David Bercot
David Bercot serves as an elder at Chambersburg Christian Fellowship. He is a retired attorney, author, and church historian. He received his doctor of jurisprudence degree from Baylor University School of Law. Since 1985, he has made early, pre-Nicene Christianity his special field of study.
David’s primary mission is to to help the average layperson understand the core message of the early Christians. This message is that Christianity is about an obedient love–faith relationship with Jesus Christ and citizenship in His Kingdom. He has authored eleven books, including The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down, which has been translated into eighteen languages. David has recorded over 150 lectures on the historic Christian faith and kingdom living.
David was born in Anchorage, Alaska but spent most of his life in Texas. He has been married to his wife Deborah for over fifty-two years and they have three children. David and his family currently live in Pennsylvania and attend Chambersburg Christian Fellowship, an Anabaptist church committed to living out the teachings of Jesus as understood by the early church.
Dean Taylor
Dean Taylor serves on the ministry team at Crosspointe Mennonite Church and as minister for the refugee work and church at Lesvos Island. He is currently completing his dissertation for his ThD in Historical Theology from Evangelical Seminary in Myerstown, PA.
Dean is passionate about taking all of Jesus’ words seriously and putting them into action. He has studied early church history with David Bercot and has taught historical theology and Anabaptist history. Also, he has published several books, most notably A Change of Allegiance, which chronicles his journey from soldier to nonresistant Anabaptist. A Change of Allegiance has been translated into multiple languages.
Dean lives in Sugar Creek, OH, with his wife Tania. He has six children and three grandchildren. Earlier in his life Dean served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany. After questioning the role of Christians in warfare Dean began to study the early church, just war theory, and the place of the church in society. Through this study, Dean and his wife Tania felt they could no longer support the concept of a “just war theory” biblically. Following this conviction Dean and his wife embraced a clear two-kingdom view of the Church and State and resigned from the army as a conscientious objector during the first Iraq war. This experience led Taylor to commit himself to spreading the message of Jesus’ peaceful revolution.
Chuck Pike
Chuck Pike pastors a house church–based Christian fellowship, a church of Christ in Woburn, which meets north of Boston. He is a semi-retired civil engineer whose professional career has focused on designing water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
Chuck’s greatest passion is for studying and teaching the Word of God. He has taught in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and developed online lessons and teaching resources in English and Farsi. His teaching emphasizes restoring the simple Christian faith of the early Church, “the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.” His approach features practical expository teaching, explaining interconnections between the New and Old Testaments, sharing insights from the pre-Nicene Christian writers, and using the evidence of fulfilled prophecies to convince nonbelievers.
Chuck is married to his wife Alison. They have a son, a daughter, and two grandsons. He grew up in New Jersey but has lived in the Boston area for most of the past forty years.
Finny Kuruvilla
Finny Kuruvilla is the founder of Sattler College, a non-denominational Christian college in Boston. Kuruvilla holds an MD from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University.
Kuruvilla has a keen interest in biblical interpretation and church history. His desire to see a strong and vibrant church today compelled him to write King Jesus Claims His Church. He also seeks to build up the future church by teaching at Sattler College. Areas of interest include ante-Nicene Christianity, Reformation and Anabaptist history, and the Great Awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
He is married to his wife Laura, and lives with his six sons and daughter in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He works with a group called Eventide in socially responsible and values-based investing. Kuruvilla has been a practicing Christian for many years and fellowships with a church called Followers of the Way.
