Working with church leaders to develop new expressions of Christian community is the passion of Chris’s life. In addition to his role as National Director of Fresh Expressions US, he serves with the Baptist General Association of Virginia in the area of growth and venture development. He also serves as National Director for both Ecclesia, a US network of missional churches, as well as Missio Alliance. Previously, he served as pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship, a large university congregation in Blacksburg, Virginia and has been involved in the planting of three new congregations.

Chris completed his doctoral work at Fuller Theological Seminary with a focus on the future of denominations in North American. He lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with wife Rachel, daughter Elliana and son Jase.

Chris holds a D.Min. in Missional Church Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. He lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with wife Rachel, daughter Elliana and son Jase.

Gannon serves as Director of Ministry Formation, developing our cross denominational networks, The Amore Project and the Ananias Project. He also coordinates the Fresh Expressions efforts of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, an association of 1400 churches in Virginia and 16 other states.

He earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree from Baylor University and the Master of Divinity degree from Duke University. Prior to entering seminary, Gannon worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate and as a public affairs officer in the anti-human trafficking office at the U.S. State Department. He has served in various roles at several churches, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Anglican.

Gannon is married to Carey, who also is a graduate of Duke Divinity School. Together they work to bring fresh expressions of church to the collegiate community at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Shannon serves as Director of Training, leading our team of mission strategists and trainers in the development and implementation of the Mission Shaped Ministry course through Pioneer Learning Communities. She is also a pastor on staff with Riverside Church in Sterling, VA, a Church that worships in two languages and engages in several Fresh Expressions of Church. In the last several years, Shannon has been involved with the Presbyterian Church’s New Worshiping Communities initiative, and has directed the coaching network that supports pioneer leaders.

Shannon lives in Springfield, VA with her husband Patrick and teenage daughters Catherine and Suzanne.

Sarah Keasler serves as Manager of Operations and Communications with Fresh Expressions. Keasler is a leader in non-profit management, most recently having developed the operations of a city-wide after school program for underprivileged youth in Miami, Florida. Keasler is a graduate of the University of Miami and is pursuing her MBA at Friends University. She is married to Keas Keasler and they live in Wichita, KS.

Jane is an Administrator for Fresh Expressions and also for the Ecclesia Network. She holds the a BA in Political Science and History from Virginia Tech.  During her time in Blacksburg, she was active with New Life Christian Fellowship.

Jane and her husband Brandon have three children.  She enjoys spending time cooking, crafting, cheering for the Hokies and playing with her kids.

Wendy has worked in public and higher education as a public relations specialist, crisis counselor, academic advisor and instructor. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia. Wendy periodically teaches on Sundays, in addition to serving with her husband David on the community congregation equipping team at New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, Virginia. Together, they have been volunteer staff members since 2002.

Wendy holds bachelor degrees in Communications and Psychology from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in Counseling and Human Development from Radford University. She is currently taking seminary classes through the John C. Leland Center for Theological Studies. In between playing dress-up and hosting tea parties with their daughters, Daisy and Rose, they enjoy cheering on the Hokies and all things Chicago.

Chris manages our social media presence. He serves as Community Developer for Austin Mustard Seed, a new Church Community in Austin, Texas. He also helps several other non-profits and businesses to tell their story with content and social media. He blogs about getting life on track and the Church on mission at ChrisMorton.info. Chris earned a B.A. in Music at Harding University and an M.A. in Global Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary and is married to Laura.

Cheryl serves as the  Coordinator of Prayer Mobilization desiring to under gird the foundation of this national missional movement in prayer. She brings over 20 years of Intercessory Prayer experience as she and her husband, Bill, have served in Anglican church plants. They began in Virginia at Truro Church in Fairfax and Christ the Redeemer in Centreville then serving in the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) for 7 years. Cheryl is the Head Intercessor for the Titus Institute for Church Planting and is the Executive Director of The SEEDS Ministry in New Bern, North Carolina that began out of her service to a local golf club. Cheryl and Bill have five awesome children; Caela, Isabella, Daniel, Gracie, and Liliana who are each thriving in their mission life together.

David Fitch is B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary Chicago, IL. He’s married to Rae Ann and they have one child, a son Max. He’s pastored and participated in many church plants including Life on the Vine Christian Community a missional church in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Most recently he and his family have joined Peace of Christ Church, Westmont, a church planted from Life on the Vine. He writes on the issues the local church must face in Mission including cultural engagement, leadership and theology. His theology combines Neo-Anabaptist streams of thought, his commitments to evangelicalism and his love for political theory. He has lectured and presented on these topics at many seminaries, graduate schools, denominational gatherings and conferences. Dr. Fitch is the author of numerous articles in places like Christianity Today, The Other Journal, Missiology Evangelical Missions Quarterly, as well as academic journals. He has been featured in places like OutReach Magazine, Anabaptist Witness, Homebrewed Christianity. He is the author of The End of Evangelicalism? Discerning a New Faithfulness for Mission (Cascade Books, 2011), The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from American Business, Para-Church Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism and Other Modern Maladies (Baker Books, 2005) and Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier (Jossey-Bass 2013) with co-author Geoff Holsclaw. His latest book is entitled Faithful Presence: How God Shapes the Church for the Sake of the World. It is due Summer of 2016 with InterVarsity books.

Lead Presenters, Verlon & Melodee Fosner have been in church leadership for 35 years, and for the past 18 years have served a 93 year-old church in Seattle, Washington. In 2004, their long effective church began to decline, and they were faced with the decision: move to the suburbs or become an urban church. They felt called to not only stay, but to dive further into the urban neighborhoods of Seattle – especially the ones with a sparse church presence. After numerous failures, they decided to try the Agape’ Feast church model talked about in the New Testament. And to their great surprise they found an immediate intrigue among the unchurched Seculars living in Seattle neighborhoods. Within a year, they had hundreds of Seculars as friends, gathering around their tables, and talking about Jesus. What began as an urban Dinner Church spread into a multi-site Dinner Church, and then expanded into a national Dinner Church Network. In 2014, Verlon received a Doctoral degree for his research on “The Dinner Church of the Apostolic Era”, and has written three books on the subject – all of which are available on this website. Then in 2016, Verlon and Melodee joined the Fresh Expressions US team to lead the DinnerChurchCollective initiative.

J.R. Briggs is a National Trainer & Equipper for Fresh Expressions U.S. He is also the Founder of Kairos Partnerships, a ministry that seeks to love the Church by caring for Her leaders. His role with Kairos Partnerships is expressed through coaching, consulting, speaking, equipping and writing serving a wide variety of leaders, pastors, churches, non-profits, ministries, companies and denominations. He is also an adjunct professor at Biblical Theological Seminary, and guest instructor at Friends University, specifically with the Apprentice Institute. He also serves as the Director of Leadership & Congregational Formation for The Ecclesia Network. He is an author, co-author and contributor of nine books that seek to equip and care for kingdom leaders. J.R. and his wife Megan have been married for over 15 years and have two sons, Carter and Bennett. They live in the heart of Lansdale, PA.

Travis’s service as Director of Mission Advancement and Southeast Regional Coordinator brings together his calling and experience as missionary and pastor. He serves as Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Alabama and was previously pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia.

His twenty-five plus years of ministry have included missionary service in Venezuela and Nigeria. He is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and earned the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.He is the author of Directionally Challenged (2007), Tough Calls (2008), and From the Steeple to the Street (Seedbed 2016).Travis and his wife, Keri, have three adult children.

Luke Edwards is the Pastor of King Street Church, a network of fresh expressions in Boone, NC. Luke is a provisional elder in the United Methodist Church. He is passionate about balancing tradition and innovation to create new forms of church for folks previously excluded from church. You can follow him on twitter at @lukesedwards or check out his blog www.lukesedwards.com.

Craig has worked in the arena of fresh expressions of church for over 25 years. He was the organizing pastor of Trabuco Presbyterian Church of the PCUSA and pastored that congregation in Southern California for 19 years. Since, Craig has served the PCUSA both regionally (in the Pacific Northwest) and nationally (as Catalyst for 1001 New Worshiping Communities in the Western States). Craig developed a process for assessing potential church planting leadership, Discerning Missional Leadership and has assessed hundreds of individuals who have expressed interest in new expressions of church. He also helped develop the PCUSA’s national coaches network and was one of the authors of “Starting New Worshiping Communities: A Discernment Process”. Craig continues to coach and mentor those engaged in starting new work.

Craig has recently accepted a new call as Pastor of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Thousand Oaks, CA. He says it’s time to assist an inherited congregation with embracing a mixed economy of Church for a changing context.

Craig has his Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary.

Kris is an associate pastor at Vine Church a church plant in Fairfax, Virginia and serves as our Coordinator of Operations. She completed the M.Div. at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC and has served at churches in the Baptist, United Methodist, and Nazarene traditions. Prior to being called to ministry, she received an M.S. in environmental science from the University of Maryland, where she also worked in the field, researching coastal environments and enhancing science communication. Kris is an avid runner, cartoonist, and archer and enjoys cheering for her Carolina TarHeels and Philadelphia Phillies.

Tom is a Fresh Expressions Mission Strategist, who leads Vision Days and also coaches MSM/Pioneer Learning Community participants. He also serves as the Canon for Mission in the Anglican Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic and Executive Director of the Titus Institute for Church Planting, a ministry dedicated to establishing a church multiplication movement in North America. His work includes coaching and training church planters and network leaders, training and certifying coaches, performing assessments for prospective planters, developing strategic plans for churches, networks and dioceses, and teaching church planting for several seminaries. Tom is a frequent conference speaker whose passion is to spread the vision for Great Commission Church Multiplication. Tom and Carol have been happily married for 35 years and live in Clifton, VA. They share life with their two adult children, Angela and Nick, and daughter-in-law, Marie.

Stan is a church planter and founding pastor of both Crossroads Church in Odenton, Maryland and Pathways Church in Forest Hill, Maryland where he currently serves. He has also worked as a church planting consultant, assessor, and coach for the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, the Baptist General Association of Virginia and The Ecclesia Network.

He received the M.Div. with a focus in biblical languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and completed additional study at Fuller Seminary. He lives in Belair, MD with his wife of 25 years (Kathy) and their three children (Caleb, Sarah and Micah). Before entering vocational ministry, Stan worked over a decade with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Ken Balch has served in a variety of roles in both pastoral and compassionate ministries in urban and suburban settings on the East coast and Midwest since 1985. He and has worked training pastors and with church plants and church planters for nearly 20 years. He currently serves as the Missional Leadership Specialist for the Mid-Atlantic District Church of the Nazarene where he develops leaders, works in organizational development and strategy and serves to support the ministry of congregations, compassionate ministries and non-profit organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region.