Forum Meal-Time Mentoring

Darrell L. Bock is Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, as well as Executive Director of Cultural Engagement for the Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership there. An author or editor of about fifty books, his special fields of study involve hermeneutics, the use of the Old Testament in the New, Luke-Acts, the historical Jesus, Gospel studies, and the integration of theology and culture. It is this latter area that is the focus of his work at the Hendricks Center, where he is responsible for producing a web-based, weekly podcast on issues of God and culture called The Table and author of the recent book, Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World. He is a graduate of the University of Texas (B.A.), Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M.), and the University of Aberdeen (Ph.D.). He has had four annual stints of post doctoral study at the University of Tübingen, the second through fourth as an Alexander von Humboldt scholar at Tübingen University through a scholarship offered by the Federal Republic of Germany (1989-90, 1995-96, 2004-05, 2010-2011). He was editor at large for Christianity Today for several years and served as President of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) for the year 2000-2001. He currently serves on the boards of Wheaton College, Chosen People Ministries, Christians in Public Service (CIPS), and the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE). He also serves as elder emeritus at Trinity Fellowship Church in Richardson, Texas and as advisor to staff at Bent Tree Fellowship. Married to Sally for almost fifty years, he is the father of two married daughters and a married son, and is also a proud grandfather of five.

Lars Dahle is a theologian, educator, preacher, and apologist. Having a long previous experience in various academic leadership roles, he now works as Professor in Systematic Theology (with a speciality in Christian Apologetics) at NLA University College, Kristiansand, Norway, where he has lectured in worldviews, ethics, and apologetics since 1991. Lars is also CEO of Damaris Norway, a resource development ministry for worldview analysis, cultural apologetics, and media engagement. He wrote his PhD on Acts 17:16-34. It is entitled An Apologetic Model Then and Now? (Open University, UK, 2001).

Since 2013, Lars is also Lausanne Catalyst for Media Engagement. Lars has written several academic and popular articles and was the lead editor of The Lausanne Movement: A Range of Perspectives (Oxford: Regnum, 2014). He is also the Founding Editor of the peer-reviewed Nordic apologetic journal Theofilos. In addition, Lars co-leads the European Leadership Forum Media Communicators Network with his wife, Margunn Serigstad Dahle, and his NLA and Damaris colleague Bjørn Hinderaker.

Follow Lars on his blog Media Messages Matter or on his Twitter account @LarsDahle.

Ruth Davis has over 20 years experience of working in University settings, culminating in eight years managing a large academic department of Care Sciences at the University of South Wales. Her professional background is in nursing with a specialist interest in diabetes. Her clinical and research experience is in patient education and service/role development. In 2014 she left that role, though she remains a Visiting Fellow with the University and now works as Academic Director for an online education company, overseeing the quality of around 20 post-graduate Diploma/Master's courses for healthcare professionals. Along with her husband, they are trustees of Heb Ffin, a local charity (not-for-profit non-governmental organisation) supporting God’s work in Wales (UK) and Africa. Over the last year, they have spent several months in Uganda working on various diverse projects from nurse leadership to coffee growing. At home, Ruth is a wife, mother and grandmother; familiar with the struggles of juggling home, work and church life. In the local church, she has been involved in small group ministries and practical demonstrations of God’s love to people in the church and those outside, such as helping to run a luncheon club for older people. 

Per Ewert is the director of The Clapham Institute, Sweden’s leading Christian think tank and research institute. His PhD describes the political process which shaped Sweden into the world's arguably most secular-individualistic nation. Per is the author of several books on the Bible, apologetics, relations, and the role of faith in society. He currently works on a post-doc study on internal secularization in free protestant denominations. He lives with his wife and four children in southern Sweden.

Alexander Fink is Director of the Institute for Faith and Science (Institut für Glaube und Wissenschaft) in Marburg, Germany (www.iguw.de). He studied physics at Bayreuth and St. Andrews (UK) universities and received his PhD at the Institute for Biophysics at the University of Regensburg. After working as an industrial product manager, he became the director of the SMD graduates' ministry (Akademiker-SMD, the German branch of IFES) until 2014. Since 2008, he has been a member of the ELF Steering Committee and has co-led the Scientists Network. He is the editor of the "Begründet-glauben-Podcast" (www.begruendet-glauben.org) and has produced three documentary movies, "Fascinating Universe", "More than My Brain", and “Is There Meaning in Suffering?” which were officially recommended for use in secular public schools. Together with his wife, Alexander enjoys raising his two children, preaching and leading a house group in his local church, and being a youth soccer trainer in his local sports club.

Peter Imming received degrees in pharmacy and chemistry and a PhD and venia legendi in pharmaceutical chemistry from a German university. He has been involved in drug chemistry teaching and research in Germany, the UK, China, Ethiopia and other countries. Until retirement in 2025, he was head of the pharmaceutical/medicinal chemistry department of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of new drug substances and on molecular mechanisms of drug action. He has a strong interest in the relation of science and Christian faith, frequently lecturing on related topics by invitation of e.g. universities, churches and schools.

David McIlroy is a practising barrister based in London in the UK. He serves on the editorial board of Law & Justice, teaches the Mission of Justice and the Theology of Law course at Spurgeon’s College, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame (USA) in England. He is convinced that justice matters enormously to God and He wants Christians to work hard to see justice done more and more in situations around the world. Through his books (A Biblical View of Law and Justice, A Trinitarian Theology of Law, The End of Law) and many articles, David seeks to deepen people’s reflections on justice and to inspire others to take up the challenge of acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Andy McIntosh holds an Emeritus chair in Thermodynamics at the University of Leeds and is also an adjunct professor of Engineering at Liberty University in Virginia. He has had a long scientific research career concerning mathematics, combustion and aeronautics, both in academia and in a government establishment, and is author of over 200 academic papers. Andy has long worked on combustion and its interaction with acoustics and larger pressure waves. He has also worked on the mathematical modelling of ignition, and he is the inventor of the 𝜇Mist novel spray technology which mimics the Bombardier beetle spray and has led to this spray technology being applied to fuel injectors, pharmaceutical sprays, aerosols and more recently fire sprinkler systems. This was awarded the 2010 Times Higher Educational award for the Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology. His work has also included investigations into the fundamental link between thermodynamics and information. This strikes at the heart of the issue concerning abiogenesis – the information in living systems is neither matter nor energy but is absolutely essential for life.

Andy now lectures widely on origins, and has authored the books “Genesis for Today” (Day One, 6th Edition, 2017), and “A verse by verse examination of Genesis 1-11” (Day One, 2016) and has contributed to a number of other books including “Wonders of Creation – Design in a fallen world”(co-authored with Stuart Burgess and Brian Edwards, Day One, 2017), “Origins – examining the evidence” (Truth in Science, 2011), “In six days” (Master Books, 2009) and “Should Christians embrace Evolution?” (IVP, 2009). He has also written the booklet “Are you really an Atheist?” (2018) and co-authored the booklets “Is it True – Evidence for Creation” (2018) and “A wonder of Creation – the Kingfisher” (2024) and is co-director of the UK education think tank Truth in Science. He is married with 4 children (one of whom died in infancy), and 7 grandchildren.

Karis Riley is a literary scholar of Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She was a postdoctoral research associate on the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge for the AHRC project Remembering the Reformation (2018-2019). She has a BA in philosophy from Wheaton College, IL (2012), a PhD in English Literature from the University of York (2016), and a Master’s in Classics from the University of Oxford (2017). She is currently preparing her first book, Milton's Passions, which investigates the complex and varied relationship between emotion, morality, and literary history from the Plato to the Renaissance with a particular focus on the poet John Milton. She has published in Renaissance Studies, The Seventeenth Century, and Routledge’s Remembering the Medieval and Early Modern World series and has spoken at the Renaissance Society of America. Karis is married to Malcolm and together they started Trinity Church Central London in 2014, an evangelical church-plant and community in the capital city.

David Sandifer was born and raised in France, of American parents. He holds a Ph.D. in history, from the University of Cambridge (2014). He spent 20 years in pastoral ministry in the U.S. and Australia, and also worked for a Christian public advocacy organisation in Australia, where he co-launched an on-going campaign to protect children from online pornography. He currently lectures in the area of practical theology and ethics at Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands. He has a heart to see the church in Europe renewed in love for God and holiness, and to see Christian families equipped to raise counter-cultural disciples who will 'shine like stars in the universe' (Phil. 2:15).