SPEAKER BIOS

Lou Engle is a revivalist, visionary and co-founder of TheCall solemn assemblies.

For more than three decades, Lou’s passion has been to call believers into radical consecration through prayer, fasting, and acts of justice. Lou has been involved in church planting, establishing prayer movements and strategic houses of prayer.  He is the founder of the prolife ministry Bound 4 Life and has inspired other justice movements.

Lou resides in Pasadena, California, where he is a part of the leadership team at the Pasadena International House of Prayer. He recently launched the Spiritual Air Force Academy with a mandate to train and deploy teams across the world for breakthrough intercession in partnership with missions.

Lou and his wife, Therese, have been married 34 years. They have seven children.

Nick Hall is the founder and chief communicator of PULSE, a Twin Cities-based nonprofit organization at the center of the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America today.  He is married to his best friend Tiffany.  When they are not on the road, they make their home in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul.

Launched through an English paper Nick wrote as a junior at North Dakota State University, the PULSE movement has grown to impact over 30 university campuses and more than 250,000 people each year through PULSE events, festivals and conferences. PULSE exists to awaken culture to the reality of Jesus.

Traveling as a youth communicator for more than a decade, Nick has played a role in equipping tens of thousands of students while impacting over a million people with the life giving message of Jesus.  As an emerging national leader in the areas of evangelism, prayer and youth movements, Nick serves on the executive board for the US Lausanne Committee and the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Association.

Since 2010, Trae Vacek has served as the Executive Director of Bridges International, the international student ministry of Cru.  Bridges International is a caring community of Christ-followers committed to serve, promote social connections and engage in spiritual conversations with international students.  With over 315 full-time staff, Bridges desires to mobilize the body of Christ on college campuses to reach the nations.  Trae is passionate in seeing spiritual movements launched where international students encounter Jesus Christ!  He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Dallas Theological Seminary. Trae and his wife, Melissa, have served with Bridges since 2000.  They have 4 children ranging from 15 to 7 years old, and they make their home in Austin, TX.

Vicky Porterfield is an anointed minister whose desire is to further God’s Kingdom through prayer, service and teaching.  As a natural teacher, Vicky imparts wisdom in a fresh and clear manner. Although a native Texan, her travels throughout the United States and overseas offer a broad perspective to what God is doing in the nations. The prophetic anointing of God allows Vicky to provide encouraging ministry to cities, churches, leaders and individuals.

In 2002 Vicky and her husband John co-founded PrayerFields, a ministry committed to help Christians identify their field and how to pray effectively in their place. Vicky served as National Director of Intercessors International for six years under the leadership of Elizabeth Alves and Tommi Femrite.   She has trained instructors and taught principles of intercession to believers of different denominations, ages and cultures.  Vicky has led prayer teams for conferences in the U. S., Argentina, Switzerland and Germany and had the opportunity to teach in South Korea, Romania, Latvia, Argentina, Burundi, Hungary, Jordan, Egypt and Kenya. Her love for young people brought opportunities to teach seminars for multiple years at the Urbana conference through Inter Varsity. She is the Team Lead of Intercession for the college-age Passion Conferences. Vicky has expanded her teaching to weeks of training for Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in multiple nations.

John Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. He speaks frequently on university campuses, churches, and conferences around the world. His passion is to help clear the fog between the academy and the local church by making the case for the credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a winsome and persuasive manner.

He is a summa cum laude graduate of Talbot School of Theology where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy, a master’s degree in New Testament studies, and a master of theology. While at Talbot, he also served as a graduate teaching assistant and an adjunct faculty member.

John is the host of the African versions of RZIM’s radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, which are heard in several countries across the African continent. He is in the process of completing a PhD in philosophy at the University of Georgia. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Leah, and their two boys, Jonathan and Benjamin.

Erik Fish passionately pursues the spontaneous expansion of church planting movements (CPM) in the Western context. He was mentored by Dr. George Patterson and serves as a coach with Dr. Patterson’s People of Yes.

Erik is the author of Pocket Disciple and Disciple and the founder of the Student Church Movement.

He recently created the DiscipleX initiative, a call to equip and send disciple-making multipliers to the ends of the earth.

Erik’s messages on the simplicity of Jesus’ call to make disciples have been featured on platforms such as TBN’s Top Three and iDisciple by Family Christian Bookstores. As an evangelist and mission strategist, he has empowered next generation leaders around the world to multiply disciples and simple church planting movements.

Erik and his wife have four children. Their love for friends, travel, and Jesus take them on many adventures together.

David Smithers and his wife Lucretia presently serve as the English ministers for the Chinese Christian Assembly in Pomona, California. For the the last 35 years David has been committed to encouraging intercession and corporate prayer for revival and spiritual awakening. He is the founder and director of Awake and Go prayer network and also serves on the leadership team for the Collegiate Day of Prayer. David and his wife Lucretia have been married 30 years and have five children ranging in ages from 28 to 15. He and his wife are based in Southern California and regularly minister in the areas of Prayer, Revival and Missions History.

Vince Burens is the CCO’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a BA in Urban Development and Political Science, Vince has been working for the CCO since 1999, both on campus and in various leadership positions. Vince and his wife, Lori, were both involved in CCO ministry during their undergraduate years. They live in Pittsburgh where they are raising their two daughters, Mia and Tessa.

On January 1, 2016, Vince will become the CCO’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Justin Christopher piloted and has directed the united movement at the University of Texas since the early 90s. Justin loves to share the story of how Campus Renewal has influenced his school.  Since his years of praying for revival everyday as a student, he’s seen radical changes in the ministry culture at UT and other colleges around the nation.  Justin works hard to form relationships with students and other campus ministers across the country and creates solid logistics to see every student reached.

Mark Slaughter is an evangelistic communicator speaking at college campuses, conferences, and churches with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship /USA.

His unique “Question Mark” events combine the warmth of Christ’s love, the strength of Biblical teaching, and the openness of authentic communication about issues facing today’s culture.  The event byline “Question Mark…a safe place to discuss your real questions about God” describes the compassion-filled, interactive apologetics discussions which take place at these outreach events.

Mark has served for over 25 years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship proclaiming God’s Kingdom to college students with clear, compassionate, and Biblical responses to the moral and societal questions and injustices facing them today.  His passion is to see college students transformed to follow Jesus and impact their world for Christ.

Before joining InterVarsity Mark served as a pastor, and is currently serving as the National Facilitator of Emerging Generations with the Mission America Coalition (US Lausanne Committee), collaborating with various ministries to mentor and empower a new generation of evangelistic communicators and leaders.

Matt Bennett is founder and president of Christian Union, a Christian leadership development organization with the mission to bring sweeping spiritual and cultural transformation to our nation and the world by developing and networking Christian leaders to make an impact for Christ.

A native of Houston, Texas, Matt earned BS and MBA degrees from Cornell University and holds a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He worked for Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) at Princeton University for 12 years, and developed the ministry into one of the largest in the history of the Ivy League. In 2002, he founded Christian Union with the strategy of developing Christian leaders in two spheres of influence: First, among students at the nation’s most influential, secular universities including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale, and secondly, among working professionals in the nation’s most influential cities. The ministry has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, NPR, Christianity Today and World Magazine. He currently resides in New York City.

Mike Armstrong is in his 33rd year of ministry to students at the University of Arkansas with Christ on Campus and is a past president of the Association of College Ministries. He is also part of a group of leaders from about a dozen campus ministries who have prayer together on a weekly basis for over 17 years.

Thai Lam is part of the leadership team at the International House of Prayer Missions Base of Kansas City serving as the national director of the Luke18 Project, a campus prayer movement establishing a culture of prayer and a lifestyle of mission on college campuses. Thai has pioneered & led campus ministries for over 15 years at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, San Jose State, KU, UMKC, and also served on the national leadership team of Every Nation Campus Ministries. Thai came to faith in Jesus as a freshmen at UC Berkeley graduating in Religious Studies and then studied Cross-Cultural Missions at Fuller Seminary. He is committed to calling a generation to wholehearted love, allegiance, and pursuit of Jesus. Thai and his wife Angela reside in Kansas City with their 3 children — Noah (6), Cohen (4), and Selah (2).

Dr. Leo Lawson has been a veteran 30-year campus missionary and church-planter on several college campuses in several states.  He is the Director of The International Center for Evangelism, Church-planting, And Prayer (ICECAP) and The Institute of Campus Evangelism, Church-planting, And Prayer (ICECAP).  He is also the President of The Association of Christian Educators and Administrators (ACEA) as well as The Association of Campus Evangelists in America (ACEA).  He has served as the Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Campus Ministry (GSCM) as well as the Academic Dean of the Campus Harvest Academy of Student Evangelism (CHASE).