Coaches & Specialists

Bryan Sims

Bryan has worked since 2001 as a Leadership and Organizational Change Coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc. (SLI) where he has trained and coached leaders, teams, churches, and organizations over extended periods of time to bring spiritual awakening and missional effectiveness. He has worked in several United Methodist Conferences including Northwest Texas, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Alabama-West Florida. He has also led groups of business leaders through WorkLife Incubators in which leaders are growing in Christ and learning new ways to integrate their faith and work.

He is currently Assistant Professor of Leadership and Lay Equipping at Asbury Theological Seminary and the Director of the Center for Lay Mobilization within the Beeson International Center at the seminary. Bryan is a graduate of West Texas A&M University (1998) and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2003) and has a Ph. D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University (2009). He and his wife MyLinda have been happily married since 1997 and have four children: Isaiah, Luke, Silas, and Lydia.

Cathy Self

Cathy joined Spiritual Leadership, Inc. in 2006, serving since then as Coach for a variety of Incubator projects including the first Hispanic/Latino team and the National Emmaus/Chrysalis Leadership team. Cathy concurrently serves as President and CEO for Baptist Healing Trust, a private grant-making foundation for health related nonprofits in Middle Tennessee. With thirty-five years’ experience in the health care field, Cathy has provided direct care as a physical therapist and as an organizational leader through a number of roles including previous service as Vice President for Organizational Learning with Saint Thomas Health Services in Nashville, TN. Cathy was awarded a Masters in Leadership from Trinity Western University with an emphasis on servant leadership in 2003 and a PhD in Organizational Learning from Regent University in 2009. A lifelong Southern Baptist, Cathy grew up as a deacon’s kid, pastor’s kid, missionary kid, and now minister’s wife. She has served in many roles within the Church including Sunday School teacher, choir member, retreat and Bible study leader. Cathy is married to Barney and they have two children Aimee and Matthew. Being “Nana” to the grands is Cathy’s crowning joy.

Carolyn Sims

Carolyn serves as a member of the SLI Materials Team and has completed the first phase of Coach Training.  She holds Masters Degrees in both Music Education and Christian Counseling.  She is a retired public school music teacher and currently is the Director of Outreach and Administration of Freedom Fellowship Church in Canyon, Texas. Carolyn and her husband Dave have 3 adult children (including Bryan who is also with SLI) and 9 grandkids.

Chuck Lord

Chuck is a Founding member and fulltime Leadership Coach with SLI, Chuck has led teams from a variety of organizations – churches, non-profits, denominational associations – in several states including Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. As one of the original Board members, he has been actively involved since SLI’s inception in 2000. Chuck recently retired from the University of Kentucky, where he taught music theory and music technology for many years. He and his wife Sue make their home in Lexington, KY; they have three daughters and two grandsons.

Craig Robertson

Craig is Founding member and Development Partner of Spiritual Leadership, Inc., Craig’s business experience includes founding and serving as President of Lightpath, Inc.an engineering systems integration firm, This company was purchased by one time fortune 500 company Ogden, Inc. an environmental engineering firm where Craig became National Technical Director. He was then hired by Ogeta Services a Geographic Information Services firm to serve as the Chairman of the Board and CEO.  Craig  has served in many roles within the Church including lay leader, District lay leader, Director of New Church Development and Delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conference. Craig has now been serving within SLI since 2000. Craig is married to Jill and they have two children Amy and Jacob.

David Mills

David is President of Mills & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping churches, not-for-profit organizations and communities build leadership capacity. David is a retired University of Georgia faculty member with over thirty (30) years of university outreach and engagement experience. Prior to his retirement in 2006, Mills was Director of the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership.

Mills has been active in the South Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for nearly forty years. He has served in numerous leadership roles at the local, district and conference level. Mills holds degrees from North Georgia College and State University, Valdosta State University, and The University of Georgia. He is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Management and Leadership in Education Institute. His areas of expertise and research interests are Church growth and development, spiritual leadership formation, discipleship, and community economic development. Mills and his wife Susan live in Perry, Georgia. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Donna Gaither

Donna Gaither recently retired from the General Board of Discipleship (UMC) where she served as the Executive Director of Strategic Systems.    She brought to this position almost twenty-five years of experience on the staff of local churches in both Tennessee and Western North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tennessee Wesleyan College and a Masters of Arts in Religion from Florida State University.  She is a certified Director of Christian Education and a Deacon in the Tennessee Annual Conference. Donna and her husband Mike live in Nashville, Tennessee and their adult daughter lives nearby.   She has been involved with SLI since 2003, and has facilitated leadership incubators in both Tennessee and Nebraska.  She is passionate about helping congregations build intentional discipleship formation processes.

Greg Survant

Greg is Founding Member of SLI and became Managing Partner after he retired from the corporate world in 2009.  With 32 years experience at IBM and Lexmark International, Inc, he continually delivered high performance results in partnership with his staff in challenging and complex situations, producing breakthrough results in multiple areas of the business. As vice president of Lexmark’s Business Products business area, Greg and his teams had a track record of delivering world class results and effecting large-scale transformation.  Their most notable accomplishment was delivering the top award winning product line for three years running, against world class competition.  Additionally, Greg was a driving factor in creating Lexmark’s hardware development laboratory in the Philippines, he led the development and implementation of a new global design and manufacturing sourcing strategy that delivered world-class products and costs and he championed Lexmark’s Operational Excellence and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.  His organization at Lexmark spanned 5 continents and 1,600 employees.  Survant also serves on various boards.

For over 26 years, God appeared to develop Greg in the corporate world to serve the church and his learnings over 29 years of spiritual formation and church leadership grew his corporate leadership skills.  Greg and his wife Glenda have two adult sons.

Lee Smedley

Lee Smedley, Ed.D., is an organizational development consultant with more than 30 years experience helping individuals, teams and organizations reach their potential.  He was introduced to SLI and became a certified coach with them as a result of his work on Ron Crandall’s ABIDE team.  His subsequent work through SLI has included ongoing ABIDE work with small membership churches, strategic planning with the Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities and, most recently, infusing SLI principles into the innovative anti-poverty initiative, Circles™ in Palmyra PA.    Lee and his wife, Sally, have an adult son Craig who has also participated in SLI facilitator training.

Margie Groves

Margie joined the SLI team in 2001, bringing her passion for prayer. God, through her spiritual formation over the years,has guided her into many opportunities of leadership within the United Methodist Church – in local congregations, the Lexington District, UMW, the KY Annual Conference, General Conference – and several ecumenical non-profit organizations. Her leadership energies and collaborations have been spent calling God’s people to deeper levels and experiences of prayer. Margie and her husband Joey are blessed to have a daughter and a married son and daughter-in-law.

Pete Nehnevajsa

Pete Nehnevajsa serves as a member of the SLI Directors Executive team, the SLI Materials team and as a SLI coach in Ministry and ABIDE projects. He is currently active in his local church as a lay delegate, facilitator of a men’s group and Sunday School co-facilitator with his wife, Cheryl. Pete also provides research and technical support for the Rural Faith Development Community Development Corporation, serves as a board member for the Disciplined Order of Christ, and is an officer in a local Toastmasters club.

Pete holds degrees from Wittenberg University, University of Pittsburgh, and North Carolina State University. His corporate background in Fortune 500 companies includes the fields of project management, database management, information technology, and process control. Pete and Cheryl are blessed to have a son and daughter, both married, and a wonderful grandson.

Renee Easter

Renee is a United Methodist elder and participated in SLI’s pilot ABIDE incubator. She has been trained as an SLI coach and has assisted with two ABIDE incubators in North Carolina. She is a graduate of Pfeiffer University with a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Christian Education and has received her Masters of Divinity from Hood Theological Seminary. Renee and her husband Gary live in Linwood, NC where she is currently appointed. They have 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

René Wilt

René Wilt is a leadership coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc., where she serves as team leader for SLI’s Community-Based Ministry initiative, with a focus on helping communities work together to end poverty. Prior to working full-time with SLI, René served in various leadership roles in the local church, in community ministry, and as an educator in the public schools.

As an ordained deacon, René’s primary task is that of bridge-builder – connecting people with the body of Christ, and connecting the body of Christ to the world.  This calling expresses one of her favorite things to do:  helping individuals and churches develop their God-given gifts, talents, and resources to their fullest potential so Christ can be made known to the world around them.  René is also a musician and enjoys helping people experience the transforming presence of God through music and worship.

René and her husband, Bob, have been married since 1981 and reside in Charlotte, NC, although they still call West Virginia home. They are parents to Erin (husband Anton) and Lauren, both of the Charlotte area, and grandparents to the newest joy in their lives, Ava Kathryn.

Ron Crandall

Ron is an ordained United Methodist elder and retired Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary. After missionary work in Vietnam and serving pastorates in California and Arizona he worked for the GBOD in Nashville for six years.  His current ministry focus is twofold: smaller membership churches and effective Christian witness. This dual passion led to the development of ABIDE for SLI. His book Turnaround and Beyond—A Hopeful Future for Smaller Membership Churches captures half of this story, and his widely used small group study WITNESS: Learning to Share Your Christian Faith the other half.  Ron is married to Bonnie and they have two sons and two grandchildren.

Wes Olds

Wes Olds is a former client and current coach whose leadership was transformed by SLI, beginning in 2002.  Wes is an ordained elder in the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church and is appointed to Grace Church, a multi-site congregation in Lee County, Florida.  At Grace Church, Wes leads the Cape Coral Campus – 2300 average in worship – and The Grace Community Center, a former grocery store provides food and other basic needs for over 26,000 persons a year.

Formerly, Wes was the founding pastor (with SLI’s help) of a multi-cultural, urban “re-start” church originally named The Rock-La Roca United Methodist in Lexington, Kentucky (now called “Embrace”).  From 1992-2002, Wes was a youth minister at churches in Kentucky and Florida.

Wes is a graduate of The University of Kentucky and Asbury Theological Seminary.  Wes is married to Becky, and they have one son, Caleb.