Speakers for EMNR’s national conference on August 15–16, 2025 in Palatine, Illinois. Plenary speakers are listed by date and time of their address. See the Program Schedule for workshop details.
Plenary Speakers
James Pittman Jr. is the senior pastor of New Hope Community Church. James grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. After graduating high school, he left for Washington, D.C., to attend Howard University. While studying pre-med there, he realized there was a greater disease than that of the body: the diesease of the soul. Toward the end of his sophomore year, he began to grow in his faith and learned the value of discipleship through the Navigators ministry.
After graduating with a B.S. in Biology, James moved to the Chicago area in 1995 to attend Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He graduated from Trinity with a Masters in Divinity. Since then, James has devoted his whole being to Jesus Christ. He lives for and serves not only the Lord but His people.
James will speak Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM (plenary #1). The title of his message is “Challenging the Culture with Their Own Language.”
Corey Miller is the president and CEO of Ratio Christi, an international campus ministry focusing on Christian apologetics. He grew up in Utah as a seventh-generation Latter-day Saint before coming to Christ in 1988. He has served on pastoral staff at four churches and taught nearly 100 college courses in philosophy, theology, rhetoric, and comparative religions at notable places such as Purdue and Indiana Universities. Corey has written or co-authored two books on philosophy and three books on Mormonism. He holds masters degrees in philosophy, biblical studies, and in philosophy of religion and ethics. His latest book is The Progressive Miseducation of America: Confronting the Cultural Revolution from the Classroom to Your Community. His PhD is in philosophical theology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is passionate about defending the truth of the Gospel in winsome and bold ways.
Corey will speak Friday evening at 7:45 PM (plenary #2). His title is “The Third Revolution and the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.” Our culture is undergoing radical change. We are no longer living in Grandma’s America. We see evidence of this cultural revolution all around us as values, norms, language, and laws all shift beneath our feet. This revolution didn’t come out of nowhere—and it isn’t too late to stop it. But this will require an all-hands-on-deck approach by the faithful in what might be dubbed an ideological third revolution to cultivate and restore the intellectual voice of Christ that once made America good before America became great. Indeed, it is dubious to think that America can be made great again unless America is first made good again.
Robert M. Bowman Jr. is the president of the Institute of Religious Research (IRR) in Cedar Springs, Michigan. He is the author or co-author of fifteen books and numerous other published works on apologetics, historical Jesus studies, Christology, the Trinity, and various religious movements. Dr. Bowman (M.A., Fuller Theological Seminary; Ph.D., South Africa Theological Seminary) has lectured at Biola University, Cornerstone University, Luther Rice University, New Orleans Baptist Seminary, and elsewhere.
Dr. Bowman’s latest book, co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski, is The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense (Kregel, 2024), is possibly one of the finest books defending the deity of Christ ever published.
Rob will speak Saturday morning at 10:00 AM (plenary #3). His topic is “Logic, the Trinity, and Other Religions.” How Christians can use simple principles of logic to answer objections to the doctrine of the Trinity from such groups as Muslims, Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostals. Three common logical fallacies are discussed with specific examples: Begging the question, arguments from silence, and the straw man fallacy. The presentation concludes with two basic responses to claims that the Trinity is itself illogical. The issues are discussed so that most Christians can follow the arguments without any previous background or training.
Aynaz Anni Cyrus is a survivor of the Iranian Islamic regime, a former child bride, and one of America’s most fearless voices exposing the threat of Sharia. She escaped Islam, found freedom and salvation in Jesus Christ, and now dedicates her life to defending truth, liberty, and the U.S. Constitution.
Her work draws from firsthand experience under Sharia, deep investigative research, and over a decade of national advocacy. Anni is the founder of Live Up To Freedom, and her writing is regularly featured on FrontPage Magazine and her widely-read Substack. She speaks with the authority of lived experience and the moral clarity of a woman who has survived what many Americans cannot imagine. She understands the ideological war being waged in our courtrooms, classrooms, and churches—and she has the courage to name it. This is not another motivational talk, but a call to action before it’s too late.
Aynaz will speak Saturday afternoon at 2:15 PM (plenary #4). Her topic will be “Will He Find Faith … in the Face of Sharia?”
Donald T. Williams, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. A past president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics and an ordained minister, he has spent many summers training local pastors for Church Planting International in places like Uganda, Kenya, and India. A border dweller, he stays permanently camped out on the borders between theology and literature, serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, Narnia and Middle-earth. He is the author of 15 books, most recently Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity (Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021), Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023), and An Account of Things Accomplished: An Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke (Christicommunity Press, 2024).
Don will close the conference on Saturday at 5:00 PM (plenary #5). His topic is “Why We Lost the Culture War, and How to Make a Comeback.” We lost the culture war, not because we had bad arguments, but because we had already lost it on the more fundamental ground of hermeneutics. Focused on theology, philosophy, ethics, and politics, we paid insufficient attention to changes taking place in our colleges in how reading and writing were taught. The old grammatico-historical exegesis, the attempt to discover what the author was trying to say to his original audience, was replaced by a new view in which authorial intention is irrelevant at best and meaning is in the eye of the beholder.
Workshop Leaders
Listings are alphabetical by last name. See the Program Schedule for the times and places.
The line-up of workshop leaders for 2025 is still being decided. This page may be updated at any time.
Bill Honsberger is a missionary with Haven Ministries and has been sharing the Gospel with New Agers, Buddhists, Hindus, Witches, Mormons, JWs, Scientologists, atheists and anyone else he can talk to! He has reached ABD status at the University of Denver in Theology, Philosophy and Cultural Theory. He has taught for many years at Colorado Christian University, Denver Seminary, Colorado Early Colleges, Colorado Community College, Arapahoe Community College, Calvary Chapel Training Center in the Philippines and other Bible Colleges in the Denver metro area. His wonderful wife Terri and he have eight children and thirteen grandchildren.
Steve Lagoon is the president of Religion Analysis Service, a Christian apologetics and counter-cult ministry based in Minnesota and publishers of the quarterly journal The Discerner since 1947. Steve has a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and a Master of Divinity degree, both from the University of Northwestern—Saint Paul. Steve is the author of numerous articles and books critiquing the cults and false teachers.
Bill McKeever is the founder/director of Mormonism Research Ministry that has been challenging the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1979. MRM operates the Utah Christian Research Center and sponsors the daily radio program, Viewpoint on Mormonism. Bill lives in the Salt Lake City area with his wife Tammy. They have been married 50 years.
Eric Pement is a chapter director for Ratio Christi at the University of North Florida. A former member of the RLDS Church, he found Christ in college. He has been involved with Christian apologetics since the age of 21, and has served with several ministries. He has two masters degrees (MDiv, MBA) and has been on the board of EMNR for 35 years. He and his wife Barbara are members of Harvest Jacksonville and Restoration Church.
L.L. (Don) Veinot Jr is co-founder and president of Midwest Christian Outreach, a national apologetics ministry. He and his wife of 51 years, Joy, have been missionaries to cults and new religious movements since 1987. Don is co-author of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret; A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and His Cultish Teachings; and a contributor to Preserving Evangelical Unity: Welcoming Diversity in Non-Essentials. He co-hosts “The Unknown Webcast” each week on YouTube for Midwest Christian Outreach. Don is a charter member of the International Society of Christian Apologetics and is also the current President of EMNR.
James Walker, president of Watchman Fellowship, is a former Mormon with over thirty years of experience in the field of Christian evangelism, apologetics, and interfaith evangelism. He has been interviewed as an expert on new religious movements and cults on a variety of network television programs including Nightline, ABC World News Tonight, and PBS NewsHour. He has spoken at hundreds of churches, universities, and seminaries throughout the US and internationally. He teaches at Arlington Baptist University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Concise Guide to Today’s Religions and Spirituality and What The Qur’an Really Teaches about Jesus.
David Wolcott is a Christian apologist focusing on primary-source research of Progressive Christianity and understanding the Bible in the original cultural contexts. On a four-year plan to learn how to read eight languages, including biblical Hebrew and koine Greek, David is an avid reader of all kinds of books, and is passionate about helping Christians learn to apply the wisdom shared through many excellent books via his Academy at https://thedavidwolcott.com.