Auxano delivers the process that leads to real church growth.
Our Story
Every visionary leader is busy. But only a few do the challenging clarity work to fully realize their vision. For more than 18 years, Auxano has partnered with pastors and ministry leaders in North America to help them do just that.
The foundation of Auxano is a vision framing process based on the principles outlined in the celebrated book, Church Unique. Since those early days, we've built an entire team of skilled navigators who have decades of on-staff ministry experience, and thousands of hours serving as strategic outsiders in the local church. Everyone on the team carries a deep passion for creating breakthrough clarity with church teams to realize God's vision. When teams complete Auxano's vision framing process, they have a Visionary Plan built around real church growth for years to come.
Our team of thought leaders is dedicated to helping you realize your vision.
Jim Randall
Co-Founder / Chief Executive Officer Senior Lead Navigator
As Chief Executive Officer and Senior Lead Navigator for Auxano, Jim Randall has guided churches all over the country as a “vision strategist.” After serving as the primary developer of ministries within the local church, Jim became one of the founding officers of Auxano in 2004.
Jim’s expertise lies with developing ministries based upon clarified vision. He brings a breadth of leadership and church growth knowledge from his proficiency of coaching senior pastors and multiple church staffs in the vision arena, especially around organizational clarity, ministry alignment, and team synergy. Jim has demonstrated achievement as a strategic thinker with a unique ability to bring a group of people to a deep sense of personal ownership and passion.
His education includes a Master of Arts in Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Religion from Liberty University. Jim lives just outside of Orlando in Merritt Island, FL with his wife and son.
Clint Grider, Ph.D., CFRE
Chief Integration Officer Senior Lead Navigator
As a respected vision optimizer, momentum catalyzer, and leader of churches, ministries, and other not-for-profit organizations for over 25 years, Dr. Clint Grider keenly identifies the key strengths and systemic nuances at the core of an organization's culture. With this discernment and an encouraging spirit, he guides leaders through vision clarity processes leading to breakthrough thinking and meaningful results.
Grider's strategic and philanthropic leadership has been proven in multiple environments, including university, medical research, global ministry, church, entrepreneurial, and legal settings. Adept at facilitating partnerships and process improvement, he helps organizations improve their capacity in creative and vital ways. A Certified Fund Raising Executive, he has served successful campaigns totaling over $1.2 billion.
Grider serves as Chief Integration Officer and Senior Lead Navigator for Auxano, a leading not-for-profit consulting firm serving several hundred select clients per year. Past roles include chief operating officer and vice president of finance & development for America’s Family Coaches, chief development officer for Sky Ranch, director of development at Baylor College of Medicine, assistant vice president and chief development officer at Houston Baptist University, and consultant to the President at the Texas A&M Foundation.
Grider has received awards for excellence in research, writing, and scholarly achievement, and has served on several not-for-profit boards. He is a published author, frequent presenter, and ordained minister. He received his bachelor’s in business administration and marketing from Baylor University, master’s in educational psychology from Baylor, and Ph.D. in educational administration and continuous process improvement from Texas A&M University.
Clint and his wife, Kindra, a teacher, have been married 30 years and live near Dallas, Texas. They have two married daughters and sons-in-law, who live in Baltimore, Maryland and the Texas Hill Country.
Bryan Rose
Director of Communication/Marketing Senior Lead Navigator
As Senior Lead Navigator and multisite specialist for Auxano, Bryan's vision facilitation weaves a strong strategic style with an engaging creativity. With experience in virtually every church ministry role, Bryan enjoys connecting with the diverse staff and lay leader perspectives on the teams he serves.
Prior to Auxano, Bryan served in a pastoral capacity for 12 years in three churches, in contexts ranging from a church "replant" to a growing megachurch. His most recent role was leading the multisite initiative as campus pastor of a 3,500 attendance church in Metro Houston. Bryan and his wife Kelly now live in the Nashville area with their two children. Bryan has a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a B.A. in Architecture from Mississippi State University.
Andrea Kandler serves as Auxano's Office Manager and Client Project Coordinator, working tirelessly behind the scenes to support the break-thru clarity happening in local churches across the country. She has 20+ years of experience in working with churches in multiple capacities. Andrea graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. She and her husband, Cooper, live in Birmingham, AL, with their son, Micah.
Bob Adams
Digital Engagement Leader
Bob Adams is the Digital Engagement Leader for Auxano. He also serves as Guest Experience Navigator, leveraging his passion for Hospitality by serving churches and the Auxano Team.
Prior to joining Auxano in 2012, he served 8 years as the Lead Church Consultant for a church design builder. Bob also served 23 years as an associate/executive pastor for three churches with primary responsibilities in church facilities administration, communication and discipleship.
Bob’s education background includes a B.S. in Accounting from Tennessee Tech University, a MRE with a focus in Church Administration and Communications from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and post-graduate work at Emory University in church business administration. His lifelong pursuit of knowledge continues with a voracious reading regimen, a cherished habit passed on by his dad at an early age.
Bob and his wife Anita have been married 42+ years, and have four children, with three daughters-in-law, a son-in-law, and six grandchildren (plus one or more foster "grands" at any given time) rounding out the #AdamsFamilyExperience.
Check out his website27gen, where he writes on a wide range of topics including all things reading, the craft of writing, leadership development, Guest Experience, and hospitality in the home.
David Putman
Senior Lead Navigator
In 2010, David founded Planting the Gospel (www.plantingthegospel.com) committed to catalyzing movements of disciples who make disciples and that plant churches that plant churches. He planted his first church in 1988 and has served as a planter, strategist and coach. David’s experience includes serving with the North American Mission Board, where he was responsible for setting strategic direction for the Church Planting Group. Prior to his time at the North American Mission Board, he served as Executive Pastor of Mountain Lake Church in the North Atlanta area. Since 2013, David has served on the Auxano team as a Senior Lead Navigator.
David is author of numerous disciple-making and church planting books including: The Gospel Disciple Life Journal (2020),The Gospel Disciple Life: Micro Group Strategy (2020), Detox for the Overly Religious (2010), Breaking the Discipleship Code (2008), and co-author of Breaking the Missional Code with Ed Stetzer (2006). He earned a Master’s of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Presbyterian College. He lives with his wife, Tami, in the Atlanta area. They have two grown children; Dave and Amanda, along with three incredible grandchildren. When he’s not traveling around the country serving churches, he spends his time shepherding.
Mike Gammill
Senior Lead Navigator
Mike has fifteen years of experience serving in the local church in multiple capacities. He started in ministry as an Associate Pastor in a small rural church in Montana and served most recently as an Executive Pastor of Discipleship in a 5000-member church in northwest Houston. From his experience as a lone associate pastor and an interim Senior Pastor in smaller churches to his experience on a staff of over thirty, Mike has a passion for uncovering potential in the Body of Christ through Christ-like leadership. He specializes in leading collaborative discussions and designing missionally aligned strategies and organizational structures.
Mike has a Master’s of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and is an Ordained Elder in the Evangelical Church of North America.
Gregg Gibbs, M.A.
Lead Navigator
Greg Gibbs was raised in the Philadelphia area, spent nearly thirty years in Michigan, and is now living in the Los Angeles area. For his thirty-plus year career in the church, he has been both practitioner and consultant. In addition to various roles on church staff, Greg has traveled the country consulting church leaders of all denominations, sizes, and approaches.
Greg joined the Auxano team in 2016 and is currently a Senior Lead Navigator and the team captain of the Auxano Generosity division. Greg focuses his attention on two major areas of counseling leaders - Generosity and Vision Clarity.
Greg serves as the Executive Pastor at Vintage Church in Santa Monica, California - a ten year old multi-site church west of Los Angeles. He is the former Director of Organizational Advancement for Kensington Church - a large multi-site church in the Detroit area. His early career included the roles of worship pastor and senior pastor.
He is the author of Capital Campaign Playbook: An Insider Look at a Church Consultant's Game Plan (2019) and Creating a Culture of Generosity: A Field Guide for Church Leaders (2021). Both books have accompanying training materials used by Auxano Navigators in their coaching of church leaders.
Greg has been married to Andrea for 31 years and they have four children, an amazing daughter-in-law, two dogs named Walter and Gus, and have recently moved to the west coast to be near family and serve at Vintage Church.
Kent Vincent
Lead Navigator
Kent is a firm believer that God empowers the local church to be the hope of the world. Rooted in that belief is a desire to see the church become all God intended it to be by discovering its unique ministry contribution in its unique community setting. Kent is a strategic thinker with demonstrated achievement leading church staff teams in the vision arena, especially around organizational clarity, alignment, team synergy, and resourcing. His vocational mission is to Maximize Movements by leading healthy teams and organizations toward common vision by providing clarity, coaching, and strategic execution. Kent brings 21 years of real life experience serving on the executive teams of churches ranging in size from 300 to 11,000.
Born and raised in Southwest Louisiana, Kent’s education includes a B.A. from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA and graduate work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX. Kent lives in the Nashville, TN area with his wife, Vonda and three children, Katie, Isaiah and Elisha.
John Harris
Lead Navigator
John is a vision strategist at heart. He enjoys coaching pastors and seeing them begin to lead with the excitement, focus, and confidence that vision clarity provides. In over 25 years of ministry he has seen many pastors who were only taught to love their congregations, but not taught how to lead their congregations. John’s conviction is that “leading well is loving well.” His desire is to see churches become unleashed agents of gospel transformation in their communities.
He currently serves as the Executive Pastor at Liberty Church in Fairfield, CA. Prior to joining the staff at Liberty Church John served as a chaplain in the United States Air Force.
He graduated from the University of Central Arkansas (B.S. Sociology), Memphis Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Gateway Seminary (D.Min). John lives in Vacaville, CA with his amazing wife, Jeanine, and their two beautiful daughters Elise and Sydney.
Joel Tomkinson
Auxano Assessments Research Lead
Joel is a high-capacity integrator with passion to help people. His professional experience includes communications and marketing, business operations leadership, and project and staff management. Joel thrives when working with visionaries who empower him to bridge the gap between strategy and execution. This makeup is ideal for supporting Navigators and coaching church leaders through assessment projects.
In addition to his Auxano work, Joel serves as a pastor at Woodside Bible Church, a multisite church spread across Metro Detroit. As he coaches pastors and ministry leaders, he often faces the same realities in his ministry context.
Joel married his sixth grade best friend Allie, and they enjoy family time with their two young children. Joel is a traveler, foodie, gardener, and student of people.
Luke Francis
Strategist Training Lead
Luke Francis finds great joy in partnering with leaders and organizations to create brighter tomorrows. Drawing from a diverse set of experiences with churches across size and life cycle categories, he is passionate about investing time with leaders as they navigate through seasons of transition and renewal in pursuit of God’s better future. Luke’s steady and quiet influence as a strategic shepherd can be found behind many of today’s leading church planting expressions across North America. In his role at Auxano, Luke focuses on leading Strategist Training and providing on-going equipping to Auxano’s Certified Navigator community.
He is an Advanced Certified StratOp and Lifeplan facilitator, as well as a Certified Change Management Practitioner from Prosci® and Insights® Discovery Practitioner. He holds a Certificate in Executive Non-Profit Leadership from Indiana University and is a licensed Send Network Trainer. He also holds a Master's in Public Administration from Ohio University and a Bachelor's degree from The Ohio State University. As an avid learner, he is also completing a Master’s in Missional Church Movements from Wheaton College. Utilizing his second chair leader gifting, Luke serves as Executive Pastor at First Light Church, a multi-generational multi-site church in Dayton, Ohio.
Luke and his wife, Taylor, enjoy traveling, playing music together, and perfecting their Friday night at-home pizzas.
James Bethany
Creative Director
James has been creating effective marketing and communications solutions for more than 39 years. During that time, he has worked with a variety of clients from small start-up companies to fortune 500 corporations. Projects have ranged from corporate brand development and advertising campaigns to annual reports, print collateral and interactive communications. He has also been involved in brand development for large and small churches across the country.
James graduated from the University of Houston with a B.F.A. in Graphic Communications. For the past 20 years he has taught Visual Communications classes at the college level. James and his wife Wendy live in the country outside of Burton, Texas and enjoy spending time with their two children, Baylie and Blake and their two grandchildren, Bridge and Brynley.
Jeff Meyer
Lead Navigator
Jeff brings a unique blend of practical experience and master facilitation to the vision clarity process. He offers keen insight into vision integration. Since 2006, he and his team at the Church in Madison, WI have been leading using the Auxano toolkit including the Vision Frame and Horizon Storyline. He has helped churches, businesses and individuals live and lead with clarity.
Author of "Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute" and "The Dream Primer" Jeff loves to help heart-centered & global-minded leaders re-ignite their dream and bring it to life using his Dream Architect System and support.
Amy (Jeff's wife) and Jeff have launched neighboringlife.com and are thrilled to see people discover the beauty in their own neighborhoods.
Shawn Reilly
Lead Navigator
As both a practitioner and consultant, possessing more than 10 years experience leading from the Auxano toolkit, Shawn Reilly thrives by creating, facilitating and perfecting the systems of vision clarity, church growth, and leadership in local church ministry. Shawn has a unique intuition for developing healthy, collaborative teams to work through the rigors of church strategy so that the mission can prevail.
Shawn has been a Minister and Executive Director for two large Southern California Churches serving four different Senior Pastors over the last eighteen years. Prior to that he has worked in corporate management marketplace for thirteen years. He studied Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing at University of Southern California and holds an MBA from Chapman University. His unique blend of experience in the marketplace as well as pastoral leadership shapes his service as a strategic outsider for churches and Christian non profit organizations.
Shawn and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 29 years and have recently relocated from Southern California to be closer to their three children who live in Boise, Idaho.
Vince Parks
Lead Navigator
Vince Parks brings a unique set of business and ministry planning, training, and implementation experiences to his work with churches of all sizes. Prior to entering full time ministry in 2001, Vince held results-oriented positions of increasing responsibility in both small company and Fortune 500 settings.
While a managing partner with a Texas based corporation, Vince consulted with over 300 churches of various sizes and denominations, helping them bring their worship ministry and facility ideas to life.
Vince speaks and consults regularly in the areas of ministry governance, planning, staffing, and strategy. He is passionate about helping guide churches of all sizes to a place of Kingdom advancement, wherever God has placed and called them to be.
Vince graduated from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York (Marketing), and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri (Theology). An ordained pastor in the LC-MS, he served as Executive Pastor and Interim Lead Pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas, Executive Pastor at Summit Community Church in Buckeye, Arizona, and currently serves Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball, Texas. Vince is married to Marianna and they have three teens at home, Matthew, Collin, and Kathleen.
Clients We Serve.
Auxano is one of the most trusted and successful ministry partners of churches across the globe. Here are only a few of the churches and organizations we've worked with. If you're interested in hearing about more of these dynamic churches, we'd love to share them with you.
Let’s Talk
Want to hear more about how your church can get a Visionary Plan for real church growth? All you have to do is fill out this short form and a member of our team will contact you, or simply give us a call at 800.894.0991.
