Deanna A. Thompson, St. Olaf College
Deanna A. Thompson is a Lutheran theologian, and Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community and Martin E. Marty Regents Chair of Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Thompson’s writing and speaking covers topics ranging from Martin Luther and feminism, Scriptural interpretation (Deuteronomy in particular), cancer and faith, and being the church in the digital age. When she’s not writing, speaking, or teaching, Thompson can be found hiking in a national park with her husband and two children.
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D.
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
Diana’s passion is sharing great ideas to change lives and the world – a passion that ranges from informing the public about spiritual trends, challenging conventional narratives about religious practice, entering the fray of social media with spiritual wisdom and smart theology, and writing books to help readers see themselves, their place in history, and God differently. She does this with intelligence, joy, and a good dose of humor, leading well-known comedian John Fugelsang to dub her “iconic,” the late Marcus Borg to call her “spontaneous and always surprising,” and Glennon Doyle to praise her “razor-sharp mind” and “mystical heart.”
She holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of ten books (below). Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, Atlantic.com, USA Today, Huffington Post, Christian Century, and Sojourners. She has commented on religion, politics, and culture in the media widely including on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBC, FOX, Sirius XM, TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and in multiple global news outlets. In the 1990s, she wrote a weekly column on religion and culture for the Santa Barbara News-Press, which was distributed nationally by the New York Times Syndicate.
Her work has received two Wilbur Awards for best nonfiction book of the year, awards from Religion News Association for individual commentary and for Book of the Year, Nautilus Awards Silver and Gold medals, the Illumination Book Award Silver medal, Books for a Better Life Award, the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for Church History, multiple nominations for the Library of Virginia Literary Awards, and Publishers Weekly’s Best Religion Book of the Year.
She and her husband live in Alexandria, Virginia, with their dog and their sometimes-successful backyard garden.
Reverend Dr. Joseph L. Boysel
Rector, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Hudson, Ohio
The Rev’d Dr. Joseph Boysel has been the rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Hudson, Ohio since 2010. Prior to coming to Holy Trinity, he served as the Associate Professor of Bible and Preaching at Ohio Christian University in Circleville, Ohio. Father Joe holds both the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. He is married to Abby Boysel and together they have four grown sons—Nicholas, Zachary, Benjamin, & Dietrich—and a Labrador Retriever, Lucy.
Katie Kuntz-Wineland, MDiv
Katie Kuntz-Wineland is a self-identified “queer, seminary educated, free range minister of the gospel.” Her ministry is rooted in the Methodist tradition, with formative ecumenical connections in the Mennonite, Unitarian Universalist, and Anglican traditions. Katie received her B.A. in Biblical Studies from Bluffton University and her Master of Divinity from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She currently serves in nonprofit ministry at Bittersweet Farms, an organization serving adults with autism. Katie is also a passionate justice-seeker, with particular commitments to the struggles for queer inclusion in the United Methodist Church, disability justice, and ecological/racial/economic justice in her beloved South Toledo, Ohio neighborhood.
Kurt Struckmeyer
Kurt Struckmeyer grew up in St. Louis, Missouri in the aftermath of global war. His youth was shaped by the decades of the conformist fifties and the contentious sixties. At the age of twelve, he discovered a radical and passionate Jesus in the gospels and responded to his call to "follow me." Four years later, Kurt read "The Cost of Discipleship" by the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Based on a growing understanding of the love and nonviolence taught and modeled by Jesus, Kurt became a conscientious objector to the war in Viet Nam. The two martyrs--Jesus and Bonhoeffer--had launched the trajectory of his life.
After graduating from the Washington University School of Fine Art in 1969, Kurt pursued a varied career at the General Motors Design Center in Warren, Michigan. For over 35 years, he worked as a sculptor, digital technician, process and technology planner, business strategist, historian, writer and visual communicator, serving under every vice president of the Design Center except its founder Harley Earl, until his retirement from GM in 2005. Kurt now lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 2008, he was asked to write a history of automotive design at General Motors titled "Driving Style: GM Design's First Century." Today, he spends much of his time in study and writing.
Throughout his adult life, Kurt's true avocation and calling has been theology, biblical studies, and historical Jesus research, focused on the vision of peace and social justice that Jesus called the "kingdom of God." Over the years, Kurt has written a number of classroom studies about the mission and message of Jesus, nonviolence, and community building. In 2004, Kurt founded the Mustard Seed School of Theology, launching the website "Following Jesus: a life of faith in a postmodern world."
Rev. Wil Ranney
Wil is an Ordained Deacon in the United Methodist tradition who has been practicing Digital Ministry since 2008 and started working with an online worship community called Darkwood Brew in 2012. Wil has a ministry called Aboundant that helps churches, nonprofits, and social justice organizations with things like Websites Ministries, Social Media Strategy, and online worship. Wil works remotely from the small college town of Waverly, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and two cats.
Rev. Steve North
Steve North is a serial entrepreneur in ministry, and the Founder and Lead Pastor of LifeLine Toledo, a United Methodist Missional Network Community in Toledo, OH. Together, he and LifeLine engage in a wide variety of creative space-making opportunities intended to give people unvetted and uncensored voice, and the opportunity to build organic spiritual community across our culture’s standard dividing lines. He also believes that our current challenges and our current spiritual/philosophical climate offer perhaps the greatest opportunity for the Church to be the Church that we have ever seen. He earned a BS in Organizational Communication from Ohio University, and an MDiv from Ashland Theological Seminary, but LifeLine and Toledo have been the anvil upon which his theology and his ministry have been profoundly shaped. For this he is grateful.
Rev. Dr. Mindy Johnson-Hicks
Mindy grew up under difficult circumstances, experiencing the effects of alcoholism, violence, neglect, and generational poverty. At an early age, she decided education was the way out. Attending Manhattan Christian College, she achieved a Bachelor of Science in ethics, before moving onto Saint Paul School of Theology to complete a Master of Divinity. Mindy was ordained as an elder in full connection in the United Methodist church before going on to complete her doctorate, specializing in preaching and leadership, at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Mindy writes books on church leadership and is an expert in bridging cultures to achieve collective prosperity. Mindy’s current position allows her to coach people to accomplish together those things which make us better, which make the world better, and which help us be a community of care for all.
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