In addition to being an author, Tim is a professor of communication at Biola University in La Mirada, California where he teaches classes in family communication, interpersonal communication, apologetics, gender, and conflict resolution.  He completed a Ph.D. in communication theory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2003) where his dissertation focused on helping couples move past marital gridlock—difficult issues in marriage that won’t go away despite time and effort—by working through an original four-phase communication model.  For over 30 years he served with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) in the campus ministry, short-term missions (Kenya, Russia, Lithuania), and with Keynote as a trainer for The Comm Lab—a center that trains Cru staff, pastors, and lay people in evangelistic speaking and apologetics.   For the past 20 years Tim and his wife, Noreen, have been frequent speakers at FamilyLife Marriage Conferences.  Currently, Tim is on staff with Biola’s Center for Marriage and Relationships (cmr.biola.edu) where he is an author, speaker, and co-host of The Art of Relationship podcast.  Tim and Noreen live in Brea, California with their three sons, Michael, Jason, and Jeremy.

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Eyes to See

Bobby Gross is Vice-President of Graduate and Faculty Ministries for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). Bobby serves on the national board of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, Bobby was a national field director for IVCF, served as an InterVarsity chaplain at the University of Florida, launched campus ministry in South Florida, and was the regional director for New York/New Jersey. Bobby is the author of Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God. He has also contributed chapters to three other books, including Faith on the Edge (InterVarsity Press) and Signs of Hope in the City (Judson).

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Blog Posts On Advent:

Richard Stearns is president emeritus of World Vision US, where he served as president for twenty years, traveling more than three million miles as an advocate for the world's poor. Before leading the Christian relief and development organization, he was a corporate CEO at both Parker Brothers and Lenox. His bestselling book The Hole in Our Gospel was named the 2010 Christian Book of the Year. He also wrote Unfinished, as well as two books with his wife, Reneé—a children's Bible storybook, God's Love For You, and a 90-day devotional, He Walks Among Us.

Through his work with World Vision and beyond, Stearns has served as a prophetic voice, calling on the American church to respond to the AIDS pandemic in the early 2000s and later raising awareness of the global refugee crisis and global poverty. As a thought leader, he has appeared regularly in media outlets such as Christianity Today, FOX News, CNN, NPR, Charisma News, and Relevant magazine. Among the honors Stearns received for his humanitarian service are five honorary doctoral degrees, the Julia Vadala Taft Outstanding Leadership Award from InterAction, and the Christian Leadership Alliance's highest honor.

Stearns holds a BA in neurobiology from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Reneé, have five adult children and six grandchildren, and live in Bellevue, Washington.

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Lamar Hardwick (DMin, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary), also known as "the autism pastor," is the lead pastor at Tri-Cities Church in East Point, Georgia. He is the author of Epic Church and the best-selling I Am Strong: The Life and Journey of an Autistic Pastor.

In 2014, after years of silently struggling with social anxiety and sensory processing disorder, and a host of other significant issues, Hardwick was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of thirty-six. He now provides workshops, seminars, and consults with local churches and faith-based organizations on creating environments for people with autism. He also provides mentoring services for teens and young adults on the autism spectrum. His writing has been published by various autism and disability websites such as The Mighty, The Huffington Post, Key Ministry, and The Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

He lives in Newnan, Georgia, with his wife, Isabella, and their three children.

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Suzanne Stabile is a highly sought-after speaker, teacher, and internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher who has taught thousands of people over the last thirty years. She is the author of The Path Between Us, and coauthor, with Ian Morgan Cron, of The Road Back to You. She is also the creator and host of The Enneagram Journey podcast.

Along with her husband, Rev. Joseph Stabile, she is co-founder of Life in the Trinity Ministry, a nonprofit, nondenominational ministry committed to the spiritual growth and formation of adults. Their ministry home, the Micah Center, is located in Dallas, Texas. They have many audio resources available, including The Enneagram Journey curriculum.

Suzanne has spoken at hundreds of colleges, churches, and conferences across America, and also teaches in the Baylor Health Care System. She has taught at Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation and has taught with Father Rohr to an international audience in Assisi, Italy.

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Dr. Heather Thompson Day is an interdenominational speaker and has been a contributor for Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Newsweek and the Barna Group. She is also the host of Viral Jesus, a podcast with Christianity Today.

Heather is an Associate Professor of Communication at Andrews University. She is passionate about supporting women, and runs an online community called I’m That Wife which has over 200k followers.

Heather’s writing has been featured on outlets like the Today Show, and the National Communication Association. She has been interviewed by BBC Radio Live and has been featured in Forbes.

She believes her calling is to stand in the gaps of our churches for young people. She is the author of 7 books; including It’s Not Your Turn, and Confessions of a Christian Wife.

She resides in Michigan, with her husband, Seth Day, and their three children, London, Hudson, and Sawyer Day.

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Resources 

It's Not Your Turn

Jeffrey Bilbro (PhD, Baylor University) is the editor-in-chief of Front Porch Republic and associate professor of English at Grove City College. He is also the author of Loving God's Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature and Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry's Sustainable Forms, and coauthor (with Jack Baker) of Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place.

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Reading the Times

John H. Walton (PhD, Hebrew Union College) is professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School. Previously he was professor of Old Testament at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for twenty years.

Some of Walton's books include The Lost World of Adam and Eve, The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of Genesis One, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, The Essential Bible Companion, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis, and The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (with Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas).

Walton's ministry experience includes church classes for all age groups, high school Bible studies, and adult Sunday school classes, as well as serving as a teacher for "The Bible in 90 Days." John and his wife, Kim, live in Wheaton, Illinois, and have three adult children.

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Resources: 

The Bible Story Handbook

The Lost World of Genesis One

Ashley Hales (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is a writer, speaker, and host of the Finding Holy podcast. She is the author of Finding Holy in the Suburbs and her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, Books & Culture, and The Gospel Coalition. Ashley is married to a pastor and the mother to four children.

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Helpful Links:

A Spacious Life

Finding Holy in the Suburbs

https://aahales.com/

Os Guinness (DPhil, Oxford) is the author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Dust of Death, The Call, Fool's Talk, Carpe Diem Redeemed, The Magna Carta of Humanity, Last Call for Liberty, Impossible People, Unspeakable, and Time for Truth. A frequent speaker and prominent social critic, he has addressed audiences worldwide from the British House of Commons to the U.S. Congress to the St. Petersburg Parliament. He is a senior fellow at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and was the founder of the Trinity Forum.

Born in China to missionary parents, he is the great-great-great-grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer. After witnessing the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to England where he was educated and served as a freelance reporter with the BBC. Since coming to the U.S. in 1984, he has been a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was the lead drafter of the Williamsburg Charter, celebrating the First Amendment, and has also been senior fellow at the EastWest Institute in New York, where he drafted the Charter for Religious Freedom. He also co-authored the public school curriculum Living With Our Deepest Differences.

Guinness has had a lifelong passion to make sense of our extraordinary modern world and to stand between the worlds of scholarship and ordinary life, helping each to understand the other—particularly when advanced modern life touches on the profound issues of faith. He lives with his wife, Jenny, in McLean, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.

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The Magna Carta of Humanity

http://www.osguinness.com/