Dr. Joel C. Hunter is senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed. During his tenure, which began in 1985, Northland has grown from 200 faithful souls to a congregation of 12,000 that
worships at four sites around Metro Orlando and around the world via interactive Webcast. Congregants take leadership of nearly every
ministry effort inside the church, out in the community and around the world. Elders, pastors and paid staff don’t try to control the
initiatives of congregants or the connections they make, and they don’t watch over their shoulders unnecessarily. Dr. Hunter encourages Northlanders: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you’ve got.” And they do!
Before bringing his family to Northland, Dr. Hunter served as a United Methodist pastor for 15 years in Indiana. He and his wife, Becky, have
been partners in the ministry since their marriage in 1972. Becky is the former president of the Global Pastors Wives Network and the author of Being Good to Your Husband On Purpose (Creation House). The Hunters are parents to three married sons: Josh, director of operations for Summit Church, one of the largest churches in Orlando;
Isaac, senior pastor of Summit Church, who leads this unique congregation of mostly 20-somethings; and Joel, a doctor currently completing his Ophthalmology Fellowship. The Hunters have six
grandchildren.
A longtime bridge-builder who seeks common ground for the common good, Dr. Hunter approaches today’s issues in a biblical and balanced manner. He has become an internationally known spokesperson for
“compassion issues” outlined in Scripture: sanctity of life, creation care, justice, poverty, and marriage and the family, and has been
featured in national publications including Time, Newsweek and The New York Times, as well as programs such as “The Early Show,” CNN’s
“American Morning,” PBS’ “Religion and Ethics,” “Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull,” and “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Cooperation and partnership are hallmarks of Dr. Hunter’s ministry. Together, he believes, we can accomplish more because of our differences than we would on our own—without giving up our unique
identities. A respected leader in the Evangelical community, he serves on the board of the World Evangelical Alliance (420 million
constituents) and the National Association of Evangelicals (30 million members).
Dr. Hunter is also partnering with other groups to accomplish common goals. He is working with respected members of the scientific community to call attention to human-caused threats to the
environment. Grist magazine named him among the top 15 religious environmental leaders in the world, along with the Pope and the Dalai Lama. Additionally, as a delegate to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum held in Doha, Qatar, he is seeking to build a dialogue between Muslim and Christian communities.
Recently, Dr. Hunter was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which will advise
President Barack Obama on substantive policy issues, including interfaith relations, strengthening the role of fathers in society and
reducing the number of abortions.
Dr. Hunter is the author of several books, including A New Kind of Conservative (Regal Books), which outlines a non-partisan approach to
political involvement.

David Gushee bio

Ronald J.
Sider (Ph.D., Yale) is Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and
Public Policy and Director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public
Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary and President of Evangelicals for
Social Action. A widely known evangelical speaker and writer, Sider has
spoken on six continents, published thirty-one books and scores of
articles. In 1982, The Christian Century named him one of the twelve “most influential persons in the field of religion in the U.S.” His Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was recognized by Christianity Today
as one of the one hundred most influential religious books of the
twentieth century and named the seventh most influential book in the
evangelical world in the last fifty years. His most recent books are The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World and I Am not a Social Activist. Among his other publications are: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World, Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America and Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works (with Phil Olson and Heidi Unruh). Sider is the publisher of PRISM magazine and a contributing editor of Christianity Today and Sojourners. He has lectured at scores of colleges and universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford.