Martha Grace Reese, JD, MDiv

Author of Unbinding the Gospel Series
Principal, MG Reese Associates, LLC

Martha Grace Reese, an ordained mainline minister, has initiated and provided leadership for five, major, national Lilly Endowment grant projects, all focused on congregational transformation, spiritual leadership and evangelism. Reese is the author of Unbinding the Gospel book series, which arose from The Mainline Evangelism Project, the only major, national study of evangelism in mainline churches. Reese is also the architect and director of The Unbinding the Gospel Project, which worked intensively with 500 US and Canadian churches with a two-year process of prayer, faith sharing and evangelism.  She is a national leader in the dynamics of spiritual leadership and congregational transformation.

Reese has extensive experience as a consultant, researcher and systemic analyst for congregational pastors and denominational executives. Her work is grounded in seven years as senior pastor of a revitalizing congregation, tripling worship attendance in the first three years. She has also served as a middle judicatory minister, a consultant for the Lilly Endowment, as President of and on the boards of directors of not-for-profit corporations, and has had extensive practice and training in centering prayer and Christian spirituality. She currently serves as Principal for MG Reese Associates, LLC. She speaks Spanish and French fluently and trained in French cooking at the Cordon Bleu, Paris, and L'Institut Paul Boucuse in Lyon, France. In life before seminary, she was a corporate attorney.

Reese graduated magna cum laude (or each schools' equivalent) from: The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; DePauw University and the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad de Madrid, Spain (BA, major in Spanish, minors in Economics and Religion); Indiana University School of Law (JD), and Christian Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and is married to Cyrus N. White, Principal of the South Cabin Group. They have two daughters.