Esau McCaulley
Esau McCaulley, PhD, is an author and The Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament Exegesis, African American Biblical Interpretation, and Public Theology. He has authored numerous books including Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, which won numerous awards including Christianity Today’s Book of the Year. Esau also served as the editor of New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Commentary on the New Testament.
On the popular level, Esau’s recent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land, was named by Amazon as a top five non-fiction book of 2023. He has also penned works for children, including Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit and Andy Johnson and the March for Justice. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and senior editor for Holy Post Media as well as the host of a new podcast with the Holy Post that debuts this fall. His writings have appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today.
Mandy Smith
Mandy Smith is a pastor, author, and speaker who, after living and ministering in the US and UK, now ministers in her homeland of Australia. She is a cohort co-leader for the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination and regular contributor to Missio Alliance.
Her books include The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP) and Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture and Confessions of an Amateur Saint: The Christian Leader’s Journey from Self-Sufficiency to Reliance on God. Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live in the parsonage at St Lucia Uniting Church where the teapot is always warm.
James R. Edwards
James Edwards is a native of Colorado Springs, where he enjoyed mountaineering and skiing, and was active in Young Life. He is a graduate of Whitworth University (1967), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1970), University of Zürich (1971), and Fuller Theological Seminary (PhD 1978). He chaired the department of Religion and Philosophy at Jamestown College, and joined the faculty at Whitworth in 1997, where he taught as Bruner-Welch Professor of Theology until 2015. He is currently Bruner-Welch Professor Emeritus of Theology.
Edwards served as Minister of Students at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs (1971-78). He has been a short-term translation consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Colombia, was a translator with Berlin Fellowship for church visitations to former East Germany, and he has led study tours to Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Israel. One of his lifelong avocations is mountaineering; in 2003, he and his son Mark climbed the Mittellegi Ridge of the Eiger in Switzerland.
Throughout his career as a university professor, Edwards has preached and spoken widely in church, university, and conference settings. He has published numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals, and he has authored three New Testament commentaries for Community Bible Study.
He has just completed writing a commentary on Genesis, scheduled to be published by Eerdmans Publishing Company in spring 2026 under the titleIn the Beginning. A Commentary on Genesis and its Reception in the New Testament.
Toni Collier
Toni Collier is the founder of a global women’s organization called Broken Crayons Still Color and helps women process through brokenness and get to healing and hope. Toni is a speaker, host of the Still Coloring podcast, and author of several books: Don't Try This Alone (releasing August 19, 2025), Brave Enough to be Broken, and a children's book, Broken Crayons Still Color. Toni has had the opportunity to proudly stand on stages for North Point Community Church, Chick-fil-A, IF:Gathering, Orange Conference, There{4} Teen Gathering, and MomCon, and she is a regular guest on TBN’s TV program for women, “Better Together.” She also serves on the board of Africa New Life and is a teaching pastor at Renovation Church.
Toni kills illusions. She confronts the hard things. She believes the best way to meet life’s challenges is head-on. And, in this digital age of anxiety, Toni is teaching people all over the globe that you can be broken and still worthy, or feel unqualified and still be called to do great things. Toni wants to help you find a way through the brokenness in your life so that you can live the most colorful life possible.
