Dr. John Buchanan - Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois, and Editor/Publisher of the Christian Century.
"Is there a future for pastoral ministry in a Post-Modern, Post-Denominational, Post-Christian Society? Being Relevant, Engaging and Alive"

John M. Buchanan, recently retired pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois, is the Editor and Publisher of the Christian Century. Prior to coming to Chicago in 1985, Buchanan pastored Presbyterian churches in Columbus, Ohio; Lafayette, Indiana; and Dyer, Indiana. He served as moderator of the 208th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and as a member of its General Assembly Council from 1996 through 1999. He is the author of A New Church for a New World, Being Church, Becoming Community, and Sermons for the City. He holds an A.B. in government from Franklin and Marshall College and an M.Div. from the University of Chicago Divinity School/Chicago Theological Seminary. He has received honorary degress from a number of colleges and seminaries.

Dr. Clyde Edgerton - Novelist & Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington
"Experience, Observation and Imagination in Stories"

Clyde Edgerton is the author of ten novels, a memoir, and numerous short stories, and essays. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books. The Bible Salesman, his ninth novel, was published by Little, Brown in 2008. Three of his novels have been made into movies: Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and Killer Diller. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and teaches creative writing at UNC Wilmington.

Dr. Beverly Gaventa - Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary and Extraordinary Professor of New Testament at Stellenbosch University.
"Paul and Springsteen as Apostles of Apocalypse"

Beverly Roberts Gaventa is Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary and Extraordinary Professor of New Testament at Stellenbosch University. Dr. Gaventa has written Our Mother Saint Paul (Westminster John Knox, 2007), The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon, 2003), I and II Thessalonians (Westminster John Know, 1998), Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus (University of South Carolina, 1995; Fortress, 1999), and From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament (Fortress, 1986).  

Dr. Martin Marty - Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School
"Distinctively Pastoral Approaches to Cultural Change"

Martin Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he taught for 35 years and where the Martin Marty Center has since been founded to promote "public religion" endeavors. He writes the "M.E.M.O" column for the biweeklyChristian Century, on whose staff he has served since 1956. He is also the editor of the fortnightly Context, since 1969, and authors the Marty Center's weekly e-mail column.