Speakers

Below are the speakers we've lined up for IMC 2007.
We're continuing to add new speakers to the schedule, so keep an eye on this page!

Keynote speaker
	M. Rex Miller, keynote speaker Rex Miller is the acclaimed author of "The Millennium Matrix," a fascinating work that addresses the impact of communications media on worship and spirituality throughout history and today's emerging digital culture. Rex Miller is a theologian, futurist, strategic consultant and communications expert. He is on the board of directors for the International Worship Institute and has been involved with three church plants. He's had a successful 25 year career in the commercial design and interiors industry. During that time Rex has been an executive for two Fortune 500 companies and consulted with more than 200 businesses and churches. He is the creator of SWARM Networks (Smart Work and Referral Marketing). SWARM was designed to take advantage the new tools and paradigms of digital networks. SWARM is a proven and successful new business model for growing companies in the new economy. He recently stepped down from The Spencer Company where he was responsible for over 40% of the company's revenue in 2007 including the Hunt headquarters. Rex is a frequent conference speaker demonstrating how the shift to a digital world will have a greater impact on our culture and faith than the Reformation or Renaissance. He has been a keynote speaker at the World Future Symposium, NACBA and the Worship Facilities Conference. His presentations have received accreditation for Continuing Education Credits for the Association of International Architects and International Institute of Interior Designers. Sessions: Plenary Address: Millenium Matrix
Speakers
	Brad Abare, Center for Church Communication Brad Abare is the assistant vice president and director of communications for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, founder of the Center for Church Communication, and president of Personality™, the cause marketing agency. In 2004 Brad started ChurchMarketingSucks.com, a worldwide conversation to frustrate, educate, and motivate the Church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ. Sessions: A Matter of Message
	Tiffani Barnes, Faith Evangelist for iStockPhoto.com Tiffani is the Faith Evangelist for iStockphoto where she has been given the mission to tell the faith community about the fabulous resources available at iStockphoto.com. Before coming to iStockphoto she had served in ministry for over 12 years as a speaker, youth director, worship leader, and most recently as the media director in her local church in East Texas. When she is not somewhere telling someone about iStockphoto she enjoys undertaking freelance projects in graphic design and video production. Sessions: Visual Communication Strategies
	Doris Beck, Interactive Director for TruthMedia Internet Group Doris has served with Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada for over 30 years. She is passionate about seeing people won for Christ and has a heart for teaching people how to have an effective ministry of evangelism and discipleship. What started as a volunteer position leading chat on Christian Women Today has now grown into a fulltime job and a ministry that spans the globe. She oversees a team of almost 500 volunteers who serve as chat leaders and mentors.
	Jon Bogart, Pizzazz Email! Jon Bogart is owner of Pizzazz Email LLC, a web-based email publishing/marketing company. Former missionary and magazine editor, Jon possesses extensive knowledge and experience in helping profit and nonprofit groups use permission-based email publishing to connect and interact with their people using high-impact email. Pizzazz Email LLC is proud to be Gospelcom partner and is also a member of the Email Experience Council. Sessions: Email Deliverability: What Happens After You Hit “Send”?
	Patrick Booth, Consistent Computer Bargains Patrick Booth joined Consistent Computer Bargains, Inc. in 2002. Patrick spent three years as a sales representative in the nonprofit division at CCB and in 2005 successfully launched a new division focused on Religious Ministries. He has a passion to serve all ministries with integrity and wants CCB to be a place of refuge for ministries to find their technology needs affordably. Patrick is committed to serving the Lord as a Youth For Christ chaplain for a local high school football team, and is helping Harvest Bible Chapel launch a plant in Milwaukee, WI area. He received his BS degree in Marketing from the University of Tennessee in 2000. He will be celebrating 6 years of marriage in July, 2007 with his wife Lori and their first child, Isabella 1yr old. Sessions: Technology Trends - Preparing For The Future
	Debra Brown Debra is President and CEO of Brown Governance. In her capacity as President of Brown Governance, Debra works closely with senior leaders in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Debra is Chair of The American Tract Society, Chair of The Hughes Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee of The Internet Evangelism Coalition. In addition, Debra is a founding member of The Second Life Christian Leaders Association, a coalition of active church and ministry leaders in the virtual reality world known as Second Life, where she is involved in direct online ministry through her Second Life church Hope House. She has authored a variety of nationally and internationally published works on corporate governance. She has planned and facilitated global, national and multi-stakeholder governance conferences and seminars, and spoken on a variety of corporate and personal development issues. Prior to forming Brown Governance, she spent several years in the Canadian financial sector, working most recently as CEO. Debra holds a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Sessions: Evangelism in Second Life
	David Bruce, Hollywood Jesus David Bruce is a member of Gospelcom alliance, Internet Evangelism Coalition and is the Webmaster of Hollywood Jesus which will celebrates 10 years of internet evangelism in 2008. He also serves as a minister at the Christian Church of Ashland (Oregon) and enjoys doing Church from Louie's Bar and Grill. He also heads up The Heritage Outreach Project, a non-profit organization that provides funds for worldwide evangelism. Sessions: Stupid Mistakes I have made Tearing down the walls - building bridges Exciting opportunities within our changing culture
	SEBASTIAN CHAN, International Director, Trans World Radio Asia WILSON CHAN, Chinese Internet Ministry team leader, Trans World Radio Asia Sebastian Chan has been serving in TWR’s ministry for 11 years, and he is now into his 27th year in full-time ministry. In his initial years of service, he was part of the Asia Pacific leadership team group before becoming the International Director responsible for the North East Asia region. With the re-envisioning of TWR-Asia, Sebastian is now the International Director of Asia region where we have ministries, branch offices and/or partners in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Guam, Japan, North Korea, Australia and Singapore. Sebastian also oversees the operations of the Singapore Service Centre which provides ministry support to the Asia region in the areas of Finance & Administration, Human Resource, Broadcast Operations, IT/IS, Media Resources and Marketing Communications. He has many years of experience, both in the field and in providing guidance and support to the various ministry teams in fulfilling Trans World Radio’s vision to reach the world for Christ by mass media so that lasting fruit is produced. Sebastian is married to Susan, and they have 3 teenage daughters, Sheryl, Shermaine and Shereen. A geek with a creative bent, Wilson Chan has been serving in TWR for 16 years, before which he was a software developer, and an electronics engineer. In 1998 he knew hardly anything about the internet. In 2007 he still knows hardly anything about the internet. His claim to fame is starting a mini-story about a dog that has been read 250,000 times. Sessions: Serve and Save - TWR's ministry response to the internet evolution in China
	Steve Dueck, CustomerNation – makers of eBox. Steve Dueck is the Founder and VP of Business Development of CustomerNation – makers of eBox. In addition, Steve holds a B.A. in International Relations-World Trade and Development from the University of California-Davis and a Masters in Divinity from Trinity International University in Chicago. Steve and his wife and four kids reside in San Jose, CA. With eBox, everything important to a person can be organized into their own private-labeled personalized web page at your web site. For each Item put into eBox by you or the people coming to your web site - you're able to (i) connect, (ii) communicate and (iii) grow your online community like never before. On the front-end, people only need a browser to access. For back-end access, an organization's staff only needs authorized logins to populate with content and manage interactions. Each branded eBox blends into the look and feel of the hosting web site and shows only those Items relevant to that organization. However, as a person travels from one branded eBox location to another, they can click out to see an aggregated view of everything in their eBox. This network effect is particularly valuable for unifying complementary parachurch organizations seeking to communicate services into the web sites of local churches. Associations and denominations stand to uniquely benefit from this capability. Jack Smith, founder of Hotmail, and eBox's main investor before the company became profitable in 2005, is the one who coined the term "viral marketing". What Hotmail accomplished with email for consumers, eBox plans to do with web personalization for corporate America…and the Kingdom! eBox coming soon to a site near you. eBox is powered by Community Life, a division of CustomerNation (www.customernation.com) for non-profits. For more information about eBox for non-profits, contact Steve Dueck directly at (408) 356-4450 or send an email to steve@customernation.com. Sessions: eBox: Connect, Communicate and grow your Community!
	John Edmiston John Edmiston first went online in the days of bulletin boards, and in 1991 with a 14.4 K Baud modem and and 386Sx he helped establish Australian Biblenet. When the WWW came along in 1994 he started Eternity Online Magazine and a bunch of other Christian websites. He is now Chairman and CEO of Cybermissions and does online ministry training as well as setting up Internet cafes in unreached people groups. John lectures in Internet Evangelism and Cybermissions at Fuller Theological Seminary, is an Associate with the World Evangelical Alliance Missions Commission and an executive member of the Internet Evangelism Coalition and of course is a proud member of the Gospelcom Alliance. Sessions: Shoe-string start-up The Edges of Cyberspace
	Emmanuel Ali El-Shariff Emmanuel Ali El-Shariff is the director of the Arabic ministry at Family Life Network (FLN) located at Winnipeg, Canada. FLN is a multi cultural Christian media agency broadcast the gospel today in 7 different languages using Radio, TV, Internet, and lives events; now FLN is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Emmanuel is a Christian of a Muslim background, he accepted the Lord since 1995. He received the call to go back to his Muslim people and tell them about Jesus Christ. Emmanuel is passionate about evangelism and follow-up through blending media tools to reach the Muslim people. He is one of the pioneers who used the paltalk to reach the Muslims. He also pioneered planting the first Arabic Church in Kinshasa in 1997. Emmanuel is a strategic visionary person; he established the follow up ministry at FLN 7 years ago named by Evangelism by Correspondence Network. Now www.voiceoftestimony.com is a new vision and strategy to saturate specific region in the Muslim world. His ministry now functioning with a full time ministry team of three team members all of them are MBBs. Emmanuel is a zealous speaker and mobilizer on how to reach the Muslim community locally and worldwide Emmanuel is a Radio and Television producer. He produced radio programs in Kinshasa, Congo RD for two years. He is also a producer of two TV programs with FLN. Now he is a co-host of a new Arabic TV show, Taking off the Mask. Emmanuel has participated in many conferences and seminars with his input on how to reach the Muslim community with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. His remarkable participation at the Anabaptist consultation about Islam at Eastern Mennonite University, which resulted in a book called: Anabaptist Meeting Muslims. Emmanuel is a public speaker, leader, and a teacher Emmanuel is fluent in Arabic, English, and French languages. Emmanuel holds two masters: Master of Arts in Global Christian Studies (Missions) and Master of Divinity. He is a candidate for the doctor of ministry degree at Providence Theological Seminary. Sessions: Blending Media Tools to Reach the Muslim Community: Content and Strategy
	Morgan Foster Morgan has worked at GCI since 2005, where he has supported almost all the applications and services provided by Gospelcom, which means he has probably spoken via phone or email with many of you He's a graduate of Calvin College with degrees in Computer Science and Theatre, and is also a musician in the band Common Shiner. You've also probably seen him as "that guy who always falls or does something weird" in most any Gospelcom promo video. Sessions: The Basics Of Setting Up A Website On Gospelcom
	Cam Hall Cam Hall is the director of multimedia at SouthSide Church in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. In 2002, responding to his church's desire to move to the cutting edge of Internet ministry, Cam worked with volunteers and local web developers to create SouthSideLife.com. The result was a seeker-friendly, evangelistic church website. Cam currently oversees a team of volunteers dedicated to keeping the site updated and current. An unbeliever until the age of 20, Cam brings a passion for reaching people for Christ, and it is reflected in the work that he does. Sessions: Reaching Your Community (With Brent Purves)
	Paul Kulp, Ph.D Paul is partner and CIO of Web Services Group. He been active in online ministry and the Gospelcom alliance since 1996. He currently serves as consultant to several ministries for application development, content management, data integration, ecommerce and project management. His technical background and mission focus bring a unique perspective to web ministry. He has a passion to help ministries to reap the benefits of well-implemented technology. Paul has a PhD in Computer Engineering with a focus on Software Engineering. He has 2 girls (Rowan, age 5 and Levity, age 1) and is expecting a third arrival/release in Feb 08. In his spare time, he collects and delivers computing equipment for mission efforts in Nigeria and elsewhere. Most of the time he'd rather be out playing volleyball. Sessions: Leading Communities
	Jonathan Laughlin Jonathan was born in Boston, grew up in Pittsburgh, and has lived in Grand Rapids, MI for the past sixteen years. As such, he roots for the Red Sox, the Steelers, and the Pistons. He's worked at GCI since 2000 in the areas of epages/InterShop support and development and recently took on the role of Gospelcom.net Support Team Leader. Away from work, Jonathan and his wife Rachel are raising three children, one cat and one dog. Since 2001, he's been a member of the Grand Rapids-based Irish rock band Craic Wisely. Sessions: JavaScript Demystified - The basics and then some
	Rod Martin, NavigateTomorrow.com Rod Martin has been involved with Gospelcom from the early days working with the Professional Association of Christian Educators, Muskoka Baptist Conference, and most recently, Answers in Genesis. He holds two Masters degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary and has worked with IT and the Web for over 15 years, both in church and para-church ministries, and in his own consulting company. Rod is married to Teresa and together they have 2 teenagers (hence the greying hair... what's left of it...) He brings a "bird's eye view" of open source CMS's to this years conference. Sessions: Open Source CMS from Blogs to Bodacious Open Source CMS - WordPress: The Blogger's Friend Open Source CMS - Joomla is Jammin' Open Source CMS - Drupal: Dare to Compare
	RICHARD MARING, TRIBINIUM CORPORATION In an entrepreneurial career that has spanned over 30 years Richard Maring has been the inventor and driving force behind a number of new advances in imaging technology. He was granted a US Patent in 1986 for his ground breaking designs in the computer imaging field and in 1995 developed a document imaging system that became the basis of Eastman Kodak’s entrance into the Land Records Imaging field. During the mid 90’s he got his start in ministry while making two outreach trips to the Ukraine. In 1998, along with his wife Diane, he started a Christian food ministry in South Texas resulting in the sharing of the Gospel and over a million pounds of food with over 56,000 people along the Mexican border. Recently he founded two separate ISP’s, one regional and the other national, which gave him a firsthand look at the underbelly of the Internet and insight into its darker side. After seeing the exponential growth of pornography on the Internet and the technical inability of 'Content Filtering' technology to protect children and families from exposure to online porn, he decided to pursue the design and creation of new technology to effectively combat this problem. In 2004 Richard became the founder and CEO of Tribinium Corporation, a software development company dedicated to “Protecting Innocence Online”. In the spring of 2006 he filed patents on a new image technology called “Content Cloaking” which will finally give parents complete control over the Internet content viewed by their family. This radically new technology will be commercially available this fall at www.SeeNoEvilOnline.com . Over the past 2 years Richard has become known as a leading authority on Internet pornography and the technologies associated with it. Being involved in various outreach ministries since 1991 and with three decades of innovative technical expertise to draw from he has become an outspoken leader in the fight for the innocence of children and families online. He has also become an advocate of increased awareness and action by Christian ministries in proactively protecting their staff and increasing overall outreach to individuals affected by online porn. Sessions: Porn, The Internet, and Ministry
	Brian Atkinson, Gospel Communications Brian is the Manager of Alliance Development at Gospel Communications International where he exercises his skill of cat herding. Brian is responsible for maintaining the relationships between Gospel Communications International and a community of 300 Christian organizations committed to making an impact for Christ online. For the last fifteen years Brian has worked to bring people and technology together. Before that Brian was a Radio Personality for 12 years, Welder, and Ice Cream Man. Brian has served as a creative force for creating multi-sensory worship in his local church, and in his spare time plays fetch with his dog Walter. Sessions: Context and Community Extreme Makeover - Web Site Edition
	Brent Purves, Stir Communications Group Brent is a partner in Stir Communications Group, an internet marketing and strategic consulting agency. A pioneer in internet marketing since 1997, Brent oversees a network of companies under the umbrella of Stirgroup.com including Rechurch.com, Viralbuzz.com and Stirsite.com. Brent served as Director of Internet Marketing for Campus Crusade for Christ Canada's internet ministry, working on the strategic development and marketing of dozens of evangelism and discipleship websites. Brent loves to hike in the mountains near Vancouver Canada and is presently growing a hiking outreach group and accompanying website at HikeChilliwack.com. Sessions: Reaching Your Community (With Cam Hall) Internet Marketing Strategies for Ministry (With Sharon Simpson)
	Robby Richardson, Gospel Communications Robby is the Director of Internet Ministries at Gospel Communications International. Before coming to GCI in 1995, Robby served as a youth pastor, conference center director and pastor, mostly in his native South Carolina. Robby also serves on the Executive Committee of the Internet Evangelism Committee and helped found the Internet Committee of the National Religious Broadcasters organization. Robby and his wife, Karen, have three grown children. In addition to his various ministry involvement, Robby still tries to play church softball and a game that has at least a vague resemblance to golf.
	Alan Ritari, Agathon Group Alan Ritari has been a part of the Gospel Communications community since its birth, when he was part of the web team for charter alliance member InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Soon after he joined the Gospelcom.net staff as their Senior Developer where he was instrumental in growing Gospelcom.net from infancy to the largest Christian destination on the web. He now uses those same skills in software/database architecture to help organizations of all sizes grow and flourish. Alan heads Agathon Group, along with Peter Green and Joel Boonstra. Sessions: Herding Cats: Getting Results From a Virtual Team When to hire a contractor
	Kent Shaffer, Bombay Creative Kent Shaffer is the founder of ChurchRelevance.com, an online resource created to inspire and train ministers to be more relevant and effective. He also co-owns Bombay Creative, a ministry-oriented design and marketing firm. Sessions: Communicating Without Words Creating a Relevant Ministry Design is Credibility
	Karen Schenk, Director of TruthMedia Internet Group TruthMedia Internet Group, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada uses technology to build communities of evangelism and discipleship in three main avenues - websites, chat rooms and online mentoring. Karen gives leadership to a network of more than 40 sites in 12 languages, a growing staff team and truly global corps of volunteers. TruthMedia receives requests from all over the globe to come and share their expertise in in-depth online ministry.
	Sharon Simpson, stirgroup.com Sharon is a partner in Stir Communications Group, an internet marketing and strategic consulting agency. Her hands-on experience as a web-designer, site architect, ezine editor and usability director laid the groundwork for her ability to synthesize complex situations, apply expertise and deliver defined pathways to successful internet presence. What distinguishes Sharon is her combination of online skills and practical ministry experience. For 20 years, she has been in ministry, currently as a lead pastor's wife. She has four children and loves to compete with her dragonboat team. Sharon and Stir have worked on projects for Alpha Asia-Pacific, Alpha Canada, Holiday Trails Resorts, Subleaser.com and others. Sessions: Internet Marketing Strategies for Ministry (With Brent Purves)
	John Sorensen Executive Vice President of Evangelism Explosion (EE), Rev. John B. Sorensen came to the Lord through someone trained in EE and has been active in EE since 1991, clinic trained in 1995. John first served EE as Director for Ministry Advancement before being elected as Executive Vice President in 2004. John earned a Masters in Arts in Evangelism from Knox Theological Seminary. John is married with four children. Sessions: Effective Models for Evangelistic Testimonies
	Rich Tatum Rich Tatum has been working with Internet and Web technology for over 15 years. While the Web was still young and populated by gophers and telnetters, he founded an Internet users group, served as the first webmaster for the Assemblies of God headquarters, and later served as webmaster, Internet operations manager, and online media managing editor for Christianity Today International. He currently freelances, writes Pentecostal commentary as the BlogRodent, and parents two great kids as either "Daddy" or "Mr. Pretzel-Man" with his lovely bride in an obscure Chicago suburb. Sessions: Influenza Blogging: Become a viral blogger by getting influential and relational Integrity on sthe Internet
	Brian Tol Brian produces web sites at Gospel Communications as their Manager of Property Development, overseeing web sites like Gospel.com, BibleGateway.com, and ThinkChristian. A graduate of Calvin College, Brian holds a computer science degree and spent 4 years working at an advertising firm. When not balancing brands and code, Brian can be found spending time with is beautiful wife Amy and their 1 1/2 year old son Noah. Sessions: Gospel.com Hits, Pageviews, and Other Lies Web Tools To Grow Your Ministry
	James Watkins James Watkins is a man of many hats: author, editor, speaker, online instructor at Taylor University Fort Wayne, and threat to society at www.jameswatkins.com Sessions: How To Hook Today's Online Users
	Chad Williams, 5Q Communications Chad has been involved in with the Internet since 1995. His passion is to deliver results. Chad cut his teeth growing a Web ministry from a few visitors each month to millions of page views and significant revenue to the ministry. When he's not helping clients, you might find him rolling on the floor with his six kids, reading and pondering the Word, or cheering the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Sessions: 5 Questions that will Change your Web Site
	Jonathan Wilson Jonathan Wilson, Alliance Development team member at Gospelcom.net, provides direct support to alliance members by helping members effectively utilize the various enterprise applications and web tools and services provided by Gospelcom.net. Over the past 10 years Jonathan has used his skills in the building of dynamic web sites. Jonathan and his lovely wife Kelley lives are enriched daily by their three-year-old son Javen and their baby daughter Kendall.