Leroy Barber has dedicated 30 years living and working towards what Dr. King called “the beloved community.”

Leroy starts projects that shape society. In 1989, burdened by the plight of Philadelphia’s homeless, he and his wife, Donna, founded Restoration Ministries to serve homeless families and children living on the streets. In 1994 he became Director of Internship Programs at Cornerstone Christian Academy. Leroy was licensed and ordained at Mt Zion Baptist Church where he served as Youth Director with Donna, and also served as Associate Minister of Evangelism. In 1997 he joined FCS Urban Ministries in Atlanta, GA working with the Atlanta Youth Project to serve as the founding Executive Director of Atlanta Youth Academies, a private elementary school providing quality Christian education for low-income families in the inner city.

Leroy also helped found DOOR Atlanta, Community Life Church, South Atlanta Marketplace, and Community Grounds Coffee shop in Atlanta, GA as well as Green My Hood. Leroy is an innovator, entrepreneur, lover of the arts and a 2021 recipient of the Tom Locke Innovative Leader award.

Leroy is currently Director of Innovation for an Engaged Church serving the Greater NW area of the United Methodist Church. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Voices Project and The Voices School for Liberation and Transformation and Adjunct professor at Multnomah University. Rev. Barber has served on the boards of The Simple Way, Missio Alliance, The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), and as the Former Board Chair of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA).

He is the author of four books:

New Neighbor: An Invitation to Join Beloved Community (2008, Mission Year)

Everyday Missions: How Ordinary People Can Change the World (2012, Intervarsity Press)

Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White: Who’s More Precious In His Sight? with Velma Maia Thomas, 2014, Faith Words/Hachette Book Group)

Embrace: God’s Radical Shalom For A Divided World (2016, Intervarsity Press)

He was a contributing author to Tending to Eden, by Scott Sabin (2010, Judson Press), and the groundbreaking book UnChristian: What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons (2007, Baker Books).

Leroy currently lives in Portland Oregon and has been married to Donna for the past 36 years. Together they have six children.

From Ferguson to New York, and from Germany to South Africa to Australia, Lisa Sharon Harper leads trainings that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action.

Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008); Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011); Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014); and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines. She writes extensively on shalom and governance, immigration reform, health care reform, poverty, racial and gender justice, climate change, and transformational civic engagement.

Ms. Harper earned her Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York City, and served as Sojourners Chief Church Engagement Officer. In this capacity, she fasted for 22 days as a core faster in 2013 with the immigration reform Fast for Families. She trained and catalyzed evangelicals in St. Louis and Baltimore to engage the 2014 push for justice in Ferguson and the 2015 healing process in Baltimore, and she educated faith leaders in South Africa to pull the levers of their new democracy toward racial equity and economic inclusion.

Tiffany Henness (she/her/hers) is a writer, speaker and community organizer in McMinnville, Oregon. Henness currently serves as the Vice Chair of McMinnville’s DEI Advisory Committee as well as on the leadership council for the local chapter of the Safe Families for Children movement. Using her experience as a multiracial, transracial adoptee, Henness works with the non-profit, Be the Bridge, as a Transracial Adoption Educator and Marketing Coordinator.

She blogs at www.callinginthewilderness.com and posts on social media as @CoachHenness. Her writing focuses on challenging harmful narratives at the intersections of adoption, race and faith. Henness has a BA in English from Azusa Pacific University.

Dr. Gabe Veas is a native of Los Angeles who in 2017 was named the first Professor of Mentorship in the United States. Veas has pioneered academic research in the areas of protégé-initiated mentoring and Mentoring Lineage, having taught at twelve institutions of higher learning including Loyola Marymount University. Veas is a highly sought-after public scholar and author, addressing the societal ills of the day through the mentoring lens at venues such as Princeton and Yale. Veas not only advocates for, but also models how to effectively implement intercultural mentoring as a means of community transformation. In 2011, Veas alongside his team of protégés founded One Protégé, Inc. which provides leaders and organizations the opportunity to personally receive coaching, consulting, and capacity development from them. Veas recently launched The Los Angeles School of Mentorship, which is a progressive artistic community dedicated to developing more effective mentors and protégés. Veas heavily relies on social media platforms to cultivate relationships with leaders internationally, shape the trajectory of mentoring globally, and help institutions to live into their missions. As a lyricist, Veas has consistently performed online during the pandemic, helping inspire audiences to understand their identity, discernment process, and ethical values. Veas affirms mentoring's relationship to mentor health and is currently pursuing his latest graduate degree with the University of Massachusetts in psychology in order to apply for dual licensure as a counselor & therapist.

MLSW is an urban-contemporary blend of R&B, Hip-Hop, Inspirational and Soul wrapped around a sound Gospel message.

Being born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, Michelle Lang-Raymond recently relocated back to Seattle, WA after living 8 years Portland, OR where she has served as the Campus Pastor and a Professor of Religion and Black Studies at Warner Pacific University. Prior to that, she enjoyed a 25 year residency and active ministry as a Youth & Young Adult Pastor, Urban Programs Coordinator, Director of Leadership Development, Regional Training Manager, Writer and Music Director and as an artists for organizations like Emerald City Outreach, World Vision, Young Life, the Seattle Presbyterian Church, Seattle’s Teen Summer Musical and her own gospel band – Michelle Lang & Still Water.

Michelle has been in full time ministry since 1995 and has seamlessly interwoven her love for the Christ, the Church and the Community at large. As a step in a new’ish direction, in 2013, Michelle created the Art of Tough Talks”- a multi-media project that utilizes the arts to foster conversation on often polarizing subjects and in 2020 she founded and serves as the CEO & Executive Director of Acts On Stage, a new theater devoted to centering the voices, works and initiatives of People of Color and People of Faith.

Michelle received her BA in Psychology from Seattle Pacific University and in her MA in Religion from Warner Pacific University all while maintaining her love for animated movies, live concerts and salted caramel ice cream which her loving husband Jay keeps stocked in their fridge. Michelle considers herself a simple and sometimes silly intellectual and “just a southern girl who relocated into the Kingdom.”

“I take a deep breath and step out on faith. Do it afraid.” Those words have been a mantra for South Side of Chicago Native, Sharon Irving, songstress/songwriter/ poet, voice over artist, worship leader and actress, since she was a little girl, performing in front of the congregation at the south side church in Chicago where her grandfather was pastor. Her first steps as an artist were shaped by the influences of his powerful baritone singing and eloquent sermons, and the mind blowing artistry of her father, famed jazz musician and composer, Robert Irving III. With loving encouragement from her mother and grandmother, Sharon has cultivated and shaped her own creative persona. She is an inspiring ‘voice for the voiceless’, a passionate wordsmith spewing truth and inspiration, singing songs of life and love motivated by her personal experiences, and undergirded by her Christian beliefs. Sharon has been a part of the worship team at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois for several years, has contributed songs and words of hope before thousands at liturgical and corporate events, youth conferences, including the popular “CHIC”, (‘Covenant High in Christ’), in small clubs and intimate settings all over the country, at the Angola Prison in Angola, Louisiana, and even entertained millions while a participant on Season Ten of “America’s Got Talent”, where she received the coveted “Golden Buzzer” at her first televised audition, and was chosen by America to compete in the Semi-Finals. “We are all walking art”, Sharon has stated as she fuses her love of fashion and music into a whimsical symmetry of sound and visual esthetic. Sharon poured her spirit into her debut album, ‘Bennett Ave’. “I like to blend different art forms when I’m writing songs and, with this album, I’ve drawn inspiration from every genre and I mean every genre. I have a passion for shaping words and everyday phrases to melody. ‘Bennett Ave’ is an expression of my thoughts on issues of justice, love and redemption in the darkest situations. It’s about what it means to be human when we’re at our lowest and highest points. It’s been challenging, but my heart is to pursue new methodologies in worship music, and reach people through mainstream music. Life is messy and broken. So many people are hiding, living for others, dying on the inside, holding onto unhealthy narratives out of fear but Gods strength is made perfect in those messy places. I’m learning this, daily. There’s an unlikely and beautiful story of redemption waiting to unfold in our lives. I’ll never forget when someone said that God called me to be a “shifter and changer of atmospheres”. I truly believe worship changes atmospheres. I want my worship and art to be transparent, transformative, raw, uplifting and healing.”