Our Team
Every gift to Empower Chaplaincy, no matter the size, directly empowers a rural pastor to access transformative education and all its benefits. Your support is crucial to a movement changing the world through chaplaincy. Together, we can make a lasting impact!
Our Founder
Dr. Kim Harvey is founder and president of Empower Community Chaplaincy.
Kim is married to Laurel since 1981. They have three beautiful children. Their oldest daughter Kristen married Thomas in 2015. Thomas and Kristen blessed them with there first grandson December, 2023. Their daughter Kandis is an event designer and married Andrew in 2024. Their son Theron is an independent filmmaker and lives in their neighborhood.
Kim is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. He is a graduate of Bethany University (1984) and in 2007 graduated with a Masters degree in Leadership at Vanguard University. He graduated with a DTL – Doctor of Transformational Leadership degree in 2023 from Bakke Graduate University.
Kim is dedicated to encouraging, strengthening, and empowering pastors to work outside their four walls, addressing the needs of the surrounding communities. It is his desire to provide coaching and training, for pastors so they can be more effective in their community outreach. When the church begins to share life with the community and is intentional about loving it’s neighbor and is an active participant in the community is when the church begins to fulfill the ministry of presence.
Laurel is a US Missionary and Ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, she works with her husband full time as a trainer and communicator with Convoy of Hope/Rural Initiative.
Laurel is a veteran motivational speaker, experienced creative designer and artist. Laurel loves to communicate with great energy, passion, humor, warmth, and grace. Laurel is very passionate about her work in rural America which affords her the opportunity to influence women throughout the United States. She speaks at women’s conferences, district council conferences and other events. Laurel counts serving women as one of her greatest privileges in life.
Transformational Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Ted Cederblom
Vision Pastor
Life360 Church
Springfield, MO
Dr. Ted Cederblom has served as Vision Pastor of Life360 Church since 2003 – Springfield, Missouri. Ted’s vision for Life360 is planting churches across rural America. It is now a network of Assembly of God churches with locations throughout Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan. Ted lives out a belief that now more than ever America is ripe for harvest, and the greatest days of effectiveness and growth of rural pastors and leaders are still ahead.
Rick Collins
Former Superintendent
Georgia District
Assemblies of God
Rick Collins is former Superintendent of Georgia District with Assemblies of God 2010 – 2022 A native of South Carolina. Rick received a B.A. in Pre-Seminary/ History and an M.A. in Ministerial Leadership at Southeastern University, He and his wife Jane planted a church in Small-Town-America with a population of five thousand in 1976. They also pastored in Anderson, SC, and Columbus, GA. They believe ministers in rural America are our unsung hero’s. Rick and Jane have a real heart to serve and make themselves available for ministry wherever God allows.
Laurel Harvey
Convoy of Hope
Rural Initiatives
Trainer and Coordinator
Laurel is a US Missionary and Ordained minister. She served as a member of the executive Women’s Ministry board for Northern California/Nevada District Assemblies of God for more than 21 years. She is a member of Life360 Community Service board. She is a trainer and communicator with Convoy of Hope/Rural Initiative in training and pastoral care. She is the organizer of Convoy of Hope’s pilot Children’s Summer Feeding program, an effort in supporting and serving rural communities in rural America.
Instructional Design Consultants
John Hughes MSW
Co-Founder and Partner
at Simon Cross, LLC.
Author of Rethinking Outreach, CEO of a national nonprofit, and a Community Organizer. John has been an Adjunct Professor at University of San Diego, San Diego State University, and Bethel Seminary. He has conducted relief projects in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Mexico. As a Pastor, he has planted a church and served in large and smaller congregations. John is passionate about helping churches to help people. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his wife and best friend Robin.
Dwight & Heather McConnell
CompassionLink Director
Dwight is Director of CompassionLink a ministry of Assembly of God World Missions. He and his wife Heather served as AGWM missionaries for 16 years in Namibia and South Africa. Dwight received a BA at Vanguard University in Ministerial Studies and a MA from Biola University Intercultural Studies – Community Development/Islamic Studies. They serve churches and leaders all around the
world by helping them reach their communities in a wholistic way.
Leadership Development Coaches
Stan Wagner
SeedOne President and Pastor
SeedOne Foundation president. Ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. Pastored rural churches for 50 years. Lead MAPS teams worldwide for 20 years. Presently leading work teams to rural churches in Northern California and Nevada and reaching beyond.
Ernie Bywater
Former The Warriors Journey Church Development Director and Pastor
Assemblies of God ordained minister and AGWM missionary. Former Church Development Director for The Warriors Journey 6 years. Pastor and revitalization coach in MI for 16 years. Account Executive for Professional Education Services Group for 13 years.
Contributors
Manuel Cordero
Senior Director Assemblies of God Chaplaincy
Dr. Manuel A. Cordero is the Senior Director of the Chaplaincy Ministries for the General Council of the Assemblies of God. Previously he served as the Correctional Ministries Representative for the Assemblies of God. He is an ordained minister who has been in chaplaincy ministry for over 46 years. He serves as the North America Representative on the steering committee of the International Prison Chaplains Association (IPCA).
Sam Huddleston
Assistant Superintendent
Northern California and Nevada District Assemblies of God
Dr. Sam Huddleston has been the Assistant District Supt of Northern California/Nevada since 2004. He also is the former and founding pastor of Lighthouse Covenant Fellowship in Benicia, California. His autobiography, Five Years to Life (Perkins Publishing, 2013), has inspired people across America and throughout the world, giving them hope for a new beginning.
Vint Norris
Christian Education Director Alabama Ministry Network Assemblies of God
Vint is a leader of leaders. He has served as a children’s pastor, youth pastor, lead pastor, and chaplain for over 40 years. He is the director of Christian Education for the Alabama Ministry Network. He loves to invest in the lives of pastors through teaching and training to raise up the next generation.
Tom Rees
U.S. Mission Director PennDel Ministry Network Assemblies of God
With a heart for the local church, Tom Rees serves as the Director of Church Planting and Development for the PennDel Ministry Network, where his passion is to plant 100 new churches by 2030. Alongside this mission, he empowers leaders through Men’s Ministries, impacting the lives of men across Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Charlie Self
Author, Educator, Consultant
Dr Self is author of The Divine Dance, The Power of Faithful Focus, and Flourishing Churches and Communities. Co-developer of Discipleship Dynamics Assessment (TM) –
www.discipleshipdynamics.com
41 years of service in AG Higher Education, teaching and administrating at Continental Theological Seminary, Bethany University, the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Ascent College, George Fox University, Western Seminary, Northern California Bible College, William Jessup University, Trinity Bible College, Northpoint Bible College at Grand Rapids.