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Board of Directors

The Board of Directors serves the Ecclesia Network by keeping the network true to its mission, vision, values, and functions.  The board is selected primarily from among pastors/church leaders within the network and those on the board agree to serve for a three-year rotation that is reaffirmed annually.  In addition to representation from church leadership, the board may also have a minority representation from professors or business professionals that bring a unique and helpful perspective to the team.  The current board is serving for 2007.

Dr. Keith Matthews
Keith serves as an associate professor of graduate ministry in the Haggard Graduate School of Theology and also directs the Field Education and Master of Arts in Ministry Management Programs.  He also teaches at Fuller Seminary in the Doctor of Ministry program as an adjunct faculty member.  Before taking the position at Azusa, Keith served in pastoral leadership at several churches, including a role as lead pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland. He is also an accomplished author, having written numerous pieces including Dallas Willard’s Study Guide to The Divine Conspiracy, 2001; and “How Is It With Your Soul?”, in Sojourner’s Magazine, 2003, which details his interviews with Richard Foster and Dallas Willard regarding Renovare, Inc. Matthews latest writing projects include two Christian inspirational books.

Tim Levert
Tim has served as the lead pastor of Crossroads Church since 2003.  Before coming to the Baltimore-Washington area he served several churches in Louisiana.  He has over a decade of experience in student ministry, and earned his PhD in Christian Education in 2005. Tim is hopelessly in love with his wife, Tasha (who also has a PhD and is much smarter than he is), and their three daughters, Elle, Zoe, and Ashton. He is also a huge LSU fan. Huge! Really, it’s embarassing.

Chris Backert
Connecting churches and leaders together is something that Chris has always tried to do, so it makes sense that he would be instrumental in the founding of Ecclesia, and would also serve as Ecclesia’s Director & Organizational Architect.  Chris also currently serves on the pastoral team of New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg VA, but is teaming with fellow board member Brian Hopper to plant a new church in Richmond VA.  In addition, Chris works with the Baptist General Association of Virginia as an Emerging Church Strategist and in his spare time is attempting to finish his doctoral program at Fuller Seminary in Missional Church Leadership.  He is married to his high school sweetheart Rachel.

Bruce Hopler
Bruce is the founding pastor of Cornerstone Community Church of Columbia Maryland.  Bruce planted an emergent church before the word emergent was known, even to him.  He loves coaching church planters and hanging out with pre-Christians. He is working on his doctorate at Fuller Seminary in discipleship and leadership in an emerging context.  He loves to read, go to the gym and smoke a fine cigar with a glass of red wine.  He loves most of all though, his wife Terri and his two boys, Caleb and Levi.

Brian Hopper
Brian is a former Young Adults Pastor at Bay Area Community Church in Annapolis, Md. In his life prior to vocational ministry, he owned and ran a restaurant/catering business, worked in corporate sales for a foodservice company and national software firm. In 1996, he started and led the young adults ministry at BACC in Annapolis as a volunteer until he left his career in 2000 to pursue full time ministry. For three years he served as a pastoral intern at BACC preparing for vocational ministry while attending and graduating from Bethel Seminary of the East. In ‘03 he was hired as the Young Adults Pastor at BACC. In ‘06, with BACC’s vision to plant churches in the Mid Atlantic region in mind, he responded to the call to plant a new church in Richmond, a city that has captured his heart. Brian is currently planting a church in Richmond with fellow board member Chris Backert. He has been married to Suzi for almost 20 years. They have two really hip and cool teenage daughters, Abby (18) and Ellyn (16).

JR Woodward

JR is a person who helps individuals and communities awaken to their God given dreams and live them out.  He is the founding pastor of [nlcf] at Virginia Tech and he and his current team are starting three new churches in the Los Angeles area - Hollywood, West LA and Downtown/USC.  These multi-ethnic communities of faith are helping to bring the reality of the kingdom of God to the Los Angeles area, through building neighborhood churches that are committed to social justice, walking with God and pursing wholeness in the context of community as they immerse themselves in the narrative of God. JR is a church consultant, a conference speaker, a blogger (www.jrwoodward.net) a church planter assessor and coach and loves to awaken churches live out Missio Dei.  He is currently pursuing a Masters of Art in Global Leadership at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. He loves to surf, travel, have a glass of wine with old and new friends, watch films and engage in the art of photography.  He resides in Hollywood, California.