F. Lionel Young III is a highly experienced fundraising professional with a singular focus: helping churches, camps, and non-profits fully fund their ministry vision. He serves as a consultant for select clients in North America with Church Growth Services (CGS), a historic consulting firm established in 1959 that exists to help churches and ministries grow their generosity.

Lionel has served as both a senior pastor and a global executive, with extensive experience working in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America that gives him a cross-cultural fluency few consultants can match. He believes fundraising is deeply relational — and that when done well, it not only raises the necessary funds but strengthens the ministry itself. He has helped churches, non-profits, and denominations raise millions of dollars for their ministry vision.

A scholar-practitioner, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Stirling (Scotland), where he was mentored by British historian David W. Bebbington. He holds an appointment as Senior Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide in England. He is the author of World Christianity and the Unfinished Task, a Christianity Today best-of selection. He writes for Christianity Today, Desiring God, and leading academic publishers.

Lionel and his wife Stacy live in Austin, Texas.