Kingdom Encounter 2013
Embracing the Kingdom: Living the Call in Times of Change
(Viviendo el Llamado en Tiempos de Cambio)
Asbury Theological Seminary, Florida Dunnam Campus
February 3-4, 2013
Guest Speakers
Dr. William Pannell
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Professor of Preaching School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
William E. Pannell was born in Sturgis, Michigan. He gave his life to Christ during his junior year in high school, thanks to some Christian friends. The seeds to his conversion were sown many years previously in Sunday school at a local Plymouth Brethren Church.
Dr. Pannell has had far-ranging evangelistic experience at both the practical and the academic levels. Before joining the faculty at Fuller in 1974, Dr. Pannell was the first African-American to serve on Fuller Seminary’s Board of Trustees (1971-1974). In 1992 he was appointed to the Arthur DeKruyter/Christ Church Oak Brook Professor of Preaching in which he served until 2000. He also served as dean of the chapel from 1992-1998. In 1993 he was selected by his faculty colleagues to receive the C. Davis Weyerhaeuser Award for Excellence.
Bill Pannell’s books include My Friend, the Enemy, (Word, 1968), Evangelism from the Bottom Up (Zondervan, 1992), and The Coming Race Wars? A Cry for Reconciliation (Zondervan, 1993). His research interests include preaching and spirituality.
Dr. Pannell and his wife, Hazel, live in Altadena, CA. They have two sons, Philip and Peter.
Dr. Steve Gober is the Vice President and Director of Community and Global Formation on the Florida Dunnam campus. He has served with Asbury Seminary since May 2010. Before joining the Seminary team, Steve and his wife Karoline ministered for seventeen years as missionaries with the Methodist Church of Costa Rica. Steve worked primarily with the Methodist Seminary as a professor, administrator, and during the last eight years of his tenure as President of the Seminary. He received a B.A. in Christian Ministries from Asbury University, 1984; an M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary, 1993; and a D. Min. from Asbury Theological Seminary, 2010. Steve is committed to promoting spiritual transformation and renewal in the life of the church by connecting Asbury Seminary faculty and students as well as church leaders and laity to God’s Global Mission. Steve and Karoline have two children. As a family, they regularly lead mission trips to Costa Rica, which continue to support the development of leaders and the life of the Methodist Church and Seminary.
Dr. Richard L. Gray is professor of Leadership and Christian Ministries. He is currently the Leadership department chair at Asbury Theological Seminary. In 2008 he received the Asbury Seminary Graduate Faculty Discipleship and Mentoring Award.
He received a B.A. from Anderson University, 1974; and a M.Div. (1986), a Th.M. in Leadership Development (1991) and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies (1996) from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Dr. Gray is the executive director of the Obsidian Society (African American Evangelical Scholars Organization) and president of Evening Star Enterprise, Inc., a publishing endeavor. He is currently on the advisory board for Urban Impact in Lexington, Ky., and conducts workshops on topics ranging from African-American history to youth ministry throughout the area. He has published numerous books, including his most recent, The Journal of African American Christian Thought (UMI Publishing, 2008). In addition to his books, he is currently writing a leadership in ministry course for Asbury College.
He has received numerous community service awards, including awards from the Los Angeles Urban League Pasadena Branch, County of Los Angeles, City of Pasadena, California State Assembly and United States Congress. Dr. Gray was a PEW Graduate Fellow (Christian College Coalition) and a member of the International Society of Theta Phi.
Dr. Gray and his wife, Coral, have two children.