Authors

Authors


Shane Claiborne \| BioWith tears and laughter, Shane unveils the tragic messes we’ve made of our world and the tangible hope that another world is possible. Shane graduated from Eastern University, and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. His ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta, to a year spent serving a wealthy mega-congregation at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. During the recent war in Iraq, Shane spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams). Shane was witness to the military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between Baghdad and Amman. As a member of IPT, Shane took daily trips to sites where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended worship services during the war. Shane is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world, many of whom have become known as a “new monasticism”, which produced the book Schools for Conversion. These communities seek to follow Jesus, to rediscover the spirit of the early Church, and to incarnate the “Kingdom of God” -- a way of life standing in stark contrast to the world of militarism and materialism. At the Simple Way, their little revolution is lived out locally, as days are spent feeding hungry folks, doing collaborative arts with children, running a community store, hanging out with neighbors, and reclaiming trash-strewn lots by planting gardens. Shane and The Simple Way do much work to expose the fundamental structures that create poverty and to imagine alternatives to them. Shane serves on the Board of Directors for The Christian Community Development Association, one of the largest national associations of faith-based organizations whose pillars are Redistribution, Relocation, and Reconciliation. Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. He is featured in the DVD series “Another World Is Possible” and is the author of the several books including The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President.	Andy Crouch \| BioAndy Crouch is the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling,winner of Christianity Today’s 2009 Book Award for Christianity and Culture and named one of the best books of 2008 by Publishers Weekly, Relevant, Outreach and Leadership. A senior editor at Christianity Today International, he has served as executive producer of the documentary films Where Faith and Culture Meet and Round Trip and was editorial director of the Christian Vision Project from 2005 to 2008. He is a member of the editorial board of Books & Culture, and a senior fellow of the International Justice Mission’s IJM Institute.	Wendy Gritter \| BioWendy is an internationally recognized contributor in the conversations around faith and sexuality. An avid student of the church, Wendy is committed to equipping the local congregation to engage effectively with those outside the heterosexual mainstream.


Peter Rollins \| BioPeter Rollins is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. He is also the founder of ikon, a faith group that has gained an international reputation for blending live music, visual imagery, soundscapes, theatre, ritual and reflection to create what they call 'transformance art'. Peter gained his higher education from Queens University, Belfast and has earned degrees (with distinction) in Scholastic Philosophy (BA Hons), Political Theory (MA) and Post-Structural thought (PhD). He is currently a research associate with the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God. His most recent work is entitled The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. He was born in Belfast but currently resides in Greenwich, CT.	Lenoard Sweet \| BioLeonard Sweet, Ph.D., is founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries and serves as the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. He also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, and is the chief writer for preachingplus.com, a popular resource for pastors and Christian speakers. A popular speaker, Sweet has written more than twenty books, including the trilogy AquaChurch, SoulTsunami, and SoulSalsa.	Makoto Fujimura \| BioMakoto Fujimura is an artist, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer by both faith-based and secular media. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts (2003-2009), Fujimura has contributed internationally as an advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. Fujimura’s work is exhibited at galleries around the world, including Dillon Gallery (New York), Sen Gallery (Tokyo), The Contemporary Museum of Tokyo, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts Museum and Oxford House, Taiku Place (Hong Kong). He has painted live on stage at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra. A popular speaker, he has lectured at numerous conferences and universities, including the Aspen Institute, Yale, Princeton, the Q Conference, and IAM’s Encounter 10. Fujimura’s second book, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art and Culture, is a collection of essays bringing people of all backgrounds together in conversation and meditation on culture, art, and humanity. Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement in 1992.


Tim Challies \| BioTim Challies is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere, having one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs anywhere. He is also editor of Discerning Reader, a site dedicated to offering discerning reviews of books that are of interest to Christians. A self-employed web designer, Tim lives with his family on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario.	Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove \| BioJonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is an author, New Monastic, and sought-after speaker. A native of North Carolina, he is a graduate of Eastern University and Duke Divinity School. Shortly before the United States began bombing Iraq in 2003, Jonathan and his wife, Leah, traveled there as members of a Christian Peacemaker Team determined to tell Iraqis that American Christians did not all support the war. Their experiences became the subject of To Baghdad and Beyond (Cascade Books: 2005), which describes the couple’s conversion to the “new monasticism.” Jonathan is an Associate Minister at the historically black St. Johns Baptist Church, and is engaged in peacemaking and reconciliation efforts in Durham, North Carolina. The Rutba House, where Jonathan lives with his wife Leah, their son JaiMichael, and other friends, is a new monastic community that prays, eats, and lives together, welcoming neighbors and the homeless.	Jason Hildebrand \| BioJASON HILDEBRAND Jason Hildebrand is a professional actor, award-winning filmmaker, and communication coach. He has performed in theatre, film and television, and continues to tour the globe with his acclaimed solo performances. Jason also works with organizations, theatre and film companies and educational institutions in various capacities throughout North America and Europe. His current solo performance repertoire includes: The Prodigal Trilogy, Blue Like Jazz // Live, Life of David, Herod the Great, and Himself - The Story of A.B. Simpson.

Sarah Lance \| BioSarah has worked with Word Made Flesh (WMF), serving among the world’s most vulnerable people, for almost 10 years. She is the Word Made Flesh Asia Regional Coordinator serving the WMF communities in Kathmandu, Nepal; Bangkok, Thailand; and Chennai and Kolkata, India. Since 2001 Sarah has spent most of her time with WMF in Kolkata, India, where her neighbors are the women, men and children of Kolkata’s largest red light district. Sarah desires to be an incarnational presence as she partners with her community, friends and neighbors in the fight for freedom and the sustainable restoration of Kolkata’s red-light areas. Sari Bari is a business that was birthed out of WMF’s presence in Kolkata’s red light areas. In 2006 Sarah co-founded Sari Bari with the mission to offer freedom to women trapped in the sex trade and to provide opportunity to women vulnerable to trafficking. Freedom is offered through[SLL1] employment in a safe, loving environment, where women are trained and employed as artisans. The women create beautiful, sustainable, handmade products, while making their lives new. Sarah is the Managing Director of Sari Bari (Sari Bari Private Limited). Her job is to offer love, creativity, vision and direction to the Sari Bari movement and community	Ron Sider \| BioRonald J. Sider (Ph.D., Yale) is Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and Public Policy and Director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary and President of Evangelicals for Social Action. A widely known evangelical speaker and writer, Sider has spoken on six continents, published thirty-one books and scores of articles. In 1982, The Christian Century named him one of the twelve “most influential persons in the field of religion in the U.S.” His Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was recognized by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential religious books of the twentieth century and named the seventh most influential book in the evangelical world in the last fifty years.	Recipe Poetry Group\| BioTHE RECIPE consists of award winning, critically acclaimed poets. Since forming in late 2009, the group has toured Canada and Europe extensively. The Recipe is able to harness an uncommonly beautiful amount of stregth on stage, while challenging audiences to engage with a vast spectrum of emotions and topics. Members of The Recipe have shared the stage with Amir Suliman, Shihan, and critically acclaimed poet Saul Williams. Members have performed their poetry across the globe and serve audiences an entertaining, insightful dose of poetic food for thought.