Emmanuel Kwizera, M.A. ’23, is a Billy Graham scholar in the M.A. program for Evangelism and Leadership at Wheaton College. He first arrived on campus with his family in 2021 after spending years working in Kenya as an evangelist.
He is originally from Rwanda, the son of missionary evangelists. In 1994, he survived the brutal genocide that ripped the country apart and led to the death of over one million of the Tutsi people, including over 100 of his own family members. Raised in a Christian family, Emmanuel was left wondering how God could have allowed such horror to happen, especially in a country that identified overwhelmingly as Christian. Join Ascending Leaders’ podcast to hear what he learned about discipleship and forgiveness.
Wendy is a wife, mother, stepmom, teacher, golfer, Kansan, Southwestern College Builder. She is a lover of good books, beaches, good conversations over good meals, travel, musical theatre, and a good laugh.
She has spent the last 20 years in ministry, and served in full-time youth ministry, bi-vocational youth ministry, and pastoral ministry. She has a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from Southwestern College. Her M.Div. and M.A. in Youth Ministry are from Princeton Theological Seminary. She runs a high school vocational discernment program called the Summit Youth Academy and teaches youth ministry courses. She is an elder in the United Methodist Church and currently working on her Ph.D. in Religion from the University of Manchester with a focus on youth ministry.
Information on The Summit Youth Academy:
The Summit exists to prepare high school participants, known as Summit Disciples, for a lifetime of faithful Christian discipleship through connecting, learning, and discerning God’s call. Supported by the Institute for Discipleship, the program launched with funding from the Lilly Endowment with the first Summit in 2017. The Summit Youth Academy is a week for rising high school juniors and seniors to connect with God, Christian leaders and peers, learn Wesleyan theology from seminary and college professors, and discern God’s calling in one’s life.
Jon and Katie-Lee Harrison have been married for almsot 12 year and have three small children. Jon is the pastor at Greensburg Christian Church, Greensburg, KS. Katie-Lee works from home for a law firm in the Chicago suburbs. Jon and Katie-Lee met at Taylor University where they served as volunteers with Youth for Christ. Jon received his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Prior to moving to Kanas, Jon served in churches in Indiana and Illinois. Jon was introduced to Ascending Leaders about a year ago. Both are part of the new discipleship team and have been very encouraged by the direction and growth their training has developed so far.
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Steve is an ordained minister and has served on church staffs as a church administrator and a pastoral staff member. He has supported churches with system needs for more than forty years. Steve sees The ACTS Group as a support ministry to churches. He volunteers as a church photographer and a substitute Bible study leader for his church in Sugar Land. His family serves on church staff, in various ministries and as missionaries around the world. Steve is an avid cyclist who restores and collects old bicycles, and also tinkers with old British sports cars.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/steve.bauserman or https://www.facebook.com/actsgroup.net Twitter@BausermanSteve or @ACTSGroupnet Instagram LinkedIn Advanced Church Technology Systems Group Website www.actsgroup.net
Chris Stieb
Get to know Chris:
Chris is the Project Manager and an Engineer for the ACTS Group. Chris is a graduate of Houston Baptist University. He has served on church staff before and has extensive experience in Christian school IT operations. He volunteers actively at his church in Sugar Land on the Media team.
Weekly Blog www.actsgroup.net/blog
Subscribe to receive freebies
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Pastor McClenahan has served since 2003 as Senior Pastor at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. His passion is for the church to experience authentic transformation in order to make a tangible difference in the world. He has seen tremendous change in the structures and culture of his church: focus on sermon based small groups as primary discipleship strategy together, unified and intergenerational worship, missional strategy for the whole church, rebuilt and remodeled campus, and most recently a renewed commitment to personal spiritual practices. Ascending Leaders helped us respond to the Reveal for Church results to create a more effective culture of discipleship. 30 years ordained ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and current chair of church planting committee of Presbytery of San Diego and board president of The Fellowship Community. Degrees from UCLA (BA Spanish) and Fuller Seminary (MDiv 1988, DMin 2000). He and his wife Amy, were married in 1985. They have twin married sons and five grandchildren. They are fans of pilgrimage, coffee and travel.
Mike McClenahanSolana Beach Presbyterian ChurchFacebook, instagram: @mikemcclenahanBlog: mikemcclenahan.blogspot.comChurch website: solanabeach.church
Subscribe to receive freebies
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Rev. Matthew McClure, went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids for undergraduate and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for His MDiv. He have been married to his beautiful wife for 15 years and God has blessed them with 4 children. Lorien is 11, Leighton is 10, Graiden is 8, and Tiernan is 5. He Is The Pastor Of Prairie City Christian Reformed Church In Prairie City, Iowa. A Small Farming Community.
Subscribe to receive freebies
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Mike believes he is formed by Christ to form others. He is an ordained Minister of the Word in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. In March of 2004, Mike received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. He specialized in adult lay leadership development.
Prior to that, Mike served as resident pastor at New Life Church in Spring, Texas, planted and pastored Community Life Church in Missouri City, Texas, and also developed and implemented the Texas Leadership Development Network, which was the predecessor to Ascending Leaders. Mike has also helped church leaders refocus and has been involved in the city-reaching efforts in the greater Houston, Texas area.
Mike is the core author of most of Ascending Leaders’ material. He sees his calling and gifting as being a faithful tool for creatively forming others. His passion is to help people grow and serve effectively as discipled leaders in God’s Kingdom.
Mike, his wife, Gina and their two children, Emmelyn and Nicholas, have made Sugar Land, Texas their home since 1990. He recently became a grandparent to two amazing granddaughters, whom he adores. Mike enjoys gardening with his wife and family activities, such as traveling and camping. He also enjoys friends and reading.
Subscribe to receive freebies
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Terry Looper is the CEO and founder of Texon LP, a midstream energy company that was founded in 1989. Texon was voted #1 in Houston revenue for private companies in 2011 and for a second time in 2019 was named one of the regions “Top Workplaces” by the Houston Chronicle. Texon views its core values and employees as the key to its mission of being the best service provider in its industry. Terry and Doris, his wife of 51 years, have two married daughters and five grandchildren. Terry’s passion is discipleship and liberating souls.
Subscribe to receive freebies
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Our Guest for this Episode
Get to know Bob Johnson:
From 2003 to 2018, Bob served as the Executive Pastor at Chapelwood United Methodist Church, a church of over 7,000 members and 11 weekend worship services in Houston, TX. Prior to that appointment, he served for 7 ½ years as the Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Mineola, TX. He retired at the end of 2018.
Bob was born and reared near Boston, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Lowell Technological Institute (now the University of Massachusetts at Lowell) and was employed for 12 years by the DuPont Company, first in Gibbstown, New Jersey, and later in Beaumont, Texas. Bob believes his experience in the secular work world proved to be a real asset in his ministry. Prior to entering the ordained ministry, he served in various capacities in lay ministry, including Sunday School teacher, youth counselor, evangelism work area chair, finance committee member, and lay leader.
In 1987, Bob responded to the call to ordained ministry and was appointed as a student pastor to the Edom/Sexton Chapel charge in the Tyler district of the Texas Annual Conference while he attended seminary at Perkins School of Theology at SMU. After graduating with high honors with a Master of Divinity degree in 1991, Bob was appointed to serve Payne Springs UM church in the Palestine district followed by his first appointment to Chapelwood UMC in Houston in 1993. After 3 years as the Minister of Discipleship and Singles at Chapelwood, where he and lay colleague Marilyn Brown developed the curriculum “Discover Your S.H.A.P.E. for Ministry and Life,” he was appointed in 1996 to be the Senior Pastor at First United Methodist in Mineola. While there, church attendance increased from 160 to nearly 300 as the church expanded to a second campus. In late 2003, Bob was reappointed to be the first Executive Pastor at Chapelwood where he remained until his retirement.
In 2012, Bob became frustrated that he lacked a sufficient answer to the question, “What is the gospel?” Despite being in ordained ministry for 25 years by that point, he realized that the usual answers to the question about the Good News did not take adequate account of the Old Testament, which comprised two thirds of the Bible. During a sabbatical that year, he began work to answer his own question. That work led to teaching, and then writing and publishing, The Genesis Project: The WHY of Discipleship.
Bob continues to serve on the Texas Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, a position he has held for over a dozen years. In that capacity, he has led several peer learning groups and served as the Psychological Officer. He also served as the chair of the Central South District Clergy Excellence Team and as a member of the District Leadership Team. In retirement, Bob remains a coach for the Vibrant Church Initiative of the Texas Annual Conference and is an adjunct discipleship coach with Ascending Leaders. He also continues to coach individual churches and leaders and conducts teaching workshops and revivals.
Bob is married to Susan, and they have three married adult children; Michelle, Lauren, and Eric, and four delightful grandchildren, Ella, Claire, Ruthie, and Calvin. Susan is a retired elementary school teacher who loves to volunteer and do community service.
Get automatically notified when a new episode is released and get the freebies automatically delivered to your inbox. * indicates requiredEmail Address *First Name Last Name
Our Guest for this Episode
Rev. David A. Hornor is pastor of a small Christian Reformed Church on the west side of Houston, TX. His congregation has been blessed through the ministry of Ascending Leaders. In particular, they recently completed “Charting Your Church Course” for 2017-19. Through that process and the excellent coaching received, they were able to discern clear and actionable steps into God’s preferred future for their church. This has given clear focus and shared vocabulary for the mission of our small, but servant-hearted congregation.
Emmanuel Kwizera, M.A. ’23, is a Billy Graham scholar in the M.A. program for Evangelism and Leadership at Wheaton College. He first arrived on campus with his family in 2021 after spending years working in Kenya as an evangelist.
