Mark Batterson

Mark serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with seven locations, NCC is focused on reaching emerging generations. The vision of NCC is to meet in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the DC area. NCC also owns and operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.

Mark has two Masters Degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of the best-selling books: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, and Soulprint.

Mark is married to Lora and they live on Capitol Hill with their three children: Parker, Summer, and Josiah.

Dick Foth

Dick Foth currently serves as a part of the pastoral teaching team at Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. In that role, he helps to mentor the pastoral staff and works throughout the city with the larger leadership community.

Dick also continues to work half of the time with friends in Washington DC, both nationally and internationally with political and business leaders. He works under the auspices of the House and Senate breakfast groups to help with the National Prayer Breakfast. Dick spends his time encouraging individuals privately in and toward Jesus and across the lines---personal, social, religious, and political--- that separate people from each other.

Through the years, the themes of relationship building and reconciliation have become central to Dick’s speaking and writing. Invitations to speak on those topics have taken Dick and his wife Ruth across many denominations and cultures. Dick and Ruth co-authored a book on relational leadership in 1995 entitled, “When The Giant Lies Down.”

Dick and his wife Ruth have been married for over 47 years and have four adult children, Erica, Jenny, Susanna, and Christopher. They also have 11 wonderful grandchildren.

Jeremy DeWeerdt

Jeremy DeWeerdt serves as the Lead Pastor of Rockford First, a church that is focused on three simple priorities: Loving God, Loving People, and Loving Life! Jeremy, along with his wife, Jen, accepted the Lead Pastor position in April of 2007, after having been on staff at Rockford First for more than 16 years in the role of Student Ministries Pastor and Director/Founder of the post-high school ministry, Rockford Master‘s Commission.

Jeremy also founded Earthbeat in 1993, a non-profit organization that partners with government organizations, park districts, youth initiative groups, and corporations to encourage youth and young adults to give back to their communities through volunteerism.

Jeremy and Jen have been married since 1995 and have three sons, Caden, Connor & Paxton.

Terry Kelley

Terry Kelley serves as the Worship Pastor and oversees all of the worship experiences at Rockford First. In addition to leading worship, he trains and equips the worship teams, as well as directing the Rockford First Music Internship program. Prior to coming to Rockford First, Terry travelled and led worship at churches and conferences across the nation for over ten years with the Terry Kelley Band. After being on the road, Terry became a worship pastor at a 6000-person church in Colorado before relocating to Rockford First.

As a song writer, Terry has a passion to create music that empowers today’s church to worship God with sound theology and engaging lyrics.

Terry has been married to his wife, Alicia, since 2002. The Kelleys have four children: Aidan, Taylor, Kinley, and Emerson.