Speakers

Speaker Schedule


  • Ben Stuart Artist: Dutton
  • Ben Stuart Artist: The 71's
  • Afshin Ziafat Artist: Matt Brouwer
  • Ikki Soma Artist: TBD
  • Gregg Matte Artist: TBD
  • Afshin Ziafat Artist: TBD
  • Ikki Soma Artist: Charlie Hall
  • TBD Artist: David Gentiles
  • Afshin Ziafat Artist: Jeff Johnson

Full speaker bios coming soon



Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart has been the Director for Breakaway since the summer of 2005. He grew up in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University in 1998. After graduation, Ben served as a youth pastor in Spring, Texas, as a teacher at Houston's Metro Bible Study, and as a speaker at youth camps and conferences. Along with Breakaway, Ben currently attends Dallas Theological Seminary and enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, Donna, and their dog, Tai. Ben's passion in life is knowing God and making Him known.

Find out more at BreakawayMinistries.org.

Afshin Ziafat

Afshin was born in Houston, Texas. He moved with his family to their native country of Iran when he was two years old. In the midst of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Afshin's family moved back to Houston when he was six years old. In the second grade, he was given a Bible by a tutor who was teaching him the English language. He read that Bible 10 years later as a senior in high school and came to faith in Christ. His conversion to Christianity was only the beginning of his journey to understand what it would look like to follow Christ.

Ultimately, his family would disown him because of his faith in Christ. His story illustrates the call of Christ on each of our lives—to follow Him regardless of the cost. In so doing, Afshin found that the reward was greater than the cost. He found the life Christ had for him. Afshin says, "My story is not about a man's faithfulness to God; it's about God's faithfulness to a man." His story is one of hope and inspiration, which demonstrates the truth of Matthew 16: 25- that whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will find it.

Afshin received his undergraduate degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages degree from Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Currently, Afshin resides in Frisco, Texas, with his wife Meredith. He is the Lead Pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, TX. He is also the founder of Afshin Ziafat Ministries and travels nationally and internationally proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in churches, retreats, camps, conferences, and missions. Afshin speaks weekly at Vertical Bible Study at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He also partners with Elam Ministries and travels into the Middle East regularly to train Iranian pastors. Afshin's passion is to teach the Word of God as the authority and guide for life, to preach Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and to proclaim the love of Christ as the greatest treasure and hope in life.

Find out more at AfshinZiafat.com.