The following people make up the Board of Directors of the DTI ministry.
Art & Toni Barkley became Christians in 1961 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in 1964 they entered the New Tribes Mission "Boot Camp" training. In 1970 they, along with their two sons (5 and 7) traveled to Bolivia, South America to serve as missionaries to jungle tribes. In1991 the Lord changed the direction of their ministry, and Art spent the next 7-1/2 years as an associate pastor at Reno Christian Fellowship (RCF) in Reno, Nevada. During that period, God took Art through a learning experience in the area of discipleship that changed his whole perspective. In March of 1999, Art resigned his position at RCF, founded the Discipler Training International (DTI) ministry, and authored the discipleship manual “A Tool for Personal Discipleship”. Art and his wife, Toni, continue to promote discipleship concepts and the training of disciplers in Reno and worldwide through the internet. They continue live in Reno, where Toni also disciples and counsels women.
Adam Barkley grew up in Bolivia, where his parents (Art and Toni) served with New Tribes Mission (NTM). Adam graduated from the NTM school (Tambo) in 1981, and then from the NTM Bible Institute in Waukesha, WI. Adam served as pastor at the First Baptist Church in Gardnerville, Nevada for eight years and is presently an itinerate pastor at TRE Baptist church, Wellington NV. He is also a full time Hospice Chaplain with Infinity Hospice Care in Reno. Adam has a passion for seeing believers grow to a mature fruitful relationship with the Lord.
Jerry Cole has been in ministry for more than 35 years. As a pastor, Jerry used the DTI materials and the philosophy of personal discipleship in growing the church. He sees personal discipleship or "spiritual parenting" as the key to a healthy church. Jerry believes that every sermon, Bible study or Biblical presentation he has ever prepared contains one or more of the basic elements of the DTI material. His recent book "The Course", with one of its themes centering on discipleship. Jerry says, "My mission in life is to simply tell people about Jesus." Jesus' command is to "Make Disciples".
Jessica Craig grew up in Minnesota and was raised in the Lutheran church. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with an Accounting degree. Then later went on to become a certified project manager (PMP). She has over 15 years of portfolio and project management experience.
In 2014, God was telling her that he wanted more from her, but she wasn’t sure what that meant at the time. Then, in 2015, she was discipled through the DTI materials and started to understand that God wanted a relationship with her and for her to surrender everything to Him. This had given her a hunger to do more. She started becoming more active at her church and began digging into the Word. She started to disciple other women through the DTI materials and God revealed to her that this was right where He wanted her to be.
She currently lives in Reno with her daughter and attends LifeChurch in South Reno. She is part of the Outreach team and has also volunteered on the Welcome team, helped with several women’s events and led a women’s bible study through the women’s ministry. She is currently discipling women in-person, as well as virtually, through DTI.
Evan Gannon accepted Christ as Savior on January 21, 1995, and began attending Reno Christian Fellowship in Reno, Nevada. He met Art Barkley in 1997, who discipled him. Evan made a Lordship decision after learning about Christ's desire to be Lord, not just his Savior. From that time forward, Evan actively participated in Art's Sunday morning discipleship class, resulting in his discipling Church leaders, small groups and individuals. Evan moved from Reno to Dayton, Nevada in 2010, and is training Disciplers in Dayton and leading Bible study classes. He also serves as Administrator of Dayton Valley Community Church and is a member of the Dayton Valley Ministerial Alliance.
Frank and Jeannette Meitz decided when they married in 1995 that their relationship would include God, without understanding the adventure He would lead them on. In 2004 the Lord led them to attend a discipleship class led by Art and Toni Barkley (the author of the DTI materials), where God “rocked their world” about what it means to REALLY follow Him and what it accurately means to “Go and make disciples.”
In 2007 the Holy Spirit led Frank to resign his secular job to volunteer full-time for DTI, spearheading the “Train The Trainers” branch of the ministry. They have facilitated "Equipping the Saints" workshops around the world, with a concentration since 2009 on annual week-long conferences in Cuba, focusing on raising up Cuban leadership to become Spiritual Mentors who teach others to mentor and disciple others.
They attend Crosspointe Community, a Free Methodist congregation in Largo, FL, and also serve on the Board of Victor Newman Ministries (a non-profit ministry) focused on the homeless, those who are food-insecure and those with addictions.
Jeannette recently co-authored a book with Yvette Carter, From Homeless and Hungry to Wholeness and Helping, available on Amazon.
Dave Schwartz was raised in Orthodox Judaism before he accepted Christ as Savior on February 12, 1996. He immediately entered into a spiritual mentoring relationship under Art Barkley, which allowed him to experience a wonderful understanding of Christ from the very beginning. Shortly thereafter, he married Beth, the love of his life. Together they've raised wonderful children, and enjoyed a life of amazing peace and joy, all thanks to God.
Dave is completely committed to the DTI discipleship process and has engaged relationships across the full spectrum of modern technology. Beth's commitment to the spiritual mentoring process is also on-going and she is rarely without mentoring appointments on her calendar. Together Dave and Beth mentor couples and continue with their life-long spiritual mentoring relationship with Art and Toni Barkley.
Dave's favorite verse is Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding," because this is his own personal challenge. In describing the difference between his life before and after Christ, Dave says, "There was a lifetime of failure before God, and a lifetime of victory since!"
