Commissioned

Dr. Richard Warren is a global strategist, philanthropist, pastor and author. His book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold more than thirty five million copies in English, and is published in almost 100 languages.

In 1980, Warren founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. Today it is one of America's most influential congregations with more than 100,000 attendees on 10 campuses with over 300 ministries.

He has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, the Global Health Summit, the Aspen Ideas Institute, TED, and numerous world congresses.

Warren and his wife Kay give away 90% of their income through 3 charities.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Steve Pike has served a variety of churches and denominational leadership areas for over 30 years of ministry. His early years were spent in youth ministry roles serving strong churches in Lumberton, New Jersey; Jacksonville, Florida; and Naperville, Illinois.

In January 2006, Steve was selected to lead Assemblies of God church planting efforts in the United States and currently serves as National Director for the Church Multiplication Network (CMN). CMN collaborates with church multipliers to effectively equip, strategically fund and innovatively network new faith communities in America. Since 2006 the Assemblies of God has invested $4 million directly into local church plants and has planted over 1500 churches across the United States.

Steve's passion for planting began in 1989 when Steve and his wife Cherri, along with their two children, answered God's call to the plant a church in Utah. During the 90's they were privileged to see the church grow to a family of over 400 attendees that helped to plant five additional churches in Utah.

In 2000, Steve was invited to serve as the first Director of Church Planting and Development for the Rocky Mountain District of the Assemblies of God. During his tenure, the pace of church planting in the Rocky Mountain District doubled that of planting in the 90's and the success rate rose from 67 percent to 85 percent.

Steve and his wife Cherri have two grown children and live in Springfield, MO. Steve is currently assisting in the development of his local church's multi-site efforts.

Ryan and Michelle Meeks planted EastLake Church in 2005 with 7 of their close friends in Kirkland Washington. EastLake is "church for the rest of us", started with the simple idea of a church that would make sense to, connect with, and exist for, people with little to no church experience. Since that small start, Eastlake has grown to 5,000 attendees on three different campuses. Ryan was classically trained as a Subway sandwich artist in the 90's, and has since been educated beyond his own level of intelligence. He can be found in the Cascade Mountains every summer. Ryan and Michelle have four children who test their salvation daily.

Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus is the Senior Pastor of New Life Covenant Ministries. Under his visionary leadership, New Life has become the largest Assemblies of God church in the United States. Through this ministry, Pastor De Jesus currently impacts thousands of individuals in the Chicago area and around the world each week.

Wilfredo was born and raised in Chicago in the Humboldt Park area. He grew up in a political and cultural climate that had the odds stacked against him. However, at the young age of 14, God ordained for him to be placed in a maintenance position at a small local church for a summer youth employment program. In the summer of 1979, he encountered Jesus as his Lord and Savior for the first time.

De Jesus dedicated his life to the Lord and committed himself to this local church, called Templo Palestina (Palestine Christian Temple). In 1992, he first came on staff as an Administrative Assistant. From 1998 to 2000, Wilfredo held two positions, one as Assistant Pastor and the other as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.

Twenty years after he first set foot in Templo Palestina, he was appointed the Senior Pastor for that same small congregation. Giving it a new name and a fresh vision, God began to expand the ministry from a weekly attendance of 120 to over 5,000 locally and more than 12,000 under the ministry umbrella in both Spanish and English. New Life has planted churches across the city (Pilsen and Oakwood) and around the world (Camden, New Jersey and Chimbote, Peru). There are also several churches that have come under the ministries leadership in the past few years, creating a global network to advance the Gospel and reach the lost.

In addition, Rev. De Jesús has extended the church beyond the four walls and into the community. Outside of the church's thriving youth group and children's ministry – New Life operates an affordable private school (Salem Christian School), a free residential program for at-risk youth (Axis Teen Center) and an intensive discipleship program for college age students (Chicago Master's Commission). Under De Jesus' direction, New Life has launched several non-profit entities that help those who are hurting in a practical, tangible way. Among these are the Chicago Dream Center, New Life Family Services, Camden Dream Center, New Life Foundation, and over 110 ministries under the New Life umbrella. These organizations operate multi-faceted programs: food and clothing pantries, transitional shelters, residential recovery and job training programs, mobile soup kitchens for the homeless and shut-ins, gang and at risk youth intervention, human trafficking advocacy, world missions and humanitarian relief, after school tutoring and sports programming, mentoring, prison outreach, immigration advocacy, and much more.

While serving in ministry, Wilfredo De Jesús received a Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Trinity University and a Master's degree in Christian Ministries from North Park Theological Seminary. Rev. De Jesus is the Vice President of Social Justice for the nation's largest Hispanic Christian organization, The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference which serves 18,000 churches and close to 15 million born-again Christians. From 2004-2010, Rev. De Jesus served as a commissioner on the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. He is sought after as a motivational speaker at various church and community events, conferences and school assemblies. De Jesus possesses a passion to save the lost and is committed in providing necessary services to the community. He currently resides in Chicago with his wife Elizabeth and their three children, Alexandria, Yesenia and Wilfredo, Jr.

Under the pastoral leadership of Rev. De Jesus, God has shaped New Life Covenant into a vibrant and caring church, one that truly lives out its mission to become a "church for the hurting." As he often makes others understand, his accomplishments are based on a life dedicated to God and His purposes. In other words, whatever the accomplishment, to God be the Glory!

Geoff Surratt recently joined Saddleback Church staff as Pastor of Church Planting. Before that he served Seacoast Church based in Charleston, South Carolina overseeing their 13 campuses. He has over twenty-seven years of ministry experience in a variety of roles in local churches, and works frequently with other churches across the country in strategic planning and staff development. Geoff is the author of several books including The Multisite Church Revolution and 10 Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing. Geoff lives in Orange County, California with his wife Sherry. They have two amazing children and the most beautiful grand daughter on earth.

Gerald Sharon was responsible for launching Saddleback's multi-site strategy five years ago. He then served as Saddleback's Executive Pastor of Ministries and most recently as the North American Director for Purpose Driven. He has now returned to the multi-site ministry of Saddleback and has direct responsibility for the development of Saddleback's Southern California campuses.

Prior to joining the pastoral staff at Saddleback in July 2000, Gerald was a senior pastor in Kentucky for 21 years. He led his last church for nearly 13 years guiding them through the transitions necessary for high impact ministry effectiveness based on the Purpose Driven Church model.

Gerald received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Georgetown College in Kentucky. His Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees were earned at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

Dave Alford directs the Saddleback Church Leadership Academy, which provides training programs designed to equip the next generation of church leaders. The Academy's goal is to challenge gifted leaders to consider a call to church leadership and develop pathways to church ministry for them in order to create a leadership pipeline for church planting. The Academy's programs include ministry apprenticeships for young leaders, residencies for future church planters, and launch training for current church planters.

Dave's background includes experience in business, pastoral ministry, and higher education. He worked as an investment consultant for Mercer Consulting. He served as executive pastor and lead pastor at churches in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. He was Vice President for Business and Finance, and Dean of the School of Business and Management at Vanguard University. Dave has a Bachelors degree from UC Davis, an MBA from USC, and a doctorate from Pepperdine. Dave and his wife, Molly, live in Irvine with their 3 children, Jimmy, Christy, and Matthew.