2024 Evangelical Association National Gathering - Edwardsville, Illinois

Speaker Bio: Dwight Schettler

Dwight serves as President of Ambassadors of Reconciliation and the Institute for Christian Conciliation. He joined the staff of Ambassadors of Reconciliation in February 2014 as Vice President for Advancement. He also served on AoR’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining Ambassadors, Dwight served four years as Director of Training & Certification for Peacemaker Ministries. In this role he oversaw many facets of ministry delivery, including all foundational and advanced training courses, Peacemaker seminars, the annual Peacemaker Conference, the Certification Program, peacemaker field support, and Peacemaker University–Peacemaker Ministries’ new online e-learning portal. He teaches reconciliation seminars and training events around the world. Dwight was introduced to biblical peacemaking as a party in a conflict where Ambassadors of Reconciliation led an intervention in his home church. He credits that experience as a turning point in his life. He is passionate about teaching and equipping others to be peacemakers who apply the power of the Gospel in their everyday lives. Prior to joining Peacemaker Ministries, he was with Hewlett Packard for more than 22 years, holding a variety of leadership positions, most recently being Director of Engineering in their Imaging and Printing business. Dwight and his wife Ruth have two children and two grandchildren.

Speaker Bio: Reverend Jim Barnes

The Rev. Jim Barnes has served as National Minister of the Evangelical Association since October 2009. Before becoming full-time with the association, he worked for twenty-one years as the Senior Pastor at Bethesda Evangelical Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout his ministry career, Pastor Jim has been very involved in church renewal and has served on the Board of Directors of both the Biblical Witness Fellowship and the Evangelical Association, two groups seeking to provide options for Bible-believing churches and pastors within the Evangelical, Reformed, Congregational and Christian traditions. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and currently resides in St. Louis with his wife Patti. They have three adult children.

Speaker Bio: Gary Franke

Gary Franke is a life-long member of Bethesda Evangelical Church (E-Free) in south St. Louis County. Bethesda is a 117-year-old church which started as a Sunday School for children in that area. Gary has served six terms on the Bethesda Church Council, the governing board of the church and has been a teacher for over forty years, serving as Superintendent of the Sunday School for 33years. He preaches 6-8 times a year at Bethesda and has served as a guest vacation Preacher at Zion Evangelical Church in Millstadt, Illinois and Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church in Hermann, Missouri. Gary is married to his wife Brenda for 46 years and has a daughter and son and six grandsons.

Speaker Bio: Randy Smith, PhD/Rev

• 41 Years in vocational Christian ministry
• Ordained pastor and missionary, occasional adjunct professor, musician and worship leader
• Served in the USA as a pastor and church planter; Costa Rica with the Latin American Mission in various roles; Malaysia with Muslim refugees; and Turkey alongside a local church reaching Muslim university students
• Former Board Chair of Global Teams International, a mission organization focused on the least-reached with the gospel.
• Education:
• PhD Intercultural Studies
• MA Missions and Evangelism
• MMin Pastoral Studies
• BA Biblical Literature, Summa Cum Laude graduate
• Married to his wife Tammy for 42 years
• 2 adult married children and 7 grandchildren.

Speaker Bio: AJ French

AJ French, CEO for Gift of Voice, has taken her personal mental health recovery experiences into the public arena; providing training and technical assistance. Career highlights include participating in a White House briefing on suicide prevention and an interfaith discussion with the U.S. Surgeon General, but her greatest privilege has been making peace with the perpetrator.

Panelist Bio: Michael Carr

Michael is originally from Bloomington, Illinois, came to Edwardsville as a student in 2008. He became involved with Campus Crusade, where he served 12 years both domestically and leading teams internationally in Asia before joining staff as a missionary pastor at Trailhead Church in Edwardsville. His focus is you adults, primarily on the college campus, with the goal of connecting students to Jesus and equipping them to share their faith and make disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit. Michael’s wife, Carrie, serves alongside him as a ministry leader with the church, and they have two kids, Asher and Liam.

Panelist Bio: Matthew Norman

Matthew has served as a missionary and campus minister with Cru for the last 12 years and is passionate about introducing people to Jesus. He has spent time leading teams to several locations in the 10/40 window, including East Asia and the Middle East. His primary desire is to see people get to know Jesus, build them up in their faith, and send them out to the world as Christ centered, multiplying disciples. His current ministry focus is mobilizing college students in the US through discipleship and evangelism.

Speaker Bio: Erin Swank

Erin has served Eden in the role of Director of Discipleship since 2004. She oversees the Children’s Sunday School ministry, and is directly responsible for the youth ministry at Eden. She is a life long resident of Edwardsville, and grew up at Eden. After graduating high school, Erin went to Greenville College and majored in Youth Ministry and Sociology. She later returned to Greenville for her masters in Church Leadership. Erin met her husband, Adam, at Greenville and has a son. Her desire is to see youth come to understand the abundant life Jesus gives, and for the Church to be strengthened to advance God’s kingdom.

Panelist Bio: Leah Johnson

Leah has had a heart for mission work since her youth trip to Uganda in high school. She has worked with African Vision of Hope and made trips to Zambia to make a better life for the children of that country. She regularly evangelizes in St. Louis and the Metro East. She is currently planning to spend her summer with the mission Praying Pelicans. Leah has a passion for leading others to Christ. She is a member of Eden Church of Edwardsville. She sings with the worship team, leads a small group and a young adult women’s bible study.