Anne Graham Lotz
Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, loves Israel and the Jewish people. Anne is an accomplished speaker, author, and leader in today’s global church. She is also a woman of prayer and an inspiration to so many around the world on the importance of prayer. We invited Anne to join us and to share her love and heart for the Jewish people and world evangelism as well as the importance of praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), which very well might be the key to peace in the Middle East!
Joel C. Rosenberg
Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of fifteen novels and four non-fiction books with five million copies in print. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two news and analysis websites, www.allisrael.com and allarab.news. Joel’s next nonfiction book, Enemies and Allies, will be released in September 2021. It will examine the future of the Middle East twenty years after the horrific terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Joel has recently made a number of trips to Arab countries where he has met with both presidents and prime ministers. He has unique insights into the current politics of the Middle East as viewed through the lens of Scripture.
Dr. Darrell Bock
Dr. Darrell Bock has earned recognition as a Humboldt Scholar (Tübingen University in Germany), and he is the author of more than forty books, including wellregarded commentaries on Luke and Acts and studies of the historical Jesus. He also works in cultural engagement as host of Dallas Theological Seminary’s Table Podcasts. He was president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) from 2000–2001 and presently writes for Christianity Today’s Places and Space series while serving on the boards of Wheaton College, Chosen People Ministries, the Institute for Global Engagement, and Christians in Public Service (CIPS).
Dr. Michael Rydelnik
Dr. Michael Rydelnik is professor of Jewish Studies and Bible at Moody Bible Institute. He is the host/Bible teacher to his radio program Open Line with Dr. Michael Rydelnik, answering listeners’ Bible questions every Saturday morning for more than 200 stations across America. Dr. Rydelnik is the co-editor of The Moody Bible Commentary and the author of Understanding the Arab Israeli Conflict as well as The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? He served on the translation team for the Holman CSB and has contributed to multiple study Bibles, books, and theological journals.
Tom and JoAnn Doyle
Tom Doyle fell in love with the Middle East on his first Bible tour of the Holy Land. In 1995, he became an official tour guide for the State of Israel and developed a passion for ministering to the Israeli people, Arabs and Jews alike. Tom and JoAnn began working in the heart of the Islamic world shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in response to a call from God to full-time ministry. In 2017, the Doyles launched Uncharted Ministries, which seeks to inspire the Body of Christ to rise up and join the new great awakening among Jews and Muslims in the Middle East and in uncharted territories around the world. Tom and JoAnn serve throughout the Middle East and have a special love for Israel and her Jewish and Arab population.
Marty Goetz and Misha
Marty Goetz: Emmy- nominated Marty Goetz is a Jewish believer in Jesus and ahas been called a modern-day psalmist. His songs are composed of Scripture beautifully set to music, leaving listeners spiritually moved and inspired. He has ministered before congregations for decades including Greg Laurie’s Harvest Christian Fellowship and Chicago’s Moody Church and for ministries such as Focus on the Family, TBN, CBN, Promise Keepers, and the Billy Graham Training Center/The Cove. Marty has been recording music steadily since 1985 and today lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Jennifer, who is also a Jewish believer in Jesus.
Misha Goetz: Growing up as the only child of modern-day psalmist Marty Goetz and his wife, Jennifer, Misha’s earliest memories were formed in Nashville behind the piano where she composed her first recorded song at the age of eight. Misha’s most recent full-length project is a DVD and CD she produced with her father titled Marty Goetz & Misha: LIVE from Jerusalem, filmed in Israel, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem with a twenty-six-piece orchestra. Currently, Misha is writing new songs and making music with her father while traveling the country leading worship full-time. Misha resides in Austin, Texas with her husband, Joshua, and their two sons, Caleb and Samuel.
Dr. Mitch Glaser
Dr. Glaser is a Messianic Jew and alumnus of the Talbot School of Theology. He earned a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies. He is the co-author of The Fall Feasts of Israel with his wife, Zhava, co-editor of To the Jew First and The Gospel According to Isaiah 53, as well as The People, The Land, and The Future of Israel and Messiah in the Passover, which were published by Kregel Publications. Dr. Glaser’s evangelistic book, Isaiah 53 Explained, is now in thirteen languages with more than 100,000 copies in print. He is in his twenty-fifth year as president of Chosen People Ministries and has expanded Chosen People Ministries during his tenure to twenty countries and dozens of cities in North America. Dr. Glaser was instrumental in starting the Charles L. Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies, which currently offers a Master of Divinity in Messianic Jewish Studies in partnership with Biola University. Mitch is a native New Yorker and lives in Brooklyn.
Frontline Leaders and Workers
Preston Parrish
Preston Parrish serves as chaplain to the staff of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he provides spiritual care and support to the ministry’s staff and evangelism teams as they proclaim the gospel worldwide. Preston has previously served in multiple leadership positions with BGEA, as well as Samaritan’s Purse. His roles have included executive vice president of BGEA and vice president of My Hope America, an unprecedented nationwide evangelism effort which culminated on Billy Graham’s ninety-fifth birthday. Preston and his wife, Glenda, dated in high school, and God has blessed them with four children and six grandchildren. He and Glenda co-authored their book, Finding Hope in Times of Grief, after the death of Preston’s father and their twenty-five-year-old son in the same week. An ordained minister, he holds degrees from Montreat College (where he and Franklin Graham became friends), Wake Forest University, and Wheaton Graduate School.
Sam Porter
Sam Porter was one of the first Southern Baptist disaster relief workers to respond to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. In partnership with the New York Police Department and the New York Fire Department, he served as one of the lead chaplains for thirty-nine days following the attacks. Since that time Sam has led multiple international humanitarian and rescue missions, including two trips to Iraq in 2003, several trips to Indonesia and Thailand following the tsunami in 2004, and a recovery mission in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Today, Sam serves as the National Director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. Mr. Porter is a graduate of Baylor University, and earned a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Seminary.
Darlene Line, M.Div.
Darlene grew up in a Christian home, but it was not until she was an adult that she understood and embraced what it meant to be a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) and surrendered her life to the Lord. It was during the wake of 9/11, as a Senior Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security, that she sensed that she was being called into ministry. Following her service, Darlene enrolled at in the Charles L. Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies, where she earned her Master of Divinity degree. She now serves as a licensed minister and missionary with Chosen People Ministries in the greater New York/New Jersey areas. Currently, Darlene is working on her Dissertation for a Doctor of Ministry in Global Leadership and Spiritual Formation at Nyack Alliance Theological Seminary.
Local Pastors
Dr. Dave Watson
Pastor Dave Watson has been the senior pastor at Calvary Chapel since January 1990. Calvary Chapel is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church located on the diverse North Shore of Staten Island. He is also the co-founder and president of the New York Institute of Biblical Studies as well as the featured speaker on the God in Our City broadcast heard weekly on WMCA, AM 570: the Mission. He has a Doctor of Divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Arts from Liberty Baptist Seminary and Liberty University. He and his wife, Deb, have been married for more than thirty-nine years and have three adult children. They reside on Staten Island.
Rev. Dr. Marc Rivera
Dr. Rivera has served as the senior pastor of the Primitive Christian Church in Lower Manhattan since 1994. The church is a vibrant, bilingual, multi-cultural urban ministry. Prior to becoming its senior pastor, Dr. Rivera served for sixteen years as associate pastor. He has been in pastoral ministry there for more than forty years. Today, Dr. Rivera is considered a resource in urban inner-city ministry. He is sought after because of his depth of knowledge of the Latino church and its emerging role in the 21st century. In 2007, he was recognized with the Outstanding Ministry Award by the New York City Council of Churches. Dr. Rivera holds a master’s degree in urban ministry from the Alliance Theological Seminary and earned doctorate from the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. He and his wife, Rev. Enid Rios Rivera, are life-long residents of Lower Manhattan.
Pastor Rick Del Rio
Rev. Richard (“Rick”) Del Rio co-founded Abounding Grace Ministries in 1982 and Abounding Grace Church in 1992, where he served as lead pastor until November 11, 2017. In 1994, Rev. Del Rio co-founded Community Solutions, Inc., a holistic, faith-based organization providing youth and advocacy services, with his son, Jeremy. In 2011, Community Solutions became Thrive Collective, a leading provider of arts and mentoring programs in New York City public schools. In October 2000, the Fund for the City of New York awarded them the Union Square Award for these efforts. Rev. Del Rio also serves as a New York Police Department police-clergy liaison and executive vice president of C.H.I.P.S. (Chaplains Helping in Police Situations). He and his wife have provided a home to as many as seven neighborhood children at a time, and his children and their families work alongside him in ministry.