Jeremy Smith is the senior pastor of First Church, the First United Methodist Church of Seattle. He blogs at Hacking Christianity where he has written about non-traditional worship services and churches, including bar churches and dinner churches.

Matthew Peeples is the lead pastor of The Point Knox, a Lutheran church in Knoxville, Tenn. He also holds a regular worship service in a bar called The Bar Church.

Christopher B. James is an assistant professor of evangelism and missional Christianity at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. He is author of Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil: Theology and Practice (2017) and is an expert on churches and worship in non-traditional places.

Lindsay Wilkinson is an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor University, where she studies medical sociology, aging and social stratification. She has assisted in several Baylor religion studies, including research on religion and mental health.

Paul Froese is a professor of sociology at Baylor University and research fellow for the school’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of several books, including On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life.

Mark Reidl is an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and director of the Entertainment Intelligence Lab in Atlanta, Ga. His research focuses on human-centered artificial intelligence—the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies that understand and interact with human users in more natural ways. He was part of a […]

Deborah Johnson is a professor emeritus of applied ethics in science, technology and society at the University of Virginia. Best known for her work on computer ethics and engineering ethics, Johnson’s research examines the ethical, social, and policy implications of technology, especially information technology. She was part of a panel on AI and religion at the […]

Jeffrey Kaplan is an associate professor of religion and director of the Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence and Memory at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He is the author of Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements From the Far Right to the Children of Noah.

George Michael is a professor on the criminal justice faculty at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. He is the author of Theology of Hate: A History of the World Church of the Creator.