Sarah-Jane Bentley
Fellow for Education and English Literature
Sarah-Jane is a highly experienced teacher, having worked in independent senior schools in the UK and internationally. She is now teaching English at Eton College, where she has been for the last ten years. After gaining an English degree from Oxford University she worked in journalism and strategic communications in the Middle East before settling on a career in education. Also a director of the Association of Christian Teachers, a trustee of Wintershall and a contributor to the CiRCE Institute’s podcast and print media, Sarah-Jane loves sharing the Christian faith in the realms of education.
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Burnside
Fellow for Biblical Law
Jonathan is Professor of Biblical Law at the Law School, University of Bristol, where he teaches Criminal Law and Jurisprudence. His work focuses on the interface and tensions that arise between law, religion and society. His academic expertise in three disciplines – Law, Criminology and Biblical Studies – has enabled him, over the past 30 years, to address some of the issues presented by relating faith-based norms to politics and society. He is the author of God, Justice and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), among other works.
Tim Dieppe
Fellow for Public Policy
Tim is Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern which he joined in 2016 following a successful career in fund management.
Tim engages with public policy in the UK, overseeing work on education, beginning of life, end of life, Islam, secularism, free speech, gender, and sexuality. Tim regularly writes articles articulating a Christian perspective on public policy. He frequently appears in the media to discuss or debate issues, and presents distinctly Christian perspective on topical issues of the day. Tim teaches on public policy issues in churches and at conferences.
Tim contributed two chapters to Beyond the Odds: Providence in Britain’s Wars of the 20th Century, (Wilberforce Publications, 2021). This book examines the role of prayer and faith in the first and second world wars, and also the Falklands war.
Tim coauthored with Beth Peltola Questions to Ask Your Muslim Friends: A Closer Looks at Islamic Beliefs and Texts, (Wilberforce Publications, 2022). This book seeks to encourage Christians to engage their Muslim friends in conversations about faith.
Tim has two children, and enjoys walking, board games, reading, and photography.
Education
BA in Mathematics with Computation: Oxford University (1991).
MA (Distinction) in Kingdom Theology: Westminster Theological Centre (2017).
Jeff Durbin
Fellow for Evangelism and Apologetics
Jeff Durbin has been Pastor/Elder of Apologia Church in Mesa since he planted it in February of 2010. He worked for many years as a hospital chaplain. Jeff is a popular speaker for camps, conferences, churches & schools across the nation. He has participated in outreach to various religious organizations and cults nationwide and has engaged in moderated public debates.
Jeff was featured on a series for the History Channel, The Stoned Ages which reviewed the Christian approach and philosophy concerning drug and alcohol addiction. Jeff created Apologia Studios which produces content seen by millions globally.. He hosts Apologia Radio and Apologia TV, both of which garner followers throughout the US and internationally. Both shows are available via Apologia Studios. He also leads Apologia’s ministry, End Abortion Now, whose goal is to criminalize and end abortion through the work of the local church and state legislation.
Jeff is a World Champion martial artist with 5 Black-Belts. He starred in popular video games, movies and tours. He played Michelangelo and Donatello for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise as well as Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat the world tour. Our younger crowd may have even seen him as a fighter in MTV’s The Final Fu. Jeff has been married to his wife, Candi, for over 22-years. They have 5-children: Sage, Immagin, Saylor, Stellar, and Augustine. They also have 3-grandchildren: Ezra, Nathan, and Eve.
Dr. Ted Fenske
Fellow for Medicine and Public Christianity
Dr. Ted Fenske is Clinical Professor with the Division of Cardiology at the University of Alberta, staff cardiologist at the C.K. Hui Heart Centre, and an Elder at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Edmonton.
Referring to himself in his hospital role as a sheep in wolf’s clothing, he endeavors to shine God’s light in dark places of need and provide compassionate care for his patients, asserting that his personal faith in Christ has been the focus and foundation of his practice.
He has been involved in outreach mission, both locally and abroad, including medical mission trips to Siberia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is an author of numerous books and journals, and has a passion for equipping ministry, speaking in public forums on a broad range of topics, including the COVID crisis and vaccination concerns, countering abortion and euthanasia, addressing conscience rights, LGBT agenda and gender confusion, and pornography addiction, and critiquing evolutionism and environmentalism.
Formerly from Vancouver, he is the proud father of three sons and content to call Edmonton home these past 30+ years, where he and his wife, Tanya, are actively involved in the Christian community.
Education
Cardiology Fellowship in Echocardiography: University of Alberta, Division of Cardiology, 1996-97.
Certificate of Special Competence, Cardiology: Royal College of Physicians of Canada, November 1996.
Cardiology Residency: University of Alberta, Division of Cardiology, 1994-96.
Specialist Certification in Internal Medicine (FRCPC) June 1995.
Internal Medicine Residency: University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine, 1991-94.
MD Graduate with Clinical Distinction: University of British Columbia, 1986-90.
Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry, University of Victoria, 1982-86
Selected Publications
Keeping Faith in Medicine: Maintaining a Gospel Focus in Secularized Healthcare. Foreword by J. Patrick, MD/PhD. Ezra Press, Toronto, © 2020.
While You Diet: The Skinny on Reducing Your Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke. Foreword by A. M. Sharma, MD/PhD. 4th Floor Press, Calgary, © 2012.
While You Quit: A Smoker’s Guide to Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke. Foreword by Dr. W. Dafoe. Dundurn Press, Toronto, © 2009.
Christianity in the Crosshairs: Conversion Bill C-4 Takes Aim at Canadian Freedoms. Jubilee Magazine. Ezra Press. May 1, 2022.
Killing Me Softly? Euthanasia and the desire for so-called dignity. Focus Magazine CMDS Publication. June 2012; Volume 32(Issue 2):18-19
Ambassador Dennis J. Ignatius
Fellow for Intercultural Discourse and Global Affairs
A Malaysian career diplomat, Dennis has served in London, Beijing and Washington before being appointed ambassador to Chile in 1992, Argentina in 1996 and Canada in 2001. He was also concurrently accredited to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. He retired from the foreign service in 2008.
Dennis had a dramatic encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on Embassy Row in Washington D.C. in 1986 that radically changed his life. Since then, he has preached the Gospel and ministered at churches and conferences and testified about his faith in Jesus to political and business leaders in Latin America, the United States, Canada, Europe and Malaysia.
He is currently an itinerant minister and motivational speaker. His passion is to see believers transformed by the power of the Gospel and walking out their full calling as ambassadors for Christ. His Christian ministry, Arise Ambassadors, is dedicated to helping believers pursue God with passion, serve God with excellence and honour God with a life lived well.
He is the author of Fire Begets Fire, a book about the passionate pursuit of God. His biweekly email devotional, Fuel For The Fire, has an international circulation.
Dennis is also an international affairs columnist as well as diplomatic advisor to First Step Forum, a Helsinki-based group of Christian professionals, business leaders and politicians committed to helping persecuted Christians by building bridges and promoting dialogue with national governments.
Dennis and his wife, Cherry, divide their time between Ottawa, Canada and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Dr. Peter Jones
Fellow for New Testament Theology and Christian Worldview
Associate Pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church (Escondido, CA), and Director of truthXchange. Born in Liverpool (and a friend of John Lennon), Peter attended the University of Wales, then did his graduate work at Gordon Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School and Princeton Seminary.
In 1971, he married Rebecca Clowney and by early 1974, they had moved to France as one of three missionaries commissioned by the first General Assembly of the newly-formed Presbyterian Church in America. For nearly eighteen years, Peter taught at the Reformed Seminary in Aix-en-Provence, while also leading a church-planting team and serving as president of a board that began a Christian school. The Jones family was also privileged to introduce to France a tool for communicating with the deaf, Cued Speech.
In 1991, Peter accepted a position as New Testament professor at Westminster Seminary, CA. The shock of seeing, on his return, the vast spiritual changes that had occurred in the US led him to begin studying the “New Age.” He began researching, analyzing and writing about the upsurge of pagan spirituality in the US. In 2003, he resigned his teaching position at Westminster Seminary to found truthXchange (originally Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet). Since then, he has worked full-time, speaking and writing about what has now become the “spiritual but not religious” movement that has so heavily influenced the upcoming generations.
Peter is the author of a good number of books, including The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back (1992), Spirit Wars (1997), Gospel Truth/Pagan Lies (1999), Capturing the Pagan Mind (2003), Cracking DaVinci’s Code (2004, co-author, James Garlow), Stolen Identity (2006), The God of Sex (2006), One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference (2010), The Other Worldview (2015), and Whose Rainbow? (2020).
truthXchange equips and empowers the church to communicate the gospel lovingly and effectively to a culture that has lost the crucial distinction between worshiping creation and worshiping the Triune God.
Peter and Rebecca have seven children and numerous grandchildren.
Graeme Leach
Fellow for Biblical Economics
Graeme Leach is one of Britain’s leading economists and CEO and chief economist of Macronomics. He is a former chief economist and director of policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD) where he represented the IoD in economic discussions with the Chancellor and 10 Downing Street. He is a visiting professor of economic policy and a senior fellow of the Legatum Institute in London. He is also a member of the IEA Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (SMPC) and a life fellow of the IoD. He also lectures graduate students in macroeconomics at Cardiff University Business School.
Graeme started his career at The Henley Centre for Forecasting, where he became chief UK economist and chief international economist. He has also worked as economic adviser to the Scottish Provident Investment Group.
Graeme has a passion for Christian worldview analysis and the need for the church to advance a genuine biblical economic model based on freedom. He argues that the free market is God’s market, which is one of the reasons why so many people don’t like it. Correctly understood, he argues the Biblical case for the free market is the case for free markets and economic liberty.
Over the past decade, Graeme has made hundreds of speeches on the future economic outlook and economic policy, in the UK and more than 25 countries across the globe.
Graeme’s forthcoming book, Fast Forward, argues that the world economy in the 2020s and into the 2030s will be characterized by four once-in-a-century shocks – all in one decade – which will be intensified by Covid-19: (1) A technology-led spike in productivity growth. (2) A demographic shock wave. (3) A geopolitical shift with Great Power rivalry. (4) A surge in the size of the state. Fast Forward shows which economies will win or lose in the coming decades.
Dr. Ben Merkle
Fellow for Higher Education
Dr. Ben Merkle is NSA’s second president and previously served as the undergraduate dean. He holds a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies and an M.St. in Jewish Studies from Oxford University, England; an M.A. degree in English Literature, a Greyfriars Letter, and a B.S. in Education (Secondary Education-Chemistry, with a minor in History) both from the University of Idaho. He is a Senior Fellow of Theology at NSA and teaching elder at Christ Church, in Moscow.
Dr. Merkle is the author of The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009) and Defending the Trinity in the Reformed Palatinate (Oxford University Press 2015). He and wife Bekah (B.A., 1998), the first graduate of New Saint Andrews, have five children.
Daniel Ogden, J.D.
Fellow for International Law, Comparative Politics, and International Relations
Daniel Ogden is a Lecturer at Baylor University in Waco, Texas where he teaches various courses in international law and relations, comparative politics, and international trade. An attorney by profession, prior to embarking on a career in teaching he maintained an international law practice for over 30 years in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He was one of the founders of the Federalist Society Dallas Lawyers Chapter and previously served as the Chair of the National District Export Council as well as on the Board of Directors of truthXchange, Inc. He currently serves as a faculty advisor to the Baylor student group Oso Logos, which is a chapter of the global organization Ratio Cristi.
An admirer of Abraham Kuyper and Kuyperian thought most notably Kuyper’s explication of the notion of sphere sovereignty has particular interests in the biblical foundations of the international political system, the free market economic system, and of the political theories of the rule of law and natural rights. He is a charter member of Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas and has audited more than 15 courses in church history, apologetics, and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary-Dallas and Redeemer Theological Seminary-Dallas. He lives in Crawford, Texas with his wife, Carol, who retired after a career in working with international students and teaching English as a Second Language at the University of North Texas.
Education
J.D. Texas Tech University, 1987
M.A. International Management, University of Texas at Dallas, 1984
B.G.S. with honors in Political Science and History, University of Kansas, 1979
Prof. Dr. Willem J. Ouweneel
Fellow for Systematic Theology
Willem was one of the founders of the Evangelical College (Evangelische Hogeschool) at Amersfoort, the Netherlands, where he taught until his retirement in 2009. From 1990 to 1997, he served as a professor in the philosophy of the natural sciences at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (South Africa). From 1995 to 2014, he was a professor on the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven (Belgium). From 1996 until 2001, he taught philosophy, theology, and psychology at the State-Independent Theological Seminary in Basel, Switzerland.
Prior to his work in theology and philosophy, Willem taught biology and engaged in research on genetics and embryology, and served as chief editor of the scholarly journal Bible and Science (Bijbel en Wetenschap) until 2001.
Beginning in 2014 Willem released a series of academic introductory works with Paideia Press on thinking as a Christian about the academic disciplines of Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science and History. His book, The World is Christ’s: A Critique of Two Kingdoms Theology, published by Ezra Press, is a thorough review of the historical, logical, and exegetical considerations surrounding the Two Kingdoms controversy, and helps readers understand that everything we do is an act of worship – the issue is whether our worship is directed towards God or away from him. Willem continues to write prolifically and maintains an active speaking and preaching calendar around the world.
Education
Ph.D.: Theology, University of the Orange Free State, 1993
Ph.D.: Philosophy, Free University of Amsterdam, 1986
Ph.D: Biology, University of Utrecht, 1970
Selected Publications
The World is Christ’s: A Critique of Two Kingdoms Theology. Toronto: Ezra Press, 2017. Probing the Past: An Introduction to Christian Historical Science. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 2016. Wisdom for Thinkers: An Introduction to Christian Philosophy. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 2014. Power in Service: An Introduction to Christian Political Science. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 2014. What Then Is Theology?: An Introduction to Christian Theology. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 2014. Searching the Soul: An Introduction to Christian Psychology. Jordan Station, ON: Paideia Press, 2014. Christian doctrine: old truths in new perspective. Amsterdam: Buijten & Schipperheijn, 1995. “The Credibility of Scripture.” Acta Theologica, 1995, 15 (1): 1-27. “Supratemporality in the Transcendental Anthropology of Herman Dooyeweerd.” Philosophia Reformata, 1993, Vol. 58, No. 2. 210 – 220.
Rev. Tobias Riemenschneider
Fellow for Church – State Relations
Tobias is pastor of Evangelical Reformed Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Germany. He is also a trained lawyer, working for international law firms for about ten years before moving into pastoral ministry full-time. Tobias is the co-founder of PRO REGE Ministries, which aims to defend the Christian faith and promote a biblical worldview among Christians in Germany. He is also the co-founder of an anti-abortion ministry in Germany. Tobias is co-author of the internationally acknowledged Frankfurt Declaration of Christian and Civil Liberties, which opposes state totalitarianism.
He is also the author of Resisting Tyranny: A Christian Response to Government Overreach (Ezra Press, 2023). He has released a number of statements in German on current issues, frequently dealing with the relationship between the State and the Church. Several of his sermons and writings have been published in German. Tobias is married to Nicole and is the father of three children.
Rev. Dr. David Robinson
Fellow for Patristics and Pastoral Theology
Senior Pastor at Westminster Chapel, Toronto.
David has a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of St. Michael’s College (at the University of Toronto), where he studied the history and theology of Early Christianity. His doctoral dissertation translated and analyzed an early Christian commentary on the book of Revelation.
David has published an annotated translation of Tyconius’s Exposition of the Apocalypse (with Francis X. Gumerlock). He has presented papers at various academic conferences and has published articles in Studia Patristica, Worship, Theoforum, Humanitas, and Revista Vida y Espiritualidad.
In addition to his fulltime pastoral ministry, he also serves on the board of the Ontario/Quebec region of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and he teaches courses in biblical studies, historical theology, and systematic theology at Tyndale University.
He lives in Toronto with his wife Megan and three children, Samuel, Leah, and Lucas.
Rev. Dr. Aaron Rock
Fellow for Church Leadership
Aaron has ministered as a college professor, denominational leader, chaplain, church planter, teacher, and pastor. He serves as the founding and lead pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Windsor (since 2001), a church that has grown from five people to 1500. He blogs at www.pursuitofglory.org and hosts the Leadership Now podcast.
Aaron lives on a hobby farm in Amherstburg, Ontario. Aaron and his wife Susie have five children and are also grandparents.
Publications
Building Spiritual Muscle. (Guardian Books: Belleville, 2002, 2012 reprint).
Divine Hydration. (Southwood Publications: Windsor, 2009).
Contributor, Encyclopedia of Messianic Candidates and Movements in Judaism, Samaritanism and Islam. Ed., Eugene Mayhew (St. Clair Shores, MI: Cadieux & Maheux Press, 2009)
Education
M.Th. Master of Theology (Homiletics) with Academic Distinction. Thesis: The Use of a Central Proposition in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Evangelical Homiletics.
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Robert Kelly
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON. (2012)
D.Min. Doctor of Ministry (Church Growth and Christian Spirituality) Thesis: Developing a Spiritually-Formative Leadership Mentoring Ministry at Southwood Community Church. Thesis supervisors: Dr. Frank Schmitt, Dr. Douglas Porter
Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA. (2006)
M.Div. Master of Divinity (concentration in Biblical Languages & Hermeneutics) with high honours.
Michigan Seminary (now: Moody Seminary-Michigan), Plymouth, MI. (1999)
B.Th. Bachelor of Theology, (Double minor in Youth & Missions).
Heritage College, Cambridge, ON. (1996)
Rev. Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin
Fellow for Public Theology and Cultural Philosophy
Andrew is an ordained minister, Executive Director of the Fellowship of Mere Christianity, Faculty of Blackstone Legal Fellowship of the Alliance Defending Freedom, and De Jong Distinguished Visiting Professor of Culture and Theology, Edinburg Theological Seminary, a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, and is President of the Center for Cultural Leadership.
He founded CCL in 2001 with the conviction that only eminently-equipped cultural leaders will actually create a new Christian culture – and that only transformed Christians can transform the present anti-Christian culture of the West. Andrew was born into a devout Christian home. He has been preaching and teaching and lecturing for 30 years. A consummate eclectic, Andrew has been a pastor, assistant pastor, youth pastor, Sunday school superintendent, Christian day school administrator, home school father, foundation’s executive vice president, journal editor, scholar, author and itinerant speaker. Andrew is married to Sharon and has five adult children and three grandchildren.
Education
B. A.: English, history, and political science (University of the State of New York) M. A. in English literature (University of South Africa) Ph.D.: Sacred Theology summa cum laude (Edinburg Theological Seminary).
Selected Publications
The Christian Sexual Worldview: God’s Order in an Age of Sexual Chaos. Coulterville, CA: Center for Cultural Leadership, 2015 Political liberalism: theological presuppositions. Coulterville, CA: Center for Cultural Leadership, 2015. Andrew Sandlin, John Barach, and Norman Shepherd. Obedient faith: a festschrift for Norman Shepherd. Mount Hermon, CA: Kerygma Press, 2012. Andrew Sandlin, John H. Armstrong, Don B. Garlington, Mark Horne, Peter J. Leithart, Rich Lusk, and Norman Shepherd. 2007. A faith that is never alone: a response to Westminster Seminary California. La Grange, CA: Kerygma Press.
André Schutten
Fellow for Law and Civil Discourse
André is Senior Legal Counsel and Director of Training at Christian Legal Fellowship. He researches and writes on law and public policy and conducts regular analysis on the impact of different government bills and court judgments. Called to the Ontario Bar in 2011, he has represented clients in various court interventions, having made arguments before the Supreme Court of Canada in five cases and written and oral arguments in dozens of cases before five different provincial courts of appeal. He previously worked as General Legal Counsel with ARPA Canada and as an intern for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and for the Centre for Faith and Public Life. He also taught a course on law and public policy at Trinity Western University’s Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa, and teaches courses on law, human rights, and government institutions as an adjunct professor at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario.
André, his wife Karyn and their four children live in Caledonia, Ontario and are active members of their local church. André has also served as an ordained elder and a part-time organist and is a former Infantry Reservist.
Daniel Strange
Fellow for Comparative Religions
Daniel Strange is Fellow for Comparative Religions at the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Dan is the director of Crosslands Forum, a center for cultural engagement and missional innovation. Formerly he was college director and tutor in culture, religion, and public theology at Oak Hill College, London. His PhD under Professor Gavin D’Costa at Bristol University was on the inclusivism of Clark Pinnock. Dan is contributing editor for Themelios, vice president of The Southgate Fellowship, and a fellow of both The Ezra Institute and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He is visiting Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, North Carolina.
Daniel Francois Malherbe (Danie) Strauss
Fellow for Reformational Philosophy
He is the world’s leading expert on the theory of modal aspects, one of the core features of the thought of the Dutch philosopher, Herman Dooyeweerd, and the movement for Reformational philosophy.
Dan’s book, Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), received an award of merit for theology/ethics in the Christianity Today 2016 Book Awards. His most recent books are Plugged In (The Good Book Company, 2019), and Making Faith Magnetic (The Good Book Company, 2021). Dan is married to Elly, and has seven children and a foster child. He is an elder of Hope Community Church, Low Fell, Gateshead. He enjoys music and watching West Ham United.
Education
BA Hons (first class) in Theology & Religious Studies: University of Bristol (1996)
Ph.D in Theology: University of Bristol (1999)
Selected Publications
The Possibility of Salvation among the Unevangelised (Paternoster, 2000). Gibson, David, and Daniel Strange, eds. Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques. IVP, 2008. “Evangelical Public Theology: What on earth? Why on earth? How on earth?” In C. M. Green, ed. A Higher Throne: Evangelicals and Public Theology. IVP, 2008. “Is General Revelation Sufficient?” in Peterson and Morgan, eds. Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism. IVP, 2008. “Slain for the World? The ‘Uncomfortability’ of the ‘Unevangelized’ for a Universal Atonement.” In Gibson and Gibson, eds. From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological and Pastoral Perspective. Crossway, 2013. For Their Rock is Not as Our Rock: An Evangelical Theology of Religions (Apollos, 2014; Zondervan, 2015) Confident: Why We Can Trust The Bible (co-authored with Mike Ovey) (Christian Focus, 2015). “Rooted and Grounded? The Legitimacy of Abraham Kuyper’s distinction between church as institute and church as organism, and its usefulness in constructing an Evangelical Public Theology.” Themelios 40:3 (2015). Plugged in: Connecting your faith to what you watch, read and play (Good Book Company, 2019).
Rev. Dr. Michael Thiessen
Fellow for Church and Family Discipleship
Michael has over 20 years of pastoral ministry experience, including international teaching, coaching, and consulting experience.
With a heart for training and mentoring young adults and pastors, and advancing both church and cultural renewal, Michael Thiessen serves Liberty Coalition Canada as the Founder and President and also serves as a Teaching Pastor at Royal Spring Chapel in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Michael earned his Master’s degree with a focus in New Testament and Ethics (Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary) and holds a Doctor of Ministry Degree (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). Michael’s D. Min major research project is entitled: Responding to our Hemorrhaging Faith in Canada by Exploring a Family-Integrated Church Model as a Solution.
Michael is the author of Pursuing a First Class Marriage: Find the One Without Trying Many.
Michael has over 20 years of NPO board experience. He has served on various school, mission agency, and church boards.
Michael is married to Sarah. They have four children: Simon, Gabriel, Maylah-Belle, and Galilee-Ling.
Jeffery Ventrella, J.D., Ph.D.
Fellow for Jurisprudence and Political Thought
Jeffery J. Ventrella serves as Associate Attorney General for the State of Idaho. Previously he served as senior counsel and senior vice president of academic affairs and training at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Upon joining ADF in 2000, he has designed the curriculum for a number of ADF training programs, including the Blackstone Legal Fellowship (BLF), a unique training and professional development program for law students.
Jeffery also helped design ADF International’s Areté Academy Europe, Areté Academy Asia, and Areté Latin America, which provide training for exceptional international advocates and cultural leaders who are on a path to future leadership in a variety of disciplines.
Mr. Ventrella has served as a research fellow and a member of an ad hoc graduate thesis committee for the Department of Philosophy and constitutional law at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He is also a distinguished fellow of law and culture for the Center for Cultural Leadership. In 2014, TruthXchange appointed him a senior fellow. As an approved speaker for the Federalist Society, Mr. Ventrella serves as an appointed member of the society’s executive committee, guiding its religious liberties practice group. His book, The Cathedral Builder: Pursuing Cultural Beauty (2007), is part of the BLF core curriculum project. He also edits the BLF’s curriculum.
He has practiced law since 1985 and is a member of the Idaho State Bar, serving on its professionalism and ethics and diversity sections. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Education
B.M.E. (magna cum laude) in performance trumpet, University of Northern Colorado
J.D. University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Ph.D. in Church and State Studies from Whitefield Theological Seminary
Dr. James White
Fellow for Islamic Apologetics and Textual Criticism
James White is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools. He has authored or contributed to more than twenty books, including The King James Only Controversy, The Forgotten Trinity, The Potter’s Freedom, The God Who Justifies, and What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an.
He is an accomplished debater, having engaged in more than one hundred seventy-four moderated, public debates with leading proponents of Roman Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism, as well as critics such as Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and John Shelby Spong.
In recent years James has debated in such locations as Sydney, Australia, as well as mosques in Toronto, London, and South Africa.
He is a Pastor/Elder of Apologia Church in Arizona. He has been married to Kelli for more than thirty-seven years, and has two children, and four grandchildren.
