Conversations

Ben Fowler
Ben Fowler is the Creatives' Pastor at Mosaic Seattle. He has served in a variety of church environments as a volunteer and as paid staff. His ultimate desire for worship experiences is that they would lift people into God's presence, connect them with their brokenness, and allow them to respond in worship-not just with their voice but with their life. He finds great joy in nurturing an environment where artists can grow in their craft and their character. He has played professionally in symphony orchestras, rock bands, and jazz bands. Ben has been a part of numerous recording projects including sound tracks for video games and independent films. He is currently a part of Urban Hymnal, a group of musicians and artists who create one-time worship installations in the hope of creating space - space to respond and receive instead of merely consume. Ben lives in Seattle with his beautiful family. His wife, Sarah and daughters, Aria and Karis.

Mindy Caliguire
Mindy Caliguire is the founder and president of Soul Care, a spiritual formation ministry. She was formerly on staff in the area of spiritual formation at Willow Creek Community Church and continues as a member there. Mindy is a frequent speaker and retreat leader, working with groups such as the Spiritual Formation Alliance. Her books include the new Soul Care Series: Discovering Soul Care, Spiritual Friendship, Soul Searching, and Simplicity, Faith Books & Spiritual Journaling (with Sharon Soneff) and Write for Your Soul: The Whys and Hows of Journaling (with Jeff Caliguire). Soul Care provides a compelling vision and practical next steps for increasing personal soul health and for building spiritually formative environments in small groups and ministries through resources, events, leadership development and consulting.

Kim Do
Kim Do has worked as a Producer for Willow Creek's weekend programming team since April 2007. Her previous career experience includes marketing, advertising sales and church administration. Over the last ten years, Kim has led and participated in various volunteer activities that have expressed art in the church through music, dance and drama; she is passionate about facilitating the use of the arts to carry the message of Christ.

Stacy Brewer
Stacy Brewer serves as Programming Director at Willow Creek Community Church and currently oversees the development and execution of all services and special events. He graduated from Lee University in 1990 with a BME in Instrumental Music and has served at several churches in a variety of arts related ministry roles including Fine Arts Director, Music Director, Orchestra Director, Arts School Director, and Christian school Principal.

Steve Young
Steve Young is the Director of Creative Arts at Renaissance Church in Summit, NJ. Renaissance is an exciting, fast-growing, church plant in the suburbs of New York City that primarily consists of Wall Street professionals, Broadway actors, and studio musicians. As a church leader, he has served on both coasts, in a variety of church settings--including one church of over 5000, and two start-up churches – one with only a dozen people at its inception. As a musician, he has performed and recorded with internationally known recording artists, and remains active as a producer, keyboard player, and arranger in the NYC area. He is also the founder of Arts Impact, a creative coaching ministry that serves churches and other creative organizations in the area of worship and the arts.

Cheryl Besenjak
Cheryl is currently the Copyright Director for Willow Creek Community Church, with over 20 years of experience in the area of copyright. Cheryl is the founder and former Director of The Permissions Group, created to negotiate the rights to copyrighted material primarily on behalf of educational publishers. Cheryl has developed and published CopyRights©, a national newsletter and is the author of Copyright Plain and Simple, published by Career Press.

Rory Noland
Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. Rory is the author of The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team, Thriving as an Artist in the Church: Hope and Help For You and Your Ministry Team, and his latest book The Worshiping Artist: Equipping You and Your Ministry Team to Lead Others in Worship all published by Zondervan. Rory leads worship for the Transforming Center, a ministry that cares for the souls of pastors, and he also serves as Pastor of Worship at Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Seth Jackson
Seth Jackson's life can best be summed up in one word; journey. Growing up in a small suburb outside of St. Louis, it seemed impossible that his big dreams for the music business were even possible, but God had a plan. Today, Seth is an industry leader in the live concert industry. His award winning lighting and stage designs are all over the world with artists like Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith , Don Henley and Hilary Duff.

Ask Seth about his passion, however, and you will hear none of those names. His heartbeat is to see people, students in particular, live their lives as an act of worship. A passionate communicator and innovative teacher, Seth is one of the lead communicators of Eagle Point Community Church. He is the co-founder and director of Encounter Events, as well as Sixty Music, a record label created to serve as an outlet for the Enounter family of lead worshipers, and Visionering, Inc., a music and touring management company. He is a songwriter and the author of two books, Destiny: A Generation Seeking God, and Mercy Rains.

Champ Callahan
Champ Callahan's energy and passion leading worship is infectious. The young worship leader, and co-founder of Encounter Events, has committed his life to leading people into the presence of God, both on and off the stage. A gifted songwriter and musician, Champ is in the process of finishing his first album, Mercy Rains. Produced by David Benson (Moby, Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand), the album weaves a theme of passionate worship through a host of musical styles. In addition, Champ is a lead worshiper at Eagle Point Community church.

Chuck Spong
Chuck leads the Willow Creek Content Development Team, a group of writers, directors, video editors and producers generating and developing ideas for weekends, conferences, and other ministries of the church. The CD Team's mission is to produce original creative content that opens hearts for spiritual transformation. Chuck also serves as one of the producers for the WCA Leadership Summit. Prior to coming to Willow in 2000, he helped plant a WCA church in Orlando, serving as the executive pastor and programming director. Chuck graduated from Evangel University with a bachelor's in music education and from the Hartt School of Music with a master's in music theory. He and his wife Sara have four kids (ages 10, 9, 5 and 3).

Steve Pederson
Steve Pederson became the Director of Drama at Willow Creek in 1986 after teaching on the college level for 14 years. He leads a drama team of approximately 25 lay people. Team members perform as part of Willow Creek's weekend services, and also frequently contribute to conferences both at home and abroad. Steve has traveled throughout North America and Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand, teaching and leading workshops for the Willow Creek Association on drama in the church. He has an M.A. in theatre from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in theatre from the University of Iowa and is the author of Drama Ministry.

Walter Owens, Jr.
Walter Owens, Jr. serves the Rev. Senator James T. Meeks and the 20,000+ member congregation of the Salem Baptist Church of Chicago as its Minister of Music and Arts – a role that includes leadership to 17 arts-related ministries and 1,000 volunteers. He completed his undergraduate work at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and graduate work at Butler University (Indianapolis, IN). He has recently had the privilege of facilitating annual workshops and gospel music concerts in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. His wife, Rev. Terri Owens, is the Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School and they share the privilege of raising a 16-yr.old son, Walter III, who is pursuing a musical career in theory and composition at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.

Dave Cimo
Dave has been attending Willow Creek since 1985. Dave draws on 30 years of experience in the area of business leadership & development. He has played key roles in ministry development. Dave served in Promiseland, the church's children's ministry, for over 19 years. He was part of the team who wrote the strategic plan that launched the 1998 Promiseland movement. In October 2004, he joined the Willow staff as the Associate Director of Programming & Production.

Tim Carson
Tim Carson is the founder of Vocal Artistry and the Vocal Artistry Training Series. He was on the music staff at Willow Creek Community Church for 12 years and taught at Wheaton College where he developed new curriculum for singing modern styles. Vocal Artistry has a full line of vocal training products and offers workshops all over North America.

Meg Tomko
Meg is the Program Director for Orchard Hill Church, an interdenominational church located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While serving as a vocalist on the Orchard Hill Music Team for 12 years, her career background was in the medical field as an Administrative Director of Laboratory Services. In 2001, Meg was privileged to join the church staff and combine a passion for the arts with her management experience to direct the organization, planning and production of the worship services. Meg is also responsible overseeing church communication, publications, and website.

Amy Anderson
Amy Anderson is the Executive Director of Worship Ministries at Eagle Brook Church. She's a graduate of Bethel College, where she received a degree in Marketing. And, after spending 10 years working at 3M and Imation Corp, Amy made the shift and went into ministry at her local church, Eagle Brook. For the past seven years, Amy has been leading the teams that bring the weekend services together, including music, creative, technical and production teams. Today, Eagle Brook is a multi-site church with campuses in Lino Lakes, White Bear Lake and Spring Lake Park, Minnesota.