Complex Aspects of King

Mika Edmondson is the pastor of New City Fellowship OPC, a Presbyterian church in Southeast Grand Rapids. He earned a PhD in systematic theology from Calvin Seminary and wrote The Power of Unearned Suffering, a book about Martin Luther King Jr.’s theology of suffering.

Russell Moore (MDiv, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) public theologian at Christianity Today and director of Christianity Today’s Public Theology Project. He has written many books, including Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel (2015), The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home (2018), and The Courage to Stand: Facing Your Fear Without Losing Your Soul (2020). He and his wife, Maria, are the parents of five sons.

Carl Ellis serves as provost’s professor of theology and culture at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), and associate pastor for cultural apologetics at New City Fellowship. He has authored several books, including Free at Last? and Saving Our Sons.

Charlie Dates is the senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago. Before his call to Progressive, he served as an apprentice pastor at New Zion Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois, and as a pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Chicago. Charlie earned an MDiv and PhD at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where his research focused on the burden of black preaching in late 20th-century Chicago. Charlie and his wife, Kristie, have two children.

Trillia Newbell is the author of several books including A Great Cloud of Witnesses, Sacred Endurance, If God Is For Us, Fear and Faith, and children’s books Creative God, Colorful Us and God’s Very Good Idea. She encourages and supports other writers as the acquisitions director at Moody Publishers. Trillia is married to her best friend, Thern. They reside with their two children near Nashville. You can find her at her website and follow her on Instagram.