Jeunée is an experienced church planter, now a small parish priest, and a consultant for church growth and ministry development. While in seminary, Jeunée helped launch a contemporary seeker-targeted church in the Washington, DC suburbs, and soon after her ordination she was commissioned to begin St. Gabriel’s, now a vibrant congregation in the Diocese of Virginia. She currently serves as the priest-in-charge of St. Anne’s, Appomattox, in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, and consults with congregations around the country.

Jeunée’s first career was teaching high school and middle school French and English, and adult English as a Second Language.  Her entrepreneurial gifts first developed when she launched a small business selling Inkadinkado® Rubber Stamps at Washington D.C. area malls. Jeunee has felt a call to evangelism and church growth since before seminary. She served on the Steering Committee for the first national “Plant My Church” Conference in 2004, served on the Diocese of Virginia’s Commission on Church Planting through 2008, has served on the Diocese of Virginia’s Commission on Congregational Development.  Jeunée has been a presenter on welcoming newcomers and incorporating new members for Start Up! Start Over! Congregational Development seminars sponsored by the Episcopal Church Center and speaks on a variety of topics related to church planting at national and international seminars.

Jeunée is married to The Rev. Chris Cunningham, rector of Johns Memorial Episcopal Church in Farmville, VA. Chris and Jeunée have two children in college, and a high school senior at home.

Eric Elnes is a biblical scholar and the Senior Pastor of 300-member Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ in Scottsdale, Arizona, which offers both a traditional worship experience and “The Studio” – an innovative a multi-sensory, high technology worship experience, supported by professional jazz musicians, that draws on the arts and technology in ways that transcend classification as either “traditional” or “contemporary” worship.  The Studio has been featured in a number of books on congregational and worship vitality, including Tex Sample’s Powerful Persuasion, and Diana Butler-Bass’ From Nomads to Pilgrims and Christianity for the Rest of Us. 

Elnes also serves as co-president of CrossWalk America (http://www.crosswalkamerica.org/), an organization dedicated to articulating progressive Christian faith and values.  He joined their 2,500 mile “Walk Across America 2006” from Phoenix, Arizona to Washington, DC to raise awareness of progressive Christianity and co-authored the Phoenix Affirmations written specifically to be accessible to laypeople who are feeling “spiritually homeless” both in and outside the church.

Elnes has authored:
Igniting Worship: the Seven Deadly Sins, which provides worship outlines, a DVD, and multimedia resources for creating multi-sensory worship services The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity provides biblical, theological, and philosophical grounding ordered around love of God, neighbor, and self.  World’s Most Dangerous Bible Study places the scriptures in conversation with popular music

Eric recently traveled to Ethiopia and India to study worship and spiritual practices – places with ancient Christian lineage which have largely been overlooked by Western Christian tradition.  Elnes has been a regular feature in Princeton Seminary’s audio journal, Cloud of Witnesses, is a frequent speaker on issues relating to the Bible, worship, and modern life, and is a regular presenter on multi-sensory worship at the Start Up! Start Over! Congregational Development seminars sponsored by the Episcopal Church Center.

Kirk is a sociologist who conducts research for the Episcopal Church and oversees the Parochial Report and Diocesan Report processes.  His recent major research reports include: Is the Episcopal Church Growing or Declining?; A Report on Episcopal Churches in the United States; and New Church Development: A Research Report. They are available online and in printed form.  He was Minister for Research and Evaluation for the United Church of Christ and has authored eight applied books, all dealing with congregational renewal and growth.  They include: Behold I Do a New Thing: Transforming Communities of Faith, Rerouting the Protestant Mainstream, Church and Denominational Growth, Church Growth Principles and What Can We Do About Church Dropouts?  He has published over 60 articles on congregational renewal, church trends and the sociology of religion. 

At Start Up!Start Over! Kirk Hadaway will report on current social and demographic trends related to the growth of the Episcopal Church and material from recent research reports related to congregational growth and vitality.

An experienced redeveloper, Al has successfully redeveloped and doubled an established congregation that had suffered trauma and had hit a plateau.  Al has been a part of Start Up!Start Over! from its conception to present day.  He has trained with Rabbi Ed Friedman, Peter Steinke and Arlin Rothauge and has a Doctorate in Congregational Studies.  A former Field Associate for Congregational Development at the Episcopal Church Center, he now serves as adjunct faculty of the Seabury Institute, teaching in the area of leadership and family emotional systems process.  He is also a visiting lecturer at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary teaching in the area of leadership and parish growth.  His focus for further studies these days is the emerging church of the 21st century including the works of Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, Marcus Borg and others. 

At the Vancouver seminar Al Johnson will serve as the seminar chaplain.

International consultant, free lance lecturer, and researcher with churches, community groups, governments and businesses.  Tex has worked as a cab driver, laborer, roust-about in the oil fields, parish pastor, Social Relations Director for the Massachusetts Council of Churches, civil rights and peace lobbyist.  For many years he was the Academic Dean and the Robert B. and Kathleen Rogers Professor of Church and Society at the St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri where he researched and taught in the areas of U.S. culture, social theory, social change, power, social class and theological ethics.  He is a specialist in the study of blue collar and poor people.  He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.  He is a frequent lecturer ecumenically and has consulted with a wide range of business and governmental organization such as Hallmark Cards, the Chamber of Commerce, the Job Corps, the Department of Labor, the U.S. army, the U.S. Navy, the U. S. Department of Education, and the Federal Reserve Bank.  Tex is a regular presenter at the Start Up!Start Over! Congregational Development seminar sponsored by the Episcopal Church Center, offering different approaches to understand our experiences in the world through God’s story.

Tex Sample has authored eight books on church in the current culture:
Powerful Persuasion: Multimedia Witness in Christian Worship
The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World: Electronic Culture and the Gathered People of God
Ministry in an Oral Culture- Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, & Minnie Pearl
The Loyal Opposition: Struggling with the Church on Homosexuality
Hard Living People & Mainstream Christians
U.S Lifestyles and Mainline Churches: A key to Reaching People in the 90’s
Blue-Collar Ministry: Facing Economic and Social Realities of Working People
White Soul: Country Music, the Church, and Working Americans.