Center for Action and Contemplation

Richard Rohr,OFM,

Richard Rohr an internationally known author and spiritual teacher, is a Franciscan of the New Mexico province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He considers the proclamation of the Gospel to be his primary call and the related themes he addresses include eco-spirituality, scripture as liberation, the integration of action and contemplation, community building, peace and justice issues, male spirituality, and the Enneagram. He is a regular contributing writer for Sojourners and Tikkun magazines.

Some of his best-known books include: Everything Belongs; Radical Grace: Daily Meditations; Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation; The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective; From Wild Men to Wise Men: Reflections on Male Spirituality; and his latest book The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See.

Fr. Richard has been a featured essayist on NPR’s “This I Believe” and a guest of Dr. Mehmet Oz on the “Oprah and Friends” radio show; he also appears in the 2006 documentary, ONE, featuring spiritual teachers from around the world. Check the Mustard Seed Resource Center for all Fr. Richard's works.

Suzanne Stabile

Suzanne Stabile is a sought after speaker and teacher, known for her unique and creative approach to the practice of Spiritual Formation.  She is the co-founder and animator of Life in the Trinity Ministry,  in Dallas, Texas.  Mrs. Stabile received her B.S. in Social Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she completed additional graduate work in the School of Sociology and Perkins School of Theology.  She has served as a high school professor, and as a women's basketball coach at the high school and college levels.  Ms. Stabile was also the founding Director of Shared Housing, a social service agency in Dallas.

Tony Jones

Tony is the author of The New Christians: Dispatches
from the Emergent Frontier and is theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis. He is the author of many books on Christian ministry and spirituality, including The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, and he is a sought after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality. Tony has three children and lives in Edina, Minnesota.

Phyllis Tickle

Phyllis Tickle is the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, the international journal of the book industry and is an authority and lecturer on religion in America. Ms. Tickle is the author of over two dozen books in religion and spirituality, most notably the Divine Hours series of manuals for observing fixed-hour prayer. She was with Publishers Weekly until her retirement in 2004, before which she had a career in academia. In September 1996, she received the Mays Award, one of the book industry's most prestigious awards for lifetime achievement in writing and publishing, and specifically in recognition of her work in gaining mainstream media coverage of religion publishing. In 2004, she received the honorary degreee of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley School of Divinity at Yale University. In 2007, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Christy Awards. She is currently a Senior Fellow of Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral. A founding member of The Canterbury Roundtable, she serves on a number of advisory and corporate boards. A lay eucharistic minister and lector in the Episcopal Church, she is the mother of seven children and, with her physician-husband, makes her home on a small farm in Lucy, Tennessee.

Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists. He graduated from University of Maryland with degrees in English (BA and MA). In 2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree (honoris causa) from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In 1982, he left a career in higher education to help form Cedar Ridge Community Church (crcc.org). He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Worship Leader, and Conversations, and his books include: The Secret Message of Jesus, Everything Must Change, Finding Our Way Again, A New Kind of Christian, Adventures in Missing the Point (with Dr. Anthony Campolo), and Church in the Emerging Culture, among many others. He is actively involved in a growing generative friendship among missional Christian leaders (www.emergentvillage.com); serves as a board chair for Sojourners (sojo.net), and is a founding member of Red Letter Christians. Brian is married to Grace, and they have four young adult children. Brian travels extensively, and his personal interests include ecology, fishing, hiking, music, art, and literature. Links to online articles and songs are available at www.brianmclaren.net.