News Item: New Additions to the SFA Team

As President, Chris spearheads ministry strategy and partnership development for the Alliance. Prior to this he, was the Director of Ministry Development and second in command at the pioneering internet ministry, Bible.Org, which serves more than 10 mission people in 204 countries. Chris serves on the Men's Leadership Board at Christ Church/Plano and helps lead XP, a spiritual formation training program. He has also served on the regional board for Young Life and the Steering Committee for a metroplex prayer event in Dallas, Texas. Prior to full-time ministry work, Chris served in senior market and business development roles with Siemens, Northern Telecom and ipVerse and was a founder of the technology firm Seraph Concepts.

 

Also joining SFA as Chairman of the Board of Directors is Don Grueser. Don's passion for Christ, fervor for the tenets of spiritual formation and track-tested business acumen make him an obvious choice for the role. Commenting on the addition of Grueser to the team, Bob Howey said, "Connecting with Don was a true 'God connection' -- we were introduced at a very strategic time in SFA’s planning process. It was a key juncture in our team’s development, too. Don is very effective; he asks questions that I think most people would want answers to on their journey. If we are going to strike a match in the spiritual formation movement (one of our foundational objectives), we need to be able to answer those questions in deep but easily understood terms. And, we need to do so in ways that are consistent with what we feel the Lord is calling us to do. Don has already been tremendously valuable at guiding us in this process.”

 

In addition to his SFA role, Don Grueser is the CEO of Fuzziwigs Candy Factory, a chain of candy specialty stores in malls and resort areas. He operates 10 company stores and is the franchisor for 65 franchisees. Prior to Fuzziwigs, Don served as Senior Vice-President of Thom McAn and Vice-President of Montgomery Wards. He serves on the boards of Fuzziwigs Candy Factory, Inc., Grueser Enterprises, Inc., and Resort Confections.

 

Howey concluded, “We’ve kept ourselves intentionally small for the first ten years. We see ourselves as ‘connectors’ – an organization that seeks to introduce, nurture and resource individuals and ministries. It’s never been about SFA, it has always been about getting the right people together – depending on the spiritual formation topic or need. The same holds true for us, in terms of management. Because of that, we can keep our staff streamlined. The ‘seats on the SFA bus’ may continue to grow with a few more folks in place but the high capacity of those on board will keep us an effective, moderately-sized bus…more accurately for now, a minivan. As we try to be good stewards with our funding and keep the balance of our own spiritual journey, we believe this is important.”