Sex, Sin, & Salvation: God's Grace in a Fallen World

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was once a tenured professor of English who identified as a lesbian and worked to advance the cause of LGBT equality. After her conversion to Christ in 1999, she came to see the sinfulness of having any identity apart from Him.

Rosaria is married to Kent Butterfield, pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham, and is a home-school mother, pastor's wife, author, and speaker. She is helping Christians to better understand their LGBT neighbors and loved ones so that we can lovingly look past labels of sexual identity and share the gospel effectively.

In 2012 she published her conversion memoir, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey to Christian Faith. Her second book, Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ became available in July of 2015. She writes about sexuality, identity, Christian community, and seeks to encourage all in faithful Christian living and service.

Tim Challies is a Christian, a husband to Aileen and a father to three children aged 7 to 13. He worships and serves as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, where he primarily gives attention to mentoring and discipleship. He is a book reviewer for WORLD magazine, co-founder of Cruciform Press, and has written three books including The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and The Next Story. He writes daily at www.challies.com.

Peter Jones is Associate Pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido CA, Director of “truthXchange” and Scholar in Residence at Westminster Seminary, CA. Born in Liverpool, England, Peter attended the University of Wales, and did graduate work at Gordon Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School and Princeton Seminary.

In 1991, Dr. Jones accepted a position as New Testament professor at Westminster Seminary, CA. The New Age movement now had a foothold in America and he began researching and writing about the upsurge of pagan spirituality in the U.S. In 2003, he resigned his position at Westminster Seminary to found “truthXchange”. Since then he has worked tirelessly speaking and writing about the influence of the spiritual but not religious movement. To read more about “truthXchange, and how it equips and empowers the church, go to the website: www.truthXchange.com.

Dr. Peter Jones has published numerous books including: The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back, Cracking DaVinci’s Code, with co-author, James Garlow, Stolen Identity (2006), The God of Sex, and in 2015, The Other Worldview). Dr. Jones and his wife have seven children and numerous grandchildren.

Heath Lambert serves as Executive Director at the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. He also serves as the Executive Pastor of Discipleship and Family Life at First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, FL.

Dr. Lambert has authored and edited books including The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, Counseling the Hard Cases: True Stories Illustrating the Sufficiency of God’s Resources in Scripture, and Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace.

Heath lives in Jacksonville, FL with his wife Lauren and their children Carson, Chloe, and Connor.

George Scipione is the Director of the Biblical Counseling Institute and from 2008 Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology at RPTS. He received his AB from Temple University; BD, Westminster Theological Seminary; MA, Temple University’ ThM, Westminster Theological Seminary; PhD, Whitefield Theological Seminary; DMin studies, Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA), Westminster Theological Seminary (California), Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

He has written numerous articles, including The Biblical Ethics of Transsexual Operations, and Is Porn Norm? He is also the author of The Pauline Concept of SUNEIDESIS (MTh), Timothy, Titus and You: A Workbook for Church Leaders, and The Sword and the Shovel: The Battle for the Biblical Family.

George has been a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church since 1974 and is the founder and former director of the Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship in San Diego, CA. He has also lectured on theology in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America. George and his wife, Eileen, were married in 1972, and they have five children and two grandchildren.

John Street is professor and chair of the graduate program in Biblical Counseling (Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling) at The Master’s College & Seminary. He also teaches pastoral counseling classes at The Master’s Seminary. His education includes a BA from Cedarville University, a MDiv from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and a DMin from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

Dr. Street is a contributor to The Biblical Counselor and The Journal of Biblical Counseling and is an editor of The Journal of Modern Ministry and An Introduction to Biblical Counseling. He is a Fellow, board member and President of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).

John is a second generation pastor, giving more than 30 years to pastoral ministry. Along with his ministry at The Master’s College & Seminary, he is also an elder at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA where John MacArthur is Pastor/Teacher and is a shepherd of the Joint Heirs Fellowship Group. For 32 years John has been married to Janie. They have four children and five grandchildren.

Derek Thomas, a native of Wales, is the Senior Minister at First Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Columbia, South Carolina. He is also the Robert Strong Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (Atlanta).

He holds a BS in Mathematics from the University of Wales, a M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson), and a PhD from the University of Wales (Lampeter). He was ordained in the Evangelical Church of Ireland, and served Stranmillis Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Belfast for 17 years before moving to the United States. He has published more than twenty books and contributed to many others.

He and his wife, Rosemary, have two grown children and two grandchildren, two dogs named Luther and Gracie Spangles, and a somewhat dysfunctional cat named Chloe. He is passionate about classical music and opera.

Allan Edwards is the Pastor at Kiski Valley Presbyterian Church. He and his wife Leeanne live in Leechburg, PA. Allan has shared his testimony of God's grace in the midst of his own struggle with same sex attraction with many churches, small groups, and on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. Allan is in the process of certification with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors through the RPTS Biblical Counseling Institute. 

Eileen Scipione, Counselor, came to Christ in her early 20’s and is an active member of Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. She received her BS in Special and Elementary Education from Kutztown University; Graduate studies from the University of Pittsburgh on visually and multiply handicapped; Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) and Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship (IBCD) certifications and continuing MTS studies at RPTS.

From 1985 to 1994, she held the position of the Director of Center for Unplanned Pregnancy. For the past 17 years, she has been a Biblical Counselor with IBCD and BCI. On publications, she contributed two chapters to “Women Helping Women” and a chapter on adult children in “The Afternoon of Life” and has presented at many conferences and forums. She is married to Dr. George Scipione. They have five children and two grandchildren.

Jim Weidenaar joined the Harvest USA staff in June of 2012 as the Director of the Pittsburgh Region office. He has a burden to help those struggling with sexual sin to understand and experience progress in gospel repentance. Jim has theological degrees from Calvin Theological Seminary (MTS) and Westminster Theological Seminary (PhD). He resides in Penn Hills with his wife, Deb, and daughter, Abigail.