Dr. Rhett Wilson, Sr., an award-winning freelance writer, ghostwriter, and editor, lives with his family in Lancaster, South Carolina. Rhett has pastored churches for more than twenty years, worked as Senior Writer for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and taught as an adjunct university professor. He and his wife Tracey have three children. The Wilsons like playing board games, making music, exploring waterfalls, and they look forward to March Madness every year. For Fun, Rhett reads legal thrillers, watches adventure movies, and listens to country and Broadway music.
Ron Scheese
Ron Scheese is President and Chief Executive Officer of Andesa Services, an Allentown, Pennsylvania-based provider of integrated policy administration, plan administration, and illustration solutions for life insurance and annuity carriers and brokers. Prior to Andesa, Ron held a variety of financial leadership roles with faith-based, not-for-profit healthcare ministries. Also, he is the Board Chair at Albright College, in Reading PA.
Ron first became connected to Leighton Ford Ministries while serving as an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Reading, PA, where Kevin Ford led a strategic planning process. Ron then hired TAG Consulting (which Kevin led prior to joining LFM) to lead a multi-year consultation with Andesa, which resulted in significant increases in profit and growth, driven by high levels of employee engagement.
Chuck Stees
Chuck Stees is a passionate mentoring leader who spent the majority of his professional career working for Lockheed Martin, including Vice President of Marketing for Lockheed’s commercial satellite business unit and Executive Vice President of Space Imaging.
In 2008, Chuck retired from Lockheed Martin to pursue other interests, including serving as Board Chair for a non-profit providing home renovation for low-income homeowners in Silicon Valley and creating a mentoring program for individuals preparing to re-enter the workforce.
Chuck became acquainted with Kevin Ford when his church in Boulder, Colorado, engaged Kevin’s team to lead the congregation through a visioning process. During that time, they discovered their shared passion for mentoring.
Jim Osterhaus
Dr. Jim Osterhaus is the Senior Executive Coach at Leighton Ford Ministries with extensive experience helping ministry leaders and organizations move through change, conflict, and reorganization. He is co-author of Thriving Through Ministry Conflict (Zondervan, 2010) which deals with the ministry discord that so often derails people.
Jim has diverse and nationally-recognized experience, from facilitating the Organizational Culture Component of the U.S. Army Staff Redesign, to teaching seminars at major universities and seminaries, to directing the counseling centers for two churches, to being interviewed by Sam Donaldson of ABC News.
In addition to his coaching role, Jim has teamed with Leighton Ford to conduct leadership mentoring retreats in the United States and Canada.
Ken Van Vliet
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.
David Swanson
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.
Jenny Warner
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.
Stephan Tchividjian
Stephan Tchividjian is the Founder and President of the National Foundation of South Florida and Co-Executive Director of Lifework Leadership of South Florida. The eldest grandson of Billy Graham, Stephan proudly carries on his family’s tradition of ministry, serving as Chairman of the Board at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and Associate Pastor.
He has more than 25 years of experience serving on a variety of boards of directors and leadership teams for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Stephan has lived in South Florida since 1979 where he and his wife, Lisa, have raised their five children.
Tobi Woerner
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.
Grant Wacker
Grant Wacker is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Christian History at Duke Divinity School. He is the author or co-editor of nine books, including Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (2001), and America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation (2014), both published by Harvard University Press. Grant became acquainted with the Ford family upon the untimely death of their son Sandy, who was an undergraduate student in one of Grant’s classes at UNC (Grant’s first “real” job). Leighton and Jean graciously helped Grant with his decade-long research into the reach of Mr. Graham’s global ministry. Grant lives with his wife, Katherine, in Cary, NC, where they are active members of First Cary United Methodist Church.
