Evangelicals for Social Action

Dr. Sider is a respected and passionate advocate of holistic biblical faith in the Christian world. Ron grew up in rural southern Ontario, the child of a Canadian Brethren in Christ pastor. He attended the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, and received a BA in European history. It was there that Ron came in contact with the apologetic work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), and set his sights on a career in academia. Upon graduating in the late '60s with an MDiv and Ph.D. in history from Yale, Ron expected to teach early modern European history on secular university campuses, and continue his work for IVCF. Faced with the glaring needs and blatant injustice of the inner city, Ron began to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice. In 1973 he organized the Thanksgiving Workshop on Evangelical Social Concern. It was this conference that issued the now historic "Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern."

In 1977, Ron's ground-breaking book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, Rich Christians has sold over 400,000 copies. 1978 also saw the formation of Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA), a movement that continues to shape and influence North American Christian thinking on issues of biblical justice, holistic mission, and basic Christianity.

Among his many books are Good News and Good Works, (published in 1999 by Baker Book House). This is an invigorating and passionately biblical call to the church to embrace the whole gospel through the combination of evangelism, social engagement and spiritual formation. Its companion book, Cup of Water, Bread of Life, published in 1994 tells stories about effective ministries that bring both evangelism and social transformation together. Living Like Jesus (1999) has been called Sider’s Mere Christianity. Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999; 2006) offers a holistic, comprehensive vision for dramatically reducing America’s poverty. And Churches That Make a Difference (2002) with Phil Olson and Heidi Rolland Unruh provides concrete help to local congregations seeking to combine evangelism and social ministry. The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (2005) won Christianity Today’s top award in the area of Christian Living. In 2008, he published The Scandal of Evangelical Politics and I Am Not a Social Activist. Sider has published over 30 books and has written over 100 articles in both religious and secular magazines on a variety of topics including the importance of caring for creation as part of our biblical discipleship. He is a founding board member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Ron is Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry & Public Policy at Palmer Seminary of Eastern University and Director of the seminary’s Sider Center on Ministry & Public Policy.

Ron is the father of three and lives in Philadelphia's Germantown section with his wife Arbutus.

Kristyn Komarnicki, Editor of PRISM and Community Editor for Christ & Culture

Kristyn Komarnicki has had the privilege of studying and working on three continents. She earned her BA and MA in English literature from Wheaton College and the University of Toronto, and studied French literature and culture at the University of Paris. She worked as a journalist in Hong Kong for eight years before settling in Philadelphia in 1999, where she discovered the work of ESA and joined on as editor of PRISM Magazine. She is passionate about educating/empowering children, cross-cultural community-building (especially in urban settings), and partnering with people behind bars. She lives with her husband and three sons in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Lowell "Rusty" Pritchard, Community Editor for Creation Care

Dr. Lowell “Rusty” Pritchard is a resource economist, National Director of Outreach for the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), and editor of Creation Care magazine, a Christian environmental quarterly. He also an adjunct faculty member of Emory University’s Department of Environmental Studies. Dr. Pritchard has been with EEN since 2006. Prior to coming to EEN he spent eight years on the faculty at Emory University in the Department of Environmental Studies, a program he helped create in 1999. He has taught courses in natural resource economics, public health, resource use and management, environmental justice, ecological economics, and environmental decision-making under uncertainty. He has worked with the National Wildlife Federation, which represents hunters and anglers, on developing voluntary, market-based programs for conservation on private agriculture and forestry lands. From 1994 to 1999 he was a program officer with an international global change research program studying the effects of land-use and land-cover changes on the atmospheric system.

Rusty holds degrees from Duke University (B.S., zoology) and University of Florida (Ph.D., resource economics; M.S., environmental engineering sciences).

Rusty lives in inner-city Atlanta with his wife Joanna and two young sons, where they serve in a multi-racial inner-city church doing community development, leadership training, and neighborhood outreach. He is a regular speaker on environmental issues, justice, economics, and discipleship to churches, youth and college groups, and community organizations. He grew up in North Florida and enjoys gardening, canoeing, fishing, and Southern barbecue.

Dr. Al Tizon, Director of Word & Deed Network and Community Editor for Holistic Ministry

Al Tizon is the director of Word & Deed Network of the Evangelicals for Social Action/Sider Center for Ministry and Public Policy. He is also Assistant Professor of Holistic Ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, PA. He and his family engaged in community development work, street children ministry, and church leadership development among the poor in his native Philippines for nine years. An ordained minister of the Evangelical Covenant Church, he also served several churches in both the Philippines and the United States as associate and interim pastor for seven years and as lead pastor for five.