SPEAKERS & COHORT LEADERS

Conference Host

Cohort Leader: Women in Leadership

Click here to join a Conversations in the Raw cohort

Preston Sprinkle (Ph.D.) is an international speaker and a New York Times bestselling author, who’s written a dozen books including People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is not just an Issue. Preston currently serves as the president of The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender, an organization that equips Christians to engage questions about faith, sexually & gender with theological faithfulness and courageous love. Preston also hosts the popular podcast “Theology in the Raw” and posts regularly on his YouTube channel “Preston Sprinkle.”

Sessions: The Future of the Church, Multiethnic Perspectives on American Christianity

Cohort Leader: Multiethnic Perspectives on American Christianity

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Eli Bonilla Jr. is the father to two beautiful children; Novalee Grace and Ezekiel Eliezer Rafat, and husband to the legendary Alexis Gabriella Bonilla. He is an emerging leader in the Next Gen space. He serves several national networks in varied roles. He is the Next Gen Regional Co-Chair for North America with Empowered21, and he also fills the position of National Millennial Director for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC). His full-time responsibilities are with OneHope as a Masters Fellow as a part of the Office of the President.

Session: The Problem of Evil & Suffering (A Conversational Debate)

Session: A Raw Symposium on Women in Leadership (pre-conference)

Gerry Breshears has been professor of theology at Western Seminary since 1980. In addition to teaching and lecturing at a number of colleges and seminaries around the world, he speaks in many churches and is a pastor to pastors as well as being part of The Bible Project. He works with a wide variety of people and issues in the pastoral side of his life. Gerry and his wife, Sherry, have two sons, Donn and David, and a daughter, Cyndee, and four wonderful grandchildren. He is an elder and a member of the preaching team at Grace Community Church of Gresham, Oregon.

Session: Disability and The Church

Cohort Leader: Disability and the Church 

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Julie is the adoptive mother of two boys who have Down Syndrome and one biological daughter. Professionally, she works with families who have children who have a Developmental Disability diagnosis. Her experience of being a mother of both neurodiverse and neurotypical children as well as her experience as a missionary on the Navajo Reservation and serving alongside her husband as Lead Pastors of The Collective Church has brought a unique passion and insight to disability, inclusion, and diversity within the local church.

Session: The Future of the Church

Matt Chandler is a husband, father, pastor, elder, and author whose greatest desire is to make much of Jesus. He has served nearly 20 years as the Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX which recently transitioned its 5 campuses into their own autonomous churches. He is also the President of the Acts 29 Network, a large church planting community that trains and equips church planters across the globe.

Matt is known around the world for proclaiming the gospel in a powerful and down-to-earth way and enjoys traveling to share the message of Jesus whenever he can. He lives in Texas with his beautiful wife Lauren and their three children, Audrey, Reid, and Norah.

Session: Multiethnic Perspectives on American Christianity

Eugene is the President and CEO of Bread for the World, a prominent non-partisan Christian advocacy and policy organization urging both national and global decision makers to help end hunger – both in the United States and around the world. He is also the founder and visionary of One Day’s Wages (ODW) – a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty.

He pastored local churches for approximately three decades including planting and leading Quest Church in urban Seattle for eighteen years and serving as an interim teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago for eighteen months during 2019-2020.

Eugene is the author of two books, Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian’s Guide to Engaging Politics (2020) which was nominated for Christian Book of the Year and Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World Than Actually Changing the World? (2014).

Eugene and his wife, Minhee, have been married for over twenty five years and they have three adult children.

Session: The Problem of Evil & Suffering (A Conversational Debate)

Dr. Joseph (Joey) Dodson is the Craig L. Blomberg Endowed Chair of New Testament at Denver Seminary. He studied with Preston at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and then went on to the University of Tübingen in Germany. With respect to writing, he spends most of his time publishing peer review articles in journals such as Harvard Theological Review, Journal for Jewish Studies, and Catholic Biblical Quarterly. His most recent books include The Things I Want to Do: Romans 7 Revisited with Mattie Mae Motl (forthcoming), Paul and the Giants of Philosophy with David E. Briones (2019), and A Little Book for New Bible Scholars with E. Randolph Richards (2017). His current research includes a Romans commentary in the Brill Exegetical Commentary Series and a Colossians-Philemon commentary in The Christian Standard Commentary Series.

Joey and his elementary school sweetheart, Sadie, have five children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and the greatest granddaughter and grandson in the entire multiverse. He is also an avid hiker, who has summited two-thirds of “the 14ers” in the contiguous US.

Session: The Future of the Church

Elyse holds a certificate in biblical counseling from CCEF (San Diego) and an M.A. in Biblical Counseling from Trinity Theological Seminary. She has authored 25 books on daily living and the Christian life. Elyse loves to proclaim the good news of the gospel: That Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, perfectly obeyed all the Law in our place, suffered in isolation and agony as punishment for our sin, died, and then rose again, all for our justification.

A frequent speaker at national conferences, she has been married for over 40 years and has three adult children and six really adorable grandchildren. Along with her husband, Phil, Elyse attends Grace Bible Church in Escondido, California.

Session: Disability and The Church

At 18 years old, Cameron experienced a diving accident in which he broke his neck and was left permanently paralyzed. Now, from a wheelchair he shares his story of God’s faithfulness to him through his disability. Cameron has shared in a variety of spaces including radio ministry, speaking tours around Ireland and in India, along with numerous engagements around the United States. Cameron‘s heart is for believers and nonbelievers alike to think accurately about suffering and disabilities and what great benefits these things bring to the church. Cameron has a bachelors degree in Ministerial Leadership from Southeastern University. When not speaking, Cameron enjoys wheelchair rugby, Adaptive CrossFit, and many other activities that keep him active and engaged with his community.

Theology in the Raw Live
Cohort Leader: The Future of the Church 

Click here to join a Conversations in the Raw cohort

Patrick Miller is a pastor and cultural commentator who writes about politics, culture, and technology, contributing articles to Newsweek, The Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, and other publications. His podcast, Truth Over Tribe, is one of Apple’s top News Commentary podcasts, featuring interviews with leading Christian thinkers, writers, and scholars. He’s the co-author of Truth Over Tribe: Pledging Allegiance to the Lamb, Not the Donkey or the Elephant. Patrick received a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary, and pastors a politically diverse church, The Crossing. He and his wife, Emily, have two children.

Session: A Raw Symposium on Women in Leadership (pre-conference)

Dr. Park serves as an Associate Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School since 2006. Teaches NT Greek and Exegesis. Interests include Gospel of Mark, Gender, Race and Biblical Theology. Upcoming: Biblical Theology of Women (T&T Clark).

Session: A Raw Symposium on Women in Leadership (pre-conference)

Phil Payne (Ph.D. The University of Cambridge) has taught New Testament in colleges of the University of Cambridge and has been a Visiting Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Theological Seminary, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Bethel Seminary, and Fuller Theological Seminary. He is well known for seminal articles on the parables of Jesus, women in the teachings of Paul, textual criticism, and Codex Vaticanus. His books include Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters, Why Can’t Women Do That? Breaking Down the Reasons Churches Put Men in Charge, and (forthcoming) The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood: How God’s Word Consistently Affirms Gender Equality. He founded Linguist’s Software, Inc., which provides fonts and input systems for over 2600 languages, including the fonts used to publish the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 28^thedition, the UBS The Greek New Testament, and HALOT. He and his wife Nancy were missionaries in Japan. Their three children and six grandchildren all love the Lord.

Session: Multiethnic Perspectives on American Christianity

Anna Ross is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. She is a community Leader with experience in individual empowerment, community development, and impactful strategy development and implementation. Anna has a degree in American Indian Studies as well as Indigenous Nations Studies and is currently co-director of the Ogimaawiwin (Leadership) & Management Bachelors Program at Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC).

Prior to TMCC, she started a Native non-profit in the Twin Cities with a focus on asset building as well as served as the Director of Indian Education for the Minneapolis Public School system. Having worked in both urban and tribal Native communities, Anna returned to her home reservation a few years ago when her husband, Roger, was called into the ministry and is now the church planter of Turtle Mountain Epiphany Covenant Church.

Session: The Future of the Church

Michelle T Sanchez is the senior leader of discipleship and evangelism for the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) denomination, a multiethnic movement of 900+ churches, as well as a frequent speaker on the topics of sexual discipleship and racial discipleship. Michelle is the founder and key architect of Embrace, a wide-reaching human sexuality discipleship initiative of the ECC. New for 2022, Michelle is the author of Color-Courageous Discipleship, Color-Courageous Discipleship Student Edition, and the picture book, God’s Beloved Community. After studying international business at NYU, Michelle worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs. She has served in various capacities with the Institute for Bible Reading, Cru, and the Lausanne Movement. She is a regular columnist for Outreach Magazine and a dual-degree graduate of Gordon-Conwell seminary. Find her at MichelleTSanchez.com.

Session: Disability and The Church

Devan Stahl is an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Baylor University. She specializes in disability theology, bioethics, and the visual arts within medicine. Dr. Stahl has experience teaching bioethics and disability ethics to undergraduate and graduate students in religion, medical students, and nursing students and she co-hosts the podcast, Bioethics for the People. Dr. Stahl trained as a hospital chaplain and works as a clinical ethicist consultant. Her latest book, Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (Notre Dame Press) develops a Christian response to genetic technologies using the insights of disability scholars.

Session: The Future of the Church

Street Hymns is a musical artist, apologist, speaker, and battle rapper from Arlington Texas. As a part of a team of Christians that have infiltrated the Battle Rap culture, Street and his team “The Horsemen” represent Christ in a world that is entertained with aggression and vulgarities. He has a Bachelors Degree in Biblical Studies from Dallas Baptist University and has dedicated 8+ years and counting to working with, mentoring and discipling youth.

Session: A Raw Symposium on Women in Leadership (pre-conference)

Dr. Westfall has been at McMaster Divinity College since 2005, teaching courses in New Testament, Greek exegesis, biblical interpretation and women in ministry, which are devoted to a commitment to transformation by God’s word through its application to all aspects of life and ministry.

While in the Campus Ministry in Flagstaff, AZ, Westfall was licensed for ministry with the Conservative Baptist Association. Westfall participated in the foundation and development of Open Door Fellowship, Providence Network, and Open Door Ministries in Denver Colorado, which form a ministry complex dedicated to help those who are at risk for homelessness and discipleship in the urban community. In Canada, she was a founder and chair of the board of Providence Canada, which has ministered to the those who are at risk for homelessness in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a director/deacon of Wentworth Baptist Church.

Worship

Evan lives in San Diego, CA, with his wife Sandy and their five kids. Evan holds a M.Div. from Western Seminary, has recorded four albums, and has written songs sung in churches all over the world. In 2013 Evan and Sandy were invited by John Mark Comer to relocate to Portland, OR, to lead worship while being trained for church planting. In 2017 they made the move back home to plant Park Hill Church, where Evan is lead pastor.

Worship

Tinika Wyatt is a singer, songwriter and children’s book author. She has traveled the world using her gifts, shared the stage with many renowned artists, and made appearances on BET’s Celebration of Gospel, the Gospel Music Channel‘s Gospel Dream, and the hit TV show Glee. She has contributed to three volumes of The Ethnos Project, a musical collection of multilingual worship through global partnership, and was most recently featured on the “Urbana 18 Live: Faithful Witness” and “InterVarsity Live! Worship, Volume One” albums. Her purpose is to use her voice primarily to connect people to Jesus Christ and secondarily to amplify the voices of others for the sake of understanding and reconciliation.