Matthew was rescued by Jesus when he was twenty-three. Shortly after, he found himself in Ghana, West Africa on the first of what would be many ventures to the mission field. That first trip, Matthew says, "ruined me for anything less than a life lived for God's global purpose." In 1993 he began serving at Calvary of Albuquerque, in New Mexico, where he attended and graduated from their School of Ministry. He worked as the missions pastor at Calvary for nine years, developing and launching a strategic church-wide missions ministry. There he founded an international short-term mission ministry called LifeLine Missions that gave thousands across the country the opportunity to experience the mission field firsthand. Through these ministry opportunities he became extensively involved in short and long-term mission endeavors in countries around the world.
Now, he devotes his time to serving local churches across the country by coaching them in strategically focused missions and helping them to discover and use their unique gifts in partnership with others to make Christ known among all nations. Matthew is the Chief Ministry Officer and co-founder of Sixteen:Fifteen, and currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Renee, and their three children, Matthew, Cali, and Landon.
As the NW Regional Director for ACMC he provides church consultations, training events and missions coaching. Having a heart for God and the Great Commission, he enjoys serving his local church, leading short term mission teams, and teaching in the area of discipleship and global missions. Ken lives with his wife and four children in Brentwood, CA.
Trish De Jong has been involved with Christian Reformed World Missions since 1996, spending ten of those years in Church Relations before taking on the role of Missions Resource Consultant. Trish joined the coaching team of 16:15 in 2008.
This role of consultant and coach role opened the way for Trish to focus on an area critical to congregational health. Its also one that she is passionate about - seeing churches become more involved and strategic in their cross-cultural ministries. In additon to working alongside the leadership of various Ontario churches through resourcing, teaching and facilitation, Trish has led short-term teams to Kazakhstan and Nicaragua, and had a hands-on view to many of CRWM's ministry sites around the globe. She holds an Honours B.A. in urban planning and environmental assessment from McMaster University.
Wendy Hammond is the Church Relations Manager for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. Based in the Grand Rapids, Mich. office, she encourages churches to be salt and light in their own communities and around the world. She has worked for CRWRC for more than 6 years, and is also on the board of the Communities First Association. Wendy has a BS in Advertising/Public Relations and an MPA with an emphasis in nonprofit management from Grand Valley State University. She and her husband Troy attend Monroe Community CRC, a church plant in downtown Grand Rapids.
For the past 28 years, Steve, along with his wife Becky, have been actively involved in pastoring churches in Sudan, New York, Arizona and California. Steve is currently Lead Pastor for Foothills Community Church in Arvada, Colorado.
The son of former missionaries to Africa with SIM, Steve has had long-time connections with the missionary enterprise and has a deep passion to help churches be effectively involved in the ministry of taking the gospel across cultures both globally and locally. Steve also has a strong commitment to help the emerging generation be empowered and equipped for its significant contribution to the cause of global evangelism.
Having served in both smaller and larger churches, he understands the diverse challenges related to mobilizing churches and individuals for the worldwide task of Kingdom ministry. As Senior Pastor, he has led initiatives to partner with international ministries in areas such as translation, church planting and compassion ministries.
The Harlings have four grown children and currently reside in Monument, Colorado.
Paul became a Christ follower as a junior in high school and immediately was called to be on mission with God. For 10 years he served as a praise and worship leader in Mississippi and 11 years as executive pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. While serving as Director of the International Congress on Revival traveling throughout Europe, Africa and Australia and serving as Executive Director of the Stephen Olford Institute in Biblical Preaching God began burdening his heart for the world, particularly for the local churches role in reaching the unreached.
For the past 8 years Paul has served as Vice President of Global Partnerships with Global Focus mobilizing local churches around the world to reclaim its role as God's primary instrument in reaching the world, particularly the unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. While at Global Focus he developed partnerships with 24 of the most effective mission agencies in the US and trained Global Focus international leadership teams in 24 countries, teams composed of national leaders whose passion is to mobilize their churches to be on mission, across the street and around the world.
Paul currently resides in Canton, GA with his lovely wife, Ellen who teaches second grade students in Cherokee County. They attend First Baptist Church of Canton where Paul serves as deacon and they both have co-taught a young couples class. In addition to being a missions coach Paul is Executive Vice President of Christian Resource Solutions and is a partner along with his brothers in The Harper Group.
Joe served in Indonesia for 1 ½ years, was missions director at Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, MD for 8 years after that and since 2001 has been serving with ACMC and GraceXtensions helping churches develop and improve their missions program. His particular area of interest is helping churches pursue unreached people group adoptions.
Joe is the co-director (http://www.acmc.org) for ACMC (Advancing Churches in Mission Commitment) for the northeast region (Virginia through Maine). In this ministry, Joe, and his partner, Dave Shive, are targeting the churches in the 13 northeastern states of the US. Their passion is to see congregations mobilized with a vision to harness all of their resources in the pursuit of God's mission.
He is married to Michele and they have five school-aged children. For obvious reasons, Joe has no hobbies.
Pastor John Torrison grew up in Albuquerque, NM, and received Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord on December 28, 1978 after serving 8 years in the U.S. Navy. He served on submarines then at Recruit Training Command in San Diego, CA. He has been pastor of Vista Grande Church in Sandia Park, NM for 11 years. He is also a New Work Coordinator for Central Baptist Association in Albuquerque, NM.
John has been married to his wife Trudy for 35 ½ years and they live in Cedar Crest, NM. They have two daughters: Jamie married to Brian Coey, three children Ashleigh, Hunter and Kassie living in Edgewood, NM; Sarah married to Robert Slusser and live in Chicago, IL
He loves basketball, soccer, and fishing and being around his grandchildren. He is a big Nebraska football fan and Lobo basketball fan. He loves playing music for the Lord.
Rev. Steven Van Zanen was a pastor in Minnesota and a missionary in Eastern Europe for six years before supervising church relations and support-raising for missionaries at Christian Reformed World Missions. His current work as Director for Missions Education and Engagement at CRWM is to help CRC congregations understand the changing realities of mission and engage with them in new and creative ways. Steve is excited about the potential for churches to deeply engage with God’s mission through the Discover, Design and Deploy methodology of Sixteen:Fifteen Church Missions Coaching. He is eager to take the journey with you.
Larry Walker’s personal mission statement is “to become an irresistible influence for Christ, Mission and Church”.
Larry grew-up in Central California where he was very active in a small rural church, met his wife Kathy, earned a B.A. in History and their first daughter was born. In 1971 Larry moved the family to Dallas, TX, earned a ThM Degree, next two daughters were born, served in children’s and small group ministry and was ordained and commissioned as the first international missionaries at Fellowship Bible Church.
From 1976-77 the Walkers were in missionary training in Mexico and Central America, linguistics training in Dallas, and Spanish study in Costa Rica, where their last daughter was born.
In 1978-81 the Walkers served as missionaries among the Tzutujil people; started a nutrition center, Christian elementary school, New Testament translation and did church development and leadership training for twenty Tzutujil, Cakchiquel and Quiche congregations in a dangerous region of Guatemala during the civil war.
From 1981-1989 Larry was missions pastor and started the first Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course in Dallas; helped David Bryant with citywide Concerts of Prayer; and served with ACMC in the five-state region.
In 1989 he became the Southwest Regional Director for Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment. He helped to found The Finishers Project and has trained leaders in South Africa, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Southeast Asia.
ACMC became part of Pioneers in March of 2007. Larry preaches, teaches, trains and coaches church missions leaders in North America and Latin America in English and Spanish. He loves reading, hiking, backpacking and ice cream!
Larry and his wife Kathy have four happily married daughters who all live in Southern California and have given them eight grandchildren. Kathy does graphic design for Larry and teaches emerging artists in developing countries, especially Mexico.
:Forgotten Peoples Remembered
Just added! Digo of Kenya, Huichol of West Central Mexico, Sikhs of Vancouver, BC and Punjab N India.
1615 Certified Church Missions Coach
