Dr Stephen Chavura has taught political theory and history at various Australian universities over the past 20 years.

He currently teaches history at Campion College, Sydney, which is Australia's only liberal arts college. He has written or co-written three books and has published numerous scholarly articles in Australian and international journals.

He has also been active in the media over the years writing many articles for The Australian, Spectator Australia, ABC Religion and Ethics, as well as appearing on Sky News and various programmes on ADHTV.

Steve has taught at every Download since it began and loves it. He is married to Cynthia, loves Gibson guitars and lifting weights to the glory of God, and currently attends an Anglican church in Sydney's Campbelltown region.

Rev. Dr. Daniel Anderson is the Director (CEO) of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute (LMI) based in Canberra, Australia. LMI’s mission is to raise up an Australian network of wise Christian leaders for politics and culture who are biblically faithful, culturally intelligent, and positively engaged for the common good.

Dan holds a PhD from Macquarie University exploring the philosophical ethics of forgiveness. He was a member of the Board of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) from 2003-2021 and served as its Chair from 2017-2021. Dan holds a B.A. (hons) from the ANU and a B.Div from Moore Theological College.

Dan is married to Emma and they have two young children (Nat and Evie). Dan and Emma met while studying at the Australian National University through the Christian Union.

John Steenhof is the principal lawyer at the Human Rights Law Alliance, a not-for-profit law firm based in Canberra, Australia, that specialises in religious liberty and freedom of thought, speech, and conscience.

He is a follower of Jesus Christ, the undeserving husband of Lana, and a devoted father to Johnny, Conrad, Annalies, James, Julia, and Richard.

John had twenty years’ experience in law prior to the establishment of HRLA in 2019. HRLA regularly represents clients in religious freedom cases, advises Christians, churches, schools and organisations, and advocates at Federal and State levels for laws that protect fundamental freedoms of religion, thought, speech and conscience.

Joshua Rowe is a committed husband, father, and follower of Jesus Christ. Married to Celine for just over four years, they welcomed their first son, Daniel, eight months ago. Joshua serves as the NSW/ACT Director for the Australian Christian Lobby, holds a Bachelor of Theology from Alphacrucis University College, and is an alumnus of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. Based in Canberra, he is passionate about seeing the good news of Jesus transform individuals, society, culture, and politics.

Celine Rowe is a committed Christian wife and mother. She is a tremendous support to the Rowe family, especially helping her husband stay afloat in his busy role at ACL.

Celine recently began a new role as a Social Engineer (aka stay-at-home mum) and works hard to cultivate a healthy home environment each day. Previously, she worked in high-level executive assistant roles in the private sector. She recently paused her bachelor’s degree in counselling to focus on her new role as a mother but remains passionate about learning about relationships and supporting young adults with mental health challenges. Celine is also a graduate of The Download and an alumna of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute.

Some of her hobbies include watercolour painting, singing, and hiking with her family.

Wendy has over 20 years of experience in senior managerial roles with Griffith University, Queensland Baptists and the Australian Christian Lobby. Her proven ability to advocate politically for justice and for the marginalised has made her a valued member of not-for-profit boards. She has served as a Director and Board Member of Samaritans Purse Australia and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association since 2008 and has been involved in projects to protect women and children from exploitation in Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Wendy and her husband Peter have 3 married children and 11 grandchildren.

Peter Francis is the former Principal of Malyon Theological College and lectured in the areas of Missions and Old Testament.

Peter is married to Wendy who was the National Director for Politics with the Australian Christian Lobby. Together they have three married children and eleven grandchildren.

After a 10-year career as a high school teacher, 22 years in Pastoral Ministry, Peter moved to Malyon Theological College where he has been served as Principal for the past 7 years. Over the years Peter and Wendy have also been involved in a wide range of short-term missions in places such as PNG, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, South America and Belarus.

Peter has a passion for the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and is committed to the development and equipping of a new generation of faithful gospel workers.

Paul is the Managing Director of Real Talk Australia and has a passion for seeing people fulfill their potential. Paul is a sought-after speaker who uses his powerful life story to present a life-changing message on a variety of topics to thousands of people each year.

Paul has a background in youth ministry and has a Bachelor of Physiotherapy and postgraduate qualifications in Sexual Health and Theology (Marriage and Family). He is married to Emma, and they have six beautiful children. He is challenged and sustained by being an active husband, father and Christian. His happy place is when he is kayaking down a river or bushwalking with his family.

Real Talk is Australia’s largest human person and relationships education organisation, presenting 6000 speaking sessions over the last 10 years, reaching over 300,000 people live. Real Talk also impacts tens-of-thousands of people annually in schools through their online platforms for educators and families.

Paul is an award-winning leader and creator of the forthcoming program "Stourhearted - Men of Sexual Integrity". Paul is the Managing Director of Real Talk Australia and has a passion for seeing people fulfill their potential. Paul is a sought-after speaker who uses his powerful life story to present a life-changing message on a variety of topics to thousands of people each year.

Paul has a background in youth ministry and has a Bachelor of Physiotherapy and postgraduate qualifications in Sexual Health and Theology (Marriage and Family). He is married to Emma, and they have six beautiful children. He is challenged and sustained by being an active husband, father and Christian. His happy place is when he is kayaking down a river or bushwalking with his family.

Real Talk is Australia’s largest human person and relationships education organisation, presenting 5000 speaking sessions over the last 10 years, reaching over 300,000 people live. Real Talk also impacts tens-of-thousands of people annually in schools through their online platforms for educators and families.

Paul is an award-winning leader and is the creator of the forthcoming program "Stouthearted - Men of Sexual Integrity". He co-founded the Pornfree Movement which reached hundreds-of-thousands of people online during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has produced two video resources “Pornography, Love and Relationships” and “Relationships: Dating, Sex and Marriage” which he will make available to all participants of The Download.

Rob is an ordained minister with almost thirty years’ experience; planting, growing, and leading a church from an initial group of five to an influential, multi-staffed church in Adelaide, South Australia. He has served on a national denominational board, mentored pastors, business leaders, church planters and local church leaders. Rob commenced with the Australian Christian Lobby at the start of 2022 as Queensland Director.

Dr Megan Best has over 30 years of experience in palliative care and medical ethics teaching, research and practice. She has taught medical ethics at tertiary level since 2001 and is currently an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Institute for Ethics and Society at The University of Notre Dame Australia. She is internationally known for her work in Christian bioethics. Her research has focussed on bioethics at the beginning and end of life, and in the areas of genomics and palliative care. She has also researched extensively in the areas of spirituality in healthcare, whole person care and psycho-oncology. She is the author of ‘Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Ethics and the Beginning of Human Life’ (2012) and ‘A Life Already Started’ (2013), and Editor of ‘Spiritual Care in Palliative Care’ (2024). Throughout her career she has engaged with evidence-based health policy development, making important contributions to palliative care strategy and health legislation.

Julie-anne has a passion for people to know Jesus but she also has a passion for every Christian to be able to integrate their faith into every part of their lives as well as feel confident and comfortable to live it out and talk it out.

While she was working for AFES at Melbourne Uni, she developed a discipleship training course on evangelism which is called Ripple Effect. With help from others, they’ve now produced a course to encourage people to meet regularly to pray for the people who don’t know Christ around them, as well as share conversations that they’ve had PLUS to do some training together.

She has grown up in a Uniting Church in Keith, became a Baptist Youth Pastor in Adelaide, then became a Chaplain at Marryatville High School as well as the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Kensington. After that she was the University Chaplain at Ridley College, then Playgroup Coordinator for 1 Playgroup, which grew to 4 in 2 years for their local Church. She has also worked for AFES for 20 years as an evangelist and more recently worked for CTCA as a Specialist in Evangelism and Outreach and is also Canon for Church Planting for the Diocese of Melbourne.

But she really learnt her evangelism skills by practice (one of her friends became a Christian in Year 11 and this has spurred her on), as well as working for a Mission Organisation (SSEM, now Pioneers) and studying missiology at BCSA and Ridley College where she realised evangelism in Australia was really a cross-cultural exercise and so she applied all she’d learnt into helping students at Uni become Christians, as well as her own friends.

She has been involved in Arrow for 19 years and is their main personal evangelism presenter as well as State Coordinator, Regional Director for Lausanne Oceania and currently on the Selection Committee for CMS. She regularly speaks at Training days run by local Churches as well as Organisations and Conferences.

She is married to Andrew and they have 4 young adult children.

Michelle Pearse is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Christian Lobby, a Christian organisation that works strategically to lobby lawmakers and policymakers around Australia to ensure that Christian values influence the way Australians are governed and carry out business. As a dynamic leader and speaker, she is passionate about changing culture and transforming society through the truth of the gospel. Michelle possesses a wealth of experience that traverses public policy, leadership, and Christian Ministry. In her twenties, Michelle was ACL’s Western Australia State Director and National Spokesperson for Women’s and Children’s Issues. She also worked in an advisory role for a member of Parliament in Western Australia before moving to London with her husband to pastor a church for five years. Sequel to this, Michelle returned to Australia as CEO of ACL.

Neville has had an extensive career with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia where he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Bank and a director of twenty-six companies in the Commonwealth Bank Group. Since retiring from this role, he has undertaken consulting roles in the business environment and mentors business and community leaders. He has a desire to encourage people to use their gifts and exercise leadership in their spheres of influence. He is a director of several companies in the Corporate and not-for-profit sectors and in recent years was Chair of AMP Bank and Christian Super. In addition to being Chair of Vision Christian Media, Focus on the Family Australia, Sydney University College of Divinity and the Sydney Prayer Breakfast, Neville is a Director of Excelsia College (formerly Wesley Institute). He has a desire to see young people understand their identity and have the opportunity to make wise choices that will help them lead fulfilling lives.

With a broad and longstanding career at Senior level in the Banking and Finance sector, Neville brings a wealth of experience to assist in areas of change and development in the business arena and to the lives of individuals. He assists in solving business problems and speaks at conferences and events to support and encourage individuals in their personal development. With qualifications in Finance and Corporate Management he has had considerable and well regarded experience in a variety of Board roles.

John is a church planter and seasoned ministry leader with over 25 years of experience serving in Australia, Asia, and the UK. A professional in media and documentary filmmaking, he has collaborated with churches and not-for-profit organizations to create compelling visual campaigns and documentaries. Currently based in Canberra, John serves on the ministry team at Life Unlimited Church and contributes his expertise to the Australian Christian Lobby, addressing key cultural issues through impactful storytelling. Together with his wife Michelle and their three children—Aiden, Evie, and Sollie—John is passionate about fostering healthy churches, championing cultural transformation, and faithfully living out his belief in God and His Word.