Speakers


The Faculty of Community U is comprised of working pastors and a legendary figure in the small group movement.

Steve Gladen – (Prime - all conferences) Steve Gladen is the Pastor of the Small Group Community of over 3500 small groups at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California; an author; founder of the Purpose Driven Small Group Network, a network of North American small group pastors and point leaders; featured speaker at conferences around the world; and developer of numerous small group resources (www.smallgroups.net). He has traveled the world teaching the principles that have proven so successful at Saddleback, and has helped hundreds of churches successfully implement this model.

sdf sa
Lyman Coleman – (Relational Community - all conferences) Lyman Coleman is a pioneer in the small-group movement. As the founder of Serendipity House Publishers, he served as the general editor of the Serendipity New Testament, the Serendipity Bible for Group and Personal Study, the Serendipity Student Bible and also created many small group studies. Lyman has produced training courses and seminars all over North America that have trained over 500,000 people in techniques that instantly transform bunches of strangers into close groups of friends.

wer sdg
Kent Odor – (Relational Community, Advanced Planning - all conferences) Kent Odor is currently Senior Associate Pastor at Springdale Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati. Over almost 40 year in ministry Kent has served in leadership roles at numerous churches across the country including Willow Creek and Canyon Ridge (Las Vegas). He is a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University - College and Seminary and is the son of a pastor and the nephew and great-grandson of seven pastors. Kent is a frequent speaker at churches, national conferences and other forums on small group ministry, volunteer involvement and ministry organization.

wer sdg
Lance Witt – (Prime - West Palm Beach) Lance Witt, founder of Replenish Ministries, served over 25 years as a local church pastor and 20 years as a senior pastor. As an executive pastor and one of the weekend teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, Witt helped develop and lead the 40 Days of Purpose and 40 Days of Community campaigns at Saddleback. He is the author and teacher on several DVD small group curriculums, regularly writes articles, teaches at national and international conferences on topics such as small groups, consults with churches, and has trained pastors around the world.

wer sdg
Bryan Crute – (Prime - St. Louis, Baltimore-Washington ) Bryan Crute is the senior pastor of Destiny Metropolitan Church in Atlanta, Georgia, having planted the church in 1995 and watching as God grew it to a congregation of 6,000. Crute has an undergraduate degree from Virginia State University, a Masters of Organizational Leadership from Regent University and a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership also from Regent. He has spoken at conferences and taught pastors on two continents. Since 2001, Bryan has been recognized as a national church leader and pioneer in church health.

wer sdg
Jeff Pries – (Prime - Los Angeles, Seattle) Jeff Pries has for twelve years been the Small Groups Pastor of Mariners Church in Irvine, California, as well as a member of the Mariners Church speaking team. Pries is also the CEO and Founder of Liquid Productions, producers of a modern-day film series mirroring ancient biblical stories for small groups. He has spoken at large Christian conferences throughout the country and participates in numerous advisory boards of Christian associations. Watch out for his pitch. He was the number 1 draft pick for the NY Yankees in 1984 out of UCLA and can still throw a 90 MPH fastball.

wer sdg
Bill Search – (Prime - Nashville and Milwaukee) Bill Search is the team leader for Community and Weekend Groups at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, a church with an average weekly attendance of about 18,000. He is also author of Simple Small Groups: A User Friendly Guide for Small Group Leaders. He has been a regular trainer at Willow Creek Association and Purpose Driven small group conferences and an advisor for small groups for several years. A graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College Graduate School, Bill spent a handful of years leading college and young couples ministries.

wer sdg
Reid Smith - (Advanced Breakthrough – West Palm Beach) Reid Smith is the Community Life Pastor of Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and the founder of 2orMore, a small group leadership training and resource ministry. Reid has developed customized small group leadership training, consulting, and resources for pastors and small group ministry leaders around the world, developed a network of hundreds of leaders from over 1,000 churches, and is a regular contributing author to online resources such as smallgroups.com. Smith has a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

wer sdg
Anthony Tamel - (Parkway Apostolic Church in Oak Creek Wisconsin) Anthony Tamel is Senior Pastor of Parkway Apostolic Church in Oak Creek Wisconsin. In 1993 Anthony cast the vision to become not a church with small groups, but a church of small groups. Since that ground breaking effort in his local assembly Anthony has traveled internationally to speak at conferences and conduct small group Seminars. Anthony’s church has become a leader in the development of small group resources that include topics on DVD that are available at their site, www.smallgroupmaterials.com.

wer sdg
Eddie Mosley – (Advanced Breakthrough - Nashville) Eddie Mosley serves on staff at LifePoint Church in Smyrna, Tennessee, as the Executive Director of GroupLife. Before rejoining the staff at LifePoint in 2005, Eddie served on staff in the 1990s followed by several years as a consultant. Eddie loves neighborhood and baseball.  He and his family have spent the last seven years establishing Neighborhood Ministry in his subdivisions.  They also spend a lot of time on the ball fields playing, coaching and developing relationships.

wer sdg
Todd Olthoff - (Advanced Breakthrough – Los Angeles) Todd Olthoff is the Pastor to Couples and Small Groups at Saddleback Church. He runs point on the Couples team which oversees the health of married couples and the care of 1,700 couples small groups, and also leads the affinity team responsible for the singles, women’s, and men’s ministries. He married his high school sweetheart who met him by picking his name out of a hat (long story you’ll have to ask him) and has been married for 17 years. They have three boys, the twins, Jacob and Tyler, and Dylan their youngest.

wer sdg
Tom Crick - (Breakthrough – Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Baltimore-Washington) Tom Crick is the director of Men’s Ministry at Saddleback and also leads a team dedicated to caring for new small groups. Tom became the first paid part-time Division Leader (now Community Leader) in 1999. Tom also served full time on the Saddleback Church staff for 2 years as a Couples Area Leader upon his call to ministry after 25 years of business experience in senior management in high tech industries including computers, aerospace, digital imaging and fiber optics. Tom has been married to Jane for 30 years and has a daughter, Sonja a Vanguard University graduate and a son Teddy at Saddleback College. Tom and Jane serve together mentoring married couples.

wer sdg
Helen Mitchell - (Advanced Breakthrough – St. Louis) Helen Mitchell is the director and co-founder of the workplace ministry at Saddleback Church. She is a speaker and author on faith and work matters and is currently an advisor to the Biola School of Business on a work life certificate program, and is also a member of an international committee on the Theology of Work project. Helen started her career working for a Fortune 500 company becoming a Vice President in her early thirties. She holds a B.S. degree from Arizona State University and a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Biola University and is currently in seminary at Talbot. She is a wife of 25 years and a mother to two daughters ages 12 and 8.

wer sdg
Joe Windham - (Advanced Breakthrough - Seattle) Joe Windham is the small groups champion for Grace Family Church in North Tampa, Florida. He oversees a small group staff of twelve and provides small group direction for over 5000. In his capacity as Executive Small Groups Pastor, Joe also provides small group consulting and resources to churches that are part of the Florida West Coast Purpose Driven Network. Joe has also developed Small Groups Consulting Inc, an effective small group resource for all seeking to lead small groups through creative innovation and strategically collaborative efforts. Joe has been married for seventeen years to his beautiful wife, Robin. They have three children, Lauryn, Julia, and Elly.

wer sdg
Ron Wilbur - Advanced Planning - all conferences) Ron Wilbur is the director of small group operations at Saddleback. Following a career in corporate marketing, Ron spent 20 years as the CEO of an ad agency working with global brands. In 2005 he left the corporate world to join the ministerial staff of Saddleback Church on the small group ministry team. In four years he has held various roles including Area Leader over 300 small groups, director of small group operations and affinities, team leader, and head of online small groups. He is a graduate of Rockbridge Seminary. He and his wife Faye have taken several PEACE trips to West Africa, working among Muslims.