Meet Our Editorial Team
Brad Russell 
Brad Russell is the Senior Editor/COO of FaithVillage and lives in the Dallas suburb of Allen. He wisely married the most compassionate woman he knows. He's father and financier to three teens who fortunately have their mother's hair. And he's a lapsed triathlete who is currently back in the gym to work off his latest foodie adventures. With diverse ministry experiences in church leadership, non-profit marketing and new media, Brad exudes a creative passion for resourcing people of faith and bringing value to Christian leaders.
Marv Knox
Marv Knox is the Publisher and Editor for News and Public Policy for FaithVillage. When he’s not out running before dawn in training for his next half-marathon, he’s running a religious news organization with a rich 120-year history. His extensive career in religious journalism and deep love for the church provide FaithVillage with a 50,000 foot perspective on how our team can best serve the church for the next generations. Marv and his wife live in Coppell, Texas.
Blake Atwood
Blake Atwood is the Church Leadership Editor of FaithVillage. As a former Director of Media and Communications at a large church in Texas, he values the awesome work of pastors and church staff to equip their people to follow Christ. Blake lives in the DFW area, where he drums and writes, though not simultaneously.
Kelley Mathews
Kelley is the Christian Living Editor for FaithVillage and lives in Anna, Texas, where she enjoys sunsets viewed over the wheat field behind her house. Wife of one husband, John, and mother of four children ages 11 to 1, Kelley has freelanced as a writer and editor for a dozen years, co-authoring five books focused primarily on women’s ministry. After God, her family, and fiction, Kelley gets most animated about LSU football and dark roast coffee.
Ryan Gregg
Ryan is the Faith & Culture Editor for FaithVillage. He lives in Plano, Texas with his wife and two year-old daughter. Ryan has gotten faster on his feet after chasing his little girl around all the time. Ryan was a founding member of the band Addison Road and played with them for ten years before leaving to pursue a career with less travel. He wrote the songs, “Hope Now” and “This Little Light of Mine.”
Amber Dobecka
Amber, Editorial Assistant of FaithVillage, is on fire for Christ. Being a light to others is her everlasting mission. A certified fitness instructor and former college cheerleader, Amber finds maintaining a healthy physical, emotional and spiritual life essential. She and her husband make their humble abode in Texas with their cute, little pomeranian named Bambi.
John Rutledge
John is a lifelong news junkie and satire writer, Baylor Bear, dad of two grown children, an elder in his house church, and plays guitar in his "down time." He's currently looking up the definition of "postmodernism." He lives in Dallas with his wife Joysanna.
Our Story
FaithVillage began with the end in mind.
Author Donald Miller once said, “Great stories can be written by first imagining the final climactic scene, a compelling mental image that every part of the narrative leads to.”
For the FaithVillage team, the climactic scene of our story looks something like this:
Picture a vibrant online community of hundreds of thousands of leaders, artists, thought-shapers and culture-makers who are expanding their faith, deepening their relationships and fulfilling their calling to shift the world for Christ.
Every day, this community will:
Log-in to post updates to their friends and collaborate in groups
Blog about their passions
Research faith issues and causes
Create and enjoy inspirational video, music and podcasts
Stay informed with news
Self-publish their creations
Share recommendations as acts of caring
Discover good books, music and ministry resources.They will be a true community of caring, creativity and sharing, ultimately using everything they experience online to serve their church and community.
FaithVillagers will become better people who create a better world because of the experiences they have here.
For over three years we have been thoughtfully engaged in our version of online urban planning to see this scene become reality. In true new media style, the development team for FV includes a talented group of top-tier researchers, graphic designers, web developers, church leaders and online journalists in at least four major cities. We’re not into hyping names and personalities. We think the work will speak for itself. In our world, goodness, truth and beauty have a self-evident quality to them.
As we have played “What if?” in our creative process, we have wondered:
What if we could leverage emerging social media technologies to provide a safe, encouraging space for people of faith to connect, collaborate and share their ideas?
What if we could create a shared publishing platform where a wide variety of content producers, book publishers, church resource organizations, causes and churches could work together to build a compelling destination that would benefit them all, and more importantly, serve broader Kingdom purposes?
What if we could create an online media model that was sustainable, providing free services to users and churches, but bringing significant value to organizations so that they would find the service worth investing in?
And so what you see on this site is the beginning of our answer to these ground-shifting questions.
While FaithVillage.com lives wherever you are, the FV Editorial Team works from physical offices in our own little urban village in Plano, Texas. We represent diverse evangelical traditions and fast-food preferences, not that they are of equal importance. We do “get out” sometimes so you may catch us at Catalyst, Story Chicago and other leading conferences.
While FV seeks to serve a diverse community of online Christ-followers wherever we find them, it is a next-generation media service of Baptist Standard Publishing, a 120-year veteran Christian news organization, proving that, yes, old dogs can learn new tricks, and new ventures are most successful when they have some strong legs to run on. ;-)
Our Supporters
As a non-profit religious media organization, FaithVillage is made possible by the generous support of visionary family foundations, donors and supporters who are dedicated to helping the next generation engage faith online.
If you would like to learn more about giving opportunities or other ways of supporting our innovative online community you may contact:
Marv Knox, Publisher/Editor for News & Public Policy | EMAIL
7161 Bishop Rd., Suite G200
Plano, Texas 75025
210. 630. 4571