Below are the presenters from the 2024 Great Plains 5 Day Academy which is now completed.
Elaine Heath
Lives along with her spouse and several friends at Spring Forest, a new monastic community in rural North Carolina, where she serve as Abbess. They tend a forest and small regenerative farm as well as supporting a range of ministries that support immigrants and holding retreats for small groups and individuals.
Her work as an author, speaker, retreat leader, and consultant focuses on helping leaders and organizations lean into the healing, liberating, and spiritually transformative journey into which God is calling the church in this new era - a new reformation supporting persons in a generous, hospitable, equitable form of Christianity that heals the wounds of the world.
Elaine has served in pastoral and academic ministry, including serving as the McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, and Dean of Duke Divinity School. She is the founder of Neighborhood Seminary and co-founder of the Missional Wisdom Foundation as well as author of thirteen books, including, Trauma Informed Evangelism (co-authored with Charles Kiser), God Unbound, and The Mystic Way of Evangelism.
Elaine and Jeanine have co-authored a memoir called Loving the Hell Out of Ourselves: A Memoir recounting their life journey from a childhood riddled with violence, neglect, and abandonment to become gifted healers - one a theogian and one a therapist.
Jeanine Heath-McGlinn
LPC, is a clinical therapist in private practice and a retired High School Counselor. She is well known for her leadership, consultation, and professional development in crisis intervention, crisis response in schools, and suicide prevention. As a follower of Christ, Jeanine’s spiritual formation has included Eastern Orthodox and Episcopalian theology. She is most at home in the contemplative traditions of the church.
It is her life-long vocation and honor to help people heal from trauma and other psychological wounds, allowing for an ever-expanding experience of an abundant life. Jeanine and her wife, Jackie, live at the base of the Chugach Mountains in Anchorage, Alaska. She enjoys spending time with her large beautiful family, long walks, and strong coffee.
Suggested readings:
Elaine A. Heath, The Mystic Way of Evangelism, Revised 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic), 2017.
Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, Matthew Linn: Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist), 1993.
Jeanine B. Heath-McGlinn, Elaine A. Heath: Loving the Hell Out of Ourselves (a memoir), (Birch and Alder), 2022.
Henri J.M. Nouwen: Can You Drink the Cup? (Ave Maria Press), 1996, 2006.
Leadership Team
David Davies - retreat leader
Ruth Karlsson - listening circles
Janice Farrell - worship coordinator
Adam Lassen - registrar and techie
Amy Warner - worship musician