Mark R. Ashcraft is a Senior Associate of HH Architects. He serves as the Creative Director for the firm and has been blessed to work with many ministries during his 18 year tenure. He is passionate about sharing the strategic thinking behind faith-based design, how it shapes the user experience, and the importance of being ministry driven in those efforts.
Frank Barry is a founding executive team member and COO at Tithe.ly. Prior to being at Tithe.ly, Frank spent nearly 15 years helping churches, charities, and nonprofit organizations leverage technology to advance their mission. He also spent five years serving as a youth pastor. When Frank is not helping churches use technology to advance the kingdom of God, he’s spending time with his triplet boys and their superhero mom in San Diego, California.
Jeff Beachum is a Multiplication Specialist at Portable Church®. He comes alongside church leaders who are engaged in launching multisite campuses and new plants. Jeff brings a rich background to his current role with Portable Church®. He has worked in the commercial real estate appraisal profession both before and after serving a number of years as a pastor in the local church. Jeff led the Indiana Commercial Board of Realtors for several years before being called back to his home state of Michigan.
Robert Bergmann is the Creative Principal at Visioneering Studios. As a small child, Bob loved art and design. The first building blocks that brought design into reality were his Lego set. Later, his first full-time job in an architect’s office allowed him to design resorts and theme parks worldwide over 20 years. Before joining Visioneering Studios, Bob served as the Principal Designer at AECOM (the world’s largest A&E firm). This opened the door for design work with Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, and international resorts.
Tim Cool is founder of Smart Solutions, but more importantly, the husband to Lisa and father to 20 year old triplets. His passion is serving churches to be intentional with their facilities … and he loves hiking in the North Carolina Mountains.
Danae Dougherty is a Managing Principal at Visioneering Studios. Wanting to understand the holistic relationship between interior, building, and site design, Danae pursued an undergraduate degree in Interior Architecture and a Masters Degree in Architecture from UCLA. Her national project experience includes concept design to construction administration and everything in between.
Bishop David G. Evans is a leader in today’s global ministry. His passion for soul-winning is evident in his signature altar calls, touching hundreds of lives during each ministry opportunity. No stranger to excellence and consistency, the undergraduate degrees he earned in education and economics served as stepping stones to what he would spend his adult years doing: educating people and building thriving ministry organizations.
Steve Hron is Vice President of Cass Commercial Bank’s Church and Ministries Division, will walk you through some of the credit markers that lenders look to when counseling a church to prudent debt levels, including specifics on the impact of the COVID season. Bring your questions for this interactive session. The Word says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Cass Bank helps churches thrive through sound counsel and tailored financial solutions.
Brad Leeper is the President and Principal of Generis Partners. How can your church obtain the capital needed for the construction in a way that makes sense in the current environment? Brad’s unique approach allows him to serve larger and growing churches with significant funding requirements. Brad has a strong understanding of the multisite church strategy and other pioneering church movements. He is drawn to larger, innovative, growing churches and the challenges of helping them expand in the area of generosity, practically and spiritually.
Chris Lewis is the Senior Relationship Manager at Thrivent Church Financing. If your ministry is considering growth options, allow the “scars and the glory” to speak to you in this season of expansion. Whether refinancing or improving your facilities so you can spread the Gospel and make a bigger difference in your community, Thrivent shares your vision and hope for the future.
Teresa Loker is the Director of Church Loan Underwriting at Thrivent Church Financing. Teresa has been helping ministries nationwide with their financing needs for the last 25 years. She was previously was with a bank and oversaw a $1.3 billion church loan portfolio. During her tenure, she was also a relationship manager and played a key role in business development. Her career experience also includes jobs in retail banking, commercial real estate and asset based lending.
Michael Martin is president of Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. With its mission of Enhancing Trust, ECFA now certifies nearly 2,300 Christ-centered churches and ministries based on its high standards in financial management, governance and gift administration. ECFA is also a leading provider of church resources, including ChurchEXCEL.
Dave Milam is the Vice President of Strategic Design at Visioneering Studios. He stands firmly at the intersection of ministry, design, and visual storytelling. Dave served in the church for over 20 years. Dave has a heart for guiding pastors through unique challenges of ministry to awaken the beauty that God has placed within them and their facilities. His writing has been featured in LifeWay, Outreach Magazine, Influence, Christian Standard and other national periodicals.
Andy Satkowiak, the Development Manager at Gyve, a Division of Cass Bank, will do an interactive presentation on Gyve’s unique Round Up feature. This is an ideal mechanism to engage new donors, which leads them to a discipleship path of good stewardship. Bringing in new donors is a fantastic way of encouraging other donors, both large and small, to participate in your next vision project.
Reverend Nicholas Smith is the Executive Assistant Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church. Nick is the long time designated successor to Bishop Evans. See their video on their relationship and plans here. Pastor Smith works hand-in-hand assisting pastor-teacher Evans. He is a long-time friend of XPastor, with some outstanding articles on the site.
Bruce Woody is President & CEO for HH Architects and a frequent speaker on both large and small-scale church/faith-based campus planning projects. Since joining the firm in 1990, he has served as Design Lead or Principal-in-Charge on the vast majority of the firm’s large-scale projects, many of which are award winning. Bruce is best known for his creative problem-solving skills and the passion he has for design, which is evident in each long-standing partnership he has developed through his 30 years with the firm.