Training Leaders for Church Multiplication


Dr. Terry Hofecker

Dr. Terry Hofecker (B.S., M.Div., D.Min., M.A.T.S.) is an adjunct faculty member for Grace Theological Seminary in the area of North American church planting and Director of the North American Church Multiplication Institute of the Sandberg Leadership Center at Ashland Theological Seminary.  A successful church planter, he is the founding pastor of Northwest Chapel in Dublin, Ohio, a Grace Brethren congregation of over 1400 members.  He is a recognized expert on church-planting movements having founded and facilitated three such movements in North and Latin America that are still actively creating new congregations annually.  Northwest Chapel is presently planting a daughter congregation in Ohio every other year.  Additionally, Dr. Hofecker works with the Lilly Endowment and the Sandberg Leadership Center on training mentors for the Pastors of Excellence program.   His doctoral work at Westminster Theological Seminary focused on how new churches grow through contact-making.

Dr. Eugene Heacock

Dr. Gene Heacock is the Executive Director of the Sandberg Leadership Center at Ashland Theological Seminary.  Gene planted three churches in the northeastern United States, including one in Foxboro, Massachusetts that grew to more than 500 in attendance.  He also served five years as New Church Specialist for Mission to the Americas, where he supervised the planting of 12 new churches in New England, New York and New Jersey.   Gene completed his doctoral work at Gordon Conwell in Reformation and Revival Studies and has a specific call for personal and corporate renewal and historic awakening.   As Executive Director of the Sandberg Leadership Center, he was responsible for the creation of the North American Church Multiplication Institute.

Rev. Bill Ludwig

Rev. Bill Ludwig (B.S., M. Div.) is the Church Planting Coordinator of The Brethren Church and liaison between the denomination and the NACMI.   A serial church planter, Bill is currently part of the development of a regional church planting network in North East Ohio. He has been instrumental in facilitating the birth of several congregations in the United States and abroad. Presently, Bill is working on a denominational scale to initiate a national church planting movement with regional focus.

Rev. Ron Boehm

Ron Boehm (B.S., M. Div.) is the VisioinOhio Senior Missionary and the Assessment Coordinator of the NACMI. He established a church plant in Bowling Green, OH, where he served for seven years, and planted the Western Reserve Grace Brethren Church in Macedonia, OH, which he led for 15 years. The past nine years Rev. Boehm has been a church-planting missionary for the National Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, primarily in Ohio and the surrounding midwest states. Currently, Ron is pursuing his Doctorate of Ministry at Ashland Theological Seminary, specializing in church planting.