Greg Laurie is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, California. He began his pastoral ministry at the age of 19 by leading a Bible study of 30 people.

Since then, God has transformed that small group into a church of some 15,000 people. Today, Harvest is one of the largest churches in America, and consistently ranks among the most influential churches in the country.

In 1990, Laurie began holding large-scale public evangelistic events called Harvest Crusades. Since that time, more than 4,408,000 people have attended Harvest Crusades events around the United States, ranging from the annual event at Angel Stadium in Anaheim to Madison Square Garden in New York City. Greg spoke to 50,000 people at a 2011 Harvest Crusade in Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. Harvest Crusades have also been held internationally in Australia and New Zealand. More importantly, more than 371,300 people have registered professions of faith through these outreaches.

Laurie is the featured speaker of the nationally syndicated radio program A New Beginning, which is broadcast on more than 500 radio outlets around the world. A New Beginning is also one of the most popular Christian podcast downloads on Apple’s iTunes Store.

Laurie has a weekly television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and he has appeared on many other television news programs. Along with his work at Harvest Ministries, Laurie serves on the board of directors of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He holds honorary doctorates from Biola University and Azusa Pacific University.

In addition to speaking and assisting other ministries, Laurie has authored over 70 books including Signs of the Times, As I See It, Hope for Hurting Hearts, Married.Happily., Essentials, What Every Christian Needs to Know, Upside Down Living, The Greatest Stories Ever Told, and many more.

His autobiography, Lost Boy, was released in June 2008 by Regal Books and continues to be one of the bestselling Christian biographies of all time.The accompanying documentary film, Lost Boy: The Next Chapter, has won eight awards at International film festivals in the best documentary category.

Laurie has written study notes for the bestselling The New Believer’s Bible and The Seeker’s Bible. He also wrote the notes for the recently released Start! Bible in the New King James Version, published by Thomas Nelson. Greg is presently working on a new Bible project for Thomas Nelson called Refresh, which is a devotional Bible.

Greg has been married to Cathe Laurie for 38 years and he has two sons, Christopher and Jonathan. Christopher went to be with the Lord in 2008. Greg and Cathe also have four grandchildren.

For more information about Pastor Greg, visit his personal homepage at greglaurie.com or his ministry website, harvest.org.

Matt Carter serves as the Pastor of Preaching & Vision at the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, which has grown from a core team of 15 to over 8,000 attending each Sunday since the church began in 2002.

Matt co-authored For the City, which explored what it would look like for a local church to be an advocate for the welfare of the city, and he is working with NFL quarterback Colt McCoy to co-author The Real Win, a book on biblical manhood, which releases in May 2013. He holds an M.Div. from Southwestern Seminary and is pursuing a D.Min. in Expositional Preaching from Southeastern Seminary. He and his wife Jennifer have been married for 16 years, and they have three children, John Daniel, Annie, and Samuel.

Pastor Fred Luter, Jr., the first African American President of the Southern Baptist Convention, is the Senior Pastor at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Fred Luter, Jr. began his ministerial journey on what he refers to as his “Damascus Road Experience.” In 1977, a motorcycle accident seriously injured his body but ultimately saved his soul. As a result of the accident, he made a conscious decision to surrender his life entirely to Christ. Every Saturday, on the street corner of Galvez and Caffin Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward, Luter would preach the gospel to all who wanted to hear.

In 1983, God elevated Luter and equipped him to preach his first sermon at the Law Street Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. Years later, while preaching at the Greater Liberty Baptist Church, Luter learned of the opening at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church and applied for the pastoral position.

In September of 1986, the small but faithful 65 members of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church elected Fred Luter, Jr. as their pastor. This young street preacher from the Lower Ninth Ward was humbled and honored to serve this church as his first pastorate. This first time pastor committed himself to encourage the people by preaching, teaching, and living the Word of God. Dedicated to saving the family, Pastor Luter purposely sought unique ways to draw men to the church. His belief has always been that if you save the man, the man would save his family. The blessings in the next few years were truly the hand and grace of God upon his life.

By 1989, Pastor Luter had grown FABC to over 300 members. By 1994, the church could no longer accommodate the crowd in their current building and Pastor Luter challenged his congregation to increase their tithes and offerings to build a larger sanctuary. In March of 1997, God rewarded their faithfulness and Pastor Luter moved his growing membership into a 2,500 seat sanctuary. By 2005, prior to Hurricane Katrina, Pastor Luter grew FABC to over 7,000 members. Currently, FABC is still growing and Pastor Luter has a vision to build a 4,500 seat sanctuary through its Capital Campaign “Committed to Changing More Lives.”

Pastor Luter says Franklin Avenue’s mission statement is simple: To spiritually impact our families, neighborhoods, city and state by Exalting the Savior, Equipping the saints and Evangelizing the sinners. Pastor Luter’s strategy for congregational growth is embedded in his concept he calls “FRANgelism”—the acronym “FRAN” standing for friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors where he encourages his congregation to invite one of them to come to church with you.

Pastor Luter’s passion for the people of God, commitment to his family and his love for God’s word led him to be unanimously elected as President of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant organization in America, in June 2012. Many have referred to him as a man after God’s own heart that is known for his humility and powerful, lively preaching style. One of Pastor Luter’s famous sayings at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church is “It’s Not About the Pastor, It’s All About the Master” and that saying he has taken with him to the SBC. When asked to say a few words after being elected, his response was simply “To God Be the Glory for the Things He Has Done.”

Pastor Fred Luter, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 11, 1956. He has been married to his “Prime Rib” Elizabeth Luter for 32 years. They are the proud parents of one daughter Kimberly Luter, one son Fred “Chip” Luter, III, daughter-in-law Jasmine Luter and grandparents of one grandson, Fred Luter, IV.

Ed Stetzer is the President of LifeWay Research, a prolific author, and well-known conference and seminar leader.  Stetzer has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books.

Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN.  He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 400,000 individuals each week.  Stetzer is Executive Editor of Facts & Trends Magazine, a Christian leadership magazine circulated to over 70,000 individuals each month.

Stetzer serves as Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and has taught at many other colleges and seminaries.

He also serves as Lead Pastor of Grace Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a congregation he planted in 2011.

He has written the following books:

• Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (2003),
• Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (w/ Elmer Towns, 2004),
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Be a Missionary in Your Community (w/ David Putman, 2006),
• Planting Missional Churches (2006),
• Comeback Churches: How 234 Churches Turned around and Yours Can Too (with Mike Dodson, 2007),
• 11 Innovations in the Local Church (with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird, 2007),
• Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (with Philip Nation, 2008),
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them(with Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes, 2009)
• Viral Churches: How Church Planters Can Become Movement Makers (with Warren Bird, 2010)
• Spiritual Warfare & Missions (with Jerry Rankin, 2010)
• Transformational Church (with Thom Rainer, 2010)
• MissonShift: Mission Issues in the Third Millenium (with David J. Hesselgrave, 2010)
• Compelled: Living the Mission of God (with Philip Nation, 2011),
• The Mission of God Study Bible (with Philip Nation, 2012).
• Subversive Kingdom: Becoming Agents of Gospel Transformation (2012)