RILEY O’BRIEN POWELL, M.DIV, ED.M: Riley lives in Scottsdale, AZ with her husband, Skip Powell, MD, and their four children.
EDUCATION: Riley studied art history and economics at Wheaton College, Wheaton IL. She holds a 180 hour Master of Divinity, from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, NJ. She holds a Certificate in Teaching from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. She holds an MA from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, where she studied international education and economics, focusing on helping women in the developing world, specifically, in Sub-Saharan Africa.
AWARDS: The Samuel Robinson Prize, Princeton Theological Seminary 
INTERESTS: Her theological interests focus on Fulfilled Covenantal Theology and also include Old and New Testament Theology, Textual Criticism, Jewish Apocalypticism, Christian Eschatology, Church History, Gnostic & Early Church Writings, Social Justice and Christian Mysticism.
LECTURES: Riley has been a lecturer and visiting professor of Old Testament Studies at Daystar Universtiy, Nairobi, Kenya. She has taught Adult Sunday School classes, studies out of her home and preached at various Churches in Minneapolis, MN.
OTHER FUN FACTS: Riley is a theologian who seeks to spread insight and compassion through teaching and writing. Believing that true religion is caring for orphans and widows, Riley has greatly enjoyed working in microfinance for Opportunity International, bringing financial justice to the poorest of the working poor in the developing world.
Riley is also a former private wealth manager at a major Wall Street wirehouse where she worked on her mother’s team, which her mother had built over the course of 30 years. She has seen the power of what good financial management and good financial tools can do to help people achieve their dreams. To this end, Riley continues to stay involved in the part of the financial world that centers around Blockchain Tech, Financial Tech (FinTech) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and other forms of “crypto”. This new mode of finance is bringing an exciting array of innovative tools and financial access to people all over the world and from all walks of life.
This site is dedicated to sharing and discussing ideas related to Integral Theology, Covenant Protology and Fulfilled Covenant Eschatology (or ‘Kingdom now’ Apocalypticism) Church Error, Reformation, Spiral Dynamics and how these affect our lives. Riley’s dream is for more Christian thought-leaders to have a working understanding of a fulfilled Covenantal framework and to thoughtfully engage in a discussion about how this affects how we view God and one another.
This site seeks to help people become informed about a Covenantal view and the incredible possibilities for it to transform the world of Christian faith and practice . She states, “When a critical mass comes to see the teachings of Jesus as being fulfilled and fulfilling through us in the world today – not to us in the future – people will discover a Jesus who was reliable, trustworthy, timely and faithful. One who kept his promise to return to his own generation (Mt 24:34) and complete their salvation. When we understand what he did, and when, we’ll stop asking when he will come, and start asking how He DID come, DOES come and how He DWELLS here among us, and within each image-bearer now. When we do this we will discover a more fulfilled, free and peace-filled faith than we knew before. Once people catch on to how well this view flows from Scripture and history, how much sense it makes for our lives and the world, this will form the basis for nothing less than the next Christian Reformation.”
PERSONAL LIFE: Both from Minnesota, Riley and Skip love learning about people and cultures around the world. They visited dozens of countries before meeting and continue to enjoy traveling together. They met while volunteering for World Vision in El Salvador. Both have taught, volunteered and climbed mountains in Kenya and have done medical research and volunteering together near Base Camp of Mount Everest in Nepal. They both love being in nature, traveling, exercise and spending time with their children, “…so much to see and do in this very short life.”