K. Edward Copeland (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; MDiv, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary; JD, University of California, Berkeley) is the senior pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois. He is the author of Riding in the Second Chariot. He and his wife, Starla, have three children.
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.