John Pearson 

JOHN PEARSON is president of John Pearson Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm based in San Clemente, California, that helps nonprofit organizations in Vision Implementation With Detailed Execution. John is the editor and publisher of the weekly eNewsletter, Your Weekly Staff Meeting.  His latest book, Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit, is published by Regal Books.

He’s the creator of the Mastering the Management Buckets Workshop Experience, The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Workshop, and the Nonprofit Board Governance workshop on “Moving Your Board Members From Myth to Mission.” He has also led more than 20 organizations through the planning process, “The Five Questions Every Nonprofit Organization or Church Must Answer: The Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment Tool.”

The co-author of Marketing Your Ministry: 10 Critical Principles, Pearson served 11 years as the president/CEO of Christian Management Association (now called Christian Leadership Alliance). John also served as the president of Willow Creek Association, South Barrington, Illinois (a network of 12,000 churches worldwide); was on the management team at Willow Creek Community Church; and was the executive director of Christian Camp and Conference Association, now based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and known for many years as Christian Camping International/USA.

He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and also served five years as the director of Christian education/camp director with the Midwest district (70 churches) of the Baptist General Conference, Chicago, Illinois, (www.ConvergeWorldwide.org) and six years as the executive director of Lake Sammamish Bible Camp (Camp Sambica), Bellevue, Washington.

John has served more than 30 years as a nonprofit CEO and 25 of those years leading three associations. Well-connected and well-read, John has been the publisher of two magazines, written more than 400 issues of various newsletters on management and ministry and more than 100 magazine columns on leadership and management ministry trends, including the Management Rules of Thumb series in the Christian Management Report.

He has led more than 50 regional, national and international conferences, and facilitated dozens of day-long CEO Dialogue roundtables.  John served six years on the board of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), was chairman of the presidential search committee (to replace a CEO/founder) as a board member for Interdev, and also served as a board member at Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, Wash.

In 2006, Christian Management Association honored Pearson as the first recipient of the Ted Engstrom Award, named after Dr. Ted Engstrom, the president emeritus of World Vision. John currently serves on the Board of Directors for Christian Community Credit Union and also volunteers as the president of CEO Dialogues, Inc.  He is also a partner with The Andringa Group, led by Bob Andringa, former president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. John is also privileged to serve as a member of the Board of Reference of Leadership Catalyst, Pioneer Clubs and Strategic Resource Group. He has also been a member and volunteer with The Barnabas Group.

John and his wife, Joanne (chief operating officer of John Pearson Associates, Inc.), have been married for 40 years and they’ve had the privilege of traveling and/or teaching leadership, management and board governance in more than 20 countries.  In his other life, John once owned a 100th anniversary Harley-Davidson motorcycle and also played an FBI agent (actually…just one scene) in the movie, The Genius Club.  He wrote the Faith-Based Leader’s Resource Guide for the Rocky Balboa movie and the leader’s guide for The Nativity Story DVD, and recently authored the Personal Action Journal (a 42-day journey to make poverty personal) as part of The Hole in Our Gospel Six-Week Quest, based on the book by Richard E. Stearns.

The Pearsons are also blessed to live just one mile from family. Their son, Jason, is the co-founder of CrossSection and Mission Print.  Jason and Melinda are the happy, but tired, parents of five children (including triplets).