WORLD CLASS LEADERS
Our Team
Gary Rohrmayer
PRESIDENT, CONVERGE MIDAMERICA | SOUTHEAST | CARIBBEAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AXELERATE
Gary has served on every level of church planting from a church-planting intern and pioneer church planter to a national director of church planting. In 1988, Gary and his wife, Mary, joined Converge to plant a pioneering church plant. After getting that first church up and running, he began coaching church planters and eventually assisted the overseeing of 17 new churches in southeastern Wisconsin.
In 1998, Gary was asked to leave Wisconsin and bring a new sense of energy and vision to a regional network within Converge that had been in decline for 10 years. Over the last 25 years, Converge MidAmerica has grown from 86 churches to over 684 churches. This new movement of churches has revolutionized this organization on all levels.
In 2006, Gary was asked to provide leadership to Converge National Church Planting Team where he laid the groundwork for a united church planting surge throughout its 11 regional entities which led to the largest number of church plants in its 170-year history. Ed Stetzer described Converge during this time as, "One of the leading church planting organizations in America."
Gary has authored over 15 books and is passionate about multiplying disciples, leaders, churches, and movements.
Gary and Mary have three grown children, and three grandchildren and live in the greater Chicago area.
AXELERATE
Coaches
Called on by God to assist you in reaching church planting success!
Ed Stetzer
CONSULTANT
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, 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 Editor-in-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.
Larry Barker
COACH
Larry Barker and his wife Shelby 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 Master of Theology from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He pastored for 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 training internationally. Then in 2007, he became the Director of Operations for North America overseeing church planting.
He has a passion for seeing hundreds of churches planted throughout the USA and Canada. His purpose is to raise 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
Brian Ehlers is Secretary/Treasurer for Open Bible Churches. He obtained a B.S. in Business with a major in Finance from Miami University of Ohio and an M.A. in Practical Theology from Regent University. A Chartered 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. From 2011 to 2017, Brian developed Open Bible East church planting systems under the tutelage of Gary Rohrmayer. With God’s blessing, healthy churches were birthed. Brian was called to become Secretary/Treasurer in 2017, he is honored to serve Open Bible church plant leaders by facilitating collaboration among the different regional leaders. Brian is excited to coach movement leaders as a part of Church Multiplication Partners, sharing what he has learned with others. He lives in Monroe, IA with his wife and twin daughters.
Ben Ingebretson
COACH
Ben Ingebretson is husband to Karen, father to three adult kids and their families and lives in Grand Rapids MI. Since college and seminary days in Minnesota and Scotland (Bethel St. Paul and then University of Aberdeen) he has been a bi-vo church planter, pastor of a multiplying church and served as new church development director with two denominations; the Reformed Church in America (2002-2012) and the United Methodist church (2015-2023).
As planting director, Ben focused on the unique role a denominational and regional planting director can contribute by developing multiplication systems that increase planting capacity. During those years those systems yielded 100’s of new church starts that Ben participated in.
Ben likes to say that one of the primary qualifiers for his role as a coach is the number of mess-ups he has taken part in or witnessed up close. Each has yielded deep learning and wisdom he can humbly pass on to others.
Ben has published several books: Parent Church Landmines (2010), Multiplication Moves (2012) and most recently, Plant Like Jesus, the church planters devotional (2021). In his down time he loves to tandem bike with his wife, hang out with his growing family and sail the Great Lakes!
Ken Nabi
COACH
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 on whole-life change. He loves the local church and is passionate about the gospel as the source of true life transformation. His desire is 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.
Tom Nebel
COACH
Tom Nebel was born in a small town in northeast Wisconsin and came to know Christ by reading the Bible during high school. Tom went to college near Green Bay at St. Norbert College, spent a year in Africa, and then went on to Denver Seminary. After that, he was married and moved back to Wisconsin to plant a church. Tom then became part of regional and national church planting efforts (what was then called TeAmerica) in the Baptist General Conference. He eventually became the first regional director and then the first national director of church planting for that fellowship of churches (now known as “Converge Worldwide”). Together, Converge saw over 800 new churches successfully planted.
Tom spent his ministry career learning how to do things better and conveying that to others. That goes for starting new churches (he has published books and spoken on that quite a bit), but it goes for other things as well. He has enjoyed being a coach and encourager for people from all walks of life.
Tom says this of his journey, “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.”
In August of 2014, Tom’s most recent book (co-authored with Steve Pike) was released, called Leading Church Multiplication: Locally, Regionally, Nationally. The book talks about the practical aspects of leading a church planting organization.
Danny Parmelee
COACH
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. As many teenagers do, he was sucked into a life of self-promotion and self-indulgence.
In his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he surrendered his life to Christ through the ministry of Cru. He became the Cru Student President and saw many people reached for Christ. During 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, specifically to church planting.
He met his wife Emili in college, and they were engaged while Danny was studying Biblical Hebrew at the 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 Master 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 ten guys meeting in their living room to a multisite, multiethnic, congregation with over 2,000 in weekly attendance.
Danny has had the privilege of being the chaplain of the Milwaukee Admirals Hockey Team (an 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 in Nashville, TN.
Steve Pike
COACH
Steve Pike is the president and founder of Urban Islands Project, a national collaborative organization dedicated to increasing the presence of the Church in 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’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.
Steve is the co-author with Dr. Tom Nebel of Leading Church Multiplication, available from ChurchSmart Resources.
Tim Ponzani
COACH
Tim Ponzani is the Regional President and Executive Minister of Converge Northeast. He is a graduate of Ohio State University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where he earned a Doctor of Ministry 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 and are the proud parents of two adult children.
Dave Reynolds
COACH
Dave Reynolds 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 both solo and also with his son in the beautiful wine country of the Temecula Valley. Dave and Elena have three grown children and live in Southern California.
Scott Thomas
COACH
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 sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren. They all live in Nashville.
Brian Weber
COACH
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 in Maryland with their four children.