Our Mentors

The Rev. Dr. Steve Abbott served for more than 35 years as an Anglican minister, evangelist, and trainer in Australia.  Since transitioning to semi-retirement in 2016, Steve has remained active mentoring younger leaders and providing Everyday Evangelism training for local churches.  In addition to leading LFM’s Refresh mentoring community, Steve serves as a mentor trainer with Leighton Ford Ministries with a special focus on South East Asia.

Dr. Raphael Anzenberger is a leader of evangelism, apologetics, and mentoring movements in the French-speaking world.  He has led LFM’s R2E mentoring community, mentored over 100 French evangelists in a special training program, and founded the Global Evangelists Forum, where he offered mentor training in French North Africa and East Africa.  Dr. Anzenberger has earned two doctorate degrees from Columbia International University, with one focused on mentoring and the other focused on church planting.  He was honored as the Billy Graham Lausanne Scholar in 2018.

Dr. Elizabeth Archer-Klein is an experienced Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit and religious institutions industries.  She has a Doctorate in Leadership and is skilled in Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, and Pastoral Counseling.  Dr. Elizabeth Archer-Klein works to heal through beauty, sacred walks, life-coaching, and redevelopment walks. She is an ordained Presbyterian Minister.

Sarah Breuel served as Chair of the Global Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering in 2016 and has been named to Christianity Today’s “33 Under 33” Christian leaders to watch.  Originally from Brazil, she has served for more than 15 years with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Brazil, Canada, Norway, and Italy, and also served as Director of Revive, a conference for young adults and college students seeking revival across Europe.  Sarah has participated in an LFM mentoring community for more than a decade and now leads LFM’s Revivalists mentoring community for young revivalists in Europe.

Peter Chao is founder of Eagles Communications, a unique evangelistic organization reaching pre-believers in East and South East Asia.  Nearly 20 years ago, Peter realized that to “talk about Jesus” in Chinese culture literally means “to talk rubbish.”  Seeking to earn the right to be heard, Peter began teaching leadership development courses for professionals based on moral anchors.  Peter is a longtime member of LFM’s Point Group (Leighton’s original mentoring community) and now leads LFM’s Pelligrino mentoring community for ministry leaders in Asia.

Dr. Ravi David currently serves as adjunct professor at SAIACS, in Bangalore, India, and in seminaries in Indonesia. He teaches pastoral theology and counseling, spiritual formation, management, and leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in practical theology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Ravi and his wife, Mercy, serve as members of The Mission Society Ministry Resource Team.

Gernot Elsner is married to Sabine and has three children. After three years at the Bible school in Bad Gandersheim, he worked for two years in a Pentecostal church in Karlsruhe and at the same time studied English and history at the University of Teacher Education. In 2002 he went to the United States for a little over two years, where he graduated from Regent University with a master’s degree in practical theology and intercultural studies. After spending time in various countries in South America, Gernot founded GOSPELTRIBE in January 2006. In the past few years the ministry has participated in short-term missions, evangelizations and conferences in over 40 nations. Gospeltribe sends youth on short term trips around the globe and also has a two year residential Bible College and local ministries focusing on refugees, homeless people, secular high schools and victims of human trafficking. 

Monika has lived in Austria since 1992. She is a teacher for French and Religious Education at a public secondary school. Her heart loves seeing Christians from all denominations working/ministering together in unity.

Chief Catalyst, Leighton Ford Ministries

Kevin Graham Ford is Chief Catalyst for Leighton Ford Ministries, author of Transforming Church (David C. Cook, 2008) and chief architect of the unprecedented Transforming Church Insight congregational survey that includes over 11 million records in its database.

An expert in visioning, strategy, organizational change, and leadership development, Kevin was the senior consultant for the redesign of the U.S. Army Staff and an organizational consultant for large federal agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and major non-profits.  His leadership books include The Secret Sauce: Creating a Winning Culture (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015) and The Leadership Triangle (Morgan James Publishing, 2013).

While Kevin enjoyed a successful business career as co-founder of TAG Consulting, his passion was always for the local church.  Increasingly, God opened doors for Kevin to utilize his visioning and organizational abilities to support local churches, provide leadership development for ministry leaders, and help ministry organizations manage necessary change and transition.

In 2019, Kevin Ford, along with his partners, sold the for-profit assets of TAG Consulting so that he could focus on supporting healthy leaders who sustain thriving ministries through Leighton Ford Ministries.  As a result of this transition, Kevin is even more in demand as churches from coast-to-coast and diverse denominations look to navigate a post-Christian, post-pandemic world.

Kevin’s experience supporting churches with visioning, governance, transformation, and leadership development issues led to Lilly Endowment Inc. awarding Leighton Ford Ministries a Thriving Congregations Initiative grant in 2020.  In partnership with LFM donors, the seed money from this grant funds LFM’s work with smaller churches seeking to navigate cultural change and other transitions.

As a result of Kevin’s leadership, Leighton Ford Ministries also received a Thriving in Ministry grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., providing seed money for a new program increasing mentoring opportunities for pastors of small churches, congregations of color, and church plants.

A popular keynote speaker and facilitator, Kevin has spoken at conferences along with Jim Collins, Margaret Wheatley, Herb Kellerher, and Peter Senge.  He has been interviewed and quoted by the Washington Post, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal, among many others.

 Kevin is a proud Tar Heel, earning a BA from the University of North Carolina, before switching coasts to earn his Master of Divinity from Regent College at the University of British Columbia.  He and his wife, Caroline, live in Charlotte with one daughter still at home and their other daughter at Wake Forest University.

Founder

Leighton Ford describes these ongoing days of his ministry as “a friend on the journey and an artist of the soul.”  After 30 years as Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and 16 years as Chairman of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, Leighton has focused since 1985 on identifying, encouraging, and mentoring the next generation of Christian leaders.  Through Leighton Ford Ministries, he has helped organize and sustain more than 30 ongoing mentoring communities supporting ministry leaders worldwide, facilitated many personal spiritual retreats for ministry leaders, and personally mentored or counseled a wide variety of pastors, ministry leaders, and lay leaders.

One of the great gifts God has given Leighton are his talents as an artist. Visit LeightonFord.art to learn more. Below are a few of his creations.

Herb is a covenant pastor and church planter.  He serves at Evangelical Covenant Church in Minnesota as the Director of Spiritual and Vocational Development in their denominational office.  Herb’s passion is about fostering pastoral resilience.  He and his wife, Paula Frost, serve together in helping others move toward a whole life apprenticeship to Jesus.

Paula is also an ordained Evangelical  Covenant minister who has served in various local churches, and serves the denomination  as a mentor, coach, and spiritual director.  Paula is married to Herb Frost and together they have a heart for potentially  starting a mentoring group for clergy couples.  They are from Bayport, Minnesota.  

Mentoring Catalyst and Coach

Anne Grizzle is an author, spiritual director, family therapist, and retreat leader who serves as Chaplain of the Boys Home of Virginia.  These experiences enrich her work with Leighton Ford Ministries, where she serves on the Board of Directors, oversees mentoring communities for global ministry leaders, and provides coaching for pastors.

She regularly hosts spiritual retreats at the Bellfry near Lexington, Virginia, which she envisioned and created as a place of welcome, rest, renewal, and solace.  Anne is associate faculty for Shalem Institute for Spirituality, where she offers workshops on group spiritual direction and young adult leadership.  She also serves on the board of Bittersweet Creative and is co-chair of World Vision’s Every Last One campaign to end extreme poverty.

Anne received her B.S. (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard College with a concentration in Psychology and Social Relations, her M.S. from the Columbia University School of Social Work, and her Post Masters Certificate in Advanced Clinical Social Work and Family Therapy from Hunter College of New York.  She is a member of the American Family Therapy Association, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and National Association of Social Workers.

She has authored two books, contributed to two more, and been a featured speaker on national television, including Oprah and Donahue.  Anne and her husband, David, have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren.  They live in Lexington, Virginia.

A former US Army Special Ops flight Surgeon, Dr. Omar Hamada is a physician of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  He is a healthcare entrepreneur and local church leader.  Dr. Hamada also graduated from seminary and was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister.  His singular driving motivation in all that he does is to change the world so that all may hear about the Gospel of Christ and believe.  Dr. Hamada is starting a mentoring group of Lay People.

Carrie Boren Headington is an Evangelist and Apologist for the Christian Faith. Carrie is the Founder of the Good News, an author, professor, and Canon Evangelist for the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Carrie is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Harvard University (MA), Oxford University (CTH, DipTH).

Rich Hurst  has  years of experience as a pastor, church leadership consultant, and editor of church ministry resources for a major Christian publisher.  He joined LFM in 2019 to help develop a Master’s in Ministry Leadership program in partnership with Belhaven University.

Rich served for 15 years as Pastor of Leadership and Staff Development for McLean Bible Church outside Washington, D.C.  He has also served on pastoral staff in Seattle and southern California.

Joshua trains and coaches others to ignite movements to Christ. He is a former English teacher and college basketball coach. He loves 2 Timothy 2:2 and is thrilled by the idea of exponential multiplication. He has spent seven years living in the Middle East and Asia catalyzing Disciple Making Movements. He has a Masters in Social and Civic Entrepreneurship from Bakke Graduate University. Joshua and his wife, Meredith, work together with All Nations and mentor a group of couples.

Meredith coaches and trains people to live in loving obedience to Jesus and His commands. She loves 2 Timothy 2:2 and is thrilled by the idea of exponential multiplication! She has lived in the Middle East for seven years and has been engaged with catalyzing Disciple Making Movements among Muslims since 2005. She has a Masters of Divinity with Global Missions emphasis and a Cambridge CELTA ESL Certificate.

Jim and Suzi recently founded Tandem Spirituality; before that, Jim served on staff at Church at Charlotte in Charlotte for 42 years, 37 as the senior pastor. Jim has a BA in Biblical Literature from Northeastern Bible College, where Suzi is also a graduate.

Jim has also served on various non-profit boards. Most recently on the EFCA Board of Directors, where he was chairman for the last four years.

Suzi has a heart for God’s Word and women. She has brought those two passions together in her work designing and teaching women’s Bible studies in the church and the community. Suzi’s heart is to lead women back to the truth of scripture and the heart of the gospel.

In addition, Jim and Suzi have traveled extensively overseas to teach marriage, pastoral health, and encouragement to national leaders in Ethiopia, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Thailand.

Jim and Suzi have been married for 46 years and have three married daughters and eight incredible (just ask them) grandkids. The Kallam’s live in Charlotte, NC

Kwesi Kamau is the Lead Pastor of IMPACT Church in Dallas, founder of Impact Discipleship, and a principal leader of the Greater Dallas Coalition, a coalition of ministries and non-profits providing relief and renewal for Dallas neighborhoods. Monti is a homeschool instructor with Classical Conversations.

Wei-Han Kuan is the State Director of the Church Missionary Society in Victoria. His role consists of overseeing the work of the branch; raising up new missionaries and the prayer, care, and finances to support them; interviewing missionary applicants, and visiting missionaries on location.

Christine Lee is a missionary to the poor and marginalized of the Toronto area.  Following seven years as a pastor, Christine joined UrbanPromise, a ministry to residents of Toronto’s government housing, with a special focus on family support.  In 2008, Christine joined LFM’s Rolling Stones mentoring community, and in 2020, began leading a new LFM mentoring community for women ministry leaders who are missionaries to the unchurched.

Tom Lin is CEO/president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Lausanne Movement, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Crowell Trust. He previously served as the Director of the Urbana Student Missions Conference and Trustee of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Missio Nexus, and Leadership & Legacy Foundation. He also spent several years in Mongolia pioneering campus ministry with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Tom currently leads an LFM mentoring community serving global ministry leaders.

Pastor, Spiritual Director, Mentor, and Coach. Courtney is passionate about helping people find freedom in Christ. She earned both her MDiv and DMin at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her ministry career spans more than two decades, including serving Marin Covenant Church, University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, and First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley. In addition, Courtney runs Deep Well Ministries, which is designed to offer women a place to rest, renew, and invest in their spiritual development. She’s affectionately called both ‘word girl’ and ‘RevDocMom’ by her grown daughters, Emma and Camille. Her favorite days include hiking, cycling, or reading in the California sun.

Dr. MaryKate Morse is Dean of Portland Seminary and lead mentor for the Leadership and Spiritual Formation D.Min. track.  In addition to her extensive leadership and teaching at the seminary, she is currently a mentor and trainer for Lausanne Young Leaders, serves as part of the Mentoring Community Board, and is a mentor trainer and advisor for Leighton Ford Ministries.

MaryKate began her ministry living in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Peru doing evangelism, theological education by extension, and social projects with the AymaráIndians.  Upon return, she studied spiritual formation and direction, was certified as a spiritual director, and was recorded as a pastor with the Evangelical Friends.

She is lead author of Lifelong Leadership:  Woven Together Through Mentoring Communities, an LFM resource published by NavPress in 2020.

Scott Palmbush is a Fuller Seminary graduate and an ordained Presbyterian pastor.  Currently, he is pastor and executive leader at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.  Scott has a passion for teamwork and works with churches and non-profits in areas of succession planning, vision framing, and leadership development. He has a vision for a mentoring group in the ECO denomination or forming a geographical cohort in the San Francisco Bay area.

Wesley was born in India and came to Canada in 1983 to attend Caprenwray Harbour Bible Centre on Thetis Island in British Columbia (a school started by Maj. Ian Thomas). Also, he later attended Cumberland College in Kentucky and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Upon graduation he began pastoring in Iowa. In 1998, he became an evangelist. He has witnessed many souls saved and believers encouraged in the Caribbean, India, and US. In December 2019, Wesley hosted his first mentoring retreat with emerging national and global leaders from India, Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, Australia, Canada and America.

Wendy Ramos is Director of Global Mobilization with United World Mission and lives with her husband, Ivan, in Mexico City, where they serve with UWM as career missionaries.  Wendy went to Mexico as a “short-term” missionary in 1998 and has now lived and served in Mexico for over 17 years!

Wendy received her master’s degree in Missions and Evangelism from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where she first got involved with Leighton Ford Ministries.  She has been in an LFM mentoring community for over 10 years, launched a mentoring community in Mexico, and has helped lead mentor training events in Mexico and Asia.

Carlo Sampan completed his bachelor’s degree in Community Development, and gained a Master’s Degree in Marketing Communications. He received considerable experience in the corporate world (logistics, marketing and retail) for about a decade, until he was given the opportunity to be part of a non-government organization.  Carlo currently works as the Partnership Director of Global Filipino Movement Foundation Inc., a faith-based, non-profit organization that advocates for overseas Filipino Workers and their families by partnering with Churches and other like-minded organizations. In his Church, he heads the young adults and teens ministry, as this is in line with what he believes as his personal purpose in life: to build (or help build) next generation leaders.   

Dr. Swanson has been the Director of the Institute for Prison Ministries (IPM), Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College since 2005. As Director, she oversees the Charles W. Colson scholarship program and pursues the goals of the Institute for Prison Ministries through networks, collaboration and strategic partners. She has more than 25 years of higher education experience and developed and taught Correctional Ministry courses at Wheaton College, now offered through Christian University GlobalNet. Currently, Karen provides the volunteer training for Cook County Jail religious volunteers. She has presented at multiple conferences and has co-authored, with Lennie Spitale, the book Released.

Rev. Dr. L. Wesley de Souza teaches at Candler Seminary in Atlanta in the areas of theology, leadership, mission evangelism, spirituality, and church revitalization.  He is the Director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute.

Glen is from Jacksonville, Florida.  He is the district superintendent in the southeast USA for the Evangelical Free
Church of America.  Glen serves over 100 congregations. In that region, the EFCA is made of smaller churches and church plants.
Combining that with Glen’s calling and experience with people of color as an inner-city church planter in New Orleans, he is
looking forward to starting a mentoring group of young pastors.

Ken Shigematsu is senior pastor of Tenth Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the largest and most diverse city-center churches in Canada.  Before entering pastoral ministry, he worked for Sony in Tokyo, Japan.  The intense work schedule led him to explore personal disciplines that could bring order to his life, from those of his samurai ancestors to St. Benedict’s rule for Christian communities.

His first book, God in My Everything:  How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God (Zondervan, 2013) describes how a personal rule, or spiritual rhythm, can support the growth of a God-filled life.  His second book, Survival Guide for the Soul:  How to Flourish Spiritually in a World that Pressures Us to Achieve (Zondervan, 2018) examines how specific spiritual practices reorder our lives and focus our priorities.

Ken is a longtime member of Leighton’s mentoring community.

Alain Stamp is an experienced evangelist and author with a passion for mentoring emerging ministry leaders in France and Africa.  In addition to developing mentoring programs and communities for Global Evangelists Forum, he is honorary president of France Evangelization, vice president of ELAN, and an advisor to several ministries.  Alain leads an LFM mentoring community for French-speaking evangelists.

The Rev. Dr. David Swanson is Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, as well as founder and principal teacher for The Well, a national media ministry focused on presenting the Gospel with fresh clarity and passion.  His congregation is part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and is among the largest Presbyterian churches in the country.

An active community leader, David serves on the Board of Trustees for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the Executive Board of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, and the board of The Camaraderie Foundation.  He was recently named one of the top five most influential leaders in Orlando.

Together with Kevin Ford, David co-leads a Leighton Ford Ministries mentoring community for a specially-selected group of younger, missional pastors.

Executive Director, North American Mentoring Services

Jim Singleton is Executive Director of Missional Leadership for Leighton Ford Ministries, leveraging years of experience as a senior pastor, seminary professor, mentor, and mentee to help raise up the next generation of missional leadership.

In addition to his part-time role with LFM, Jim serves full-time as Associate Professor of Pastoral Leadership and Evangelism at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he directs Thriving in Ministry, a Lilly Endowment-funded program to help pastors in New England “thrive” in the very difficult practice of ministry in this season.  He has a passion for equipping pastors and congregations to revitalize their approach to ministry.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Jim brings 30 years of church leadership experience, including serving as senior pastor of churches in Texas, Washington, and most recently, First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, a downtown congregation of 4,000 members.  He has served at Gordon-Conwell since 2012.

Jim first met Leighton Ford in 1989 while working on his doctorate in Boston.  As a senior pastor, he later utilized Kevin Ford’s Transforming Church: A Visioning Roadmap (LINK) process.  He considers Leighton to be “the chiropractor of my soul.”

Jim is an avid fan of baseball history, church history, hiking, and cross-country skiing.  He is married to Sara, who is pastor of Old South Presbyterian in Newburyport, MA.  The have a son, James, and a daughter, Rachel, and three grandchildren.

Mark Slaughter is an Evangelist and Director of Evangelistic Partnerships for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  His twin passions are to communicate the Gospel and to mentor younger evangelists.  Mark has served for over 30 years with InterVarsity, including his unique “Question Mark” open forums on college campuses.  He also spearheads various initiatives for mentoring a new generation of evangelistic leaders through Leighton Ford Ministries, Lausanne Movement, National Day of Prayer Task Force, Arrow Leadership, and the Luis Palau Association.  Prior to joining InterVarsity, Mark served as an Evangelical Free Church pastor in the Indianapolis area.

Ken Van Vliet is the Senior Pastor at Monte Vista Chapel in Turlock, California.  He and his wife Michelle have two grown children.  Ken has an undergraduate degree in business, a MDIV from Bethel Theological Seminary, and a DMIN in Leadership and Formation from Portland Seminary.  He enjoys good conversation, all outdoor activities, and riding a motorcycle. In addition to his work at Monte Vista Chapel, Ken is one of LFM’s mentor leaders.

Rev. Jenny Warner has a B.A. from Biola University in Intercultural Studies and Psychology and a Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary.  She is a trained spiritual director certified by the Seattle School for Theology and Psychology and an ordained Presbyterian pastor.

Rev. Warner has a love for international ministry and serves as Board chair for African Road, with their work in East Africa.  She is currently the Pastor of Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, California.

Tobi has studied drums with “Drummer’s Focus” and enjoys volunteer work in the Protestant church. His fire for people is kindled in São Paulo as he works in the drug and poverty district and experiences how God opens new horizons through his word. At the turn of the millennium, Tobi and his band Beatbetrieb celebrated success in the German music scene. He writes both lyrics and songs and founded a movement within the Protestant regional church called “Jesustreff”. Words are his passion, and he currently works as a freelance speaker and copywriter.  He is a voluntary member of the Wurttemberg Evangelical Synod- the legislative assembly of the regional church, on the board of the “Together for Stuttgart” (Evangelical Alliance), and is also a predicant of the Protestant Regional Church.