John Mark Hicks serves as professor of theology in the Hazelip School of Theology at Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee. He has taught theology in seminaries for thirty-three years and has authored or co-authored ten books, including Down in the River to Pray: Revisioning Baptism as God's Transforming Work. In his travels he has served faith communities in forty states and twenty countries. He lives in Tennessee with his wife Jennifer.