Dr. Chris Thurman is a psychologist in private practice in Austin, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Texas. Dr. Thurman is a bestselling author and a popular speaker who has conducted hundreds of seminars for churches and corporations around the country. He and his wife, Holly, have three children.

Dr. Edwarads’ ambition is to change people’s lives with the Word of God and equip others to do the same. Kent is known for his passion for preaching, and brings over 30 years of Christian leadership experience, as a senior pastor, church planter, and educator in both North American and international contexts. He is a popular conference and seminar speaker and preaches and regularly lectures nationally and internationally.

Dr. Kent Edwards has pastored in Canada and the USA for over 30 years and currently serves as the tenured Professor of Preaching & Leadership at Talbot School of Theology / BIOLA University, and as Founder/CEO of CrossTalk Global. Kent directed the Doctor of Ministry Programs at Talbot School of Theology and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for 13 years while serving as Executive Board Member of the Association for Doctor of Ministry Education, and founder/editor of The Journal of Christian Ministry. His also the past president and longtime board member of the Evangelical Homiletics Society.

Dr. Edwards is the Founder/CEO of CrossTalk Global. Founded in 2013, this evangelical non-profit organization is currently equipping church leaders in 8 countries and four continents how to understand and effectively communicate the Bible to their home cultures. CrossTalk’s innovative educational strategy and emphasis on equipping local leaders is designed to start movements that transform cultures with God’s Word.

Dr. Edwards has authored two award-winning books: Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching (Zondervan, 2005) and Deep Preaching (Broadman & Holman, 2009). Kent has also contributed to It’s All in How You Tell it (Baker, 2003), The Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching (Zondervan, 2009), Models for Biblical Preaching (Baker2014) and Serving the Word (Wipf & Stock, 2015). As a member of the Speakers Bureau for Convene, Kent teaches Christian C-suite executives how to create and strategically deploy narratives to accelerate their companies, while growing in their appreciation of the stories of Scripture.

Kent has earned the degrees of Bachelor of Theology (Ambrose University), Master of Divinity (Tyndale Seminary), Doctor of Ministry (Denver Seminary), and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Education (Biola University). Kent’s D.Min dissertation focused on communicating Old Testament narrative literature, while his Ph.D. dissertation was on effective intercultural leadership.

Kent has been married to Nola for thirty-six years. They have two grown sons.

For nearly thirty years, Dr. Ken Barnes has combined a career in international business with life as a theological scholar and bi-vocational pastor in both the U.S. and U.K., where he holds dual citizenship. He most recently served as Dean of the Marketplace Institute at Ridley Theological College in Melbourne, Australia and Associate Director of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative at Oxford University’s Centre for Christianity and Culture. Currently the Mockler-Phillips Chair in Workplace Theology and Business Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theologial Seminary, Dr. Barnes also teaches theology and religious studies at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and taught at Oxford’s Saïd Business School in their M.B.A. program.
His new book, 'Redeeming Capitalism' is based upon a very popular and regularly oversubscribed course that he teaches at Oxford, entitled: “More Money Than God, Wealth, Virtue and the Redemption of Post-modern Capitalism”.