Guest Profiles

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Carter Conlon
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Carter Conlon is the senior pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, an interdenominational church with more than 8,000 people in attendance, representing more than 100 different nationalities. He joined the pastoral staff in 1994 at the invitation of founding pastor, David Wilkerson. He was appointed to the office of senior pastor in 2001.

In 1987, Carter left a successful 12-year career as a police officer to enter full-time ministry. He founded a church, a Christian school, and a food bank east of Ottawa, Canada. During those years, he also traveled throughout the country, speaking at various churches in need of encouragement.

Today, Carter continues to be a voice for God far beyond the pulpit of Times Square Church. He does weekly radio spots on 1010 WINS, the nation’s longest-running all news station, and speaks at numerous conferences each year. He has also traveled extensively around the world, preaching at outreaches in countries such as Burundi, Haiti, Argentina, Jamaica, Zambia and Nigeria.

In 2010, Pastor Carter created "For Pastors Only" in response to multiple requests he received from ministers seeking spiritual fathering. This online resource airs bi-weekly devotionals and is currently accessed by over 3,000 pastors worldwide.

A long-time student of revival, Pastor Carter would have no greater joy than to see the Church of Jesus Christ walking in the fullness of strength and purpose which is available to all who long to glorify Him. He and his wife, Teresa, have three children and four grandchildren.
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Dave Overholt
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Rev. Dr. Dave Overholt is the founding pastor of Church on the Rock, one the largest and longest running youth targeted churches in North America. In addition to 32 years in youth ministry, Dave has a doctorate in philosophy of education from University of Toronto with a thesis in “Adults Mentoring Adolescents”. Dave heads up the Youth and Family department at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. Dave's books include: Reasons to Believe, a youth apologetic; Live What You Believe, a youth growth project; Soul Searching the Millennial Generation, a youth worker's guide to teen work; and New Beginnings, a new believers’ devotional. Dave also travels to speak to thousands of students and leaders across North America each year.

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Jessica DiSabatino
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Jessica is passionate about helping people develop genuine and lasting relationships with Jesus.

For nine years, Jessica and her husband, Dave, pastored a church in the inner city of Toronto. During that time, they were blessed to walk with many individuals who made decisions to follow Jesus. Recently, Jessica has joined the Mission Canada team as a ministry development specialist, a role in which she challenges others to engage in the needy mission field of Canada. Jessica is the vice president of MySafeWork, an organization that allows her to speak to presidents, CEOs, and frontline workers about workplace environments and leadership engagement. In her spare time, Jessica is trying to resurrect her rap career and read more often. Jess and Dave have three children and live in the Toronto area.

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Mamusha F.
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Mamusha is an anointed Bible teacher who ministers in Ethiopia, bringing God's word into people's lives. He served for 15 years as the principal of the Pentecostal Bible College, during which he discovered his passion for empowering university students and young professionals to bring the truth of Christ to their campuses and work places. Currently, he is working on developing ministries that will bring the gospel into regions where traditional Ethiopian religions are practiced, as well as amongst the emerging generation.  His wife Leke serves alongside of him and together they have been blessed with three children: Dagi, Nati, and Haseat.

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Samuel Rodriguez
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By God’s grace, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is recognized as America’s voice for Christianity among Hispanic populations. CNN names him “the leader of the Hispanic evangelical movement” and The Wall Street Journal has identified him as one of America’s seven most influential Hispanic leaders, as well as the only religious leader on the list.

Samuel lives to build the kingdom of God, reconciling a platform of righteousness and justice, a mandate that has drawn considerable media attention from numerous prestigious news sources including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, and Christianity Today, among many others. God has enabled him to use his gift of speaking in many public forums: the White House, Congress, Princeton, Yale, Promise Keepers, Battle Cry, Liberty University, CNN, and ABC, to name a few.

As the leading spokesperson for Hispanic evangelicals, Samuel has been a featured speaker in the White House and Congressional meetings on Hispanic-American issues and justice concerns and he currently serves in President Obama’s White House Task Force on Fatherhood. It is evident that the Lord has uniquely gifted Samuel to successfully negotiate the nexus of kingdom and society.

Samuel is the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) of the Hispanic Evangelical Association, America’s largest Hispanic Christian organization—it is comprised of 34,218 churches. Samuel also currently serves on the board of directors for some of America’s leading evangelical organizations including: the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, the National Association of Evangelicals, Empowered 21, and Christianity Today. He is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award, presented by the Congress of Racial Equality. The National Campaign to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Pro Life initiatives are additional efforts that Samuel supports, as well as the steering committee of The Freedom Federation, The Oak Initiatives and the General Superintendents’ Cabinet in the Assemblies of God.

Samuel earned his Master’s degree in educational leadership from Lehigh University. Currently he pursues a doctoral degree in Organizational Management and Behavior. He writes and contributes to world recognized publications such as Ministries Today, Enrichment Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek's “On Faith” Panel, Outreach magazine, Vida Cristiana, Charisma, and Yale Reflections, among others.

As an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God, Samuel was called to start a multi-ethnic, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, Bible-based church in Sacramento, California in 2010. He resides in California with his wife Eva, with whom he celebrates 21 years of marriage.


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Richard (Dick) Brogden
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Dick and Jennifer Brogden’s passion in ministry is to bring the gospel to the Arab world by church planting in those nations. The Brogdens have lived and ministered among M*slims for the last 19 years in three African nations.  Dick and Jennifer have two boys, Luke and Zack, both of whom were born and raised in Africa. Upon returning to North Africa in 2012, the Brogdens will lead a church planting team that will equip team leaders to plant churches throughout the Arab-M*slim world.

Since university, Dick has dreamed of God using his life to bring one million M*slims to saving faith in Jesus Christ; he humbly acknowledges, however, “I may never lead many, but if I can influence some who will influence others and be a catalyst for ministry in the M*slim world, I would love to see that happen. I want to live a life to make much of God.”

Dick ministers alongside many multi-national missionary teams and strongly believes in the power of spiritual multiplication, as well as the importance of developing self-sustaining ministries. His next goal is to train 33 teams to plant churches in various cities in the Arab world. Dick hopes that God will enable his teams to accomplish this, and then he hopes that another 400 teams will be sent to preach the gospel to every unreached people group in the Arab world. “Then I can die happy,” he says.

Through God’s grace, Dick and Jennifer have been blessed to see their ministry in one African nation multiply seven times, after they faithfully raised and equipped leaders to run home churches. These churches currently feed several hundred believers and are now ministering to third generation Christians. Through the use of spiritual multiplication to create self-sustaining ministries, the believers in that country are now equipped and enabled to continue to reach their country with the gospel through their international church, international school, ladies’ community centre, indigenous development agency, as well as several English centres and cooperative training networks.

Dick hopes that his listeners at General Conference 2012 will gain “a passion to make much of God, a longing to live for His glory, a burning heart for the unreached peoples of the earth, and a commitment to do whatever it takes to reach Arab M*slims.”

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James T. Bradford
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Dr. James T. Bradford is the General Secretary of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri. As general secretary, Jim oversees operations at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, the credentialing of ministers, church chartering, and the collection of official statistics. Since 1988, Jim has pastored congregations in Orange County, California, Vancouver, B.C., and in Springfield, Missouri. Jim’s wife Sandi and their two daughters have faithfully supported him throughout his years of ministry.

Over the years, God has blessed Jim with the opportunities to both plant a church, as well as pastor large, established churches. The Lord has also opened many doors for Jim to speak at leadership conferences and to invest in the lives of missionaries overseas. His current role with the General Council of the Assemblies of God allows Jim to draw from his 30 years of lead pastor experience, as well as from the systems training that his engineering education afforded him.

Jim’s main passion in ministry is to equip and empower pastors to lead missionally effective churches. He also desires to see all ministry leaders walking in intimacy with Christ and learning to lovingly serve the people around them. Primary dependence on the Holy Spirit is an aim that Jim hopes to be a distinct marker of the Assemblies of God Fellowship. Recently, he has been seeking to encourage an increasing representation of female credential holders within the Fellowship, as well as a stronger representation of credential holders under the age of 35.

Jim is currently a member of the Executive Leadership Team and the Executive Presbytery in Springfield, Missouri, but he has also served on a variety of executive boards including that of Vanguard University, the Southern California District Executive Presbytery, and the General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God. He holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota. 

Through his message at General Conference 2012, Jim hopes his brothers and sisters in Christ will be encouraged and challenged “to develop thoughtful, faith-filled commitments to integrate their personal spirituality and faith with public leadership."

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John Mark Raymer
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John is an ordained minister with The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and has been faithfully serving in full-time ministry for 34 years. He and his wife Christine are the leading pastors of Peace Tower Church in downtown Ottawa, which is a community of missionally-oriented Christ followers who desire that “every believer would be globally-minded and active in giving, praying and going to the peoples of the world: locally, nationally and internationally.”

John has pastored for 23 years and he has served as an itinerant evangelist for 11 years, during which he ran dynamic ministries of evangelism campaigns and leadership training seminars in 31 countries. Over his years in ministry, John has been a guest speaker at Bible colleges, ministerial conferences and church camps.

The ministry that the Lord has entrusted to John is cross-generational and cross-cultural, allowing him to truly reach the nations with the gospel. He has the spirit of a revivalist, the heart of a pastor, and the passion of an evangelist. John is rooted in a family with rich spiritual heritage—he represents the fourth generation of Spirit-filled believers.

John and his wife Christine have two children, Tara and Mark, who, along with their spouses, are also actively and passionately leading and serving in ministry.

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Matt Robinson
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Shortly after graduating from Eastern Pentecostal Bible College in 2001, Matt joined the staff team at The Embassy Church in Oshawa, ON. Over the past ten years, Matt has used his leadership abilities in a variety of ministry areas but currently, he oversees the worship and creative arts ministries at The Embassy, as well as assists with the young adults group.  Matt’s greatest goals in ministry are to develop worship leaders and ministry teams that are both sensitive to the voice of God, as well as able to live out their faith practically on the earth. Matt is married to Tarrah, with whom he has three beautiful daughters: Taylor, Alexandra and Ashley.

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Paulo Mugarura
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Paulo Mugarura is a worship leader and recording artist based in Ottawa, ON, where he lives with his wife, Evelyn. He has a deep love for Christ and the church, which fuels his passion to discuss the intersection of the Christian faith, life and contemporary issues. He is known for his relentless pursuit to connect people to God in unique ways—transcending generations, ethnic backgrounds and musical taste. 

In 2003, Paulo entered into full-time ministry and left his computer science training and profession behind. He worked for four years as the lay minister in charge of worship at Greenbelt Baptist Church and in 2007, he accepted the positions of both worship leader and multicultural ministries pastor at Woodvale Pentecostal Church in Ottawa. 

For over 10 years, Paulo has led worship and produced music wherever he has been given the opportunity and has left a distinct impression on the groups, churches and para-church ministries that he has worked with. Paulo has a great love for writing, producing and creating music and can be found—almost daily—either collaborating on music projects in studios around Ottawa, or tinkering away at a new song, a new synth sound, or a new track in his basement. 
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Mark Colwell
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Mark is currently serving his sixth year as the District Youth Ministries Director in Western Ontario. He is a veteran of nearly 20 years of ministry and is an experienced pastor, mentor and teacher. Mark is passionate about leadership development and discipleship and spends the majority of his time and energy connecting with, caring for, and ministering to young leaders in the student generation. He hopes to inspire others to also intentionally develop followers of Christ and leaders for God's kingdom.

Mark has been surprised by the journey on which God has invited him, and has come to believe that God leads each of His children to unique opportunities and destinations. It is his hope that we, as a movement, minister in a way that each person who sits in our congregations would develop a relationship with God and through it, discover and pursue the adventure that He has for them.

Mark has been married to his wife Jenni for 18 years, during which they have welcomed Samuel, Abigail, Moriah, and Julia into their lives. 
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Jeff Hillier
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Jeff has been serving as the Eastern Ontario District Youth Specialist since 1999. In 2007, he added the role of Mission and Ministries Specialist to his portfolio. Prior to working at the district office, Jeff was on staff for over four years at Pembroke Pentecostal Tabernacle.

A graduate of Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, Jeff is currently working on a master's degree in ministerial leadership through Southeastern University. He has travelled throughout Canada and, on occasion, to the United States to speak at churches, retreats, camps, and conferences.

Jeff is married to Aynsley and has three children ­ Bayley, Brock and Bryar.