Keynote Speakers
Dr. David P. Gushee
David P. Gushee(Ph.D in Christian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York)is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta. His teaching career includes eleven years at Union University (1996-2007) and three years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1993-1996). While in graduate school, he also served for three years on the staff of Evangelicals for Social Action in Philadelphia, working with Ron Sider. He has served for three years on the staff of Evangelicals for Social Action. A columnist for Christianity Today, and widely sought speaker on issues at the intersection of faith, morality, and public life, Gushee is the author or editor of eleven books, including the award-winning Kingdom Ethics (Intervarsity Press). He and his family reside in the Atlanta area.
Steve Haas
While few of us may be called to relief work, Steve believes that “all of us are under orders to live out loud.” It is this conviction that fuels his exhortations to action on the part of believers. “The Church has a mandate to care for the vulnerable, to provide a covering, to provide community, to follow the greatest commandment to love,” he declares.
While pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, Steve temporarily suspended his studies to work in youth ministry in the Philippines. After graduating, he labored along the Thailand border as a relief worker aiding Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. He went on to earn a Master’s of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1985, then served as associate rector of Craigsbank Church in Scotland while pursuing postgraduate studies in Edinburgh.
His career has included serving on the staff of Illinois’ Willow Creek Community Church, where he developed small group ministry and then local and international ministries. He joined World Vision in 2001.
Steve is known as a motivator and a visionary with a passion for making things happen. His leadership of World Vision’s “Vision Trips,” which allow church leaders to personally witness the impact of AIDS in African communities, has helped to engage and mobilize congregations across America on the AIDS crisis. Steve also was one of the driving forces behind the launch of World Vision’s Acting on AIDS program, which today has chapters at dozens of colleges across the U.S. He has received acclaim for the passion of his Acting on AIDS speaking tours and his recent address to the Student AIDS Summit at Wheaton College.
Pastor Chris Williamson
At the age of 15, Chris Williamson became a born-again believer in Jesus Christ at a youth camp in his hometown of Baltimore, MD. Upon completing his education at Liberty University and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Chris and his wife Dorena came to Nashville in 1992 to further his efforts of ministry through gospel rap music. However, God had other plans and placed Chris on staff with Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN doing urban community ministry.
The Lord led Chris to plant a church in 1995 that would be multi-ethnic and community impacting. Strong Tower Bible Church was born and it met for the first ten years in the Franklin YMCA before moving to the Factory in 2006. Married since 1991, Pastor Chris and Dorena have four children: Dante, Christa, Chase, and Charis. Pastor Chris’ passion is for STBC to be a reconciling, difference maker in society. Strong Tower Bible Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ by being a Bible-based, multidimensional fellowship of believers.
Lauren F. Winner
Lauren F. Winner, the former book editor for Beliefnet, is the author of three books, Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and, most recently, Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity. She has appeared on PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and Christianity Today. Her essays have been included in The Best Christian Writing 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. Winner has degrees from Columbia and Cambridge universities and is currently at work on her doctorate in the history of American religion. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, Griff Gatewood.