Robert Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, where he studies civic connectedness, social capital, and religion and public life. He is author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again and Bowling […]

Irwin L. Morris is a professor in the department of government and politics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He co-authored an article titled “A Mighty Fortress: The Social and Economic Foundations of the American Megachurch Movement.”

John Vaughan is the founder of Church Growth Today, a research and consulting organization based in Bolivar, Mo. Its Megachurch Research Center has been studying U.S. and global megachurches since 1985. His books include Megachurches & America’s Cities: How Churches Grow.

Dave Travis is managing director of Leadership Network, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization that works to foster Christian leadership, innovation and church growth. Travis has advised pastors and other leaders of large churches throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is a co-author of Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn From America’s Largest Churches (2007).

Elmer Towns is co-founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and dean of its School of Religion. Towns is a longtime church-growth expert; he provided one of the earliest tallies of super-large churches, determining in 1969 that there were 16 congregations with 2,000-plus weekly worshippers.

Warren Bird is director of research and intellectual capital for Leadership Network, a nonprofit organization that works to foster Christian leadership, innovation and church growth. He has studied and profiled many of the nation’s biggest and fastest-growing churches and is a co-author of A Multi-Site Church Road Trip: Exploring the New Normal. Bird’s dissertation in 2007 examined whether megachurches foster […]

Rita Nakashima Brock is research professor of theology and culture and director of The Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Tex. She has written about feminist theology and Asian-American women. Her books include, as co-editor, the 2007 release Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion & Theology. She contributed one […]

C.N. Le, a senior lecturer professor of sociology and director of Asian and Asian-American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, runs the comprehensive Web resource Asian-Nation, which he describes as “a sociological exploration of the historical, political, demographic and cultural issues that make up today’s diverse Asian-American community.” It includes a section on religion and spirituality.

Doua Thor, a Hmong-American who emigrated with her family in 1979 from Laos, is executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.