Thomas R. Hawkins has served as pastor, director of connectional ministries and district superintendent in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference of The United Methodist Church. Today he serves as a professor in the Career and Organizational Studies Program at Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences at Eastern Illinois University and as copastor with his wife, Jan, at First Presbyterian Church, Charleston, Illinois. He is the author of numerous publications on church leadership and issues of power and conflict, including Building God's People, Cultivating Christian Community, The Potter and the Clay, Sharing the Search, The Learning Congregation, A Life That Becomes the Gospel, Claiming God's Promises, The Christian Small-Group Leader and Faithful Leadership.