Preaching and Teaching Convention Speakers' Biographies
Here we have provided you with a brief biography on the featured speakers for this year's Preaching and Teaching Convention.
Dick Alexander has been the Senior minister at LifeSpring Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 24 years. Prior to his senior ministry, he spent seventeen years in youth ministry. He frequently speaks for missions and church leadership conferences. In 2004, Dick was the President of the North American Christian Convention held in Phoenix, Arizona. Also in 2004, he spoke at the Preaching and Teaching Convention at Ozark Christian College, and he has also been featured at the National Youth Leaders Convention several times.
Dick has been married for forty-two years. He is the proud father of two grown children. His hobbies include running and skiing.
Kenny Boles is in his 40th year teaching Greek and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, MO. Kenny is a graduate of Ozark Christian College (B.Th., 1968) and Abilene Christian University (M.A. in Biblical and Patristic Greek, 1972). He has held located ministries in Tyro, KS, and Abilene, TX.
Kenny's wife, Linda, is also a graduate of Ozark Christian College. For many years she worked as costumer for the theatre departments of Missouri Southern State College, Crowder College, and State Fair Community College. Kenny and Linda have two grown children: Leigh Anne and Eric. Leigh Anne is married to Jeff Johnson, senior minister of Fair Haven Christian Church in Trafalgar, IN. They have an eleven-year-old daughter, Sydney. Eric Boles, a graduate of OCC and Yale Divinity School, is married to Alison (Hathaway) Boles and works in Kansas City. They have a five-year-old son, Simon, and a three-year-old daughter, Sarah.
Classes taught in the past two school years:
Greek 1
Greek 2
Greek 3
Gospel of John
Galatians/Philippians
Ephesians/Colossians
Hebrews
Hebrews Online
New Perspectives on Paul
Romans
Books written:
Thirteen Lessons on Galatians. College Press, 1978.
Thirteen Lessons on Ephesians. College Press, 1978.
Lessons on Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. College Press, 1979
The College Press NIV Commentary. Galatians & Ephesians. College Press, 1993.
Heaven: What a Wonderful Place! College Press, 1999.
The Life to Come: What the Bible Says about Heaven and Hell. College Press, 2009
Kenny has also written the scripture commentary for nearly 300 lessons in the Young Teen, Senior High, and Adult Sunday School material for Standard Publishing Company.
Things you might want to know about Kenny Boles:
He was the campus racquetball champion for most of 15 years.
He sings "Rubber Ducky" in Greek.
He is bald as a billiard ball.
Ben Cachiaras has served since 1997 as Sr. Minister with Mountain Christian Church outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He has also ministered with Christian Churches in Apple Valley, Minnesota and Johnson City, Tennessee.
A graduate of Minnesota Bible College, he has studied at Bethel Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary, and graduated with the Master of Divinity degree from Emmanuel School of Religion where he is currently a Doctor of Ministry candidate.
Some of Ben’s other ministry involvement includes roles with the Boards of Emmanuel School of Religion, the European Evangelistic Society, the North American Christian Convention, and as a contributing editor and publishing committee member for Standard Publishing. Ben follows in the footsteps of his grandparents and parents who spent their lives in ministry among the Christian churches, mostly in the state of Minnesota.
The Mountain Church has experienced phenomenal fruit and growth in recent years. God is using this congregation to make a regional impact in the East. Mountain is known in their community as a people who serve others, a place where all are welcome, and a church that cares about people. Many are being reached with the gospel.
Ben and his wife, Karla, have three children, Nathan (15), Andrew (12), and Ellie (10). He loves sports, including rock climbing, football, tennis, and volleyball. Most of all, he loves his family, has a passion for preaching, and longs to see the Church tell the good news of Jesus in creative and compelling ways so that people may be found by the Christ who loves them.
Jim Johnson served as a professor at Ozark Christian College for six years before answering the call to be the lead minister for the Sunnybrook Christian Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2004. During his yeas on the faculty he was a student favorite. Former President Idleman related, “Jim and his wife, Andrea, invested themselves unselfishly in their calling, having students in their home, serving as both models and mentors to many.” He was elected to the board at their December 2, 2005 quarterly meeting.
Jim graduated in 1995 from Ozark Christian College with a Bachelor of Theology degree with a New Testament major and was Class Orator. In May 1998, he received both the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts degrees from Lincoln Christian Seminary, Lincoln, Illinois. He has served as a youth ministry intern with Selkirk Church of Christ/Christian Chapel in Selkirk, Ontario, Canada. Jim has also been associate minister with the Hornet Christian Church, Hornet, Missouri and preaching minister of the Berean Christian Church, Ipava, Illinois.
Jim and his wife, Andrea, are natives of Canada. They have three sons, Matthew, Mackenzie and Maxwell.
Robert Lowery began his teaching ministry at Lincoln in 1975. He is a graduate of both Lincoln Christian College and Lincoln Christian Seminary, receiving the Master of Divinity in New Testament from the latter in 1973. Dr. Lowery also holds a Master of Theology degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. After returning to Lincoln to teach, Professor Lowery took further graduate work at Princeton and Harvard Universities. In 1991 he completed the Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Professor Lowery, noted for his wedding of sound exegesis and exposition, served several churches as student minister, both in Illinois and in the New England states, while he continued his education. As a professor, he continues to minister to and with churches in several capacities: interim preacher, consultant, and speaker for revivals and seminars. He has made presentations at the North American Christian Convention, the Open Forum of the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, The Restoration Forum, and the Evangelical Theological Society and has spoken for several state or regional Christian conventions (Michigan, Wisconsin, Eastern). He has participated in lectureships sponsored by Central Christian College (Moberly, MO), Great Lakes Christian College (Lansing, MI), Hope International University (Fullerton, CA), Maritime Christian College (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island), Minnesota Bible College (Rochester), and Nebraska Christian College (Norfolk).
With regard to overseas work, he is an adjunct faculty member for The TCM International Institute, based in Heiligenkreuz, Austria, where he has taught since 1994. He has also taught courses for the Institute in a number of Eastern European countries. He has also led study tours to Israel, Greece, and Turkey.
Professor Lowery is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Tyndale Fellowship of Cambridge, England. He has written numerous articles for The Christian Standard, The Lookout, the Standard Lesson Commentary, Leaven, The Stone-Campbell Journal, and Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He has contributed chapters for numerous books, including Evangelicalism and the Stone-Campbell Movement (InterVarsity Press), Essentials of Christian Faith (College Press, Joplin, MO), and Taking Every Though Captive (College Press), A Humble Defense (College Press).. He also contributed the study notes on Revelation for The Quest Study Bible (Zondervan, 1994). His first book, Revelation’s Rhapsody: Listening to the Lyrics of the Lamb, How to Read the Book of Revelation was jointly published by College Press, and Logos Bible Software (Bellingham, WA) in 2006. It is the first volume in a projected three volume series. Volume two is to be a commentary based on the interpretive principles found in the first volume. Its goal will be to make known in contemporary language, metaphors, and illustrations the message of the book of Revelation. The final volume is to focus on such issues as the millennium, the mark of the beast, the Antichrist, and more.
His wife Marilyn and he have two married children, Brian and Sarah Lowery and Joseph and Rachel Mollet and two granddaughters, Carissa and Jocelyn Mollet. He enjoys reading, movies, listening to music, attending Bob Dylan and U2 concerts and photography.
Jeff Walling has spent the last twenty years preaching and teaching about Jesus. His passionate style and dramatic delivery have made him a sought after speaker, lecturing to tens of thousands annually at Christian universities, evangelism seminars, and conferences worldwide. His experience as a former high school teacher, youth minister, husband, and father give his writings and lectures breadth and depth of uncommon character.
After early ministry training received from his father, also a preacher, Walling earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of California at Irvine in speech and communications with an emphasis in theatre; his graduate level work in religion has been at Pepperdine University, Malibu. Jeff served as the president and founder of Western Christian Ministries which produces inspirational video and audio series used by churches and schools nationwide.
Jeff has lived in Laguna Niguel, California, with his wife, Cathryn and their three sons, Taylor, Riley, and Spencer, where he served as the pulpit minister for the Mission Viejo Church of Christ since 1984. In June of 1997, Jeff and his family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to serve in a similar capacity at the Providence Road church of Christ.
Jeff spoke on the OCC campus in 2007 for the Preaching and Teaching Convention and the Restoration Forum.
Doug is in his fifth year as Director of Christian Service and Internships at Ozark Christian College. He grew up in Monmouth, Illinois and had the great misfortune of becoming a Chicago Cubs fan early in life, a struggle that continues to this day. His father recently retired as a math professor at Monmouth College, a small 4-year liberal arts college, and his mother has served as an accountant. Doug spent a great deal of his early life at the First Christian Church in Monmouth, learning from great Sunday School teachers and youth ministers. After Mark Scott preached a revival at his home church, he decided to enroll at Ozark Christian College, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Theology degree, majoring in New Testament.
After an internship at the Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington, Doug enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Arts degree in Theology. He then moved to Boswell, Indiana, where he served as minister to the Boswell Church of Christ from 2000 to 2004. While serving there, he finished an Master of Divinity degree at Lincoln Christian Seminary, where under the guidance of Wayne Shaw he wrote a Master's thesis entitled "Preaching as Reflection of God's Trinitarian Revelation."
In addition to serving as the Director of Christian Service and Internships, Doug teaches Homiletics, General Epistles, the Book of Revelation, and Christianity and Culture. He loves watching classic and foreign films, reading, watching college basketball, and playing drums and auxiliary percussion for College Heights Christian Church. His sister, Teresa, is professor of Christian Education at Emmanuel School of Religion, and his brother Kyle, is a student at Ozark Christian College.
Phil has been the Worship Minister of College Heights Christian Church for the past 16 years, a loving congregation of over 2,000 in Joplin, MO. He has led worship in many conferences in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. He is also a staff songwriter for Sunday Best Music, Nashville, TN and a clinician for the Write About Jesus Songwriters Workshop in St. Louis, MO. He has many songs published by Brentwood/Benson and Lillenas including the Easter musical "Sovereign Lord". Several of his new songs were released this year in various musicals and projects including "Settled at the Cross" recorded by the Nelons. Phil is a graduate of OCC. He and his wife, Jodie celebrated 30 years of marriage last year and have four children and one grandchild.
James Hauser is the Student Engage Pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville Kentucky. He was born and raised in Keokuk Iowa. He earned a bachelor degree from Ozark Christian College. After completing college he moved with his wife to Salem Illinois where he was youth pastor before moving to Kentucky in 2005.
James enjoys spending time with his wife LeAnn of 12 years and two boys Caden (5) and Bryson (3). One of the things James loves to do is laugh and thanks God for giving him two boys who are very entertaining and absolutely hilarious.
If there were two words used to describe James it would be relational and fun. He is passionate about building relationships and getting students to live in community and he loves to have fun.