ETREK considers learning a journey not a destination.

We refer to our learning journeys as courses rather than classes. A course, like a river twists, turns and responds to the environment and its surrounding conditions. It is in this spirit that we invite our faculty to participate. We have two types of faculty 1) Facilitator Faculty and 2) Guest Faculty.

Facilitator Faculty are individuals who are well versed in the “course” but consider themselves fellow travelers. Their main role is to develop as safe, open and authentic learning environment around the main topic of the course. Your Facilitator Faculty will be will you through out the learning experience. Their knowledge of the trail and relationships they have developed on their journey will serve you well as they set the pace and renegotiate the inevitable challenges your group will encounter.

Guest Faculty are “friends” we meet along the journey. Their wisdom and insight gain from their travels, research and experiences will help us gain insight into our own “course”, present surroundings and directional decisions we maybe facing. Our hope is that we not only engage our “experts” on their past journeys, books or accomplishments, but we will take advantage of our unique opportunity to discover the latest – not yet published – real time, real life and real world lessons they are encountering / navigating in the present.

Spencer Burke is creator and CEO of TheOoze.com. Spencer spent 20 years in paid ministry including the last 8 of those years at Mariner's church in California and now volunteers at ROCKharbor as an Elder, teacher and counsel to the staff. He's also a founding board member of Damah, an independent short-film festival committed to spiritual experiences in film. Spencer launched a new alternative to schooling called ETREK, an experiential model that integrates real-time, real-life, peer-to-peer curriculum development and lifelong learning. He hosts an annual learning party Soularize for IndieAllies.net a grassroots network of the emerging church. Humorous, inspirational and surprising are words people use to describe his story-telling speaking style. An accomplished photographer, he has exhibited his work in galleries and taught at the university level. Author of two books Stories of Emergence (March 03) and soon to be released Making Sense of Church (Sept. 03). Spencer lives in a 1909 "beach shack" with his wife, Lisa, and their two children; Alden (6 years old) and Grace (2 year old), in Newport Beach, California.

Spencer will be Facilitator Faculty for Leading and Emerging Culture (Sept. 2004)

Joe Meyers is a multiprenuer, interventionist, and thinker; a speaker, writer, and conversationalist.

He owns the consulting firm, FrontPorch, which helps churches, business, and other organizations promote and develop healthy community. FrontPorch also analyzes spatial language (physical and metaphoric, verbal and non-verbal) to help create environments that promote healthy experiences of belonging.

Joe has spent the last several years in study and research discovering how language influences community development. Join the community conversation at http://www.languageofbelonging.com.

Joe and his wife Sara are founding partners of a communication arts group, settingPace. settingPace has an office in Cincinnati and one in Los Angeles. Both specialize in publishing services primarily for the educational markets.
Joe lives in Cincinnati with his wife Sara. He has a daughter Jaclyn and the three of them enjoy golf, bicycling, and Scrabble.

Jim Henderson. Jim is co-founder, CEO and Chairman of Off The Map. Jim and his wife Barb have been involved in church planting for the past 25 years. They have spent time in India and Hong Kong working with young leaders and new church plants. Most recently, Jim was the former Director of Outreach at Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jim is an innovative thinker and passionately committed to normalizing evangelism for ordinary Christians. Jim and Barb live in Seattle, Washington and have three grown children.

Guest Faculty

Frederica Matthewes-Green, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones, Sally Morgenthaler, Bill Easum, Karen Ward, Todd Hunter, Tom & Christine Sines, Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, Sunil Sardar, Stuart Murray-Williams