Meet Our Team
This weekend of training and personality discovery with Pastor Rebekah Simon-Peter was the greatest time of continuing education I have received in my 34 years as a pastor.
Rev. Paul Duerksen
St. Paul’s UMC
Las Cruces, NM
We accomplished with Rebekah in 1 day what would have taken us 1 year of spiritual formation on our own!
Fr. Doug Wasinger
St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Buffalo, WY
I wish I’d had this when I began ministry!
Rev. Charles Alkula
This is one of the most helpful things I’ve attended in my 14 years of ministry. I believe it will be transformative both for me personally and for the congregation I serve. It will help me make a good place even better!
Rev. Val Colenso
Loved the interaction with both clergy and laity!
Carol Hansen
Lay Speaker
First UMC Billings
I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun learning! It also dove-tailed in perfectly with some of the exercises for the Intentional Interim Training I am taking. I would definitely recommend it to others!
Pastor
New England Conference
Mid Maine District
This was the most insightful, empowering and productive two-day church-sponsored event in my 60 years of participating in numerous programs!
Jane Lee Hamman
Lay Leader
Yellowstone Annual Conference
A definite highlight of the School of Congregational Development for me.
Sarah Kitterman Stevens
Iowa Field Outreach Minister
I brought Rebekah to our Conference to lead this workshop for a Healthy Church Initiative weekend consultation. Fantastic!
Jeff Lust
Provost
New Mexico Annual Conference
Rebekah, Faculty and Staff
Rebekah Simon-Peter
Chief Visionary
Rebekah is passionate about reconnecting spiritual leaders with their God-given powers to co-create miracles with the divine. Her award-winning group coaching program, Creating a Culture of Renewal® has energized church leaders across the country to reclaim their calling and to grow their ministries. Known for teaching leaders how to bring out the best in the people who frustrate them the most, her work transforms church leaders and the congregations they serve.
Rebekah is the author of Forging a New Path: Moving the Church Forward in a Post-Pandemic World (Market Square Publishers, 2022), Dream Like Jesus®, The Jew Named Jesus, Green Church, Green Church Leader Guide, and 7 Simple Steps to Green Your Church.
A dynamic speaker, Rebekah has engaged and challenged audiences around the country.
Rebekah is an avid hiker, dog mom, wife to Jerry, lover of coffee, and a gratitude junkie.
For more information about Rebekah Simon-Peter, call (307) 333-5990, email office@rebekahsimonpeter.com or visit www.rebekahsimonpeter.com.
Our Faculty
Bonnie Marden
Senior Faculty
By empowering church leaders and congregations, Bonnie joyfully fulfills her call to support bold leadership, courageous missions, wise discernment and strategic stewardship. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner Lee and has launched three children into adulthood. Her spiritual disciplines include reading, writing and swimming. Bonnie is the author of “Church Finances for Missional Leaders: Best Practices for Financial Stewardship” – a vision fulfilled through Creating A Culture of Renewal.
Steve Trout
Senior Faculty
Rev. Dr. Stephen Trout is recently retired after 40 years of service as an Elder in the New Mexico Annual Conference of the UMC. He’s been married to his wife Elaine for 46 years and they have 2 grown children and 3 grandchildren. Steve is a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do, and an avid outdoorsman.
So, he can kick … and pray for you at the same time.
Shannon Davis
Faculty
Shannon Davis is the pastor of Moore (OK) First United Methodist Church and an ordained elder with over 25 years of experience serving churches.
He is an avid Oklahoma State Cowboys fan and plays the violin.
His wife, Jan, and their three sons (one married) are very musical. They let him play fiddle but ask him not to sing.
They have two cats, parakeets, fish and bunnies.
Elisabeth Smith
Apprentice Faculty
Elisabeth Smith grew up in South Carolina and attended Agnes Scott College, graduating in 1983 with a BA in History and Bible. She attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and graduated in 1986 with her MDiv. Elisabeth was ordained in 1984 and served United Methodist Churches in South Carolina from 1987 to 2002. She moved to the New England Annual Conference in 2002, serving churches in Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. She is currently pastor of the Lake Sunapee UMC, Grantham UMC, and UM Church of the Good Shepherd in Newport, NH.
Charlotte Pridgen-Randolph
Apprentice Faculty
The Rev. Dr. Charlotte Pridgen-Randolph is a newly retired Elder who served 35 years in the New England Annual Conference of the UMC. Her life’s calling is a practitioner of healing, a bridge builder, and a reconciler. A passionate disciple of Jesus, she weaves together cultures, spirituality, worship, and preaching. She delights in sharing the witness of the Black Church as she teaches and sings from its tradition of metered hymns, spirituals, and gospel music.
Charlotte is married to LaVergne, her husband of 34 years. They have four adult children (two married).
Faryn Greer
Apprentice Faculty
Faryn Greer is the associate pastor at Smoky Hill United Methodist Church in Centennial, Colorado. She is also the co-facilitator of Fearless Future, a holistic self-defense group especially for the trans and gender expansive community. Faryn is passionate about cultivating community where all the “misfits” really fit.
Faryn and her fiancee Terra will be getting married this October. They are the proud fur-parents of Selah, who is objectively the cutest 10-year-old dog on the planet.
Our Staff
Ann Miller
Special Projects Coordinator
Ann’s background includes founding and managing non-profit organizations, community organizing, freelance writing, and marketing. With a life-long passion for peace and justice work, Ann has marched the streets from coast to coast, and spearheaded two projects bringing war-injured Iraqi children to the United States with No More Victims.
She and husband Cole, are currently the world’s most doting grandparents to grandson Sumter, and willing servants to four-legged family, Scooby, Blaze, and Big Boy.
Steve Pudinski
Mentoring Coordinator
Rev. Steve Pudinski, an Associate Member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference, came out of retirement again bringing his 51 years of experience in public service and church leadership to his position as Mentoring Coordinator. A retired military warrant officer, law enforcement manager, and pastor, Steve is passionate about working with others to help them reach their full potential. He still serves on a District Committee on Ordained Ministry and does pulpit supply. Steve lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with his wife, Kelley, and two fur-babies, Newton and Sasha. They have six grown children and six grandchildren.
Austin Peavler
Executive Assistant and Office Manager
Austin was born and raised in Wyoming with a huge respect for nature and conservation. A weekend reading a book, hiking in the mountains, or just simply enjoying the company of friends and his feline fur-babies, Billy and Diana, is always a weekend well spent for Austin. He also has a love of baking delicious treats and being of service to his community in a multitude of ways; constantly looking for opportunities to spiritually support and build up his fellows in this very human experience.