Renovare

Faculty

The Renovaré Institute faculty is made up of leading authors, teachers and pastors deeply committed to Jesus and with a heart to guide others into the Jesus Way.

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Carolyn Arends

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team, Staff

Car­olyn Arends over­sees the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute for Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion as well as sev­er­al oth­er Ren­o­varé ini­tia­tives, includ­ing the Book Club. She is also a record­ing artist, speak­er, author, and col­lege instruc­tor. She lives near Van­cou­ver, BC, with her hus­band Mark and their two children.

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Jonathan Bailey

Board of Directors, Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Jonathan Bai­ley serves at the inter­sec­tion of Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion and tech­nol­o­gy. He is Co-founder at Dwell, an app that is help­ing thou­sands spir­i­tu­al­ly thrive in our tech­no­log­i­cal­ly dri­ven world. He also serves on the Ren­o­varé Min­istry Team and sits on the Board of Direc­tors. He is the author of The Eter­nal Jour­ney, a book­let that explores the clas­si­cal stages of Chris­t­ian trans­for­ma­tion. He lives in North Dal­las with his wife Kori, son Gray, and daugh­ters Abi­gail and Liv.

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Lacy Finn Borgo

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Lacy Finn Bor­go, DMin, is a mem­ber of the Ren­o­varé Min­istry Team. She teach­es, pro­vides spir­i­tu­al direc­tion, and is the Stu­dent Care Coor­di­na­tor for the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute for Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion. Lacy also teach­es cours­es on Children’s Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and Spir­i­tu­al Direc­tion through the Com​pan​ion​ing​Cen​ter​.org. She has a spir­i­tu­al direc­tion min­istry for adults, and pro­vides spir­i­tu­al direc­tion for chil­dren at Haven House, a tran­si­tion­al facil­i­ty for fam­i­lies with­out homes. Her recent books are Faith Like a Child: Embrac­ing Our Lives as Chil­dren of God, Spir­i­tu­al Con­ver­sa­tions with Chil­dren: Lis­ten­ing to God Togeth­er and the children’s pic­ture book All Will Be Well. Lacy lives on the West­ern Slope of the Rocky Moun­tains and wor­ships with a local Quak­er Meet­ing. You can find her at www​.Good​Dirt​Min​istries​.org.

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James Catford

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Dur­ing a career in com­mer­cial pub­lish­ing, James worked with many of the authors most close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Ren­o­varé and he now chairs SPCK, the largest Chris­t­ian pub­lish­er in the UK. After four­teen years lead­ing the British Bible Soci­ety James also works with Amer­i­can Bible Soci­ety to sup­port Chris­tians in lead­er­ship around the world. He lives with his wife Sue in London. 

Read his full bio.

Zane Creamer

Zane Creamer

Institute Faculty

Retir­ing after 13 years from church staff min­istry in 2016 cre­at­ed time for Zane to pur­sue a raft of oth­er inter­ests from quilt­ing to RVing to offer­ing spir­i­tu­al direc­tion for Ren­o­varé Insti­tute. A 2013 RI grad­u­ate, she was cer­ti­fied by Rich­mont in spir­i­tu­al direc­tion in 2015. She’s been mar­ried to Jack for 35 years and enjoys three grown sons, a new daugh­ter-in-love and a grand­son on the way. Trav­el fills in any gaps open between min­istry projects.

Mimi Dixon

Miriam Dixon

Board of Directors, Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Miri­am (Mimi) Dixon began her min­istry in 1979 serv­ing as an asso­ciate pas­tor at North­min­ster Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton. From April of 1985 to May of 2019 she served as senior pas­tor of First Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Gold­en, Col­orado. She earned both her MDiv and DMin degrees from Fuller The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary. Mimi is on the Ren­o­varé Board of Direc­tors and teach­es for the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute. She is fac­ul­ty for Next Fron­tiers, a min­istry to pas­tors in tran­si­tion, and active­ly pro­motes Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion, cred­it­ing Richard Fos­ter and Dal­las Willard for their influ­ence in her life and min­istry. Mimi has authored a biog­ra­phy of Richard Foster’s best­selling Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline, which is pro­ject­ed for release through Bar­clay Press in the autumn of 2023

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Tina Dyer

Board of Directors, Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Tina L. Dyer is the founder and prin­ci­pal of Graft­ed Togeth­er Con­sult­ing, which exists to sup­port lead­ers, indi­vid­u­als, and teams in cul­ti­vat­ing spaces where truth and authen­tic­i­ty are wel­comed, cre­ativ­i­ty and inno­va­tion are unleashed, and equi­table and inclu­sive prac­tices are nor­mal­ized to cre­ate a sense of belong­ing where all peo­ple can thrive.

Tina holds a Bachelor’s in Psy­chol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at Davis, and a Mas­ter of Arts in Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion and Lead­er­ship from Friends Uni­ver­si­ty, Wichi­ta, KS. She is an alum­na of the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute and serves on the Ren­o­varé Board as Trea­sur­er. Tina is a joy­ful Mom to two young adult children.

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Nathan Foster

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team, Staff

Nathan is Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Life at Ren­o­varé. He heads up Fel­low­ship of the Burn­ing Heart and hosts the Ren­o­varé Pod­cast. For­mer­ly, he was an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of social work and served as the Andrews Chair in Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion at Spring Arbor Uni­ver­si­ty. He was also a licensed clin­i­cal social work­er and cer­ti­fied addic­tions coun­selor. Nathan has pub­lished two books, includ­ing The Mak­ing of an Ordi­nary Saint: My Jour­ney from Frus­tra­tion to Joy with the Spir­i­tu­al Dis­ci­plines.

Chris Hall

Christopher A. Hall

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Christo­pher A. Hall served as pres­i­dent of Ren­o­varé from 2015 – 2022. Pre­vi­ous­ly Chris was Direc­tor of Aca­d­e­m­ic Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion and Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of The­ol­o­gy at East­ern Uni­ver­si­ty. Chris is the author of a num­ber of books, includ­ing The Mys­tery of God (with Steven D. Boy­er; Bak­er Aca­d­e­m­ic) and The Trin­i­ty (with Roger Olson; Eerd­mans), and Liv­ing Wise­ly with the Church Fathers (Inter­var­si­ty Press). His most recent book is A Dif­fer­ent Way (Harper­One). Chris and his wife Deb­bie reside in Philadel­phia. They have three grown chil­dren and two grandchildren.

Ted Harro

Ted Harro

Board of Directors, Institute Faculty, Ministry Team, Staff

Ted Har­ro serves as Pres­i­dent of Ren­o­varé. He is a grad­u­ate of the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute and the founder of Noon­day Ven­tures, a strat­e­gy and lead­er­ship devel­op­ment firm. Ted has stud­ied and taught inside-out trans­for­ma­tion for more than 20 years. He uses humor and cre­ativ­i­ty to make spir­i­tu­al change acces­si­ble to peo­ple in a wide vari­ety of mar­ket­place and min­istry con­texts. He and his wife Gretchen have been mar­ried since 1988 and have been part­ners in mar­riage min­istry for over 25 years. They have invest­ed in hun­dreds of cou­ples as men­tors, teach­ers, retreat lead­ers, writ­ers, and co-founders of a min­istry for newlyweds.

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Trevor Hudson

Institute Faculty

Trevor Hud­son has been part of the Methodist move­ment for over 40 years. Serv­ing pri­mar­i­ly around Johan­nes­burg, he is deeply com­mit­ted to the work of spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion with­in local con­gre­ga­tion­al con­texts. A sig­nif­i­cant part of his week­ly work present­ly con­sists of lead­ing peo­ple through the Spir­i­tu­al Exer­cis­es of St. Ignatius and offer­ing spir­i­tu­al direc­tion. Besides his local com­mit­ments, Trevor trav­els wide­ly, preach­ing and teach­ing. He lec­tures at Fuller Sem­i­nary, the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute, the Dal­las Willard Cen­ter for Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion, and the Jesuit Insti­tute in South Africa. He is the author of 22 books includ­ing Dis­cov­er­ing Your Spir­i­tu­al Iden­ti­ty (IVP) and Beyond Lone­li­ness (Upper Room). His new book, Seek­ing God-Find­ing Anoth­er Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dal­las Willard, will be pub­lished by Nav­Press in the Octo­ber of 2022.

Kurtley Knight

Rev. Dr. Kurtley E. Knight

Institute Faculty

The Rev. Dr. Kurt­ley E. Knight (DMin. Port­land Sem­i­nary) is an Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion at Port­land Sem­i­nary of George Fox Uni­ver­si­ty. An ordained priest in the Angli­can Church of North Amer­i­ca, he also serves as the Assist­ing Priest at Church of the Vine, in New­berg, OR. A pas­tor at heart, he has served mul­ti­ple con­gre­ga­tions in var­i­ous roles through­out Cal­i­for­nia, Penn­syl­va­nia, and Texas.

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Gary Moon

Institute Faculty

Gary W. Moon, M.Div. Ph.D. served as the found­ing Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Mar­tin Insti­tute for Chris­tian­i­ty and Cul­ture and the Dal­las Willard Cen­ter for Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion at West­mont Col­lege and con­tin­ues to direct their resource devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives through serv­ing as the direc­tor of Con­ver­sa­tio Div­ina: A Cen­ter for Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion.

Regina Moon

Regina Moon

Institute Faculty

Regi­na Moon cur­rent­ly lives in Atlanta, Geor­gia. Her career has pri­mar­i­ly been spent at Emmanuel Col­lege in Franklin Springs, Geor­gia as Direc­tor of Coun­sel­ing, Direc­tor of Ser­vice Learn­ing and Vice Pres­i­dent for Stu­dent Life. She also served as adjunct fac­ul­ty in Old Tes­ta­ment and Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion and spent a large por­tion of her time jour­ney­ing with stu­dents, fac­ul­ty and staff as they walked with God.

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Chris Murphy

Institute Faculty

The Rev­erend Christo­pher Mur­phy is the pas­tor of First Pres­by­ter­ian Church in New­berg, Ore­gon. Chris is pas­sion­ate about spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion and mis­sion and loves lis­ten­ing to the spir­i­tu­al jour­neys of peo­ple of all ages. He received a B.A. in His­to­ry from Whit­worth Uni­ver­si­ty in 1994, his Mas­ter of Divin­i­ty from Fuller The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary in 2002, and is cur­rent­ly pur­su­ing a Doc­tor of Min­istry in Spir­i­tu­al Direc­tion on from Fuller. Chris received a cer­tifi­cate in Spir­i­tu­al Direc­tion on in 2005 from Chris­t­ian For­ma­tion and Direc­tion Min­istries (CFDM) and teach­es as guest fac­ul­ty mem­ber for CFDM Seat­tle and the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute. Chris has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in church, col­lege, sem­i­nary, and urban min­istry. Pri­or to com­ing to First Pres­by­ter­ian in Feb­ru­ary of 2018, he served as the Asso­ciate Pas­tor for Youth and Young Adults at West­min­ster Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Port­land and as the Direc­tor of Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istries at Fuller Sem­i­nary in Pasade­na, CA. He is blessed to be mar­ried to Karen, who teach­es church his­to­ry and the­ol­o­gy at Fuller Sem­i­nary and George Fox Uni­ver­si­ty. They are the proud par­ents of two daugh­ters, Cate and Chiara. Chris’s inter­ests include spend­ing time with his fam­i­ly, read­ing, movies, run­ning, golf, cheer­ing for the Sea­hawks, singing, gui­tar, and wine tasting.

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Kai Nilsen

Institute Faculty, Ministry Team

Kai is Senior Pas­tor of Incar­na­tion Luther­an in Shore­view, Min­neso­ta. Pre­vi­ous­ly he served as lead pas­tor at Peace Luther­an Church in Colum­bus, Ohio, after hav­ing joined the staff in 1993. Beyond his pas­toral work, Kai is on the Ren­o­varé Min­istry Team and teach­es in the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute for Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion. In 2009, Kai com­plet­ed his Doc­tor of Min­istry degree through Fuller Sem­i­nary in Pasade­na, Cal­i­for­nia. Kai’s book Renew Your Life: Dis­cov­er­ing the Well­spring of God’s Ener­gy was pub­lished in the fall of 2015. Kai and his wife Pat­ty are par­ents of four chil­dren — Anders, Anni­ka, Leif and Siri. 

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Maggie Robbins

Institute Faculty

Mag­gie Rob­bins is a spir­i­tu­al direc­tor, earn­ing her cer­ti­fi­ca­tion through Kairos: School of Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion in 2005. She con­tin­ued to serve at Kairos in the role of spir­i­tu­al direc­tor as well as a mem­ber of the fac­ul­ty until 2015. Nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, she has pro­vid­ed spir­i­tu­al direc­tion and facil­i­tat­ed retreats for groups like Youth Spe­cial­ties, Sim­ply Youth Min­istry , Chris­t­ian Camp and Con­fer­ence Asso­ci­a­tion, the Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Ire­land and Bap­tist Youth Min­istry of New South Wales, Aus­tralia. She also main­tains a pri­vate prac­tice from her home in Val­ley Forge, PA

Mag­gie is the co-author, with her hus­band Duffy Rob­bins, of Enjoy the Silence

Download the Renovaré Institute Program Overview

Includes course outlines, program structure, and breakdown of time commitment.