Main Session Speakers
Bill Donahue – Conference Host, General Session, Main Session 3
Bill’s passion for helping churches develop leaders through small groups led him to Willow Creek in 1992. Bill is currently the Executive Director of Small Group Ministries for the Willow Creek Association. Prior to that, he served on the staff of Willow Creek Community Church for six years, helping launch and develop the church-wide small group ministry. He was also leader of the Couples Ministry, Director of the Willow Creek Institute, and headed the Leadership Training Department. Bill has a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of North Texas, a Master’s in Biblical Studies from Dallas Seminary, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Princeton University. Bill and his wife, Gail, have two children, Ryan and Kinsley.
Scot McKnight - Main Session 1
Scot is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University in Chicago, Ill. and is also the Department Chair and the Director of the College of Christian Life and Thought. A popular and witty speaker, Scot has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and educational events. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of more than 20 books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, which won the Christianity Today book of the year for Christian Living in 2004. His most recent books include Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us; _The Story of the Christ; and Praying with the Church. He has a new book coming out in November called, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus. Other books include Jesus and His Death; A Light Among the Gentiles; A New Vision for Israel; Turning to Jesus; Galatians; 1 Peter; Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels; and is a co-editor with J.B. Green and I.H. Marshall of the award-winning The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, as well as the co-editor, with J.D.G. Dunn, of The Historical Jesus in Current Study. He regularly contributes chapter length studies to books and articles for magazines and online webzines. Scot’s blog, Jesus Creed, has been rated by Technorati.com as the #1 site for the Emerging Church. Scot was elected into the Hall of Honor at Cornerstone University in honor of his basketball accomplishments during his college career. He and his wife, Kristen, live in Libertyville, Ill. and they have two adult children, Laura and Lukas.
Mark Buchanan – Point Leader Session
Mark is an author and pastor living on Vancouver Island with his wife, Cheryl, and their three children, Adam, Sarah, and Nicola. Mark graduated from the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Department and he holds a Master’s degree from Regent College in Interdisciplinary Studies. He is the author of Your God Is Too Safe; Things Unseen; The Holy Wild; The Rest of God; Hidden in Plain Sight, and has published numerous articles in magazines and periodicals. Mark and his family love to bike and walk together and Mark also fishes, scuba dives, gardens, and reads widely.
Dr. Henry Cloud – Point Leader Session
Dr. Cloud is a psychologist, communicator and entrepreneur who brings a unique perspective to his speaking and writing. As the author of many best-selling books, his writing reflects experience not only in the clinical world, but the arenas of business, leadership consulting, and live audience interactions. This broad range of expertise and experience gives him appeal to audiences of all types, such as individuals seeking personal growth and change, couples seeking a better relationship, parents needing help with their kids, or business people reaching goals. His ability to connect with live audiences in all of these topics make him a favorite communicator for
For over twenty years, his practice has focused on working with leaders in a wide range of organizations and corporations, from family held firms to Fortune 25 companies. He has an extensive executive coaching background and experience as an organizational and leadership consultant, speaking regularly across the U.S. and internationally at corporate and leadership events.
In addition to consulting, he built a health care company which operated treatment centers in thirty-five cities in the Western U.S. and directed it for ten years. This perspective of having created and led a company, as well as consulting with other businesses, gives his message a realistic and practical flavor with which people identify.
He has written or co-written 18 books, including the break out million seller Boundaries, and most recently 9 Things You Simply Must Do: To Succeed in Love and Life. His books have earned three Gold Medallion awards and also the distinguished Retailers Choice award for “God Will Make A Way,” a book and television partnership with Time-Life and Integrity Publishers.
Dr. Cloud is the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio program New Life Live heard in over 150 markets. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Fox News, and contributed to many magazines and publications bringing his message of equipping people with tools to realize their personal and professional goals. He has been featured in many newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times. He is a professor in the Masters of Organizational Leadership program at Biola University, and has been a presenter at the American Psychological Association.
He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, earning a B.S. in psychology with honors. He completed his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Biola University, and his clinical internship at Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. His philanthropic interests lie in the area of homelessness and the inner city, as well as Third World missions and development. Her serves on the board of the Los Angeles Mission, a rescue mission on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Dr. Cloud is an avid golfer and enjoys boating, deep sea fishing and scuba diving. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tori, and their two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.
Alan Hirsch – Point Leader Session
Alan is the Director of Forge Australia. Known for his innovative approach to missions, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His book, The Shaping of Things to Come, is widely considered to be a seminal text on missions. Alan’s latest book, The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to movements. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is and adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S. He is the co-founder of www.shapevine.com, a forum for engaging with world transforming ideas.
Ron Martoia – Point Leader Session
Ron is a transformational architect. His passion is helping people and the organisms they serve, design, build, and experience revolutionary change. Over the last two years Ron has spoken to over 25,000 leaders in conference settings. His area of expertise is on the new and shifting landscape of church/cultural intersection, where he helps churches consider how they can shift their theological outlook which in turn will shift and adjust their ministry trajectory and cultural interface. Through his speaking, consulting, writing, and acting as “a distant staff member” to a number of churches, Ron uses his cultural intonation to help churches shift paradigms from the old Newtonian world to the Quantum world of the 21st century context.
Wayne Alguire – Main Session 2
After working in the marketplace for 19 years with Levi Strauss & Company in Canada and the Philippines, Wayne joined the Willow Creek Association as Vice President of International Ministries in the summer of 2000. His role was to support the expansion of the WCA’s mandate to help church leaders build prevailing local churches in a number of markets around the globe. In November 2002, Wayne moved from the WCA to the regional effort of Willow Creek Community Church as the Campus Pastor for Willow Creek McHenry County. In this role, Wayne serves as the primary leader of staff and core volunteers in offering a full expression of Willow to the residents of McHenry County. Wayne is married to Brenda and they have two children, Sarah and Nate.
Will Miller – Main Session 2
Will is from New York City and is a psychotherapist, an ordained minister, and a hospital and police chaplain. He has worked in community mental health centers and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. Will has served as a spokesman for the National Institute of Mental Health. Simultaneously, for 16 years, Will had a successful career as a stand-up comedian. He has headlined in clubs and theaters across the country and has appeared with Aretha Franklin and Natalie Cole among other stars. He has made numerous television appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, and The O’Reilly Factor. He is one of the country’s foremost media and popular culture analysts and has been profiled on NBC’s Dateline and in People magazine. He has been a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly and other magazines. Currently, Dr. Miller is a therapist and campus minister at Purdue University where he lectures on media effects. Will was Nick-at-Nite’s resident television therapist and the host of their Why We Watch segments for five years. His penetrating, yet tongue-in-cheek insights into the hidden meanings of our favorite television shows made him a popular fixture at the home of Classic TV. Will went on to host the NBC daytime talk show, The Other Side. He left the program when he objected to the direction it was taking. Will’s books include Why We Watch: Killing The Gilligan Within” ; Refrigerator Rights; and The Seven Temptations of Popular Culture (released in fall 2007).
He is in great demand as a speaker to corporations and organizations across the United States and Canada, addressing the effects of our culture on personal growth, happiness, and fulfillment. He was the highest rated speaker ever to appear at IBM’s prestigious Golden Circle event and was the spokesman for Microsoft’s Carpoint. Will holds a Master’s Degree and a Doctorate in Urban Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University; and a Master’s in Divinity from Union Theological Seminary.
Bobby Gruenewald – Main Session 3
Bobby is Pastor and Innovation Leader of LifeChurch.tv, one of the largest and fastest growing churches in America. LifeChurch.tv is one church with 12 locations in Oklahoma, Texas, New York, Arizona, Tennessee, and Florida. Bobby is also on the Directional Leadership Team, a team of five people that leads the strategic direction and vision for LifeChurch.tv. As Innovation Leader of LifeChurch.tv, Bobby oversees new technology initiatives, Communications/Public Relations, and the relationships LifeChurch.tv has with thousands of ministries and other churches around the world. Bobby’s forward-thinking leadership and vision help pioneer new approaches to ministry using technology. In 2006, LifeChurch.tv opened an Internet campus where thousands of people from all over the world gather in an online church community each weekend. Recently, the church developed and launched an extension of this online community in the more immersive 3-D environment of Second Life. Through Bobby’s leadership, the church has made it a practice to share the creative resources and innovative ideas that it has developed with other ministries and churches free of charge through its LifeChurch.tv/Open initiative. Prior to joining LifeChurch.tv in 2001, Bobby was a successful serial entrepreneur. He started a web hosting company which quickly grew over the course of two years. His next venture was serving as CTO of an interactive media company where he focused on acquiring and aggregating online communities. His final venture before joining LifeChurch.tv was a consulting company which focused on helping start-ups obtain funding. Bobby is a committed and loving husband to his wife. Melissa, and a dedicated father to his daughter, Audrey. He now sees that his life’s work is to be spent leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ throughout the world.
Denise VanEck – Main Session 3
Denise is a nationally recognized speaker and trainer, specializing in team building and leadership development. She is a founding partner in Deep Shift Coaching and Consulting (www.deepshift.org) and is currently serving at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich. as Pastor of Community Life. Denise has been published in Leadership Journal and is the author of Leadership 101. She has four children and one grandchild.
Steve Wu – Main Session 3
Steve spent years working in California’s Silicon Valley providing leadership in various capacities to Genesis Technology, Inc. and Twin Peaks Software. Then, 12 years ago, he started a church and most recently served as a pastor at Crosswinds Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wu is now committed to building Willow Creek’s Chicago regional campus.
Mike Breaux – Main Session 3
Mike has served as a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church since 2003. He also serves as a teaching pastor for Heartland Community Church, an innovative ministry in Rockford, Ill. Before moving to the Chicagoland area, Mike spent eight years as the senior pastor at Southland Christian Church in his hometown of Lexington, Ky. Prior to that, he led a team to start Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nev. Mike is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary in Ill. Mike has a passion for seeing people’s hearts connect to the life-changing grace of God and his engaging style of teaching often makes room for that to happen. His teaching began with youth and since 1988, he’s been doing what he calls, “Youth ministry for big people. My philosophy of ministry is love God, love people.” He is the author of Making Ripples and the soon to be released, Identity Theft. Mike and his wife, Debbie, have three children: Jodi, Derrick, and Drew and two grandchildren. His personal interests are his relationships with his family, basketball, golf, and music.