Church Mergers

David Dummitt is the Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. He is an innovative, entrepreneurial pastor and leader with a strong passion for helping people take the first and next steps with God. He is known for his collaborative leadership style, ability to build strong teams, and future-focused missional-facility development.

Before his role at Willow, Dave served as the Founding and Lead Pastor of 2|42 Community Church, ranked by Outreach Magazine for seven years in a row as one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in America. Under Dave’s leadership, 2|42 grew from a 40-member launch team meeting in Dave’s living room to over 10,000 people meeting at seven different campuses each weekend.  2|42 was built as a church committed to community outreach and radical generosity and is nationally known for award-winning public community centers comprised of indoor sports and fitness facilities, cafes, playscapes for kids, and a school for the arts.   

Dave has significant experience navigating the complexities of expansion and growth in ministries of all types and sizes and has a strong understanding of missional facility development and leadership strategy. He previously served as the North American Regional Director for NewThing, a global church-planting network. Under Dave’s leadership, 2|42 helped to plant over 30 churches. 
Dave is skilled at developing compelling missional facilities and equipping church leaders to maximize their impact through community engagement. Dave also helps leaders grow and multiply healthy teams, cultivate great culture, and develop strong systems that support growing churches. 

Dave has led 2|42 through several generosity campaigns, totaling more than 33 million dollars. His business savvy combined with his pastoral leadership allowed him to serve on the board of the Solomon Foundation, the fastest-growing church extension fund in history, with assets totaling over 500 million dollars in seven years. Additionally, Dave partnered with two gifted technology developers to create GYVE, an innovative generosity development tool for churches and nonprofits.  

Dave holds a BA in Bible and Theology from Wheaton College. He and his wife, Rachel, reside in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and have four children. 

Larry was born and raised in Southern California. During his tenure as the lead pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego, he oversaw its growth from a small church plant with 70 adults to one of the largest and most influential churches in the country (with 8 local campuses, and a weekend physical attendance exceeding 13,000). 

Larry is responsible for numerous innovative ministry strategies that have been widely adopted by the church at large; including the use of Teaching Teams, Sermon-Based Small Groups, and Video Venues, which spawned the modern Multisite movement. 

He is the author of 10 books, including Sticky Church, Sticky Teams, Lead Like A Shepherd, Accidental Pharisees, and Thriving in Babylon. 

He currently serves as a Kingdom Ambassador and a Teaching Pastor at North Coast Church, focusing on mentoring and coaching high-performance pastors, leaders, and churches, along with various church planting movements. His clients have included 19 of the 100 Largest Churches and 22 of the Fastest Growing Churches in the most recent Outreach 100 compilations. 

Larry has both a Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degree from Talbot Theological Seminary. He and his wife Nancy live in Oceanside, CA, and are blessed to have all three of their grown and married children living nearby along with their eight grandchildren.

Called to pastor Lakepointe shortly after its founding in 1979, Steve led the congregation that has grown from 53 in attendance at its inception to more than 13,000 each week at 8 Dallas campuses. After 40 years, Steve transitioned to a supportive role at Lakepointe and provides coaching to partnership churches throughout the world. He has a passion for seeing the Gospel presented to unchurched people in a culturally relevant style without compromising truth.

Under his leadership, Lakepointe has started 70 churches in under-churched areas across America such as Boston, New York, Las Vegas, and Portland, and has international partnerships with 22 churches in 12 different countries. Lakepointe is also involved in local missions with 35 local mission partners in Texas.

Steve is the author of 3 books and will be releasing his 4th book in 2023: It Starts at Home; Tribal Church; Money Matters in Church; Leading by Letting Go (2023).

Tim is the founder and lead pastor of Liquid Church, regularly spotlighted as one of America’s Top 100 Fastest-Growing Churches by Outreach magazine. Since launching in 2007, Liquid has rapidly grown to seven campuses across New Jersey reaching thousands with the Gospel and baptizing over 3,100 new believers in Jesus’ Name.

Tim is the author of Liquid Church: 6 Powerful Currents to Saturate Your City for Christ (Zondervan), named 2020 Leadership Book of the Year by Outreach magazine. A dynamic communicator, Tim is a national conference speaker known for creatively communicating the Bible with cultural insight, heart, and humor. 

Liquid’s innovative approach to multi-generational ministry has been spotlighted by NPR, CNN, Fox News, The Today Show and the New York Times.

An expert in church mergers and healthy systems, Pastor Tim hosts the Church Changer ministry podcast. He also leads the Lead Pastors Coaching Network to coach and equip senior pastors, ministry leaders, and church planters to reach the next generation for Christ.

A graduate of Wheaton College (IL), Tim and his wife Colleen enjoy lake life with their two children in northern New Jersey.