Leadership Team
Jerry Deck is the Executive Director of Presbyterian Global Fellowship, a call he answered after being the pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Carol Stream, IL. Jerry attended Lee University and Wheaton University (MA) before working in a refugee settlement with World Relief. He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv) and studied in Edinburgh, Scotland. He currently leads the Missional Small Church Pastors webinars.
Clark Cowden is the Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of San Diego. He previously served as the Evangelist Presbyter and Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of San Joaquin. Prior to that, Clark was the pastor of the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Walled Lake, Michigan, the associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Anderson, Indiana, and the Director of Christian Education and Youth of the Southminster Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN. Clark received his Bachelor of Science degree from Taylor University, his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Seminary, and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. Clark is an avid sports fan, runner, reader, and movie-goer. He has been involved in many ministry, community, and school activities. Clark is married to his wife Kim. His son Ryan is married to Janel and they live in Pasadena. Ryan is getting his teaching credential and Janel works at a social service agency and as a nanny. Justin lives in Azusa, is a professional drummer, and is finishing college.
Carol Kilman is senior investment officer for a large endowment fund in Dallas, Texas. She is a member of Highland Park Presbyterian Church and is currently moderator for the new Presbyterian Global Fellowship committee. Carol is also a member the New Church Development team and is current past moderator for the Church Relations Committee.
Mike McClenahan is senior pastor at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, in north county San Diego. He grew up in southern California, is married to Amy and has two grown twins, almost two daughter in laws and a grandchild on the way. Mike holds degrees from UCLA (BA, Spanish) and Fuller Seminary (MDiv and DMin). Mike is committed to missional transformation within his presbytery and his own church. PGF has had a great impact on SBPC since 2006 when it committed to the missional journey of looking out to the community and next door to it’s neighbors. Mike and Amy have also served on the Board of Amor Ministries, a housebuilding ministry that works with churches to eradicate poverty. He loves to golf, travel and paint.
Paul Parsons has served as a pastor for 34 years ― three with the United Methodist Church and 31 with the PC(USA). A native of Maryland, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has served congregations in Richland, Wash., San Jose, Calif., Montrose, Colo., Kansas City, Mo, and Colorado Springs, Colo. He recently accepted a call to serve as interim pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. An avid mountain climber, he has scaled 110 summits.
Mindy Smith is in her third year as campus pastor for small groups at Whitworth University. In 2008 Mindy returned to Spokane, got married, and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), all in the space of three months. She works with the small-group coordinators, preaches regularly in chapel, and teaches in the Certification for Ministry Program. If you’d like to meet with Mindy, contact her at 509.777.4341 or mindysmith@whitworth.edu.
Allen Thompson is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Danville, VA, where he has served since March of 2011. He attended Duke University and survived one semester of law school at Wake Forest before escaping back to his hometown of Lenoir, NC, where he designed and directed a chronic care program for the local free health care clinic. After attending Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Allen spent three years at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, where he was Pastor for Evangelism and wrote the What is Missional?, My95, and Missional 101 curriculum pieces for PGF. In Danville, Allen serves on the boards of the Free Clinic and the Hughes Memorial Home Foundation. His additional interests are golf, cooking pigs, ice climbing, Hokie football, zymology, and spending time in Montreat and Linville, NC.
Scott Weimer was named one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” in 2006, Dr. Scott Weimer is currently the senior pastor of North Avenue Presbyterian Church, located in the growing midtown section of Atlanta. Coming from previous pastoral calls at First Church in Bradenton, Florida and Clairmont Presbyterian in Atlanta, Scott continues his commitment to ministry in his twelfth year of leadership at North Avenue. Scott is a former moderator of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, a founding board member of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship, and a current member of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Foundation. His community service includes service as a board member and former executive board member of The Westminster Schools in Atlanta and founding board member of StreetGRACE, an organization dedicated to ending human sex trafficking.
Former Leadership Team Members & Founders
Steve Hayner, President, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA
Camille Josey, M.Div., Atlanta, GA
Vic Pentz, Pastor, Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA
Dave Peterson, Pastor, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX
Lucas Pina, Pastor, Sixes Presbyterian Church, Canton, GA
Rob Weingartner, Executive Director, The Outreach Foundation
Michael Walker, Theologian in Residence, Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Dallas, TX
Thinkers and Partners
Alan Roxburgh (Moving Back Into Our Neighborhoods Consultation Leader 2009-2010) is a pastor, teacher, writer and consultant with more than 30 years experience in church leadership, consulting and seminary education. Alan has pastored congregations in a small town, the suburbs, the re-development of a downtown urban church and the planting of other congregations. He has directed an urban training center and served as a seminary professor and the director of a center for mission and evangelism. Alan teaches as an adjunct professor in seminaries in the USA, Australia and Europe. His books include: Reaching a New Generation, Leadership, Liminality and the Missionary Congregation, Crossing the Bridge: Leadership in a Time of Change, The Sky is Falling – Leaders Lost in Transition, The Missional Leader (co-authored with Fred Romanuk),Introducing the Missional Church (Baker, Nov 09) and Missional Map Making (Jossey-Bass, Jan 2010). He was also a member of the writing team that authored Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Through the Roxburgh Missional Network, Alan leads conferences, seminars and consultations with denominations, congregations and seminaries across North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the UK. Alan consults with these groups in the areas of leadership for missional transformation and innovating missional change across denominational systems. Along with the team at RMN, he provides practical tools and resources for leaders of church systems and local congregations. Through Allelon Alan co-directs the Mission in Globalizing Culture(s) Project. This is a multi-year project addressing questions of mission in Western culture(s) from the perspective of the local church and its context, and the implications for leadership development. When not traveling or writing, Alan enjoys mountain biking, hiking, cooking and hanging out with Jane and their five grandchildren as well as drinking great coffee in the Pacific North West.
Mark Lau Branson (Moving Back Into Our Neighborhoods Consultation Leader 2009-2010) is the Homer L. Goddard Associate Professor of the Ministry of the Laity and has taught at Fuller since 2000. He teaches courses in congregational leadership and community engagement. Branson was ordained at San Francisco Christian Center, an African-American Pentecostal church, and has served on the pastoral teams in United Methodist and Presbyterian churches. He has worked with several agencies active in education, community development, and community organizing, and continues to serve as a consultant and speaker. His most recent book is Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change (2004), published by the Alban Institute. He also contributed the chapters “Gratitude as Access to Meaning” in The Three Tasks of Leadership (2009), “Ecclesiology and Leadership for the Missional Church,” in The Missional Church in Context: Helping Congregations Develop Contextual Ministry (2007), and “Forming God’s People” in Leadership in Congregations (2007). Branson is the president of the Institute for Urban Initiatives. He and his family are active at First Presbyterian Church in Altadena, California.
Michael Frost (Missional Vision Speaker Inside Out 2007) is an internationally recognised missiologist and one of the leading voices in the missional church movement. His books are required reading in colleges and seminaries around the world and he is much sought after as an international conference speaker. Frost is the Vice Principal of Morling College and the founding Director of the Tinsley Institute, a mission study centre located at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. He is the author or editor of ten popular Christian books, the most recent of which are the highly successful and award-winning The Shaping of Things to Come (2003, co-authored with colleague Alan Hirsch), Exiles (2006) and Re:Jesus (2009). These books explore a missiological framework for the church in the postmodern era. Frost’s books have been translated into German, Korean and Spanish.
Alan Hirsch (Missional Vision Speaker Inside Out 2008) is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. He is also part of the leadership team of Christian Associates, a missional church-planting agency with focus on Western Europe. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The Shaping of Things to Come i(with Michael Frost) s widely considered to be a seminal text on mission. Alan’s recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to movements. His new book ReJesus (out late 08) is a radical restatement about the role that Jesus plays in defining missional movements. His latest book, with his wife Debra, is Untamed which explores a wilder form of discipleship than the prevailing forms. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is and adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
Reggie McNeal (Missional Leader Regional Gathering Speaker 2009) currently serves as the Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network of Dallas, TX. Reggie’s past experience involves over a decade as a denominational executive and leadership development coach. He also served in local congregational leadership for over twenty years, including being the founding pastor of a new church. Reggie has lectured or taught as adjunct faculty for multiple seminaries, including Fuller Theological (Pasadena, CA), Southwestern Baptist (Ft. Worth, TX), Golden Gate Baptist (San Francisco, CA), Trinity Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), and Columbia International (Columbia, SC). In addition, he has served as a consultant to local church, denomination, and para-church leadership teams, as well as seminar developer and presenter for thousands of church leaders across North America. He has also resourced the US Army Chief of Chaplains Office, Air Force chaplains, and the Air Force Education and Training Command. Reggie’s work also extends to the business sector, including The Gallup Organization. Reggie has contributed to numerous denominational publications and church leadership journals, including Leadership and Net Results. His books include Revolution in Leadership (Abingdon Press, 1998), A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2000), The Present Future (Jossey-Bass, 2003), Practicing Greatness (Jossey-Bass, 2006), and Get A Life! (Broadman & Holman, 2007). His latest book, Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church (Jossey-Bass, 2009) details the three shifts that church leaders must make to engage the missional movement and offers suggestions for a different scorecard to reflect missional ministry. Reggie’s education includes a B.A. degree from the University of South Carolina and the M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees both from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reggie and his wife Cathy, have two daughters, Jessica and Susanna, and make their home in Columbia, South Carolina.
