2019 MDFW Events

Laura Bush

Former First Lady of the United States | Crawford, Texas

Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States, is an advocate for literacy, education and women’s rights. After leaving the White House, President and Mrs. Bush founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. The Center is home to the Bush Presidential Museum and Library and the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy center established to solve today’s most pressing challenges by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action.

As Chair of the Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative, Mrs. Bush promotes access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity for women and girls around the world. The Women’s Initiative programs are preparing and empowering the next generation of women leaders in North Africa and the Middle East, working to ensure the expansion and protection of women’s rights in Afghanistan, and engaging and supporting First Ladies from around the world to effectively use their unique platforms to advance issues for women and girls in their countries. 


Speakers

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Mart Green

Founder & CEO, Mardel Christian & Educational Supply | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Mart Green began his retail career in the home of his parents as a youth. With $600 his family started Hobby Lobby in their living room, which is now a chain of over 800 arts and crafts stores. He is the Ministry Investment Officer for Hobby Lobby and also serves as Board Chair. In 1981, Mart established Mardel, a chain of Christian and educational supply stores. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Mardel has 34 stores in seven states.

In January 2005, Christian Retailing named Mart Green one of the Top Fifty People who have most shaped and impacted Christian retailing in the last half century. In 2008, he was also awarded the Jim Carlson Christian Bookstore of the Year Award by the Christian Book Association (CBA) for setting standards of excellence in the industry.

From January 2008 to April 2014, Mart served as Board Chair of the Board of Trustees at Oral Roberts University and now serves as Trustee Emeritus. 


Dr. Mac Pier

Founder & CEO, Movement.org |
New York City, New York

Dr. McKenzie “Mac” Pier is Founder and CEO of Movement.org and founder and former president of Concerts of Prayer Greater New York. Dr. Pier currently serves on the Board of Directors of both organizations.

Concerts of Prayer Greater New York was created to strengthen and unite pastors while also advancing a culture of prayer for revival across the New York Metro area. In 2008, responding to the expressed needs of leaders in our city and partners nationwide, Mac founded The New York City Leadership Center recently rebranded as Movement.org.

As Founder and CEO of Movement.Org, Mac seeks to exponentially increase the leadership effectiveness of ministry and marketplace leaders to address the spiritual and social issues facing our cities today. Mac’s desire is to see the birth of citywide “Gospel Movements” that will grow into solid, mature networks that measurably transform the lives of our most vulnerable citizens. To that end, the annual Movement Day conference was established to accelerate collaboration between Christian leaders in the world’s major urban centers.

Dr. Pier has authored six books, The Power of a City at Prayer, Spiritual Leadership in the Global City, Consequential Leadership, A Disruptive Gospel, A Disruptive Generosity, and the soon to be released, A Disruptive God.

Dr. Jim Denison

Founder, The Denison Forum |
Dallas, Texas

Jim Denison bridges faith and culture by engaging contemporary issues with biblical truth. He co-founded the Denison Forum in February 2009. Since that time, he has spoken to over 100,000 people on five continents. He is the author of eight books, including his most recent, The State of Our Nation: 7 Critical Issues. Dr. Denison also serves as Resident Scholar for Ethics with Baylor Scott & White Health, Senior Fellow for Global Studies at Dallas Baptist University, and Senior Fellow with the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative in Washington, D.C. He writes a daily article available at www.denisonforum.org/subscribe. His free column is distributed to more than 110,000 subscribers in 203 countries.

Grant Skeldon

Founder, Initiative Network |
Dallas, Texas

In response to millennials being labeled noncommittal, cynical, entitled, slacktivists, Grant Skeldon started Initiative Network in order to shift the culture of Dallas by training millennials to be Christ-loving, city-changing, church-investing, disciple-making local missionaries. Initiative has impacted thousands of young leaders from over 540 different churches across the metroplex. Grant has traveled across the globe speaking to over 40,000 pastors, parents, and business leaders on the topic of engaging and empowering millennials. Grant serves on the advisory boards for Harvest America in Dallas and Movement | DFW. He is also a member at Mercy Street Church, a multicultural, urban church plant in West Dallas.

Wil McCall

President, Dallas Leadership Foundation | Dallas, Texas

Wil McCall is a foremost expert in leadership development. He has mentored hundreds of leaders across the city of Dallas and provided oversight to Dallas Leadership Foundation for over a decade. As a nonprofit executive with over 20 years of business experience, Wil provides fiscal management, strategic planning, and executive coaching services for nonprofit agencies and professionals. With a specialty in strategy development and program management, he is skilled at mobilizing high performers to positively impact their communities. He began serving as an LF Senior Associate in 2012, which allows him to lend this significant expertise to Local Leadership Foundations across the LF global network.

Jurie Kriel

NXT Move, Catalyst | Dallas, Texas

Jurie Kriel is based in Austin Texas where he is innovating the 5twelve City Church plant that will reach a 90% unchurched urban core by reimagining church for a next generation. He also leads a global initiative with Movement.org called the NXT Move. Gathering the next generation of Gospel city movement leaders from around the world to catalyze a global turnaround in reaching the next generation and utilize urbanization as an opportunity for the Gospel, ultimately adding momentum to a movement that will see global cities flourish spiritually and socially.

Before that Jurie was part of the Doxa Deo leadership in South Africa where he has lead a mega church in Pretoria, while overseeing several others and also been closely involved in an urban church plant. 

Markus Lloyd

Director of External Focus, Woodcreek Church | Dallas, Texas

Markus Lloyd serves as the Director of External Focus at Woodcreek Church in Richardson, Texas and is known as a community catalyst for Church unity and reconciliation. He leads a Church reconciliation group called Threaded and serves as Regional Champion for Unite Greater Dallas. In his spare time, he is a professional performer, emcee, actor and director. Markus can be seen on stages, screens and as a voice in many popular commercials, video games and anime cartoons. He is also the on-camera spokesman for the Institute for Creation Research and the live events emcee for Southwest Airlines. Markus lives in McKinney, Texas with his amazing wife Lisa and two beautiful boys Markus Jr. (Deuce) and Solomon.

Craig Denison

Author, First15 | Dallas, Texas

Craig Denison is the author of First15, a daily devotional guiding over 100k believers into a fresh experience with God’s presence. He writes, speaks, and he and his wife, Rachel lead worship to help believers establish a more tangible, meaningful connection with God. You can check out his work by visiting First15.org, and signing up to receive his free, daily devotional.

John Maisel

Founder and Chairman, Emeritus of East West Ministries | Dallas, Texas

John Maisel has a diverse background in various business and investment activities since being honorably discharged as a captain from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart as a result of his tour in Vietnam.

While in Europe on business in 1979 he began to team with friends who were traveling behind the Iron Curtain. His travels for ministry in this restricted access area of the world eventually led to the establishment of East-West Ministries International in 1993. Today East-West focuses on church planting in closed countries and restricted assess nations. Maisel is married to Susie and has a grown daughter and two grandchildren.

Kimberly Manns

Managing Director, Early Matters Dallas (a Commit Partnership) | Dallas, Texas

Kim is a passionate leader with a real talent for bringing diverse stakeholders together to solve complex social problems. Kim currently serves as the Managing Director for Early Matters Dallas, where she convenes over 200 organizations in Dallas County to rally behind common goals and strategies to increase early childhood outcomes for children 0-8 in Dallas County. Key recent wins for Early Matters Dallas include: 1) the passage of legislation to establish an Early Childhood Institute at DCCCD that will enable community college students to receive a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and 2) a regional pre-k campaign in partnership with 13 local Districts.

Prior to joining Early Matters Dallas, Kim served as the Program Director for the Baltimore Campaign for Grade Level Reading, where she led a strategy process.

David Daniels

Lead Pastor, Pantego Bible Church | Fort Worth, Texas

David Daniels has served as Lead Pastor at Pantego Bible Church since 2005. Prior to this position, he served as Senior Pastor at CrossPoint Church in Bloomington, Minnesota and as Pastor of Collegiate Ministries at First Evangelical Free Church in Austin, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Texas at Austin, his Master of Divinity at Denver Seminary, and his Doctor of Ministry at Dallas Theological Seminary. David is co-founder of Beta Upsilon Chi (Brothers Under Christ), a national Christian fraternity, and has served on the Executive Board. His commitment to personal discipleship and global missions has taken him around the world and he is presently partnering with ALARM [African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries] to train pastors throughout war-torn central Africa. 

Dr. Mark L. Bailey

President, Dallas Theological Seminary/Senior Professor, Bible Exposition
Dallas, Texas

Dr. Bailey assumed the Seminary’s presidency after years of service as both a professor in the Bible Exposition department and as the Vice President for Academic Affairs. In addition to his years at Dallas Theological Seminary, he has pastored various churches in Arizona and Texas. He was a seminar instructor for Walk Thru the Bible Ministries for twenty years and is in demand for Bible conferences and other preaching engagements. His overseas ministries have included Venezuela, Argentina, Hungary, and China. He is also a regular tour leader in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Rome. His board service includes Bible Study Fellowship, Insight for Living, Jews for Jesus, and Walk Thru the Bible Ministries.

Adam C. Wright, PhD.

President, Dallas Baptist University | Dallas, Texas

On May 19, 2016, the DBU Board of Trustees elected Dr. Adam C. Wright as the sixth president of Dallas Baptist University. Dr. Wright succeeds Dr. Gary Cook, who announced his transition to the Chancellor position in February 2015, following 28 years of faithful service.

Dr. Wright previously served as Vice President and Dean of the Cook School of Leadership, where he provided academic leadership and taught at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Prior to his appointment as Dean, he served as Vice President for Advancement at DBU, paving the way for unprecedented growth in fund-raising and development efforts, expanding the physical plant and increasing student scholarships. Throughout his time at DBU, he has provided senior leadership in academic, enrollment, administrative, and advancement areas. 

Andy Wileman

Lead Pastor, Grace Bible Church | Dallas, Texas

Andy is a native of Tyler, Texas, and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in business. After graduation, he married Julie and together they bought and sold a business in East Texas.

Andy attended Dallas Theological Seminary where he served on the administration and faculty. He was the first executive director of the Center for Christian Leadership. While working for the Seminary, he started attending Grace Bible Church. He left the seminary to return to business for a few years, but then joined the staff at Grace as the Associate Pastor in 1993. In 2002 he became the Senior Pastor.

John Meador

Senior Pastor, Cross City Church | Euless, Texas


John Meador has served as senior pastor of Cross City Church since 2006. He is passionate about the Word of God and committed to teaching it creatively because he loves to watch it transform lives. Under his leadership, Cross City has become an intergenerational, multi-ethnic and mission-focused church. His heart and vision have shaped it to become a place that reaches into the community and into the world. He believes those armed with the Gospel leave a lasting mark, and challenges everyone he leads to be a culture-changer as they carry the good news into the world around them.

Part of John’s story is born out of adversity. As a small child, a severe illness resulted in an irreversible hearing loss that left him profoundly deaf. This has given him the opportunity to experience God’s grace in multiple ways. He has watched God turn his disappointments into hope and purpose. He believes “You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.”

Additional Guests

Raymond Harris

Founder, RHA Architects – Dallas, TX

Charlies Leslie, Jr.

Pastor | Sherman, TX

Bob Doll

Chief Equity Strategist, Nuveen Asset Management Princeton, NJ

Panel: Improving Early Childhood Education

Irma De La Guardia

Principal, Stephen F. Foster Elementary – Dallas, TX

Kimberly Manns

Managing Director, Early Matters Dallas (a Commit Partnership) – Dallas, TX

Julie Morris

Asst. Director for Center for Parenting & Family Well-being, Children at Risk – Dallas, TX

Derek Little

Asst. Superintendent Early Childhood, DISD – Dallas, TX

Panel: Racial Reconciliation and Unity

Markus Lloyd

Founder, Threaded/Director of External Focus, Woodcreek Church – Dallas, TX

Richie Butler

Founder, Project Unity/Sr. Minster, St. Paul UMC – Dallas, TX

Nika Spaulding

Resident Theologian, St. Jude Oak Cliff

Luis Roman

Sr. Pastor, Viva Church – Dallas, TX

Panel: Reaching the Next Generation of Christian Leaders

Jurie Kriel

NXT Move, Catalyst – Dallas, TX

Craig Dennison

Author, First15 –
Dallas, TX

Chichi Onyekanne

Worship Leader & Media Producer – Fort Worth, TX


Monica Zuniga

Founder, We Are Unveiled – Dallas, TX

Grant Skeldon

Founder, Initiative Network – Dallas, TX

Sarah Reeves

Nashville, Tennessee

A Christian artist whose music combines moody pop melodies with lyrics that deal with faith and worship, Sarah Reeves was born in Athens, Alabama on April 29, 1989. Reeves grew up in a musical household; her father, John Mark “Hershey” Reeves, was a musician, songwriter, engineer, and producer who had been working in music since the late ’70s, and her younger sister, Mary Reeves, is a member of the group Only in Stories.In response to the deep division between generations, denominations, and races, INTV intends to tell a different story. We are a collective of young diverse worship leaders who have a heart for our generation to become Christ loving, city changing, church investing, disciple making, local missionaries.

Our backgrounds are different but our stories are the same: “Jesus intervened.” INTV is a band that appreciates the value of dynamic, diverse worship. Whether it’s contemporary, hymns, gospel, hip-hop or songs from the 90s, our worship will be marked by reverence and angst.

Worship