Gary Rohrmayer is an executive leader with a get it done attitude. Leading both start ups and historic organizations in significant growth and lasting impact. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs after he experienced a dramatic conversion in his early 20’s, he turned this entrepreneurial energy into starting new churches throughout the Midwest. As a pastor, author, speaker, coach, trainer and executive leader he has a unique focus in mobilizing and mentoring leaders in the mission of Jesus.

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, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, has earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates, and has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editorin-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited in, interviewed by, and writes for news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is the Founding Editor of The Gospel Project, a curriculum used by more than 1.7 million individuals each week for bible study.

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.

I was born in a small town in northeast Wisconsin, and I came to know Christ by reading the Bible during high school. I went to college near Green Bay (St. Norbert College), spent a year in Africa, then went on to Denver Seminary. After that I was married and we moved back to Wisconsin to plant a church. It went well, and then I became part of our regional and national church planting efforts (what we called TeAmerica) in the Baptist General Conference. I eventually became the first regional director and then the first national director of church planting for our fellowship of churches (now known as “Converge Worldwide”). Together we saw over 800 new churches successfully planted.

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 is the President and Founder of Urban Islands Project, a national collaborative organization dedicated to increasing the presence of the Church, the urban core of America’s 40 largest urban centers.

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 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 and Shelby Barker were married in June of 1978 and have been in full time ministry ever since. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Church Ministries and a Masters of Theology from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He pastored over twenty years, planted a church in 1992 in Northern Illinois, and served as a missionary in Romania.

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 is church planting director for Open Bible East. He obtained a B.S. in Business with a major in Finance from Miami University of Ohio and a M.A. in Practical Theology from Regent University. A Charted Financial Analyst certification was earned while working in the Mutual Fund Industry. Brian transitioned to vocational ministry in ’98.

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 is the US Director for C2C Network, a multi-denominational North American church-planting network. Scott served as President of Acts 29 Network for many years and is currently planting a church. Scott is the co-author of Gospel Coach: Shepherding Leaders to Glorify God (Zondervan, 2012). He regularly trains leaders in the Gospel Coach Training and Certification system.

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 is the Regional President of Converge Great Lakes. He has had a passion for making Christ known to the world since he decided to follow Christ at the age of 18. That one decision changed the trajectory of his life and led him to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he earned a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. Ken’s passion for church multiplication began when he attended his first church plant in 1989 right out of seminary. In the years to follow, he became a certified marriage and family therapist working with troubled teens, broken marriages, and family dysfunction.

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, D. Min., is the Regional President and Executive Minister of Converge Northeast. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where he earned a D.Min in Redemptive Leadership and Organizational Development. Tim’s areas of passion are healthy discipleship, leadership development, organization design, and corporate governance. Prior to his role with Converge Northeast, Tim served as Executive Pastor at Valley Community Baptist Church in Avon, Connecticut and Administrative Pastor at Grace Chapel in Lexington Massachusetts. Prior to full-time vocational ministry, Tim worked nine years in management positions in corporate human resources in retail banking and retail apparel focusing on corporate health, welfare benefits and compensation practice. He and his wife, Sharon have been married for over 30 years, are the proud parents of two adult children.

Brian Weber is originally from the Philadelphia area where he served as a pastor in the Converge MidAtlantic district for more than 15 years.  While serving in that role, Brian mobilized efforts to start new churches in the Greater Delaware Valley and to send missionaries around the world.  Brian is a graduate of Wheaton College and earned his Master of Divinity degree at Bethel Seminary of the East. Before his appointment as Converge MidAtlantic’s Regional President in 2018, Brian worked for three years with Compassion International. Brian and Sharon now live on the Eastern Shore, Maryland with their four children. 

Danny Parmelee grew up in a small town in North Central Wisconsin. With his weekends filled with hockey games and tournaments, there wasn’t much time for church. Like many teenagers do, he was sucked into a life of self promotion and self-indulgence. His freshman year at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh he surrendered his life to Christ through the ministry of Cru. He became the Cru Student President and saw many reached for Christ. Danny's sophomore year in college, he got involved at Oshkosh Community Church, a church plant that plants churches. At the age of 19, God called him to ministry, and specifically to church planting. He met his wife Emili in college (University of WI Oshkosh) They got engaged while Danny was studying Biblical Hebrew at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and she was serving on a missions trip in Gaza. Danny and Emili married right after college graduation and moved to St. Paul, MN where Danny completed his Masters of Divinity from Bethel Seminary. In 2004, they moved to Milwaukee, WI to plant what would become Epikos Church. The church grew from a small group of 10 guys meeting in their living room to a multisite, multiethnic, congregation with over 2,000 in weekly attendance. He has also had the privilege of being the chaplain of the Milwaukee Admirals Hockey Team (affiliate team of the Nashville Predators). In 2017, Danny accepted his current role as Vice President of Church Planting for Converge MidAmerica | Southeast | Caribbean. Danny, his wife, and two daughters live Nashville, TN.