PRESENTERS

JOY MOORE
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL TEACHING

Joy J. Moore is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church (UMC) and received her Ph.D. from the Brunel University London School of Theology. Moore came to Luther Seminary in 2019 as an Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching. Previously, she served Fuller Theological Seminary, providing the vision to establish the William E. Pannell Center for African-American Church Studies. She also worked at Duke University Divinity School, Asbury Theological Seminary and Adrian College. She held pastorates in the Michigan area of the UMC. Moore contributed a chapter to Andrew C. Thompson’s “Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for the United Methodist Church” as well as to the books, “Essential Truths” and “Unity, Liberty, and Charity.” She also wrote for Sojourners magazine, Christian Century, WorkingPreacher.org and Good News magazine. She belongs to a number of organizations, including the Academy of Homiletics, the Society for Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion. She also serves on the board of directors for ZOE Ministries.

TISH HARRISON WARREN
PASTOR AND AUTHOR

Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, which was Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year, and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep. She has worked in ministry settings for over a decade as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, and with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations. Currently, she is Writer in Residence at Resurrection South Austin. She is a monthly columnist with Christianity Today, and her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives with her husband and three children in the Austin, Texas area.

CONSTANCE CHERRY
PASTOR AND PROFESSOR

Rev. Dr. Constance Cherry is an experienced professor, worship leader, musician, and pastor, having served in local church ministry and academic teaching positions for more than forty-five years (and counting!) Today Constance is Professor Emeritus of Christian Worship at Indiana Wesleyan University where for sixteen years she directed four unique programs in worship. She was named Affiliate Faculty for Wesley Seminary (IWU) in 2020. Since 2000 she has served as a founding faculty member of The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, traveling twice yearly to teach in the doctoral program of IWS. In addition, Constance is on the faculty of Sarang Global Academy (Seoul, Korea). She is the author of The Worship Architect (2021) and Worship Like Jesus: A Guide for Every Follower (2019).

WENDELL KIMBROUGH
SONGWRITER

Wendell Kimbrough is a songwriter reimagining the Psalms for emotionally honest modern worship. His songs are marked by strong singable melodies, steeped in the sounds of folk, gospel, and soul music. Wendell serves as artist-in-residence and worship leader at Church of the Apostles in Fairhope, Alabama.    Wendell’s 2018 release, Come to Me, gathers together psalms of lament, cries for justice, and shouts of deliverance. “It’s the soundtrack I needed in 2017, a year in which I found myself leading people in worship after terror attacks, white supremacist rallies, and church shootings,” Wendell says. “The Psalms invite us to be honest with God about the crazy highs and lows we experience. ‘Come to me,’ Jesus says, ‘bring your burdens, bring your heaviness.’” And with this new record, Wendell invites listeners to do just that - sing out to the God who cares about their whole lives, the beautiful and the broken parts.   Wendell was a 2017 Hearn Innovator in Christian Music at Baylor University, a guest performer and speaker at Calvin College, Covenant Seminary, and dozens of churches across the country. His music has been featured in Worship Leader Magazine and World Magazine; and Under the Radar Media selected his 2016 album, Psalms We Sing Together, as an honorable mention for top albums of the year.

Listen to our conversation with Wendell Kimbrough here.

MATHIEU GNONHOSSOU PROFESSOR, SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

Dr. Gnonhossou (who goes by either Sègbégnon or Mathieu) comes to Seattle Pacific from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, where he was adjunct professor of African/African-American Studies. He received his PhD in Public Theology from The University of Manchester in England and his DMin from Asbury Theological Seminary. He has an upcoming publication, “Conversion as an Act of Reclamation: John and Charles Wesley’s Interactions with Two Enslaved West Africans,” and is an organizing pastor of All Nations United Methodist Church-African Ministries. Dr. Gnonhossou is fluent in the African languages of Goungbe, Fongbe, and Torigbe, as well as French and English. He says, “I see teaching primarily as an invitation to a relationship of discovery, reconsideration, deconstruction and reconstruction with an ultimate goal to add life-giving values to human existence.”

SHANNON SIGLER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF BREHM CASCADIA, VISUAL ARTIST

Shannon Sigler is the Executive Director of Fuller Seminary’s Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and The Arts. A visual artist and theologian with a passion for pastoring artists and building bridges between art and church communities. She studied at Asbury Theological Seminary, Boston University, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Manchester.

CHRISTINE PARTON BURKETT
LECTURING FELLOW, DUKE DIVINITY SCHOOL

Christine Parton Burkett has served as the lecturing fellow in speech at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., since 1991.  In this role, she has worked with seminary students across Christian traditions to encourage their strengths and identify areas for growth, focusing especially –but not exclusively – on excellence in full-bodied delivery. She has been a featured presenter at more than one hundred retreats, workshops and conferences for clergy around the United States and in Canada, and she regularly coaches clergy and lay worship leaders of all ages using tools that she has created including reader’s theater, choric readings, and biblical story-telling. Her writing on preaching, scripture reading, and other forms of public proclamation has been featured in publications such as Faith & Leadership and “The Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching” (1994). She has degrees in theater and speech language pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

LO ALAMAN
COMMUNITY LIFE DIRECTOR, THE WOODLANDS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Lo Alaman is an artist, author, and speaker from Columbia Mississippi. As a minister and creative, he seeks to encourage listeners to accept the grace the invites them to be who they are, while inspiring them  with the grace that invites them to be who God calls them to be. Lo currently serves as a minister at Harvest TWUMC. Easily his coolest distinctions are being Erika’s husband and Emmy’s dad.

RACHEL WILHELM
MINISTER OF MUSIC

Rachel Wilhelm is Minister of Music and Worship Arts and a singer-songwriter in Knoxville, TN at Apostles Anglican Church. She is also United States Team Leader for an ACNA ministry called United Adoration where she leads songwriting and worship arts retreats for local churches and their artists. She co-founded Roots Worship Collective of Minneapolis during her time there, leading hymn sing events to promote Church unity. Her first full-length record, Songs of Lament was released in 2017, and in March of 2016 she released her re-tuned hymn EP, A Kindling Glance. She released two singles in 2020, Speak to Us and How Long. New album, Requiem, released March 16, 2021.

EMILY VERMILYA
PROFESSOR, INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

Emily Vermilya, D.W.S,  serves as Professor of Christian Worship at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN. Having served in local church ministry for
over 20 years, Emily is excited about training and equipping the next generation of servant-leadership for the church. She lives in Marion, IN, with her husband Jim and two children.

STEPHEN PROCTOR
VISUAL ARTIST
Stephen Proctor is a visual artist who specializes in curating immersive experiences with projection. His work has mostly been expressed in Christian settings over the past two decades and has worked with names like Gungor/The Liturgists, The Brilliance, Makoto Fujimura, Ann Voskamp, & Beth Moore. No matter the setting or the theological context, Stephen’s passion is to illuminate imaginative spaces that awaken a sense of awe & wonder in everyone, no matter their beliefs.

In recent years, Stephen has shifted his art-form to include landscape cinematography that he films with drones. Bringing an aerial perspective into his live experiences has become an aesthetic that marks his work in a unique way, especially as the beauty of Creation is such a powerful expression of the way of Christ.

Stephen lives in the Columbia River Gorge, just outside of Portland, & is a member of All Souls Anglican Church, where zero technology or production is used, other than a few microphones; this provides a much-needed balance & welcomed contrast to Stephen’s art & work, which heavily relies on technology.

STEPHEN MICHAEL NEWBY
PROFESSOR OF MUSIC, DIRECTOR OF COMPOSITION AND THE CENTER FOR WORSHIP, COMPOSER

Stephen Newby is a Professor of Music, Director of Composition and the Director of the Center for Worship at Seattle Pacific University. A composer, conductor, gospel/jazz vocalist, and pianist, he is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and received his Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Music Education and Flute Performance from Madonna College in Livonia, Michigan. He received a Master of Music in Jazz Composition and Arranging from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition degree at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Listen to our conversation with Stephen Newby here.

ANNA PETRIN
PROFESSOR, WESLEY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Anna Adams Petrin holds a PhD in Theology (Liturgical Studies) from the University of Notre Dame and is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. She is a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary and is a scholar who specializes in the history and practice of Christian worship. Rev. Dr. Petrin’s research and teaching interests include liturgical studies (liturgical history and sacramental theology), spirituality, and ecumenism. Her research especially focuses on the early liturgy of the church and how it can help us better understand the liturgies we celebrate today.

In addition to teaching courses in worship, she serves as Chapel Elder, a role focused on nourishing the seminary community through regular gatherings of prayer and praise.

PHIL FERRELL, MINISTER OF MUSIC

A psalmist in the true sense of the word, Phillip Ferrell II has been making music for most of his life.  Displaying inherent musical abilities as early as age 4, Phillip received grassroots training through his family's church affiliation, where his father functioned as soloist & choir director. He later became a minister and finally a pastor. 

As a participant in several choirs and ensembles, Phillip continued to perfect his singing and songwriting talents throughout adolescence. He began professional training at the age of 14, first studying classical music and ultimately jazz. Eventually, Phillip became as fascinated with the technical aspect of creating music as he had been performing it. Consequently, he began working with independent bands and singers around the country. This love of music technology led him to enroll at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, earning a degree in Music Production and Engineering & Songwriting. Since the program's completion, Phillip has had many notable accomplishments. 

DEBBIE WONG
LITURICAL SCHOLAR AND WORSHIP LEADER

Debbie Wong has been actively involved in the worship ministry since 2004 as a worship leader and musician, and has had the privilege to lead and teach worship across Asia and in the United States. Originally from Singapore, she moved to North Carolina in 2016 to pursue a Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School, where she is currently working towards a Th.D. in Liturgical studies. Her work focuses on worship and formation, with an emphasis on contemporary and charismatic expressions of praise and worship. Debbie is a contributor to the edited volume Flow: The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship (Abingdon, 2020), and currently serves as the worship leader at First United Methodist Church in Cary, NC. You can learn more about her work here (deborahannwong.com).

CHIPO JOHNSON
PASTOR OF STUDENTS, DAMASCUS INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP

Reverend Chipo S. Johnson was born in Washington D. C. and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe where she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Zimbabwe. After completing her master’s degree in Pediatric Physical Therapy from the University of Washington, Reverend Johnson pursued her call to ministry. She attended Seminary at Seattle Pacific University where she graduated with a Master of Divinity in June 2016.

Since 2008, Reverend Johnson has served on staff at Damascus International Fellowship, where she has had the opportunity to participate in leadership roles in multiple areas of ministry to both children and adults. Through these and other opportunities to serve, Reverend Johnson has had the opportunity to discover and develop in her spiritual gifts as a teacher and minister of the gospel. Her passion for teaching and preaching has been recognized both in and out of the church setting.

EMILIO ALVAREZ
PASTOR, THE GATHERING PLACE

Bishop Emilio Alvarez is the founding director of the
Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies (formerly the certificate in Convergence Studies Program at New York Theological Seminary), a program which trains clergy and laity alike in Christian classical consensual faith and practice. He was consecrated a Bishop in the Lord’s Church in 2011 and is currently a member of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches—a Christian union which reverences the historic Christian faith and practice of the early church while striving to become relevant within postmodernism.

His two-decades of experience within the global
Church has positioned him as a prophetic voice, especially within Afro/Latino communities of faith. Bishop Alvarez is currently the founding pastor and rector of The Gathering Place: Where Love Meets in the city of Rochester, New York.