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.
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.
Rev. 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.
Contact David Hornor below:Phone: 281-859-6843 x01 Email: dahorn@pm.me
Our Guests for this Episode – Debbie Swindoll and Julia Johnson:
Debbie has been working in the church for 30 years. She began by leading Bible studies and eventually became a Bible teacher and developedreflective curriculum. Her interest in spiritual formation started in the early 90’s when she read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. She was further influenced by the writings of Dallas Willard and the devotional classics of Tozer and Bonhoeffer. She received formal training in spiritual formation in the early 2000’s when she attended Talbot School of Theology’s Institute for Spiritual Formation. She graduated from Talbot in 2007 with a degree and training as a spiritual director. Talbot’s program was more than just academics.
The experiential elements that were required within the degree program produced a significant life changing experience. After graduation, she realized that she wanted to bring elements of her training into the local church. For the last decade, she has been working with colleagues to create discipleship materials for churches that will guide them into a deeper heart transformation and more intimate relationships with God and others.
Julia has a 27 year career in the mortgage industry and has now served as the Small Group Director at Grace Fellowship for over 10 years. She experienced how God moves when we abide in Him and has embraced the joy and challenges to keep moving on in her personal journey with Christ. Her experience with Ascending Leader’s DiscipleForward and DiscipleOn Communities have had a profound impact on her and how she leads and she wants to share it with others.
Paula Taylor is the Associate Pastor of Discipleship at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church in Southern California. She has a passion for helping people find their true identity in Christ. Over the past 22 years on staff at SBPC, Paula has developed church wide strategies for small groups and spiritual formation. In addition to serving in the local church, she speaks and consults nationally on leadership development and discipleship. Paula earned her MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and Certifications in Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction. As a Spiritual Director, she desires to see the people of God live and lead out of the overflow of a soul intimately connected to God’s love. Paula celebrates 45 years of marriage to her husband, Bill. They take great delight in time spent with in their two daughters and three grandchildren.
I am in my 24th year of appointment as an United Methodist Pastor and have served a variety of congregations. I have discovered that in all different kinds of churches they say they want to make disciples, and do to some extent, but the intentionality has never been a deep part of their culture. The Texas Annual Conference began a renewal strategy called Vibrant Church Initiative and through that I became introduced in a wonderful way to a process of disciple making through Ascending Leaders. It is so exciting to see a process that take into account the individuality of each congregation AND understands that it is NOT a one and done program.
Matt Neely has been Parkway’s Pastor since 2013. He is a husband to Ginger and dad to Jessica, Jenna, Grace and Noah. His favorite things in life are writing songs, snorkeling and dogs that bark a lot. His favorite moments in ministry are when people take a major step forward in their journey with Jesus.
Rod is an author and speaker, and he is the Creator of GrowBeyond.org. He was a Discipleship Pastor and now he is the Coordinator for Disciplehship in the Reformed Church in America. He was raised in Alcholics Anonymous with parents in recovery.
Check out GrowBeyond.org or his books listed below:
Ryan, his wife Shannon, and their three children live Indianapolis where Ryan serves as the Discipleship Pastor of Northview Church. A pastor for over 20 years, Ryan has been especially passionate about discipleship since attending Fuller Seminary, which is where he met Mike Johnson and was introduced to Ascending Leaders. Ryan has returned to Fuller where he is working on a Doctorate of Intercultural Studies degree and is conducting his research on the role that adult learning and the learning context play in forming disciples.
Listeners are welcome to reach out to Ryan if they have any questions about the Growth Plan (his church’s discipleship process). Email him at ryan.poe@northviewchurch.us
Recommended resources:
The Chapelwood Discipleship App is available in app stores. Their pathways is also available online at www.chapelwood.org/mynextstep
Our blog on 10 Steps Toward a Clear DisciplePath – Step 7: Revise
Our Guests for this Episode – Ginny Itz and Teresa Rossy:
Ginny: During my fifteen years as a staff member of Chapelwood, my focus has been to help people grow a deeper relationship with God and our faith community. As Director of Connect Ministry, “connecting” new members to Chapelwood and “reconnecting” those stepping into a new stage of life is our mission. These connections come from helping people find meaningful worship, small groups, and learning and serving opportunities to strengthen their partnership with Jesus. For the past two years, I have been an active participant in Ascending Leaders workshops and AscendingOn cohort.
Teresa: I am a lifelong Christian who has worshiped and been a member of Methodist churches most of my life. I was strongly influenced by my grandmother to love Jesus and love Scripture. My entire family worshiped together regularly. I considered ministry as a career after college, but instead worked in a variety of newspaper reporting, editing, public relations, and advertising positions with my Journalism degree from the University of Texas. All the while, I was attending Bible studies, being discipled by older Christians, serving in church, and intentionally growing in my faith. After 13 years as a stay-at-home mom, I re-entered the workplace in church communications — a perfect fit for my interests and training. I joined Chapelwood’s staff in 2001 as associate director of communications. This is my home church. In 2008, I was asked to take the role director of Learning Ministry (the forerunner of what is now Grow Ministries). Thankfully, Chapelwood supported me in attending professional certification classes in Christian Education at Perkins School of Theology. I was certified in 2014 and now serve as the director of that program, helping others obtain vital training for their leadership positions in churches nationwide. I also serve on the Texas Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry as chair of professional certification. I have attended Ascending Leaders Disciple Forward workshops and participated in two seasons of Disciple On co-horts. I’m thankful for the renewed focus on proven pathways that Ascending Leaders keeps in front of me. It is so easy in a large church to plan wide-ranging programs that satisfy lots of areas of interest, but don’t primarily make mature disciples.
Recommended resources:
The Chapelwood Discipleship App is available in app stores. Their pathways is also available online at www.chapelwood.org/mynextstep
Our blog on 10 Steps Toward a Clear DisciplePath – Step 7: Revise
