2025 Speakers
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Dr. Donna Petter
Dr. Petter is a graduate of the department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation on the relationship between Sumerian City Laments and the Book of Ezekiel was published in the Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis series (Fribourg Academic Press/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). Most recent book publications include the commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah in the popular NIVAC commentary series (co-written with her husband Tom) and the commentary on Ezekiel in the Concise Bible Commentary Series (The Gospel Coalition, Fall 2022). She is currently writing a monograph on the declaration of the Divine Name (Exodus 34:6-7) in the New Studies in Biblical Theology Series (IVP/Apollos). This long love affair with the topic of Yahweh’s hesed began when she wrote a Master’s thesis on Exodus 32-34 at Gordon-Conwell (1997). A second major project is a two-volume commentary on Ezekiel (Pillar Old Testament Commentary Series, Eerdmans).
A former missionary with Youth With A Mission, Dr. Petter has retained a strong relationship with the School of Biblical Studies at the Kona Campus, Hawaii (where she and her husband directed the SBS in the early 1990’s) and the Lakeside, Montana Campus.
Whether it was doing relief work at the garbage dump in Manila during her early twenties, providing biblical resources in China, or co-leading the SBS in Togo, West Africa, Dr. Petter has a lifelong commitment to discipling people through the Word and His character. She is married to Tom Petter and they have one son, Marcus.
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Dr. Jerry Sittser
Dr. Sittser grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Hope College and Fuller Theological Seminary, where he earned his M.Div degree. He served as an associate pastor at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California, for five years, then as chaplain at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, for six years before returning to school, this time at the University of Chicago, to earn his Ph.D. in the History of Christianity under Martin E. Marty. He taught theology at Whitworth University until his retirement in 2021.
Dr. Sittser has won numerous awards and honors. He was a recipient of the prestigious Javits National Fellowship while he attended the University of Chicago. He has won national writing awards, too, including a Gold Medallion Award from evangelical publishers for When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer, the Logos Book Award for Water from a Deep Well, and an award of merit from the Christianity Today annual book awards for A Grace Revealed.
He has written dozens of articles and nine books: The Adventure, Love One Another, and Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries (InterVarsity Press); A Cautious Patriotism: The American Churches and the Second World War (University of N. Carolina Press); A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, The Will of God as a Way of Life, When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer, and A Grace Revealed: How God Redeems the Story of Your Life (Zondervan), and Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian “Third Way” Changed the World (Brazos), which explores the emergence of the Christian movement.
He speaks frequently at churches, Christian conferences, pastor’s conferences, as well as on college campuses; he has made two trips abroad to teach, too, one to Nairobi, Kenya, and the other to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Married to Patricia since 2010, he has three married children, two married step-children, and eleven grandchildren, whom he sees often and adores. He enjoys woodworking, gardening, hiking, travel, classical music, and exercise. Dr. Sittser defines his calling as serving as a bridge between the academy and the church. His writing and speaking evidence this commitment.