Tracy Mathews
Tracy Mathews is the founder and Executive Director of Attune. Through facilitated workshops, Attune offers tools and training to help teams slow down, listen deeply, and tap into more of God's guidance for the decision making, strategic direction setting and team building of organizational leadership. Prior to launching Attune, Tracy led strategy and business development for Coskata, Inc., an early-stage industrial biotech company, and has also held positions at McKinsey & Company and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. She holds a BS in Paper Science and Engineering from the University of Washington, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Wayne Faison
God called Wayne from banking to vocational ministry. He moved to Virginia to begin his career with the BGAV in 2001. After serving in several positions - most recently as Growth Venture Staff Coordinator. He was elected as BGAV/Ascent Executive Director in November 2022 during the 199th BGAV annual meeting in Hampton, Virginia.
In addition to his role with BGAV, Wayne also serves as pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Virginia. He holds a Doctor of Ministry in Black Church Leadership, as well as a Masters of Divinity in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth, from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The father of two daughters, he lives and serves with his wife Carmen in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Juliet Liu
Juliet Liu has served as pastor at Life on the Vine since 2014. Prior to this role, Juliet pastored as college campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, served as the Director of Worship Arts at Northshore Chinese Christian Church, and ministered as Director of Chapel at Trinity International University. A graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.Div, 2005), Juliet will complete a DMin in Spiritual Direction and Formation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in 2025. She serves as Chair of the Board for Missio Alliance. As a second-generation Vietnamese Chinese American, she enjoys speaking and writing about spirituality that is contemplative, justice-centered, and de-Westernized.
JR Woodward
JR Woodward is a seasoned church planter, activist, and missiologist, and is currently the National Director for Church Planting with V3, a missional church planting movement. He is the author of Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World (2013), the co-author of The Church as Movement (2016). JR’s newest book, The Scandal of Leadership (2023), will be released at Awakenings 2023 this year! JR is founder of New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF) and co-founder of the Praxis Gathering, Kairos LA, the Solis Foundation, Ecclesia Network, and Missio Alliance. He serves locally with the District Church in Washington DC. JR received his PhD from the University of Manchester (UK), and a Masters of Art in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. He loves to surf, travel, read, skateboard, and meet new people. He enjoys photography and film and tries to attend the Sundance Film Festival whenever he can.
Miriam Swanson
Miriam Swanson is the Director of Fusion USA, an organization that equips local churches to love, reach and disciple college students. She is originally from the UK, where she was the Global Student Mission Leader for the wider Fusion Movement, but now pioneers this work from her home in Jacksonville, FL. Miriam is passionate about the potential for Kingdom transformation through the hearts of university students across the nation. She is active on Instagram at @miriamgswanson.
David Swanson
David is the founding pastor of New Community Covenant Church, a multiracial congregation on the South Side of Chicago. He is also the founder of New Community Outreach, a neighborhood nonprofit which addresses community trauma through restorative practices. He previously served as a Director of Church Planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. David and Maggie have been married for more than twenty years and have two sons. David is the author of Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Discipleship (2020) and is currently writing a book about the intersection of racial and environmental justice (Coming in 2024). David is on the Missio Alliance Writing Team.
Charles Self
Charles Self is a pastor and professor, author and advisor and the co-founder and integration leader of Discipleship Dynamics, a research-based tool for churches and individuals to assess the effectiveness of their discipleship programs. Charlie offers a vision for wholeness through biblically grounded and scientifically affirmed methods for celebrating progress. He brings 40+ years of experience as a pastor, professor, consultant, public speaker, and author. Charles is also Professor of Church History at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, as well as the Chief Intellectual Officer of the Pathmakers Foundation. He is the author of Life in 5-D: A New Vision of Discipleship (2022) and Flourishing Churches and Communities: A Pentecostal Primer on Faith, Work, and Economics for Spirit-Empowered Discipleship (2012).
Natasha Sistrunk Robinson
Natasha Sistrunk Robinson is an international speaker, leadership consultant, and diversity and mentoring coach with nearly 20 years of leadership experience in the military, federal government, church, seminary, and nonprofit sectors. She is the editor and co-author of Voices of Lament: Reflections on Brokenness and Hope in a World Longing for Justice (2022), A Sojourner’s Truth: Choosing Freedom and Courage in a Divided World (2018), among other publications. She is the President of T3 Leadership Solutions and leads Leadership LINKS, Inc. Natasha is ABD with her doctorate at North Park Theological Seminary, and is a proud graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the U.S. Naval Academy. She has served as a Marine Corps officer and employee at the Department of Homeland Security. Natasha is also the host of the podcast "A Sojourner’s Truth: Conversations for a Changing Culture” and is a Leading Voice for Missio Alliance’s Writers Collective.
Soong-Chan Rah
Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah was appointed Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA in 2021. Prior to this, Dr. Rah was Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. He is the author of numerous books, including Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery (2019), co-authored with Mark Charles, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times (2015), and The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (2009). Rah is the founding Senior Pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Massachussets. Dr. Rah Soong-Chan received his ThD from Duke University, his DMin from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, his ThM from Harvard University, his his MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his BA from Columbia University. He is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Lisa Rodriguez-Watson
Lisa Rodriguez-Watson is the National Director of Missio Alliance and a pastor at Christ City Church in Washington D.C. For nearly two decades, Lisa’s heart to see people reconciled to God and to one another has led her to invest her leadership in various roles within collegiate ministry, international missions, immigration advocacy, community development, and urban church planting. Lisa served as co-founder of a grassroots organization in Memphis, TN that was committed to mobilizing Christians to love their undocumented neighbors and consider an appropriate Christian response to our nation’s immigration crisis. She holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Florida International University and Golden Gate Seminary respectively. A proud Cuban-American, Lisa writes, speaks and leads at the intersection of formation, justice and mission as a Leading Voice for Missio Alliance. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and three kids.
Ruth Padilla DeBorst
Ruth Padilla DeBorst has been involved in leadership development and theological education for integral mission across her homeland of Latin America for several decades. She coordinates the Networking Team of INFEMIT (International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation). Ruth co-leads the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI, or Community of Interdisciplinary Theological Studies) with her husband, James. She collaborates with Resonate Global Mission, and serves on the board of Arocha, and the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. Ruth lives in Costa Rica with the Casa Adobe intentional Christian community. She has a PhD in Theology from Boston University, an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Wheaton College, and a BA in Education earned in Argentina.
Oneya Okuwobi
Oneya Fennell Okuwobi is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Her research interrogates how diverse organizations (including churches) affect racial inequality. Oneya serves as teaching pastor at 21st Century Church, a church plant in Cincinnati, OH. She has co-authored Multiethnic Conversations: An Eight-Week Journey Toward Unity in Your Church (2016) and Multiethnic Conversations for Kids (2022). Oneya’s work has appeared in American Sociological Review, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, and Sociology of Religion, among other venues. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati, Oneya served as a Rice University Academy Postdoctoral Fellow with the Religion and Public Life Program.
Oneya is married to Dele Okuwobi, and has one daughter, Cadence.
MaryKate Morse
Dr. MaryKate Morse is the Executive Dean of Portland Seminary at George Fox University, the Lead Mentor for the Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Spiritual Formation track, and is a Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Formation at Portland Seminary as well. She is the author of Lifelong Leadership: Woven Together through Mentoring Communities (2020), A Guidebook to Prayer (2013), and Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space, and Influencing (2008)\.
MaryKate serves as a consultant to churches and organizations in transitional leadership challenges. She has planted two churches in the Portland, Oregon area, is recorded as an Evangelical Friends pastor and trained spiritual director, and is a trainer for Lausanne Young Leaders and Leighton Ford Ministries. She is a founding board member and Leading Voice in the Writing Collective of Missio Alliance. MaryKate is married to Randy, and has several children and grandchildren.
Ted Kim
Ted Kim is the Senior Pastor of the Evanston Vineyard, a church that has ministered to Chicagoans in the North Shore for over 45 years. Ted assumed leadership of the church in 2020 after an intentional transition season from the founding pastor, Steve Nicholson. Ted is passionate about proclaiming the beauty of Jesus and stewarding the formation of our desires toward God, so that we can all flourish. Prior to pastoring the Evanston Vineyard, Ted was a worship pastor and creative, publishing songs with Vineyard Worship. Ted holds a MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is married to Brittany, an Old Testament scholar, and they live with their three children in West Rogers Park.
Alan Hirsch
Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. He leads 100 Movements, an initiative of Movement Leaders Collective with the audacious kingdom vision to invest in 100 Jesus-Movements to shift the tracks of history, and has founded Future Travelers and the 5Q Collective as well. Alan is considered to be a key missional thought-leader and strategist. He is the author of numerous award winning books, including The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements (2016), The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church (2013), co-authored with Michael Frost, and 5Q: Reactivating the Original Intellegience and Capcity of the Body of Christ (2017). Alan is an adjunct professor at multiple seminaries and lectures globally. He is series editor for Baker Books’ Shapevine series, IVP’s Forge line, and a contributing editor of Leadership Journal. Alan’s newest book, Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches, and Organizations From the Inside Out (2023), releases at Awakenings 2023!
David Fitch
David Fitch is BR Lindner Chair of Theology at Northern Seminary in Chicago. He is an ordained pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance. David teaches, pastors, speaks, writes, coaches, and leads conversations on the church in mission and its engagement with the cultural issues of our day for the gospel. He’s written numerous books, including Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission (2016), The Church of Us vs. Them (2019), and the forthcoming Reckoning With Power: Jesus, the Church and the Question of Power (Coming in 2024). David’s writing has been featured widely, including as a Leading Voice for Missio Alliance for years. He is married to Rae Ann and they have one son named Max.
Dennis Edwards
Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards is the Associate Professor of New Testament and Dean at North Park Theological Seminary. Dr. D hails from New York City by way of Washington D.C. He's a learner and a teacher, a husband and a father, a pastor and a servant. Both his PhD in Biblical Studies and MA are from The Catholic University of America, while Dennis also has an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a BS in Chemical Engineering. He has been in urban ministry for over three decades, having started churches in Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and Minnesota. Dennis wrote Might from the Margins: The Gospel’s Power to Turn the Tables on Injustice (2020), and has recent chapters in Perspectives on Paul: 5 Views (2020) and The State of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research (2019).
Carolyn Custis James
Carolyn Custis James is an award-winning author who thinks deeply about what it means to be a female follower of Jesus in a postmodern world. Her books include Finding God in the Margins (2018), Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World (2015), Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women (2015), among others. As a cancer survivor, she is grateful to be alive and determined to address the issues that matter most. Her speaking and writing ministry is dedicated to addressing the deeper needs which confront both women and men as they endeavor to extend God's kingdom together in a messy and complicated world. She is an adjunct faculty member at Missio Seminary in Philadephia and a consulting editor for Zondervan's Exegetical Commentary Series on the New Testament. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for Logia, an initiative of the LOGOS Institute of the University of St. Andrews, UK committed to seeing women academics become more visible and valued in the academy and the church. Carolyn is a Leading Voice of Missio Alliance.