Sponsors
|
Resources: Speaker Bios
Tim Challies
Tim Challies, a self-employed web designer, is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere, having one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs. He is also editor of Discerning Reader, a site dedicated to offering thoughtful reviews of books that are of interest to Christians.
John Carley
As president of Trinet Internet Solutions, John Carley has directed award-winning web marketing campaigns for hundreds of organizations, including Billy Graham, Focus on the Family, Coca Cola, Toyota and Red Cross. After studying at USC and Biola, John has helped innovate dozens of corporate and ministry web ideas, including the first international ministry webcast in 1996. He shares his forward-thinking expertise with publications like the NY Times and the Christian Examiner, speaks nationally for events like the Christian Leadership Alliance and NAB and currently serves as the Internet Chairman for the National Religious Broadcasters.
John Mark Reynolds
John Mark Reynolds (Ph.D., University of Rochester) is founder and director of the Torrey Honors Institute, a great books program, and professor of philosophy at Biola University. Dr. Reynolds lectures frequently on ancient philosophy, philosophy of science, home schooling and cultural trends. He regularly appears on radio talk shows, such as the Hugh Hewitt Show, and actively blogs on cultural issues at ScriptorumDaily.com and the Washington Post's "On Faith" column. His books include "Three Views on Creation and Evolution" (Zondervan), "The New Media Frontier" (Crossway), and the forthcoming "When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought" (IVP).
Mark D. Roberts
The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, retreat leader, speaker, and blogger at www.markdroberts.com. Since October 2007 he has been the Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for Laity Lodge, a multifacted ministry in the Hill Country of Texas. Mark has written several books, including No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer (WaterBrook, 2005), Dare to Be True (WaterBrook, 2003), Jesus Revealed (WaterBrook, 2002), After "I Believe" (Baker, 2002), and Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Word, 1993). His most recent book is Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Crossway, 2007). Mark also writes a devotional for The High Calling of Our Daily Work, a website associated with Laity Lodge. He is married to Linda, who is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a Spiritual Director, and a retreat speaker. They have two children, Nathan and Kara.
Joe Carter
Joe Carter is the online editor of First Things magazine and an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. His blog, Evangelical Outpost, won the 2005 Weblog Award for "Best Religious Blog" and included as "Best Spiritual Blog" by Belief.net. He is the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator and a contributor to The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ.
Jon Acuff
Jonathan Acuff writes the blog www.stuffchristianslike.net which will be published as a book by Zondervan in 2010. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and two daughters. He has written branding for everyone from Home Depot to Chick-fil-A and likes helping ministries learn how to tell their stories online. (He likes racquetball too but felt like that "helping ministries" sentence should probably go before the one about racquetball just in case you didn't read the whole bio.)
Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson has traveled all over the world using online media to tell stories of those living in poverty. Anyone wielding a computer and an internet connection can contribute something to make the world a better place, yet so many stories are unfinished, just waiting for you to enter the scene. Anne Jackson is an author, speaker, and transformational activist who lives in the Nashville area with her husband, Chris. Her highly-anticipated book, Mad Church Disease - Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (Zondervan) was released in February 2009. Anne is on staff at Cross Point Church and enrolled in the Diploma of Ministry Studies Program at Rockbridge Seminary.
Drew Goodmanson
Drew Goodmanson serves as CEO of Monk Development and is co-founder/pastor at Kaleo Church. Monk is an Internet strategy and development company. Monk created Ekklesia 360 which is used by thousands of churches and ministries. Drew often speaks at conferences about how churches/ministries can use the Internet, his blog is recognized as one of the Top Church Blogs and he wrote a chapter in Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. Kaleo Church is a missional community, multi-site church planting movement in San Diego, CA. Drew spends much of his time thinking about church planting, web missiology and being a husband and father of two (Gideon & Roman).
Mel McGowan
Mel McGowan is one of the youngest Principals in a national Architecture / Urban Design firm. He spent a decade with the Walt Disney Company, where he transitioned from a background in film / production design towards community design (following "Walt's footsteps" and passion trajectory from toons to EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow). Post-Disney, he co-founded Plain Joe Studios, a multi-disciplinary design studio providing strategic branding, multimedia, and environmental design. He founded Visioneering Studios in 2002. He speaks extensively on sustainable Christ-centered community and is the author of Design Intervention: Revolutionizing Sacred Space.
Visioneering Studios is a leading global Design and Development company, with offices in OC, Denver, and Atlanta. It was founded in order to re-integrate sustainable Christ-centered community into urban redevelopment and new mixed-use community development globally. Its leaders include former Design and Development Principals of Disney, AECOM (the world's largest design & engineering firm), Universal Creative, Lennar Urban, HOK, RNL, Gensler and HNTB. Their work has been described as "architectural evangelism" which seeks to tear down the walls that separate Christians from Community, the Church from Culture, and Christ from the lost.
Abraham Piper
Abraham Piper is the Web Content Editor at Desiring God. He blogs at 22 Words.
Session Topic: "Serving Your Audience By Getting Out of the Way of Your Own Ideas"
Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones has been involved in global missions for 25 years and is currently a Mission Catalyst for Church Mission Society. He studied at WABC in Australia, Multnomah, WesternCBS, GoldenGateBTS, and FullerSWM but somehow managed to escape without an impressive degree. During the nineties, while working as an itinerant church planter among America's urban youth, Andrew [under the tag "CyberRev"] was exploring the potential of the World Wide Web for God's Kingdom through online communities and blogging. Today, Andrew and Debbie and their five kids live in a 22 year old 4WD truck named "Maggie", travelling the world as global nomadic missionaries, igniting and encouraging new ministries both off-line and on-line. Since 2001, Andrew has been blogging at TallSkinnyKiwi.com.
Matt Anderson
Matthew Anderson is a writer, speaker, and editor. A longtime proponent of new media, Anderson was instrumental in founding the first Christian conference devoted specifically to blogging and other new media. A graduate of Biola University, Anderson is a Perpetual Member of the Torrey Honors Institute and has spent time studying at Oxford University. Anderson resides in St. Louis with his wife of four years, Charity, where they enjoy board games, philosophy, and attending classical music concerts. You can find him on the web at MereOrthodoxy.com and ConversantLife.com.
Rhett Smith
Rhett Smith currently is in private practice as a marriage and family therapy associate, as well as working in the church as a pastoral care staff member to youth and their families. He is interested in the use of social media, especially in the context of therapy and ministry, and has written on the topic of social media and ministry as a contributor to the book, "The New Media Frontier." He loves talking about Twitter and can be found there @rhetter, as well as his blog www.rhettsmith.com. Rhett lives in Dallas with his wife Heather and daughter Hayden.
Cynthia Ware
With two decades of pastoral ministry and a Master's Degree in New Media, Cynthia Ware helps Christian leaders to use their online presence to enrich and expand their ministry reach. Besides consulting, she is an active public speaker & writer. This year she has presented at Biola University, the Internet Ministry Conference, Willow Creek's Group Life Conference, the Echo Conference, Innovation3 and The Idea Camp.
Her personal blog, The Digital Sanctuary, encourages Christian leaders to employ participatory media technologies to serve the Kingdom of God. Additionally, she is a co-contributor to several other online sites including Digital, the Leadership Network's technology blog. She is also an officer for many online Christian networks, websites and internet resources.
Marcus Goodyear
Marcus Goodyear works for the H. E. Butt Foundation as Senior Editor for TheHighCalling.org, HighCallingBlogs.com, and Christianity Today's FaithInTheWorkplace.com. After earning his bachelors in English from Texas A&M and his masters in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Marcus taught English and Creative Writing in Texas public schools for ten years. He now lives in Kerrville with his wife and two children. You can read more about him on his personal blog GoodWordEditing.com, one of the sites in the HighCallingBlogs.com network.
Dr. Dave Bourgeois
Before beginning to do ministry online, there are several fundamental questions that should be answered. Unfortunately, many of us doing online ministry are so anxious to get going that these questions never get answered, if they are even thought about at all. Using his background as a researcher and educator in the field of Internet ministry, Dr. Bourgeois will ask you think about what you're doing from a philosophical point of view. The goal for this session is to look at the questions that any organization or individual who is doing ministry online should ask and then explore how these questions could be answered. Come to this session ready to question your assumptions and contribute from your experiences how you would answer some of these questions. Dave Bourgeois is passionate about understanding how technology and faith can work together to further God's purposes. To that end, God has placed Dave at Biola University where he pursues research, teaching, and writing on that topic. In 2008, Dr. Bourgeois completed a research project on "Best Practices in Internet Ministry", which he presented at the Internet Ministry Conference. In March, 2009, he developed and presented a workshop called "Internet Strategies for Your Congregation" to over seventy churches in Indiana. This semester, Dave is teaching a groundbreaking course in Internet Ministry, where students are being asked to develop a philosophy of Internet ministry and write strategies for their own organizations. You can find out more about what Dave is currently doing over at his blog: lessonsfrombabel.com. Dave received his Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University in 2006.
Charles Lee
Charles is the lead cultural catalyst and pastor for New Hope in Torrance and Los Angeles. He is also the vice-president and founding member of JustOne, a non-profit organization committed to addressing issues of poverty, orphans, and human trafficking (modern-day slavery). In addition, Charles is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp and the Freeze Project. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creativity, innovation, leadership, ministry, community development and compassionate justice.
Paul Watson
Paul D. Watson works with CityTeam Ministries and is responsible for developing and implementing the strategies necessary for reaching the online generation. He brings a broad perspective to this task, having spent his childhood in Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Singapore as a missionary and church planter kid. Over the last seven years, Paul helped develop resources for church planters engaged in Gospel Movements around the world. and he enjoys using emerging technologies to help distribute these materials. He also has a passion for finding persons of peace through social networking services and sites. Paul also consults with churches about curriculum development and using technology to build community and reach the online generation. You can read his observations and insights on his blog, Reaching the Online Generation. Paul is married, has two children, and lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
Mark Joseph
Mark Joseph is a multi-media producer, author and the founder/CEO of MJM Entertainment Group. Mr. Joseph has worked in the development and/or marketing of 19 films including Ray, Holes, I Am David, The Chronicles of Narnia, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Ultimate Gift, Saving Sarah Cain and others. In 2004, he co-produced two short films, Cupid and The Bridge with producer Ralph Winter. Mr. Joseph's current productions include Reagan, Sensei and In His Steps. He is also a co-founder and President of the board of the Damah Film Festival.
Mark's career in television began in 1992 when he anchored the Entertainment Report for CNN and he spent the next decade hosting the TV show, The Interview, which featured one on one interviews with guests like Larry King, Charlton Heston, Jay Leno and dozens of others.
In 2004 he produced the award-winning rock soundtrack for The Passion of The Christ featuring Lauryn Hill, P.O.D., Creed, MxPx, Blink 182, Kirk Franklin, and others and in 2008 launched his label Bully! Pulpit Records in partnership with Nettwerk Music Group. Bully! Pulpit's first artist Molly Jenson, will release her first album, Maybe Tomorrow, worldwide on March 3rd, 2009.
Mark is the author/editor of three books The Rock & Roll Rebellion; Faith, God & Rock 'n' Roll and Pop Goes Religion. In 2009, he announced a partnership between his literary division Bully! Pulpit Books and Midpoint Trade Distribution. The label's next book release will be Wild Card: The Rise of Sarah Palin as well as God & Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Journey. Mark also blogs regularly for Foxnews.com, The Huffington Post and Bully! Pulpit. He is also the founder and host of Bullypulpit.com. He lives in Southern California with his wife and four children.
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart is an American conservative commentator for the Washington Times, author, occasional guest commentator for political news programs and is best known as a part-time editor of the conservative Drudge Report website. He was a developer for The Huffington Post and currently runs his own news portal, Breitbart.com.
Breitbart's highest profile venue to date is the Drudge Report. On November 7, 2008, Mr. Breitbart guest-hosted the Savage Nation talk radio program. He is also a regular fill in for Dennis Miller on his nationally syndicated radio show.
Breitbart co-wrote Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon; The Case Against Celebrity with Mark Ebner. The book is highly critical of Hollywood U.S. celebrity culture, as the authors perceive it. The publisher's description says, "Celebrities somehow believe that it's their god-given right to inflict their pathology on the rest of us. Hollywood, Interrupted illustrates how these dysfunctional dilettantes are mad as hell... And we're not going to take it any more."
Breitbart's work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and the Weekly Standard Online, among others. He writes a weekly column now for The Washington Times, which also appears at Real Clear Politics.
Breitbart has appeared as a conservative commentator on talk shows such as Real Time with Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. Breitbart took on a higher profile as a commentator during the 2004 U.S. election cycle after appearing in Michael Moore Hates America, a 2004 movie directed by Michael Wilson that is highly critical of filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary creation tactics and editing style. Was also a guest commentator on Fox News Channel's morning show on May 10th, 2004. He frequently appears as a guest panelist on Fox News Channel's late night program, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld.
He now runs his own news site at Breitbart.com, with the motto "Just The News." The site is frequently linked to by the Drudge Report and independently run websites. It features wire stories from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, PR Newswire, US Newswire, as well as direct links to a number of major international newspapers. The site also features a search engine powered by Lingospot and a finance channel powered by Financial Content. Breitbart also launched a video blog Breitbart.TV in 2007.
In 2008 Breitbart launched the website "Big Hollywood" a "group blog" driven by Tinseltown, with contributions from high profile Hollywood types. The site is an outgrowth of the column "Big Hollywood" that Breitbart wrote for the newspaper The Washington Times that addresses issues facing conservatives working in Hollywood.
|
