Meet Your Leadership Coaches

Gary Rohrmayer
Executive Director
Gary has been involved in church planting since 1987. During this time he has been involved in over 150 new church plants and training thousands of church planters across the country. He was the founding pastor of Countryside Community Church (now White Stone) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin from 1988 to 1998.
In 1995, Gary and his wife Mary launched a resource and consulting ministry called Your Journey Resources, (www.yourjourney.org), which specializes in developing reproducible, evangelistic and discipleship materials for adults and children. He has authored 5 books, multiple eBooks and his spiritual conversation tool, The Spiritual Journey Guide that has sold 2.2 million copies. He has consulted, coached and spoke for multiple denominations and mission organizations.
In 1998 the Rohrmayers made the hard decision to leave their new church to launch a new movement of churches throughout the Midwest, as Gary became the Director of Church Planting for Converge MidAmerica from 1998-2010. On March 1, 2010 Gary became the President of Converge MidAmerica overseeing its business and ministry interests that supports regional church planting and ongoing care of its over 200 church plants and partner churches.
He was asked to provide national leadership to Converge Worldwide’s Church Planting Ministry from September 2006-April 2010 and then again from September 2013-April 2015.
Gary and Mary have three grown children and live in the suburbs of Chicago, IL.

Ed Stetzer
Consultant
His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates.
He recently served as interim teaching pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City and serves as teaching pastor at Highpoint Church.

Tom Nebel
Coach
I have spent my ministry career learning how to do things better and conveying that to others. That goes for starting new churches (I’ve published books and spoke on that quite a bit), but it goes for other things as well. I’ve enjoyed being a coach and encourager for people in all walks of life. I have made good decisions and I have made many mistakes. As I often say, no one gets the life they thought they’d get and no one behaves the way they say they’ll behave. That’s why we need God. I’m a very good public speaker and presenter. I enjoy teaching from the Bible, and people like my humor, insight, and practical applications. My Myers-Briggs preference is ENFJ. My StrengthsFinder themes are: Maximizer, Context, Activator, Positivity, and Developer. People are very comfortable around me, and they find me to be a practical “how to” communicator.
In August of 2014 my most recent book (co-authored with Steve Pike) was released. It’s called Leading Church Multiplication: Locally, Regionally, Nationally, and it’s about the practical aspects of leading a church planting organization.

Steve Pike
Coach
Prior to initiating Urban Islands Project, Steve served as the Founding Director of the Church Multiplication Network. CMN serves church multipliers to effectively equip, strategically fund and innovatively network new faith communities in America. Since its formation in 2008, CMN has assisted with the starting of over 2000 new congregations in every region of the US.
Steve is the co-author with Dr. Tom Nebel of “Leading Church Multiplication,” available from ChurchSmart Resources.
Steve’s passion for church multiplication began in 1989 when Steve and his wife, Cherri, pioneered a new church that became the catalyst of a church planting movement in the state of Utah that continues to this day. The Pikes make their home in Denver, Colorado. They are blessed to be the parents of Lindsy and Jeremy and the grandparents of Myles, Koen and Wesley.

Dave Reynolds
Coach
Dave and his wife Elena have served in church planting since 1990. They launched a church in Huntington Beach, CA in 1991 that launched several more churches over the years. They recently attended the 25 year celebrations of the church they planted and one that they helped launch.
In 1998, the Reynolds moved to Vancouver, WA to launch Northwest Church Planting, an interdenominational church planting organization that assessed, coached, trained and supported hundreds of planters and continues today. In 2003, the Reynolds were called back to Southern California to launch another multiplying church, and also launched Southwest Church Planting which continues today. In 2014, Dave was asked to direct planting nationally for the Alliance, where he developed a national strategy to prepare all kinds of churches to become “Greenhouses” that grow planters. Dave currently serves on the Alliance national team, coaches planters, leaders and teams, and is planting another church.
Dave is also a musician and plays gigs solo and with his son in the beautiful wine country of the Temecula Valley. Dave and Elena have three grown children and live in Southern California.

Larry Barker
Coach
In 2005 Larry was elected to serve the Baptist Missionary Association Missions Department in a dual role as Romanian Church Planting Coordinator and to lead Barnabas Touch Ministry teams to conduct pastor and missionary trainings internationally. Then in 2007 he became the Director of Operations for North America overseeing church planting. He has a passion to see hundreds of churches planted throughout the USA and Canada. His purpose statement is, “raising up a generation of church planters to transform their communities with the gospel.”
Shelby is an RN and serves as a charge nurse at Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton, AR. The Barkers have three children: Meredith with her 2 sons Lincoln and Lucas, Matthew (wife Allison) with 2 sons Calix and Chael who are church planters in Nixa, MO, and Benjamin (wife Kimi), their son Bear and their daughter Finley.

Brian Ehlers
Coach
He was a senior pastor from 2001 to 2011. Since 2011 Brian has developed Open Bible East church planting systems under the tutelage of Gary Rohrmayer. With God’s blessing, healthy churches have been birthed and others are in the pipeline. Brian is excited to coach movement leaders as a part of Church Multiplication Partners, sharing what he has learned with others. He lives in Englewood, OH with his wife and twin daughters.

Scott Thomas
Coach
He authored the Gospel Coach Workbook (C2C Network, 2014), Redeeming Grace (2016), and Twenty Great Truths (Zondervan, 2010) to help pastors develop leaders within the local church. Scott and Jeannie have been married for 35 years and have two grown married sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law and two grandchildren. They all live in Nashville.

Ken Nabi
Coach
In 1995, Ken obeyed God’s call to full-time ministry and joined the staff of Community Church in Fond du Lac, WI where he would serve for the next 21 years. He led multiple capital campaigns, a major campus relocation, and an expanding staff while keeping the church moving toward multiplication by planting new works locally and establishing global partnerships for the spread of the gospel in Galati, Romania and Senegal, West Africa. Currently, Ken has been helping start and strengthen churches all over the Great Lakes region. His experience has equipped him to walk with pastors and churches, coaching them through the unique struggles of ministry, church & home life. He is recognized as a gifted, strategic leader with a counselor's heart, and his ministry is marked with an emphasis in whole-life change. He loves the local church and is passionate about the gospel as the source of true life transformation. His desire it to live a life of influence that impacts leaders, churches, and regions to become healthy and reproductive for the glory of God.
Ken and his wife, Karen, are parents to four boys and still live, worship and serve together in Fond du Lac, WI.

Tim Ponzani
Coach

Brian Weber
Coach

Danny Parmelee
Coach
Our extra skills
Not only are we coaches and leaders in church planting, we're leaders in life! We're your family and so much more than leadership coaches.