Presenters and Topics

Eric Adams is the leader of the Knowledge Stewardship team. Eric and his wife Laura pioneered an effort to communicate the Gospel and establish faith communities among a Muslim unreached people group (MUPG) in South Asia. Eric and Laura have served in field oversight and field training development in the Field Office of their agency. Five years ago, Eric was asked to start the Knowledge Stewardship ministries to serve the field practitioner community called to work among MUPGs and develop reflective practices within the community of established and emerging missional efforts that support these practitioners. Topic: Fruitfulness: Learning from Watching what the Father is Doing

Don Allen leads the Fruitful Practices Research Group, a team of researchers engaged in the Muslim world. The Research Group serves a partnership of over 22 international agencies representing over 7,000 members who are focused on establishing communities of Jesus-followers among Muslims. He counts it a privilege to discover how God draws unreached peoples to Himself (Rev. 7:9). Allen also served for 15 years as Director of Training for a sending agency. He is married with two children and four precocious grandchildren. Topic: Discerning Fruitful Practices among Muslims: A Case Study.

Rick Brown is a Bible scholar and missiologist. He has been involved in outreach in Africa and Asia since 1977. He is a consulting editor with the International Journal of Frontier Missiology and a member of the Fruitful Practices Task Force. Topic: Speaking the Truth in Love: Contextualization without Syncretism.

John Constantine is a native of Lebanon and has lived in the U.S. since 1970. He has worked as academic dean of a Bible college, taught undergraduate & graduate Arabic, biology, counseling, technology, NT Greek and served on church staff in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio. Since 1993, John has served as pastor of an Arabic congregation in Alabama. During the past 20 years he has been speaking at Arabic conferences in North America and several Middle Eastern countries on the subjects of person and work of the Holy Spirit, prayer, church leadership, discipleship, and the collective incarnational church membership that is well-nurtured to become a birthing church. He has also spoken at MBB conferences, topics including the missional character of leaders that leads to living as intentional followers of Jesus Christ, transparency in team ministry, and accountability in the circle of Christ’s Body. In overseas travels, John interacts with national church leaders to help them consider that being "the church" must be their goal. Topic: Being Imitators and Servants of Christ: An Ongoing Call that Challenges Us to Remain Transformed, Disciplined, Incarnational, and Missional.

Gilles Gravelle is the Director of Research and Field Project Development for The Seed Company. His work focuses on assisting partner organizations to develop well-designed Bible translation projects that will achieve their desired outcomes and impact. He also researches, writes and consults on project development, project funding and on missiological trends in mission in relation to the task of Bible translation. He has served with The Seed Company since 2003. Previously, he and his wife Gloria served as linguists and Bible translators with SIL in Indonesia from 1983-2001. Gilles earned his PhD in Linguistics from Free University, Amsterdam. He bases out of his home in the Seattle area. Topic: The Changing Role of Cross-cultural workers in Bible Translation.

Malcolm Hunter describes himself as a Kingdom Engineer, a missionary in Africa since 1963 with his wife Jean, a nurse. They are both from the UK where he founded the Nomadic Peoples Network in 1991 whilst working on a PhD in Oxford entitled “Appropriate Development for Nomadic Pastoralists. In 2000 he was invited by Dr Winter to establish the Institute for Nomadic Studies at the US Center for World Mission from where he continues to advocate for those who are unreached primarily because they are nomads or semi-nomadic. He also teaches many perspectives Classes around the US. Topic: Let's get serious about unreached people.

Robert Priest is professor of mission and intercultural studies and director of the Doctor of Philosophy in Intercultural Studies Program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Dr. Priest earned the Bachelor of Arts at Columbia Bible College, the Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the Master of Arts in social science from the University of Chicago and the Doctor of Philosophy in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Born to career missionaries, he was raised in Bolivia and eventually returned to South America, conducting nearly two years of anthropological field research among the Aguaruna of Peru. Recent publications include This side of heaven: Race, ethnicity and Christian Faith (Oxford, 2007), coedited with Alvaro Nieves and Effective Engagement in Short-Term Missions: Doing it Right (WCL 2008). Topic: Frontier Missions and the Short-Term Missions Movement: How to bring the two together constructively.

H. L. Richard was involved in grass roots Christian ministry in India for ten years before devoting another ten years to study of Hinduism and Christian work among Hindus. As a result of his studies he published "A Survey of Protestant Christian Evangelistic Efforts among High Caste Hindus in the Twentieth Century" (Missiology 25:4, Oct. 1997), Following Jesus in the Hindu Context: The Intriguing Implications of N. V. Tilak's Life and Thought (William Carey Library, 1998), R. C. Das: Evangelical Prophet for Contextual Christianity (ISPCK, 1995), Exploring the Depths of the Mystery of Christ: K. Subba Rao's Eclectic Praxis of Hindu Discipleship to Jesus (Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2005) and Hinduism: A Brief Look at Theology, History, Scriptures and Social System with Comments on the Gospel in India (William Carey Library, 2007) as well as other articles in the IJFM, Missiology, the Evangelical Missions Quarterly, the Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, etc. He is one of the founders of the Rethinking Forum and HiS Friends (Hindu Student Friendship Network), and is a consulting editor for the International Journal of Frontier Missiology.
Workshop leader: Insider Movements: Probing for Clarity within Diversity
Respondent to Parimal Roy

John Ridgway is a native of Australia and has a PhD in Physics (1970), studying Semiconductor Surfaces. He has worked with the Navigators since 1971. In 1973-74, he was responsible for the Nav work at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Subsequently, John spent nearly 20 years in India, teaching at the India Institute of Science, doing industrial consulting for multinational engineering/tech companies, and opening up India for a multinational team of people associated with the Navigators. Then John and his family lived in Singapore for two years and in Malaysia for 7 years leading the Frontier Ministries of Asia. Today John and Ruth have 2 adult children and live in Denver, Colorado. John acts as a coach for frontier ministries in the Navigator work both in the USA and globally, giving particular attention to India, China, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Parimal Roy is currently a doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary. He also provides pastoral leadership at the Church of India, Alhambra. He was an associate professor at Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur in India. He was also involved with evangelism among students as well as in grass-root social organizations. His interest in conversion has led to his study of Manilal Parekh and Christian Proselytism in India. His research includes A Bibliography of Original Christian Writings in India in Gujarati (Bangalore, SSC, 1991), as well as articles in the Global Dictionary of Theology, Dictionary of South Asian Christianity, and other popular periodicals.
Topic: Manilal C. Parekh and Christian Proselytism in India: Conversion from upper caste Hinduism to Christianity and issues for pastoral care

Steve Saint grew up in Ecuador in close community with the Waodani people. His father, Nate Saint, was one of five missionaries martyred in 1956 in an attempt to befriend the Waodani. After graduating from Wheaton College, Steve launched several successful businesses. He has also been a missionary in West Africa, Central America, and South America. At the request of the Waodani elders, he returned to the Amazon in 1995 along with his family. Living among the Waodani, he came to understand their dependency on missionaries and agencies, which had resulted in a loss of pride and ingenuity among the indigenous believers. His experiences living in the jungle led him to establish I-TEC (Indigenous Peoples Technology and Education Center), a nonprofit organization that assists the "hidden church" in its journey toward independence, self-sustainability, and maturity, helping indigenous God-followers fulfill their role in the Great Commission. Steve has authored three books: The Great Omission, Walking His Trail, and End of the Spear.
Topic: Missions Dilemma: Is There a Better Way to Do Missions?

Leon Torkko is a consultant with the Knowledge Stewardship team. He has extensive experience helping teams of people collaborate and share knowledge and is a coach in practical process improvement. He has served for over 12 years with Millennium Relief and Development and did field work with teams in Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia. He has also authored three books in the area of software development and process improvement. Topic: Reflective Practice.