Our Leadership
Greg Scharf (chair): Greg, chair of the Pastoral Theology Department and associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Deerfield, Ill., became JSM board chair in January 2008. Having met John Stott while a student at TEDS, Greg was one of the first pastoral interns at All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London, England. After that one-year internship, he was asked to join the staff of All Souls as chaplain to university students, a position he held for two years. During that time, he met and married Ruth, and together they moved to Toronto, Ontario, where they worked with students at Knox Church. This was followed by a 19-year sojourn in Fargo, N.D., where Greg was the first full-time pastor of Salem Evangelical Free Church. In 1999 he joined the faculty of TEDS. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at TEDS, Greg also helps facilitate preaching seminars with Langham Preaching, having served in Poland, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Kenya. He has served on the JSM board since 2005. He is author of Prepared to Preach (Christian Focus, 2005). The Scharfs have three grown sons.
Tim Stafford (vice chair): Tim is best known as a writer of more than 20 books and many magazine articles. He serves as senior writer for Christianity Today magazine. Tim grew up in Fresno, Calif. He attended Stanford University, majoring in English/creative writing. He served as an editor at Campus Life magazine, where he worked alongside such notable writers as Philip Yancey and Steven Lawhead. In Nairobi, Kenya, Tim helped to found a new Christian youth magazine, Step. Today, Tim and his wife Popie reside in Santa Rosa, Calif. He is an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Rosa, where his wife also serves as counselor-in-residence. They have three grown children. He enjoys backpacking, running and reading.
Benjamin Homan (president):
From 2001 until 2010, Homan served as president and chief executive officer of Food for the Hungry, a relief and development organization serving in more than 26 developing countries. In his leadership role, Homan has led assessment teams to Iraq, Afghanistan, tsunami-ravaged Indonesia, Sudan’s Darfur region, and other devastated zones of the world. In 2006, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the HELP Commission, an entity that was established by Congress to recommend reform of all of the U.S. government’s foreign assistance. Homan has also served as president of the Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations (AERDO) and as chairman for the Alliance for Food Aid. Ben joined the leadership of JSM in August 2010. Ben and his wife Annette live in Phoenix, Ariz., and have three children.
Langham Partnership International Leadership
John Stott is the founder and honorary president of the Langham Partnership International. He founded the original trusts now united as LPI and has led them through their varied history. He continues to take an active and prayerful interest in all of the LPI programmes and their strategic development.
Chris Wright is the international director. His job is to ensure that the six national organisations affiliated with LPI work together for their common purpose. He also coordinates the work of Langham’s literature, scholarships and preaching programmes, each of which has its own international staff with programme directors who report to him. He is accountable to the Langham Partnership International Council, which includes representatives of all five national organisations.
Pieter Kwant is the international director of the LPI literature programme. He coordinates both the six book distribution programmes in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and the four creative (writers and publishers) programmes, serving all Majority World languages in over 90 countries.
Steve Hardy is the international director of the LPI scholarships programme. Steve is from the United States, but he has lived many years in the Majority World, almost entirely involved in theological education at all kinds of levels. He has a long history working with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) ministry and Overseas Council International (OCI), and is now a mission partner with Serving in Mission (SIM). He is the author of Excellence in Theological Education: Effective Training for Church Leaders, which was designed for Bible school and seminary leadership in the Majority World. He joins LPI with a wealth of experience and wisdom to bring to the LPI Scholar program.
Jonathan Lamb is the international director of the LPI preaching programme. Formerly a pastor in England, then European Director and Associate General Secretary of IFES, he has had a long-standing commitment to Biblical preaching, and to encouraging a younger generation in that task. Jonathan coordinates an international team of trainers who support LPI Preaching initiatives around the world.
TrevorCork is chair of the Langham Partnership International Council. He is a partner of McPhee Kelshaw solicitors, located in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, NSW Australia.
For information on the leadership and staff of national organisations, go to the pages of the relevant national member.
