2009 Program Theme

"Just a Closer Walk With Thee"

Come and bring a son, a friend, a new communicant in your church!!

John Maxwell is a native of Pickens, Mississippi, the holder of two degrees from The University of Mississippi and an Episcopalian.  Since 1981, he has been touring with his one-man show, “Oh, Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?” based on a conversation between Clark Gable and William Faulkner and has come to be known as “Ambassador for the South.”  Maxwell began doing religious monologues in 1991 and founded Fish Tale Group in 2003 dedicated to revitalizing interest in the Bible through original drama.  Maxwell now presents six monologues based on New Testament characters and will present “Flower Child,” the story of John the Baptist, at the Conference.

The Reverend Jimmy Bartz is the Founder and Lead Minister of Thad’s, an emergent, Episcopal Mission Station in the Diocese of Los Angeles.  Thad’s, for St. Thaddeaus, meets in a Jazz Club in the Culver City/Venice Beach area of West Los Angeles and was formed in 2006 in hopes of creating a community of folks reaching out to those who wouldn’t otherwise darken the door of a traditional Episcopal Church.
Possessing a passion for writing on the topic of leadership in the Church, Bartz was recently published in the Winter 2009 edition of Anglican Theological Review.  His current writing projects include a book on spirituality and the game of golf and postmodern commentaries on Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and the Gospel of Luke.

The Rev. Michael Spurlock is Vicar of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Smyrna in the Diocese of Tennessee. Appointed as Vicar in 2007, Spurlock arrived to find a church having been torn in two over theological disputes. The few members that remained from a once larger church were attempting to put the pieces back together in the midst of serious challenges. It was the arrival of a community of Karen (ethnic minority from Burma) refugees and the combined ministry that resulted that began to teach this congregation how to live a resurrected life. Since then, Spurlock has spent much time reflecting on the beauty and the irony of how it is that life proceeds from death.