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Business Leadership Summit

Business Leadership Summit

Business Leadership Summit

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SAVE THE DATE: Faith Baptist Bible College is excited to host the Business Leadership Summit on Friday-Saturday, October 17-18, 2025, under the theme Walk Worthy: Your Business is Your Ministry.

Are you a Christian business owner or manager? Don’t miss this unique opportunity to connect with fellow Christian professionals from a wide range of industries. Be encouraged and challenged as you grow spiritually and professionally alongside like-minded leaders.

Designed to strengthen and equip current and aspiring business leaders, this two-day event features keynote speakers, engaging breakout sessions, panel and table discussions, and plenty of time for informal networking. Come ready to be inspired and refreshed as you explore how your business can be a powerful platform for ministry.

Early Registration Discount: Register by September 19 and save $50 per registration!

Conference
Topics

Protecting Culture While Growing Your Business

Getting Employees Involved in Ministry

Selling God’s Way

Hiring Employees with Needs

Conflict Resolution

Hiring Next Gen and How They Think

Is your church run like a business…should it be

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Thomas Bates

David Hoffeld

CEO & Chief Sales Trainer Hoffeld Group

Richard Stratton

Michael Blackstone

Co-Founder Thompson & Blackstone, Inc

Michael has flourished in the business community analyzing new markets and establishing start-up businesses with his partner Roland Thompson. He spent 10 years in marketing and advertising for financial organizations, and his background includes a unique mix of financial, marketing, sales, customer service, and business analysis.

Michael co-founded and currently serves with Thompson & Blackstone, Inc., a business think-tank located in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

In 1998, Michael Blackstone co-founded Frontline Education, best known for Aesop, an automated substitute placement and absence management system for K-12 school districts.

Michael also co-founded CF InFlight, LLP, a specialty camera sports broadcasting company (best known for the Skycam camera) that was sold in 2004.

In 2010, Michael, along with Roland Thompson, started a charitable foundation called SEED (Stewards Equipping Evangelism and Discipleship) and currently serves as a board member.

He also sits on the board for Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa.

Michael lives in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Julie, and has three children and three grandchildren. Michael is active in his church, Bible Baptist Church of West Chester, and has served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

Michael has flourished in the business community analyzing new markets and establishing start-up businesses with his partner Roland Thompson. He spent 10 years in marketing and advertising for financial organizations, and his background includes a unique mix of financial, marketing, sales, customer service, and business analysis.

Michael co-founded and currently serves with Thompson & Blackstone, Inc., a business think-tank located in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

In 1998, Michael Blackstone co-founded Frontline Education, best known for Aesop, an automated substitute placement and absence management system for K-12 school districts.

Michael also co-founded CF InFlight, LLP, a specialty camera sports broadcasting company (best known for the Skycam camera) that was sold in 2004.

In 2010, Michael, along with Roland Thompson, started a charitable foundation called SEED (Stewards Equipping Evangelism and Discipleship) and currently serves as a board member.

He also sits on the board for Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa.

Michael lives in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Julie, and has three children and three grandchildren. Michael is active in his church, Bible Baptist Church of West Chester, and has served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa. His upbringing fueled a passion for agriculture that led him to spend his career building and running farmer-owned cooperatives in Iowa and the Dakotas. He has served in senior executive and board roles spanning the Grain, Agronomy, Precision Ag, Feed, Energy, and Ag Services sectors since 2002.
In 2017, he led the merger of two of the largest agricultural supply cooperatives in the United States. The result of the successful merger vote by the cooperative members was the formation of Agtegra Cooperative, based in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He served as CEO of that organization for nearly 5 years.
Agtegra’s purpose is “To do something great for farms and farm families that nobody else will do.” That mission is executed by 850 fulltime employees that work at over 70 locations across a large portion of the production areas of North and South Dakota. Total revenue when Agtegra formed in 2017 was projected to be $1.8 billion and in 2021 revenue had grown to $2.5 billion. Agtegra is currently the largest locally owned agriculture supply cooperative in the nation.
In 2022, Chris became Vice President of Crop Nutrition and Cooperative Alliances for Winfield United, the crop inputs and insights business of Land O’Lakes, inc., which is also an agricultural cooperative. In this role he operates the fertilizer business for the United States and Canada and also serves a role with local cooperatives, assisting them with Mergers and Acquisitions, strategic planning, CEO and Board advisement, and promotion of the farmer-owned cooperative business model.
In 2024, Chris became President of Purina Animal Nutrition, another division of Land O’Lakes which delivers $5 billion a year in top-line revenue. The animal nutrition team distributes a full line of nutritional solutions for farmers, ranchers, backyard hobbyists, zoos, and labs through a national distribution channel that is made up of independent Purina dealers, large farm and ranch stores, and cooperatives as well as maintaining on online presence.
Chris accepted Christ as his savior at a young age and was fortunate to be raised in a Christian home. While working at the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp, Chris met Rachel Holub and they were married the following year after attending one year at Faith Baptist Bible College. The Lord has blessed them with 5 children and 6 grandchildren.

Roland Thompson

Roland has spent his career applying Biblical principles of leadership and decision-making to business. His experience spans from startups to Fortune 500 companies operating in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

Roland currently co-operates Thompson & Blackstone, Inc., a business think tank and investment evaluation platform. His background includes a mix of entrepreneurism, business analysis, engineering, and design. He was also the co-founder of both Frontline Education and CF InFlight, LLP. Frontline Education is an Ed-Tech platform used by most school districts in America, and CF Inflight engineered and introduced the Emmy award-winning Skycam (www.skycam.tv) to the sports broadcasting world (Skycam is used all over the world and is featured on almost all major market American football broadcasts, including Monday Night Football). He has a tremendous amount of experience analyzing new markets and establishing and growing businesses. Prior to these ventures, he spent 10 years building an IT services organization focused on delivering services and software for stock and currency trading applications, as well as developing mobile technology solutions for Fortune 500 companies.

Roland lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Lisa, and has three children: Christopher, Stephen, and Alicia. Roland is active in his church, Bible Baptist Church of West Chester, and has served as deacon, the chair of deacons, a Sunday school teacher, and a youth worker.

Roland also sits on various foundation, and educational institution boards. He also enjoys mentoring young Christian entrepreneurs as well as flying.

Curtis Bostic

Jim Stefoff

Jim is the owner of Entire Image, a commercial embroidery company servicing the corporate, athletic and golf apparel needs for customers such as Adidas, TaylorMade, Peter Millar, Cintas…

Jim and his wife Rose Ann also founded Christ Freedom Home, a nonprofit ministry that assists men and women transitioning from substance abuse, life dominating sins to productive, God honoring, fruit bearing lives by the grace of God.

Jim and Rose Ann live in Greenville, SC along with their two married children and six grandchildren.

Jim Tillotson

PresidentFaith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary

Ed Cone

Ed Cone

As a young man, Ed began working for his father and brother in the family business known as Graco Children’s Products. He completed his BA from the University of Miami in 1967. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Ed served in various capacities within the company. In 1982, through a variety of challenging circumstances, he assumed the role of CEO. He and his executive team led the company through significant growth over the next 10 plus years.

In 1996 Graco was sold, and Ed began CF Capital. As a private equity firm, CF Capital specializes in helping Christian entrepreneurs with financial and leadership advice as they build businesses using Biblical principles. Ed has also served on several for-profit and nonprofit boards, including Christian educational institutions.

Ed accepted Christ as his personal Savior at age 11, having been raised in a Christian home with a godly father to mentor him. Ed and his wife, Jane, have been married for 52 years and have 5 children. One of his greatest joys is spending time with his 22 grandchildren, with all but nine residing near his home. The Cones met at High Point Baptist Chapel and both have actively serving within the church for many years. They have recently moved to a different church and are enjoying meeting many new Christian friends. Ed served as an adult Sunday school teacher for many years, and Jane has taught two-year-olds for over 40 years. They have lived in the Elverson, Pennsylvania area since 1959.

Holly Stratton

SUMMIT HOST

Terry Wild

Terry has experienced leadership in both business and academia. For 25 years he was involved in automotive marketing in Michigan, servicing companies like Volkswagen, Volvo GM Heavy Truck, and predominantly Ford Motor Company. He completed his marketing career as Vice President in one of the largest marketing communications firm in the country. While serving on the board of directors of Clearwater Christian College, God began leading and ultimately moving him and his family to Florida to become Vice President of Institutional Advancement. He served there for 11 years, the last two as Senior Vice President. Over the last nine years, he has been the Director of Cornerstone Foundation and part of the team at CF Capital, a private equity firm. A majority of his time is spent helping ministries with management issues while evaluating their needs for the Foundation. In his role at CF Capital, he continues to look for business opportunities while personally investing in Christian business leaders.

He is married to Jill, who faithfully serves with him in his role at Cornerstone Foundation. They are both actively involved and committed to serving in their local church. When not traveling, they make time visiting their two sons and their families, finding great joy investing in their four grandchildren.

SCHEDULE

Friday, October 17

3:45 PM | Campus Tour (optional)

4:30 PM | Reception

5:00 PM | Dinner

6:00 PM | General Session

7:00 PM | Dessert and Round Table Discussion

7:30 PM | General Session

Saturday, October 18

8:00 AM | Continental Breakfast (Coffee Shop open)

8:30 AM | General Session

9:45 AM | Break

10:00 AM | Breakout Sessions

10:45 AM | Break

11:00 AM | Breakout Sessions

12:00 PM | Lunch in Dining Hall (included with registration)

1:30 PM | General Session

2:30 PM | Break

2:45 PM | Panel Discussion

4:00 PM | Dismissal

Before September 19

$250 per person

$300 per couple

After September 19

$300 per person

$350 per couple

Questions?

We would love to help! For more information, contact Bri Harrier.

 

Date And Time

June 2, 2025 to
September 19, 2025
 

Registration End Date

October 3, 2025
 

Event Category

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