Kenneth L. Swetland is senior professor of ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., where he also leads the Oasis counseling program for seminary alumni facing a crisis or transition. He wrote The Hidden World of the Pastor: Case Studies on Personal Issues of Real Pastors.

Charles Stone is a longtime pastor and the founder of StoneWell Ministries in Aurora, Ill. His award-winning book 5 Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them (2010) examines the major causes of frustration and burnout for pastors and church leaders.

Dr. Ira Byock is the executive director and chief medical officer for the Providence Institute for Human Caring. He was formerly the director of the palliative care program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. His books include Dying Well: Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life. A past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, […]

Steven Smith is dean of the college and professor of communication at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He also holds the seminary’s James T. Draper Chair of Pastoral Ministry. Smith is the author of Dying to Preach: Embracing the Cross in the Pulpit (2009), in which he discusses “why the preacher must die to self, […]

Robert Saler is director of the Lilly Endowment’s National Clergy Renewal Program, which provides grants to congregations offering their pastors breaks for rest and renewal. More than 700 congregations and their pastors have benefited.

Carl E. Schneider is Chauncey Stillman Professor for Ethics, Morality and the Practice of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and edited Law at the End of Life: The Supreme Court and Assisted Suicide.

Daniel Sherman is a former pastor who founded the online ministry PastorBurnout.com. He also serves as the North Central regional director for PastorCare Network, a support network for pastors and their families.

Julius Lester is emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He has had appointments in both Afro-American and Judaic studies. An African-American who was raised as a Christian, he converted to Judaism and found that he also has Jewish ancestry. His books include Lovesong: Becoming A Jew (Bullfinch Press,1988).

Susan M. Wolf is McKnight Presidential Professor of Law, Medicine and Public Policy, as well as Faegre & Benson Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota law school. She is also a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a faculty member in the university’s Center for Bioethics in Minneapolis. She previously directed […]