PAT CIMO has led a dynamic children's ministry and coached children ministry leaders domestically and internationally for nearly twenty-nine years. She is currently the director of Marriage and Family Life at Willow Creek Community Church in the suburbs of Chicago, and for many years this included direct leadership and oversight with Willow's Children's Ministry. She has a deep passion to own the game she most wants to win: influencing and developing champions of faith. Pat and her husband Dave live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago near their two married children and four grandchildren.
MATT MARKINS serves as the President and CEO of Awana, a global leader in child discipleship. As a researcher in child discipleship and children’s ministry, Matt has commissioned eleven research projects since 2013, including a study conducted by Barna Group called Children’s Ministry in a New Reality. He’s a board member at large for the National Association of Evangelicals and is the author or coauthor of four books, most notably The Faith of Our Children: Eight Timely Research Insights for Discipling the Next Generation and RESILIENT: Child Discipleship and the Fearless Future of the Church. He’s also the cofounder of the Child Discipleship Forum and D6 Conference. Matt and his wife, Katie, have been involved in children’s ministry for more than 25 years and spend their time in Nashville with their two sons. For more information go to www.ChildDiscipleship.com and www.Awana.org.
ED STETZER holds two masters degrees and two doctorates and is currently the Director of Lifeway Research and Lifeway's Missiologist in Residence. He previously directed the Nehemiah Project of the North American Mission Board. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents and has planted churches in New York and Pennsylvania. He also served as a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his second doctorate, as well as at 10 other seminaries. He is the author of a number of books including Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age and co-author of Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church. Stetzer lives in Cumming, Georgia, with his wife, Donna, and two daughters.
