailer, asked Jesus into her heart on bended knee in a trailer, fell madly in love in a trailer (a couple of different times), and gave birth to her firstborn child in a trailer. Karen is a former columnist and editorial writer for the Fayetteville Observer in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her commentary has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, and on National Public Radio. Her books include After the Flag Has Been Folded, Hero Mama, Where’s Your Jesus Now, and Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide?
Learn more about Karen at http://karenzach.com.
Scott Bolinder has enjoyed a distinguished career in publishing. As a vice president at CTi, he served as publisher of Campus Life and Marriage Partnership magazines. At Zondervan, he led the book and Bible divisions as publisher and currently is president of global publishing at Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society).
After several years in the publishing industry, Derek Bell formed Mosaic Trust, LLC, a management consulting firm that specializes in strategic project management, alliance-building, and idea generation. He has worked closely with world-class authors and communicators such as Max Lucado, Brennan Manning, Ravi Zacharias, Stephen Arterburn, and Henry Cloud.
Patricia Raybon is author of My First White Friend, winner of the Christopher Award “for artistic excellence affirming the highest values of the human spirit,” and I Told the Mountain to Move: Learning to Pray So Things Change, a 2006 book of the year finalist in Christianity Today magazine’s book awards’ Spirituality category.
After more than fifteen years as a leader within the Christian music industry, Rich Peluso made a midlife career change into the film industry, acquiring and developing faith and family films for Sony Pictures. He lives in the quaint horse-farm community of Leiper’s Fork outside of Nashville with his wife and four girls. And a male cat.
Melissa Jenks is a writer and professional adventurer who has conquered the Appalachian Trail, large portions of the Pacific Crest Trail, and has tried her hand at open ocean sailing and transcontinental bicycling. She is currently working to save up for her next adventure, which could be anything from building her own log cabin in the wilderness to motorcycling to the southern tip of South America.
You can follow her at her blog, http://casting-off.com.
Frederica Mathewes-Green is the author of nine books, most recently The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God. She is a contributor to Beliefnet, First Things, Christianity Today, and many other publications and speaks at churches, colleges, and conferences across the country. Frederica has been interviewed on PrimeTime Live, the Diane Rehm Show, the 700 Club, PBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News, and by Time, Newsweek, The New Republic, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Times. She is the khouria (mother) of Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Linthicum, Maryland, where her husband is pastor.
Learn more about Frederica at http://frederica.com.
Bob Buford is the founder of Halftime, an organization devoted to helping people make the transition from success to significance, and Leadership Network, which provides resources and counsel to pastors of large churches. He is the author of several books, including Half Time (Zondervan).
Nancy Sleeth is Program Director of Blessed Earth (www.blessedearth.org) and author of Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money, and God’s Green Earth (Tyndale 2009). Her husband, Matthew Sleeth, MD, is author of Serve God, Save the Planet (Zondervan 2007) and The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book Is a Green Book (HarperOne 2010) as well as creator of Elements, a twelve-film creation care series (Zondervan 2010).
Cameron Conant is a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor. He is the author of two books, including With or Without You (Relevant Books) and The Year I Got Everything I Wanted (NavPress). Currently, Cameron is on a two-year assignment with the Peace Corps in Cape Verde, a chain of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the north coast of Africa.
You can follow him at his blog, http://cameronconant.blogspot.com.
R.N. Frost was a professor in Bible and spiritual life at a college and seminary in Portland, Oregon, for twenty years. He is now with Barnabas International and travels worldwide to teach and encourage other followers of Christ.
You can follow him at his blog, http://spreadinggoodness.org.
Katherine Callahan-Howell serves as founding pastor of the Winton Community Free Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church with a master’s in divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. Callahan-Howell authored a book entitled Spiritual Exercises for Couch Potatoes as well as articles in publications such as Leadership Journal and writes a prayer column for Light and Life magazine. She and her husband, Roger, enjoy four children, Nora, Junia, Luke, and Wesley, who are now all too old to trick or treat.
Bill Myers is a prolific writer and filmmaker whose books and videos have sold more than five million copies. He has won more than forty national and international awards for his work. He created the popular and award-winning series, The Adventures of McGee and Me, and the teen fiction Forbidden Door series.
Learn more about Bill at http://billmyers.com.
Mark “Marko” Oestreicher is president of Youth Specialties, an organization devoted to training and encouraging youth workers through resources, conventions, and other events. He is a prolific author with more than thirty titles to his credit, among them Youth Ministry 3.0, Help! I’m a Junior High Youth Worker!, and Wild Truth Bible Outlines.
Becky Robbins-Penniman is an Episcopal priest serving the Lamb of God Church in Ft. Meyers, Florida.
Harold Ivan Smith is a grief educator, writer, and popular speaker. He is a member of the teaching faculty at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where he leads Grief Gatherings—innovative storytelling groups. He has written many books on grief, including The ABCs of Healthy Grieving and When a Child You Love Is Grieving.
John R Gerlach is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and serves the congregation of The United Methodist Church, Branford CT. He received a Masters of Divinity degree in 1996 from Yale Divinity School. He has been married to his lovely wife Joan for 27 years and they have two beautiful children, Bekah, age 12 and A.J. age 8. John entered the ministry after 13 years in the Publishing business having worked most recently with Conde Nast Publications as a Territory Sales Director.
Randall L. Frame is executive director of marketing and communications at Eastern University’s Palmer Theological Seminary. His writings include ten books and three feature-length screenplays. His 2004 essay, “Fixing Haiti,” won a third-place prize in the Templeton Foundation’s “Power of Purpose” essay competition in which there were nearly four thousand entries from ninety-seven countries.
Seth Barnes is the executive director of Adventures in Missions (AIM), an interdenominational missions organization that focuses on discipleship. Since he founded the organization in 1989, AIM has taken more than eighty thousand people into the mission field, some for as short as a week and others for as long as a year or more.
Learn more about Seth at http://sethbarnes.com and learn more about AIM at http://adventures.org.
Annie Downs tells stories for a living as a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. Flawed but funny, Annie uses her writing to highlight the everyday goodness of a real and present God. You can read more at annieblogs.com. And yes, she is beautiful.
Pete Gall is a recovering Christian hero whose stories are recorded in two books so far: My Beautiful Idol and Learning My Name, both published by Zondervan. In addition to writing, he is a brand strategist and occasional church speaker. But his true joy comes from spending time with his wife, a couple small circles of friends in Indianapolis and Nashville, and his two dogs, Abby and Emily.
Learn more about Pete at http://petegall.com.
Gary Moore is an investment advisor and the founder of the Financial Seminary, a nonprofit ministry formed to build bridges between the financial and moral communities. His views and writings have appeared in Forbes, Business Week, Money, and Christianity Today.
Learn more about Gary and the Financial Seminary at http://financialseminary.org.
Karl Giberson is a physicist and scholar who teaches at Eastern Nazarene College and is an internationally known voice in the creation-evolution debate. He has written several books including Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story, which has been used as a textbook and is considered one of the most balanced treatments of the creation-evolution controversy ever published. His most recent book is Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (HarperOne).
Learn more about him at http://karlgiberson.com.
Mike Wendland, known in his industry as “PC Mike,” is a veteran broadcast and print reporter and columnist and has been doing special PC Mike tech segments for NBC-TV affiliates since 1994. Mike has also been the technology columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and his columns and stories have appeared in hundreds of newspapers across the U.S., including the New York Times and USA Today. He also is pastor and part of the teaching team of Woods Church.
You can follow Mike at http://pcmike.com.
Heather Kulaga is a musician, wife, and mother of four children living in Webberville, Michigan. She is currently the bassist for Thom Jayne and the Nomads, a world-fusion rock band.
Listen to samples of their music, order their CDs, or check out their booking information at http://thomjayneandthenomads.com.
Lloyd Reeb is the primary spokesperson for the Halftime organization (www.halftime.org), helping successful people pursue significance. He is the author of From Success to Significance and The Second Half: Real stories. Real adventure. Real significance.
Ace Collins is the award-winning author of more than sixty books, including the thriller Farraday Road, the first book in the Lije Evans Mysteries series. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight, and scores of other national and local television shows. A popular radio guest and speaker nationwide, Collins lives and writes in Texas.
Learn more about Ace at http://acecollins.com.
Leonard Sweet is a theologian, author, and futurist. Currently he is the E. Stanley Jones professor of Evangelism at Drew University. His many books include The Gospel According to Starbucks, The Three Hardest Words in the World to Get Right, and The Church of the Perfect Storm. As a popular speaker, Len has captivated audiences in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa, China, and Iceland.
Learn more about Leonard at http://leonardsweet.com.
David C. Brush is a graduate student at Fuller Seminary, where he is studying missional church leadership. He currently lives in Gardner, Kansas, with his wife and two children and is a member of Trinity Family Church of the Nazarene.
Daniel Chesney is a Ministry and Theology student at Southern Nazarene University. He has spent his life growing under the guidance and love of Living Word Church of the Nazarene, Houston.
Richard Morgan Romero is a graduate of MidAmerica Nazarene University putting his degree in theology to use in the airline industry. A former Benedictine postulant, he plans to enter a mendicant religious order in the near future.
J. Paul Pepper serves as the minister of youth at Blue Springs Church of the Nazarene in Blue Springs, Missouri. He attends Nazarene Theological Seminary where he is pursuing a Masters in Divinity. An aspiring writer and theologian, J.Paul also leads worship and teaches piano. He believes strongly in the powers of community and conversation. He and his beautiful wife, Leah, have one crazy awesome cat named Kung Fu Kittybug.
Jonathan Collins is a writer and speaker for youth and is actively involved in a new church plant. He is also pursuing his Olympic dreams in the world’s most challenging athletic endeavor, the decathlon. Jonathan resides in Southern California with his junior high sweetheart wife and their brand new baby boy, Leo.