MISSION
Carl Dudley is the Professor of Church and Community at Hartford Seminary and Co-director of the Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research. His professional focus is applying the sociology of religion to the everyday needs of churches and communities. Dudley has several books to his name, including Transforming Congregations (with Nancy Ammerman), Basic Steps Toward Community Ministry and Making the Small Church Effective.

FELLOWSHIP
Laurie Hafner has been Senior Minister of Coral Gables Congregational Church since October 2006. Previously, Laurie was at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Cleveland, revitalizing that city congregation whose membership grew from 50 to over 500 in her 17 years of service. The StillSpeaking Initiative used Pilgrim's hospitality ministry as its example for training churches across the denomination.

WORSHIP
Maren C. Tirabassi is the author of thirteen books, most recently CARING FOR OURSELVES WHILE CARING FOR OUR ELDERS and FOOTLIGHTS AND FAIRY DUST. New this year as well is the DVD LUKE RETOLD: UNCOMMON VOICES FROM THE GOSPEL for which she did the abridgment and script. Forthcoming this fall is BEFORE THE AMEN -- RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP. Maren travels throughout the country facilitating workshops on creative worship, youth ministry and liturgical writing and she teaches memoir and poetry in a wide range of settings from high school to senior center. Maren is the Pastor of Union Congregational UCC in Madbury, New Hampshire.

GENEROSITY
Riess Potterveld is the President of Lancaster Theological Seminary where he is also a Professor of Religion. Riess teaches classes on Stewardship and Evangelism. Prior to coming to Lancaster, Riess served as the Vice President and Dean at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, where he and his staff were responsible for financial development, public relations, administration and information technology.

INVITATION
Ron Buford was the architect of the StillSpeaking Initiative, helping the UCC develop a new sense of itself intramurally, and a more widely recognized name for itself extramurally. Since leaving as the Director of StillSpeaking in June 2006, Ron has been consulting with Local Church Ministries on its Congregational Vitality Initiative and working with a variety of Conferences, Associations and local churches in revitalization efforts across the UCC.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS
Reverend Bobbie McKay, Ph.D. is a graduate of Garrett Theological Seminary and holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Dr. McKay has been engaged in both of these helping/healing professions for over thirty-five years. She is the author of two books published by Pilgrim Press: "The Unabridged Woman: A Guide to Growing Up Female" and "Whatever Happened to the Family: A Psychologist Looks at Sixty Years of Change", as well as numerous articles about children, families, marriage and spiritual growth. Her most recent book, "When God Becomes Real: Stories of Presence - Models of Church", Exploration Press, is available in fall, 2007. Dr. McKay has led over 900 hundred seminars and workshops having to do with spiritual and psychological health and appeared on both television and radio. She has also worked extensively with Clergy pain, stress and burnout.

Lewis A. Musil, MFA holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Musil was a writer, producer and director of theater and television for twenty years. He was awarded a grant from the Field Foundation for an innovative theater project on Chicago's west side. He was a Visiting Professor in the use of Religion and the Arts at Garrett Theological Seminary for two years and also taught at Elmhurst College and the Goodman Theater School of the Art Institute. Mr. Musil was Chairman of the Department of Creative Drama in the Evanston Public Schools for sixteen years.