CONSULTANTS

Founder & CEO

Rev. Cameron Trimble

Director of Coaching & Contracted Services

Rev. Gregg Carlson

Affiliate Coach / Consultant

Sara Wilcox

Senior Coach

Lawrence Richardson

Consultant

Molly Baskette

Consultant

Bill McKinney

Consultant

Steven Sterner

Affiliate Coach / Consultant

Rev. Carol Howard Merritt

Senior Coach

Bruce Reyes-Chow, M.Div, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach

Affiliate Coach / Consultant / Alumni Board Member

Jo Hudson

Founder & CEO

Rev. Cameron Trimble

Rev. Cameron Trimble is a serial entrepreneur committed to the triple bottom line – a concern for people, progress and the planet. Driven by an adventurous spirit, she co-founded and serves as the CEO of Convergence, an international church consultancy. She serves as a senior consultant, a frequent speaker on national speaking circuits, is a pilot and an author.

Cameron is particularly focused on human transformation and leadership. Her coaching clients are primarily executive leaders going through dynamic culture transformations. Diversity, she believes, is the source of lasting innovation and the driver of fair profit.

As a pilot, Cameron learns many of her leadership lessons through the adventures of the cockpit of her airplane. She has authored six books including Searching for the Sacred and Piloting Church. She has also enjoyed a career as an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, serving as the pastor of four congregations in the Atlanta area. Hers has been an eclectic career path – undoubtedly with more adventures to come – and she welcomes the wisdom she gains each day on the way.

For downloadable speaker information, click here.

Director of Coaching & Contracted Services

Rev. Gregg Carlson

Gregg has a passion for growing and starting local churches.  He has been in ministry for over 30 years.  In addition to solo pastoring two renewal congregations and planting a church, Gregg has served a denominational executive, executive director of a camping ministry and 10 years as an executive pastor in large church settings. He has been with Convergence since it began in 2009, and is the Director of Coaching & Contracted Services. His focus is working with denominational bodies, coordinating local church consulting and leading Convergence’s initiative in Staffing Consultation.

Affiliate Coach / Consultant

Sara Wilcox

Rev. Sara Wilcox serves as a local church pastor in Asheville, NC. With a heart for the new things breaking forth in the church, she understands the complex work we are called to as we bring forth the best of what we have been and help make possible that which has not yet even been imagined. Before her call to ministry she imagined she would be a college professor and studied political science at the University of Wisconsin. She discerned her call to ministry during that time and shifted gears toward her theological education. Sara received her M.Div. from Chicago Theological Seminary where she was challenged to ask new questions and look further than what is before us for the answers. She has served as a trauma chaplain and worked on behalf of men in the criminal justice system advocating for alternative sentences to incarceration. During those years, she helped birth Land of the Sky United Church of Christ where she spends a lot of time with amazing people living justly, loving abundantly and walking humbly. In her work at CPR, she serves as a coach, consultant and online educator to those hoping to do a new thing in the church. Her primary focus is church planting and church restarts.

Senior Coach

Lawrence Richardson

Our Whole Lives Curriculum trainer
ASDIC – Anti-racism group facilitator
Masters in Christian Ministry
Social Media marketing trainer
ACC trained

Lawrence joined the CPR team in 2013 as our social media strategist and since then has become a professional clergy coach. Lawrence is the author of, I Know What Heaven Looks Like; and in addition to his work on our team, he is also a Pastor at Linden Hills United Church of Christ, a Media Trainer with Auburn Seminary, and he uses multiple online platforms to minister to followers that span the globe. Lawrence has been featured in publications such as Huffington Post Religion and The Root, and is the recipient of service awards including the Humanitarian Award from Black Transmen Inc., was a 2014 Trans 100 honoree, and a 2017 Transgender Stellar Awards Nominee for his work in digital communications.

Consultant

Molly Baskette

Molly is the lead pastor of the quirky, loveable and burgeoning community of First Church Somerville UCC in Somerville, Massachusetts, and the author of the how-to manual for church resurrection, Real Good Church: How Our Church Came Back from the Dead and Yours Can, Too. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Divinity School, Molly is a regular contributor to the United Church of Christ’s Feed Your Spirit site, including the UCC Daily Devotionals, and the co-author of Remembering My Grandparent and Remembering My Pet, two practical grief books for children. She blogs on church renewal at realgoodchurch.com; on ministry, motherhood and cancer survivorship at revmolly.tumblr.com; and (occasionally!) on the crazy theological things kids say atwhatisgodfor.tumblr.com. And sometimes, she just lies in the hammock with one of her kids, and eats a popsicle. Molly’s favorite place is in the kitchen, making food for parents of new church babies, but once in a while she does venture forth to speak or coach on topics like church conflict and renewal, authentic worship, transparency in stewardship and Christian spiritual formation for the next generation of human beings. She lives in Arlington, Massachusetts with her kids Rafael and Carmen, and husband Peter. www.firstchurchsomerville.org

Consultant

Bill McKinney

Rev. Dr. William “Bill” McKinney is the former President and Professor of American Religion of Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in Berkeley, California, the oldest theological seminary in the American West. Bill McKinney is a sociologist of religion by training and also an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC). His research interests include Protestant congregational dynamics, and the recent history and prospects for Mainline Protestant denominations. At PSR from July 1986 to June 2010, Bill McKinney was previously Dean of Hartford Seminary.

Consultant

Steven Sterner

The Rev. Steven Sterner (Steve) has over 40 years of experience in every setting of the United Church of Christ. He has served local churches as a pastor, including as a new church start pastor. Steve has served as an Interim Conference Minister in Southern California, Nevada; he is a former officer of the United Church of Christ having served as the Executive of Local Church Ministries from 2008-2011 and most recently is serving as the Acting President of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Steve is an excellent pastor, a strategic thinker with a deep love for the United Church of Christ and a passion for local congregations. In his role as Executive of Local Church Ministries, Steve was relentless in insisting that a primary focus of ministry be the revitalization of local congregations. He understands the needs for churches to be both serving and ministering to the persons who are in our pews and have been long and faithful supporters and partners AND he knows that reaching out to new generations of persons who are spiritually hungry is critical if we are to live out the gospel mandate to be bearers of the good news to a new generation.

Affiliate Coach / Consultant

Rev. Carol Howard Merritt

Rev. Carol Howard Merritt is a minister whose writing, speaking, and teaching is anchored in theological wisdom and sociological insight. She’s a sought-after keynote speaker, especially on the topic of ministering in a new generation.

After being raised as a conservative Baptist and attending a fundamentalist Bible college, Carol studied at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas and became a Presbyterian (USA) Minister. She’s known for serving growing Presbyterian (USA) churches, especially those with a deep commitment to serving the poor and disenfranchised.

A pastor for almost two decades, Carol has served Presbyterian (USA) churches in the swamps of Cajun Louisiana, a bayside village in Rhode Island, and an urban neighborhood of Washington, DC. This breadth and depth of practical experience informs her consultations with denominational governing bodies, seminaries, and local churches. Carol is an Adjunct Faculty member at Dubuque Theological Seminary.

She is the award-winning author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation,Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation, and Healing Spiritual Wounds: Reconnecting with a Loving God After Experiencing a Hurtful Church. She wrote the Advent devotional, ​I Am Mary, and she is a frequent contributor to books, websites, magazines, and journals. She is a regular writer at the Christian Century where her blog is hosted.

She was a founder and host of UNCO, an open-space “unconference” that attracts church leaders across denominations and generations, and she co-hosted the thought-provoking podcast, God Complex Radio, with Rev. Derrick Weston.

Carol is married to Rev. Brian Merritt. When not at a podium, pulpit, or an airport, Carol can be found in New Canaan, Connecticut, where she serves as the Bridge Pastor for First Presbyterian Church.

Senior Coach

Bruce Reyes-Chow, M.Div, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach

Bruce is an author, speaker, parent, consultant, coach, podcaster, and pastor. He speaks and writes on issues of faith, technology, race, parenting, and church culture. Bruce’s main coaching and consultng work with organizations has addressed organizational systems, institutional change, and long-term visioning. With individuals he often addresses church planting, understanding authentic leadership styles, maintaining work-life balance, and helping people move from passion to implementation. He has experience working with the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Inventory, The Enneagram, is a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach and trained in Organizational Transition Leadership and Pastoral Care and Counseling. He lives in Palo Alto, CA where he and his wife, Robin, have raised three daughters and numerous canines. Bruce welcomes interaction via @breyeschow on most social networks.

Affiliate Coach / Consultant / Alumni Board Member

Jo Hudson

Jo Hudson is a spiritual leader, pastor, mentor and community builder, currently serving as Co-Pastor of the New Church – Chiesa Nuova, United Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. Jo has also taught at Brite Divinity School on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and has taught at and served as a Hardin Family Preaching Mentor at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. Jo is frequently sought by the media for her perspectives. She writes a blog, “A Place At The Table,” where she comments on all aspects of life and spirituality. She has also served as Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ (UCC) in Dallas, Texas, the world’s largest liberal Christian church with an historic and primary outreach to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender, queer/questioning people, their friends, families and allies.