| |
Meet the Conference speakers
 Professor Ruben P. Armendariz serves as Church Development Consultant for Mission Presbytery with offices in San Antonio, Texas. He was born in Austin, Texas, a third generation Mexican-American Presbyterian. His father Guadalupe M. Armendariz and his uncle Ruben M. Armendariz served the Presbyterian Church as pastors from 1930 to 1990.
Professor Armendariz received his education at Menaul Presbyterian School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, The University of Texas, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the Institute of Industrial Relations at McCormick Theological Seminary. Before retirement he served Hispanic/Latino, English Speaking (Anglo) and African-American congregations in Texas and Illinois. He also served on the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary as Professor of Ministry and Vice President for Seminary Relations and Operations.
He has published numerous articles on Hispanic/Latino Protestants and has contributed to the most recent publication on Hispanic Christianity within Mainline Traditions: Protestantes/Protestants, Abingdon Press, 1999.
 The Reverend Joan S. Gray is Moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). On March 12, 1978, Joan Gray was ordained as the first female pastor of a church in Atlanta Presbytery. She started her ministry in a small, country congregation where it was not unheard of for a dog to wander in and lie down in front of the communion table during the sermon. Then in an urban setting, the focus of her ministry as an associate pastor was reaching out to college students and overseeing a vigorous community ministry. Later, while pastor of Columbia Presbyterian Church, she also served as pastor, mentor and spiritual director to many seminary students and their families.
After 20 years of installed pastorates, in 1999 she moved into a new ministry as a trained interim pastor. Her work since that time has often involved working with churches in conflict. The Rev. Gray is a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C. Her project topic is “Best Practices toward Healing in the Aftermath of Congregational Conflict.”
 The Reverend Doctor Cyprian Kimathi Guchienda is pastor of All Nations Ministry at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas. Under his leadership the church face is gradually changing to reflect an integrated community of believers, bringing the face of the city into the Church.
The Rev. Guchienda was born and raised in Kenya, East Africa. He earned an M.Div. degree at St. Paul’s United Theological College Nairobi, Kenya. He was ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament in 1989 by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), and for nine years served in Western Kenya and Nairobi Presbyteries as a solo pastor before leaving for the United States for further studies. The Rev. Guchienda completed the Master of Theological Studies and D.Min. degrees at Southern Methodist University Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas.
His service to the PC(USA) includes Grace Presbytery Immigrant Pastors Fellowship, Grace Presbytery multicultural committee, serving on border issues in the Synod of the Sun and serving on PC(USA) Kenya partnership network. He is currently moderator of the African-American Council of the Synod of the Sun.
 The Reverend Doctor Rhashell D. Hunter is the Director of Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministries of the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Dr. Hunter was reared in Dallas, Texas, in multicultural congregations. She maintains a love for preaching and also a commitment to building bridges in multicultural communities.
Dr. Hunter served as Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Flint, Michigan, and as Associate Pastor for Worship, Music and the Arts at Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. She is past Moderator of the Synod of the Covenant of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is a graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary (D.Min, M.Div); Trinity University (M.F.A.); and the University of Houston (B.A.). She is a second career clergy person, having had a career in the performing arts in New York, Dallas and Houston. She has integrated her gifts in the performing arts with her ministry in the church.
Dr. Hunter is an Adjunct Professor of Preaching at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Her current teaching and writing is in the area of Postmodern Worship and African-American Womanist Preaching.
 The Reverend James Kim is pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in The Colony in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. In the last five years Trinity has experienced more than 350 percent growth in membership, attendance and finances. James is privileged to be the husband of Helen, and dad to Karis, Kaitlin, Kailey and Kaleb. He is also a graduate of Pepperdine University and Union Theological Seminary.
He is one of the nine members of the Form of Government Task Force which has rewritten the new Form of Government to be presented at the General Assembly in San Jose. James loves to golf, eat and spend time with family and friends, and he is interested in how to lead in a post-modern, post-Christian, post-denominational age.
 The Reverend Doctor Jin S. Kim is the founding pastor of Church of All Nations, chartered as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation in 2004 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jin has a passion for multicultural ministry and a vision for the visible unity of the global church.
He was born in Korea in 1968 and came to the United States with his family in 1975. He grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, in a multiethnic environment. He holds degrees from Georgia Tech, Princeton Seminary and Columbia Seminary (D.Min).
Dr. Kim is currently chair of the Advisory Board of Cross Cultural Alliance of Ministries, serves on the boards of Re-Forming Ministry [PC(USA)/Lilly] and Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals and was formerly president of Presbyterians For Renewal. He was a preacher at the 216th General Assembly and has spoken at numerous conferences, colleges, seminaries, presbyteries and churches, both in the United States and abroad.
 The Reverend James Hickson Lee serves as the Evangelizing Pastor of New Covenant Fellowship, a multicultural new church development in Austin, Texas, and as Field Staff for the Office of Multicultural Ministries. James celebrates the eclectic, unifying and energizing work of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. His life and ministry in the church universal entail serving and worshiping across economic, racial and denominational lines, and he is thankful for his family and their support of his ministry.
James graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he also then served as the Director of Racial Ethnic Ministries. In 2002, James was ordained as the Director of Racial Ethnic Ministries at Grace Presbyterian Church in Plano, Texas. In 2003 James was installed as the Associate Pastor for New Church Development at Covenant Presbyterian Church. He also serves on the African Council for the Synod of the Sun, the Board of Trustees for Mo Ranch and as the President for Austin Seminary Association.
 The Reverend Buddy Monahan is an enrolled tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Maricopa tribe who serves as the Chaplain of Menaul School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Rev. Monahan teaches middle school and high school religion classes and also works as assistant coach for varsity boys’ basketball. In the past the Rev. Monahan has served as an adult advisor of the American Indian Youth Council (AIYC) of the PC(USA).
Since 2005 he has been the Moderator of the National Native American Caucus, Native American Consulting Committee (NACC) of the PC(USA). He is married to Dyanna and has three children, Jordyn, 14, Brandyn, 12 and Ashdyn, 8. The Rev. Monahan enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, attending pow-wows, watching his children in their team sports, traveling and spending time with his family. He is also a die-hard fan of the Oklahoma Sooners, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers and Menaul Panthers.
 The Reverend Doctor Martha Grace Reese is author of the best-selling Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Chalice Press, January, 2007) and the upcoming Real Life Evangelism Series. She has recently completed her directorship of the Mainline Evangelism Research Project, a national, four-year study of evangelism funded by the Lilly Endowment.
The Rev. Reese has extensive experience as a consultant for church pastors and denominational executives. She is an ordained pastor who serves as President of GraceNet Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that specializes in research and the training of gifted clergy in focused, effective spiritual leadership. She has envisioned and given leadership to two major initiatives in pastoral leadership initially funded by the Lilly Endowment (the Bethany Project and the Bethany Fellowships), as well as the Mainline Evangelism Project.
Dr. Reese served seven years as senior pastor of a revitalizing congregation, tripling worship attendance in the first three years. She has also served as a middle judicatory minister and a consultant for foundations. Dr. Reese has served on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit corporations, and has had extensive practice and training in centering prayer and Christian spirituality.
Reese is a magna cum laude graduate of Indiana University School of Law (JD), Christian Theological Seminary (M.Div.), DePauw University and the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad de Madrid (B.A., major in Spanish, minors in Economics and Religion), and The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
 Elder Linda Valentine currently serves as the Executive Director of the General Assembly Council (GAC), the national mission program arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Linda graduated from the University of Michigan, the Georgetown University Law Center and the Business MBA program of the University of Southern California.
Linda, a Presbyterian elder who has said her life has been one of “faith in action,” has been active in many ways at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, including a six-month stint as the church’s interim Executive Director. In the past, Linda served as Fund Manager and General Counsel for the nonprofit organization, Opportunity International, one of the largest micro-finance networks in the world. For 18 years, Linda Valentine was Senior Vice-President at Motorola — where she was the second highest-ranking woman in a company of 145,000 employees — which prepared her for the position she is currently serving. She’s also been an associate in a large Philadelphia law firm and an attorney for Atlantic Richfield Company and United Airlines. |
|
San Antonio, Texas
- Files marked with this icon can be downloaded in printable Adobe Acrobat format. This file requires the free Acrobat Reader. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select " save target as" and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing.
