Speakers

Kempton Turner was born dead in his trespasses and sins. He lived a sinful life as a child of God’s wrath. But God made Kempton alive (as a teenager) through the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ! Kempton was raised in East St. Louis, Illinois, but spent most of his life in Houston, Texas. He served on the pastoral staff at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before being sent out to plant City of Joy Fellowship, a new church in his hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois. Kempton is happily married to Caryn, his childhood sweetheart, and the Lord has blessed them with five young children: Christian, Carysse, Kalia, Caleb and Kellan.

Justin Wevers is the National Director for Student Ministries for the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). He studied at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Justin and his wife, Amanda, have three girls – Madison, Evelyn, and MJ. He enjoys basketball, books, and books about basketball. Mostly, he’s just thankful that Jesus would save him from his sins and give him new life.

Eric Rivera is the Lead Pastor at The Brook, a multiethnic church in Chicago that he and his team planted in 2013. Eric is passionate for urban pastoral ministry and seeing God raise gospel-centered leaders. He has a B.A. in Bible Theology from Moody Bible Institute, M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology at Trinity. He married his wife, Erikah, in 2003 and are parents to three children. In addition to serving at The Brook, Eric and Erikah are on the speaker team for FamilyLife’s Weekend To Remember marriage getaways and are contributors to FamilyLife’s The Art of Parenting video series and The Story of Us couples devotional.

Bryan Lair grew up as a farm kid from southern Minnesota and is now a pastor of an urban church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. After getting a M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Bryan and his wife, Tracy, moved back to Minnesota in 2008 to start Trinity City Church. His family enjoys living in Saint Paul where Bryan torments his four kids with lame dad jokes. In 2019, Bryan was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and, by the grace of God, he has been in remission since 2020.