"For the Word of God is LIVING and ACTIVE..." Hebrew 4:12
Special Speakers
Kirbyjon Caldwell
Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, has served as senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church since 1982. Under his leadership, the Windsor Village membership has grown from 25 to more than 14,000. The church offers more than 120 ministries, which serve the community seven days a week.
Caldwell is the author of the bestseller The Gospel of Good Success and the co-author of Entrepreneurial Faith. Pastor Caldwell and the Windsor Village Church have been featured in several national television programs and publications. Newsweek listed Caldwell as a member of The Century Club, the magazine's list of 100 people to watch as America entered the new millennium.
Sean Gladding
Sean Gladding is the co-pastor at Mercy Street, a church within a church at Chapelwood United Methodist Church. A native of Norwich, England, Gladding came to the United States in 1991 to work at the Texas Tech Wesley Foundation. He graduated from Texas Tech University in 1997 and attended Asbury Seminary in 1998. Sean and his wife Rebecca are founding members of Communality, an intentional missional community working with the marginalized in downtown Lexington, Kentucky.
After graduating with a master of divinity degree in May 2002, Sean and Rebecca moved to Houston to serve on the staff of Mercy Street, which has become a community for people in recovery-recovery from addiction and from bad church experiences.
Bishop Janice Riggle Huie
Janice Riggle Huie serves as bishop of the Texas Annual Conference of the UMC, having been assigned there in September 2004. The Texas Annual Conference is composed of over 700 congregations and 290,855 members, spread throughout east Texas. It includes Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, Texarkana, Longview, Tyler and College Station. In connection with her Episcopal assignment she serves on the Board of Trustees of The Methodist Hospital, Southwestern University, Wiley College and Lon Morris College as well as The Texas Methodist Foundation. Bishop Huie is serving as President of the Council of Bishops.
Since Bishop Huie’s assignment there, the Texas Annual Conference has adopted a bold new missional strategy aimed at making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The primary priorities are as follows: Congregational Excellence (new church starts and re-vitalization of existing congregations), Clergy Excellence (recruiting gifted young pastors and supporting and training current pastors) and a Re-aligned Missional Structure.
J. Ellsworth Kalas
After 38 years as a pastor in four churches in Wisconsin and Ohio, and five years as an associate in evangelism with the World Methodist Council, Dr. Kalas came to Asbury in 1993 with the opening of the Beeson program, to teach preaching and to serve as mentor to the Beeson pastors. With expertise in narrative preaching and church renewal, he joined Asbury’s School of Theology preaching faculty in July 2000.
More than thirty of his books have been published by a variety of publishers, as well as 12 adult study quarterlies for the United Methodist Publishing House. He has recorded the entire Bible on audiotape, along with his Grand Sweep devotionals. Additionally, he is the author of Christian Believer, an intensive study of Christian doctrine produced by the United Methodist Publishing House for interdenominational use. A video component, "Behind the Pages," has recently been added to his book, "Parables from the Back Side." He has two adult children, Taddy and David, and his wife, Janet, whom he married in 1994, has two adult children.
Thomas G. Long
Thomas G. Long is the Bandy Professor of Preaching at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. His research interests are contemporary homiletical theory, biblical hermeneutics, and preaching, and Christian funeral practices. Dr. Long's books include The Senses of Preaching (1988), Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible (1989), Whispering the Lyrics: Sermons for Lent and Easter (1995), Matthew (1997), Hebrews (1997), Testimony (2004), and The Witness of Preaching (1989). He received his BA from Erskine College, 1968; his MDiv from Erskine Theological Seminary, 1971; and his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, 1980.
Kent Reynolds
Rev. Kent Reynolds comes to Asbury in July as the Pastor in Residence of the Beeson Center and adjunct professor in the areas of preaching and church leadership. Prior to coming to Asbury, Kent served as a pastor for thirty years in the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He served his last charge, St. James, in Athens, Georgia, from 1992 until 2006 when he accepted a position at Asbury as a Beeson Pastor. St. James was known for its community and international mission focus, planted a church in one of the most challenged neighborhoods in Athens, and grew significantly under Kent’s leadership. Kent brings extensive experience in international missions and leadership training having done mission in countries all over the world. His doctoral dissertation is in training pastors in Tanzania, East Africa. His educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Psychology (cum laude) from the Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, (1975) and an M.Div. (cum laude) from the Candler School of Theology of Emory University (1978). Kent is married to Sandy Timnick and they have three children, Chaz (1977), Cassie (1981) and Justin (1988).
