Recovering...Timeless Truths

Like an online starter pack meme, Theos Starter Pack: Toward a Recovery of Essential Christianity is designed to provoke a response.

The book includes twenty essays by a motley crew of Bible geeks who are all active in church ministry and teach at TheosU, an online, nondenominational Bible college.

The focus is on recovering the roots of Christianity-recovering the way we teach, recovering the Bible's grand narrative, recovering Christian liberty, recovering apocalyptic, and much more.

Each writer "takes into consideration the ageless tradition of Christianity that has been handed down through the centuries, resisting the cultural soup and integrating timeless thinking into an approach that works for the present day," explains Chris Palmer, TheosU dean. This book is a lifeline "to pull yourself out of the soup."

You may laugh. You may run to your Bible. You may reach out to one of the writers to share a few choice words. But no matter what, these essayists hope you will be inspired and come away with rich theological insights.

Theos Starter Pack recovers beautiful elements of ancient Christianity that have been lost or shoved aside in modern society. It's food for the souls of those who long for a return to the roots of our faith.

Chris Palmer, Editor
Chris Palmer is the dean of TheosU and Theos Seminary, a Greek scholar, a professor of theology, and the author of a number of books, including Winks From Scripture: Understanding God's Subtle Work Among Us; Greek Word Study: 90 Ancient Words That Unlock Scripture; Letters from Jesus: Studies from the Seven Churches of Revelation; and Strange Scriptures: Deciphering 52 Weird, Bizarre, and Curious Verses from the New Testament. Chris is currently working on his PhD at the University of Wales, Bangor (UK).
Chris has travelled to more than forty nations and has helped many congregations grow, flourish, and expand. His desire for missions is to train and educate pastors, encourage congregations, support the vision of the local church, and show the love of God to the culture. He has worked successfully with both traditional churches and the underground, persecuted church.
You may find Chris online at www.chrispalmer.me.

Gabriel Finochio, Contributor
Gabriel Finochio is a writer, teacher, and preacher. In 2019, he co-founded TheosU with his brother Nathan and brother-in-law, Bryan Vos.
A student of the writings of G. K. Chesterton, Gabriel received his bachelor's degree in theology from Portland Bible College and is currently pursuing his master's in theology. He is on the teaching team at Kings' Church in New York, New York.
In addition to ministry and his work at TheosU, Gabriel runs the edgy, meme-based satire Instagram account @wokejesuschrist, which is not for the faint of heart or those who have no sense of humor. He is unmarried and lives in New York City with his cat, Girl.

David H. Campbell, Contributor
David H. Campbell holds three degrees in theology from the University of Toronto and the University of Durham, where his research supervisor was Professor C. E. B. Cranfield. David also attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
He has authored a number of books, including Mystery Explained: A Simple Guide to Revelation; Landmarks: A Comprehensive Look at the Foundations of Faith; and Exodus: The Road to Freedom in a Deconstructed World. He collaborated with Professor G. K. Beale on Revelation: A Shorter Commentary.
David and his wife Elaine spent many years church planting in the UK and Canada. They have eight children and eight grandchildren. They are currently based in Stratford, Ontario, and serve churches and seminaries in many movements across a number of countries.

John Finochio, Contributor
John Finochio has been the lead pastor of Crossroads Life Church for twenty-three years. He has been married to the love of his life, Jan, for forty-three years, As a songwriter/musician, John has released three albums of original material, made several appearances on Canadian Christian TV programs, and taught worship seminars and trained worship leaders for over three decades.
His ministry of teaching, preaching, and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in prophecy has opened many international doors of ministry as well. John serves as the vice chairman of Ministers Fellowship International (MFI) in Canada, a network of ministerial relationships that he and Jan have been a part of for almost thirty years. John is also a regular contributing instructor to the online seminary TheosU, which was founded by his sons and son-in-law in 2019.
John and Jan Finochio have three grown children, Nathan, Gabriel, and Tiffany, and three adorable grandchildren. Away from ministry responsibilities, John enjoys travelling to warm destinations, playing guitar, reading, watching eclectic classic westerns, exercising, gardening, playing bocce, drinking lattes, Italian cuisine, and trying to beat Jan at Boggle. Readers may email John at finoke1@icloud.com.

Landon MacDonald, Contributor
Landon MacDonald is a pastor from the Phoenix desert and leads a church in Gilbert, Arizona, called Mission. Landon creates weekly content on his popular YouTube channel (Youtube.com/LandonMacDonald), from things as simple as lists of theology topics to as grandiose as purchasing a billboard and interviewing thousands of atheists on Reddit. He has created a series of one hundred short, animated videos about the characteristics of God, as well as a full seventy-two video walkthrough of the entire Bible.
A graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Landon's dream and passion is to demystify the Bible and see people read it and get to know its author, God the Father and the Holy Spirit and its hero, Jesus Christ. Landon also enjoys creating theology memes and is an avid record collector. He loves his wife Bri and their kids Ezra, Violet, and Julian, and playing endless Nintendo games with them.

Gia Chacón, Contributor
Gia Chacón is the founder and president of For the Martyrs and March for the Martyrs. She is a humanitarian, public speaker, and bold witness for persecuted Christians around the world. She first began her humanitarian efforts in 2017 and has since traveled to Central America, East Africa, and throughout the Middle East in defense and support of the suffering church.
During her time with the Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan, Gia had the opportunity to speak with them about the atrocities they faced and the horrible acts of violence they suffered for refusing to renounce Christ. After hearing these stories, God placed it on Gia's heart to bring greater awareness to the growing crisis of Christian persecution and to use her gifts to make a positive impact in the lives of the suffering faithful. These profound experiences led to the founding of For the Martyrs.
In addition to public speaking, pro-life advocacy, and religious freedom advocacy, Gia is a published writer and has been featured in several national news outlets. She impacts the culture through her social media platforms @genuinelygia. Learn more about For the Martyrs by visiting www.forthemartyrs.com.

Joshua Biedel, Contributor
Joshua Biedel currently serves as an associate pastor at his church in Sacramento, California, in addition to being a Theos Seminary professor. He previously spent ten years in public education, where he was a vice principal at a classical high school, and teacher of history, philosophy, and English. He holds two master's degrees (in history and teaching) and two bachelor's degrees (in theology and history).
Josh loves to talk about the church, politics, theology, books, movies, history, backpacking, and sports, especially boxing, football, and mixed martial arts. He's unusually obsessed with Virgil, Cicero, and the era of antiquity. You may reach Josh at josh@theosu.ca.

Thomas West, Contributor
Thomas West is the pastor of Redeemer Queen's Park (London) and a professor of theology at TheosU. He has a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Thomas and his family moved to London in June 2019 to pioneer the planting of a new church community. By God's grace, the church is planted and growing.
Thomas was born and reared in Montgomery, Alabama. After four years at Auburn University, he moved to North Carolina for seminary training. In North Carolina, Thomas was the college/equipping pastor and then discipleship pastor at Providence Church. His ministry focus is on discipleship, leadership development, cultural critique, preaching, and teaching.
Thomas and his wife Elizabeth have two children, Perry Elizabeth and Shepherd. Thomas enjoys reading, occasionally exercising, playing golf, spending time with his family, traveling, and working on a few writing projects. You can keep up with Thomas on Instagram @thomasawest, his family @TheWestLondonLife, and Redeemer Queen's Park @RedeemerQP.

Layla Nahavandi, Contributor
Layla Nahavandi is an international preacher, writer, and Bible teacher known for preaching the Word of God with revelation and fire. In 1995, God radically saved Layla's family, who came from a Muslim background. This life-changing encounter gave Layla a passion for taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
Layla is currently completing a Ph.D. in theology focused on the early church. This deep study in theological history stirs her spirit to recover the zeal and power of the early church and fuels her desire to bring revival and reformation to the church of today.
Layla is half-Persian and half-Irish, a British-born, Kiwi-raised Aussie. She has been in full-time ministry for over fifteen years, serving in all sorts of pastoral roles in church life and speaking at churches, camps, conferences, universities, and events across the world. Layla is part of the faculty at TheosU and is also a global evangelist based out of Neuma church in Melbourne, Australia.
To connect with Layla, visit www.laylanahavandi.com.