Richard B. Wilke (1930-2025) was a retired United Methodist bishop and co-author of the popular DISCIPLE Bible Study series. Bishop Wilke served the United Methodist Church for more than forty years. More recently, he served as the Bishop in Residence at Southwestern College. Bishop Wilke and his wife, Julia K. Wilke (1932-2016), established the Foundation for the Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern. Widely known as a speaker and preacher, Bishop Wilke often served as conference preacher and keynote speaker at regional and national meetings. Other books by Bishop Wilke include:
And Are We Yet Alive?, Signs and Wonders, Tell Me Again, I'm Listening, Our Father, and
The Pastor and Marriage Group Counseling.
Susan Wilke Fuquay is a United Methodist Christian Educator who most recently worked at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more than 25 years, Susan has been directly involved with Disciple Bible Study. She co-edited the youth version of Disciple. She was a Disciple trainer at National Training Events for many years and has personally facilitated more than 30 Disciple groups. In the past two years, Susan has personally led more than 200 people through the Fast Track Model.
Elaine Friedrich, a theoretical practitioner, has years of professional and academic experience in education, organizational management, and leadership development in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Elaine is a consummate teacher, with a contagious enthusiasm and love for lifelong learning, and She holds a doctorate in Higher Education from the University of North Texas in Denton and is currently the Director of Digital Discipleship and Faith Formation at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta, Georgia. Prior to this, she worked 13 years at Strayer University as faculty, dean, vice president and senior vice provost.
