Keynote Speakers

Brad Powell is senior pastor of NorthRidge Church in Plymouth, Mich. Under Brad's leadership for the past 16 years, NorthRidge Church has transitioned from a dying church locked in a pattern of cultural irrelevance, to an exciting, contemporary church communicating God's Word to people from every generation. After experiencing three decades of significant decline, NorthRidge has experienced a minimum of 20% growth annually for the past eight years. Each week more than 12,700 attend worship services at the 79-acre campus. NorthRidge has been recognized as the Midwest's "Fastest Growing Church" by Outreach Magazine and listed as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Churches by The Church Report.

Brad attended Tennessee Temple University and Grace Theological Seminary and led transition in three churches prior to arriving at NorthRidge. He is a frequent conference speaker, and provides leadership resources and encouragement for other churches in transition through NorthRidge Ministries Association and an annual conference, "Change Without Compromise." Because of his strong belief that "the church is the hope of the world...when it's working right," he is passionate about helping other leaders and churches in transitioning to relevance, effectiveness, and growth.

Brad and his wife, Roxann, have been married for 27 years and have three adult children. Roxann has always partnered with Brad in ministry and is presently serving as the Creative Arts Director at NorthRidge Church, managing the creative process and staff responsible for all the services.

Dr. Kenneth Quick's specialty is the corporate healing of hurting churches, especially those hurting for many years. He calls this "Church Cardiology." Dr. Quick has found that there is a great need for pastors and church leaders to have resources of guidance, counsel, and support to deal with the many kinds of painful situations that arise in modern churches. He feels no situation is too challenging if the church leadership is courageous.

Dr. Quick has authored many articles for Leadership Journal on issues of pastoral ministry and also wrote the book Healing the Heart of Your Church, which addresses corporate patterns within churches that often derail any leadership attempt to lead the church to significant church growth. These problem behaviors include past shame, sinful reactivity, church splits, pastors who abuse, and churches that abuse their pastors.

Ken Quick earned his first Doctor of Ministry in Communication at Dallas Theological Seminar in 1987, and earned his second Doctor of Ministry from Easter Baptist Theological Seminar in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program (1996).

Dr. Quick was a pastor for 23 years--ten in Michigan and 13 in Toronto, Ontario. He presently is the chair of the Pastoral Theology Department and director of the Ministry Leadership Program at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Md. He also is Asisstant Pastor at Bridgeway Community Church.

Dr. Quick and his wife, Diane, currently live in Columbia, Md., where they are active members of Bridgeway Community Church for several years.

Ron Ramsey is Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA. He was elected to that position in June of 2005. Before that, he had served 12 years as pastor of the Main Street UB church in Walbridge, Ohio.

During his years at Main Street, Bishop Ramsey led the church through transitions moving from traditional to culturally relevant ministry methods (centered in evangelism/discipleship), changing administrative structures, and mentoring multiple staff to accommodate growth. Main Street more than doubled in size to a congregation of 600.

Prior to accepting the senior pastor role at Main Street, Ron worked 13 years with Scripture Press Publications, Inc., Wheaton, Ill. He began as Field Rep covering the Great Lakes Area, and then moved into other roles--a Marketing Manager, Director of Marketing Operations, and National Sales Director. He finally spent four years as Executive Director of Scripture Press Ministries, the not-for-profit foundation that owned Scripture Press Publications.

Before joining Scripture Press Publications, Ron served as a United Brethren pastor in Sacramento, Calif., and then moved to Huntington, Ind., where he served four years as the Associate Director of Church Ministries for the United Brethren Church. He developed the marketing department for the denomination and conducted Christian education and leadership seminars throughout the denomination.

Ron attended the College of William & Mary on a basketball scholarship from 1958-60. He was converted to Christ during a revival service in the Maple Grove United Brethren Church near Baltimore, Ohio, in 1962. Ron graduated from Huntington University with an AB in Bible in 1967, and in 1990 from Wheaton Graduate School, Wheaton, Ill., with a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies. He and his wife, E. J., have two grown children.

Ron's passion is seeing people converted and becoming fully devoted followers of Christ. He has been blessed to see God call 16 persons to Christian ministry, 14 of those during his years at Main Street. Five are serving on staff at Main Street, six in missions, and five in other church ministries.