Announcement
CEO Search & Transition
This past year Seedbed’s board of directors began to search for an individual to step into the role of president and CEO, as J. D. transitioned to founder and sower-in-chief. After much work, discernment, and prayer, our board has identified an individual whose giftings and character match the needs of Seedbed as we continue to both sow and to grow.
As of January 1, 2024, we are excited to announce Ivan Filby will be stepping into the role of Seedbed president. Ivan comes with a rich background in business and leadership development, and many of you will know him as the author of the Seedbed book Livestream: Learning to Minister in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
The addition of Ivan’s leadership will allow us to lean even harder into our mission of gathering, connecting, and resourcing the people of God to sow for a great awakening, but in many ways you may not notice much of a change in your regular engagement with Seedbed. This is an important time, however, and as an organization we welcome Ivan with open arms. On this page, you can learn more about Ivan and this transition. Below is a note from David Goodnight, the board chair at Seedbed, and a video of J. D. and Ivan that will provide a vision for what’s coming next.
Questions
Ivan Filby has begun his role as president and CEO of Seedbed as of January 1, 2024. The initial shift, however, occurred in May 2023 when J. D. announced his transition from president and CEO to founder and sower-in-chief at Seedbed and became a part-time pastor at Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas. As he shared last May, “This change gets me out of lots and lots of internal meetings and makes me more available and present to our growing global community with things like the Wake-Up Call, writing, developing resources for awakening hearts, homes, churches, and cities, and much more. This includes a change of venue for my home base of operations. I am also moving to become the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas, in July of this year [2023].” In the interim, Seedbed’s Board of Directors stepped in to guide and lead Seedbed through this transition and identify a new leader to step in as president, and we’re very excited to have Ivan Filby serve in this capacity.
J. D.’s work and engagement with the Seedbed community will feel very familiar. He will continue to write the Wake-Up Call (pulling in special guests from time-to-time, as always) and actively lead courses (including the upcoming course How to Pray Like Jesus), create resources, and pour into pastors and leaders through our Pastors Fellowship. In fact, you may even see him a little bit more!
Take a moment to watch the video below with Ivan and J .D. You will learn more about Ivan, and as you scroll down, you’ll see a bio and a personal note from Ivan as well.
Also, mark your calendars for Saturday, March 23 , 2024 from, 8:30-9:30am (CST). J. D. and Ivan will be hosting a Wake-Up Call party on Zoom. Subscribe to the Wake-Up Call here if you haven’t already. Closer to the call, we’ll be sharing reminders and a the Zoom link for the call through the Wake-Up Call emails and community.
This transition positions Seedbed and the Farm Team to sow even more extravagantly for a great awakening! Practically that means new ways we will equip hearts, homes, churches, and cities for awakening through the Wake-Up Call, New Room (Conference and Leaders Gathering), courses, resources, and fellowships. More to come!
If yes, please reach out: farmteam@seedbed.com.
A Note from David Goodnight
Board Chair, Seedbed
Twelve years back, John David Walt began sowing seeds for a great awakening. In the years that followed other amazing leaders, inspired by the vision, joined the Farm Team. Now thousands of us have joined the Seed Team, sowing seeds through prayer, banding, and Seedbed’s amazing resourcing ministry, Seedbed Publishing. Many of us gather each morning with John David around the Wake-Up Call. Years ago, Seedbed launched the New Room Conference which is gathering leaders from around the world to come together, in humility and prayer, to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit among us.
When John David announced his transition to founder and sower-in-chief, earlier this year, we began a search for a unique person to serve as Seedbed’s next president and CEO. A person filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, with strong gifts, strategic and executive gifts who could join this incredible team. We found that person in Dr. Ivan Filby, a humble man of God, deeply gifted in strategic leadership. Ivan is a Seedbed author, and he and his wife Kathie began attending New Room Conference years ago, where Ivan has taught on the work of the Holy Spirit. If you have not yet met Ivan you will see, when you do, that he exudes the love of Christ.
We are deeply grateful to the Lord for his leadership and blessing over Seedbed, for the inspired vision and leadership of John David, which continues today, and for the incredible Farm Team the Lord has brought together. We are amazed and grateful for the work you do on the Seed Team and Sower Nation, as we look forward with a sense of humility into this next season of sowing for a great awakening.
David Goodnight
Board Chair, Seedbed
A Note from Tim Tennent
I will never forget the many hours in my office with J. D. Walt as we dreamed together about the possibility of a new resource platform for the global church that could carry the Wesleyan message. I saw it as a fresh opportunity for us to fulfill a phase in Asbury Seminary’s founding mission to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.” It was one of the highlights of my life when, on January 6, 2012, Seedbed was launched and this new venture of faith began to unfold. The many dear friends of Asbury Seminary who helped us launch this ministry see it as one of the most strategic investments of their lives.
Now, looking back over a decade, both Seedbed publishing and New Room have transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people, and we are in awe at the grace of God in taking these first humble seeds and turning them into a mighty army of “sowers for a Great Awakening.” As I travel around the world, I meet so many people who have been blessed, taught, strengthened and encouraged by the ministry of Seedbed. Truly, this ministry has exceeded our own expectations and dreams.
I am so delighted that Ivan Filby, a longtime friend and a Seedbed author and educator, has been appointed by the Board of Directors to take a new role as President and CEO of Seedbed. I am also delighted that J. D. Walt will continue his visionary role within Seedbed, as his daily texts (through the Wake-Up Call) and his insightful contributions remain one of the great strengths of the global reach of Seedbed. I remain enthusiastic about the mission of Seedbed and look forward to the many ways God will continue to expand this vital and strategic ministry in the years to come.
Timothy C. Tennent, PhD
President
Professor of World Christianity
Asbury Theological Seminary
Ivan and JD Interview
Notes From Ivan & J.D.
Hello Friends,
I have been part of the Seedbed family for some time now. My wife, Kathie (married thirty-two years), introduced me to the Wake-Up Call, the New Room Conference, and J .D. Walt, Seedbed’s founder and sower-in-chief. The Lord used Seedbed to change my life.
When I wrote my first book, Livestream: Learning to Minister in the Power of the Holy Spirit (2021), Seedbed was the first publisher I approached. They are also publishing my next book, a guide for how to exercise prophetic ministry, which is due later this year. Board Chair David Goodnight asked me to consider serving as a Seedbed trustee in 2023. I readily agreed. What a privilege. And now, I can serve the men and women who have changed my life in this new assignment.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. I never imagined myself serving in this role. Yet, when I look back over my life, I can see the Lord, unknown to me, has been preparing me to help lead Seedbed for ages—all glory to His name.
Ivan Filby
Hello friends,
I was blessed to sow the first seed and stand at the threshold of the vast field of great awakening that by God’s grace has become Seedbed, Inc. We began on January 6, 2012, with a single seed and today we are joined by many thousands of sowers around the world in this work to gather, connect, and resource the people of God to sow for a great awakening. So far, it has been an extraordinary journey of extravagant sowing.
My season as the chief executive of Seedbed has come to an end, as announced last year. While I will remain founder and sower-in-chief and will continue my active involvement in the Seedbed community through writing the Wake-Up Call, resource creation, and pouring into pastors and leaders, the mission has outgrown my capacities as an organizational leader. It is time to hand these duties to the next leader.
I am pleased to welcome Dr. Ivan Filby to the post of president of Seedbed, Inc. I knew Ivan by his stellar reputation long before I met him. I have known him as one of our treasured authors at Seedbed. I have known him as a member of our board of directors. Through all of this, and most importantly, I have known Ivan as a true man of God. As I grow in knowing Ivan as a friend, I am confident he will capably lead the Farm Team, and through them the Sower Nation, into the next season of sowing for a great awakening.
Please join me in praying for Ivan Filby and his wife Kathie as he hoists the seed sack over his shoulder and leads us in this great adventure of sowing the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus—as far as the seed will scatter.
For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Founder and Sower-in-Chief
Seedbed, Inc.
About Ivan
Ivan Filby has had a distinguished career in higher education including serving as the 12th president of Greenville University in Illinois. Prior to moving to the United States in 2005, Ivan taught business studies at Trinity College Dublin for 16 years. Ivan holds a PhD in management from Aston University, a Master of Arts in evangelism studies from Cliff College and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Ivan has helped people learn how to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit on five continents for over thirty years. Ivan is an ordained minister in the Free Methodist Church UK & Ireland and serves as assistant pastor at Towerview Church, Bangor, Northern Ireland. He is married to Kathie and they have two grown children.