Theologians in Residence—Nashville, Tennessee

Kenda Creasy Dean is associate professor of youth, church, and culture and director of the Tennent School of Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary. An ordained United Methodist pastor, she has written Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church, among other publications.

Roland Martinson is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. His publications include Across the Generations, Gearing Up for Youth Ministry in the 21st Century, and Effective Youth Ministry: A Congregational Approach. Martinson serves as project director for the Study of Exemplary Congregations in Youth Ministry funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Tina McCormick is associate pastor for youth at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, New Jersey. She and the youth of Westfield opened the first youth-led soup kitchen in the country, which now serves 250 people every Wednesday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Brent A. Strawn is associate professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He has a special interest in the Pentateuch, Psalms, Israelite religion, and Old Testament theology. He is author of What Is Stronger Than a Lion? Leonine Image and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (2005) and is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene.

Faculty—Nashville, Tennessee

Charles Atkins is a chaplain with the New Jersey Department of Corrections. With a ministry called New Name Alliance (www.NewNameX.org), he also produces and records inspirational hip-hop music. Atkins currently serves as the host of the nationally distributed Public Television Series Beyond Theology—an investigation of the intersection of spirituality and public life (ktwu.washburn.edu/productions/BT).

Mark DeVries is the founder of Youth Ministry Architects, a hands-on coaching service for churches. For the past twenty years, he has served as the associate pastor for youth and their families at the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continues to oversee the youth ministry on a part-time basis. 

Drew Dyson is a United Methodist pastor and a Ph.D. candidate in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. A fifteen-year youth ministry veteran, he is the author of Faith Forming Junior High Youth Ministry: Beyond Pizza 101.

Lynne Farrow is an artist, spiritual director, and marriage and family therapist. She works as an artist helping others express their faith through the arts. She currently leads art workshops and retreats nationally and internationally and serves as permanent faculty for the visual arts at Buildabridge International’s Institute for Art & Transformation.

John Hilley is principal of Patmos Consulting. He was the founding executive director of Community IMPACT! Nashville, a nonprofit recognized nationally for its work with teenage youth. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Hilley has served churches in New Jersey and Tennessee.

Bonnie Miller-McLemore is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Pastoral Theology at The Divinity School of Vanderbilt University. She is the author of In the Midst of Chaos: Care of Children as Spiritual Practice, among other publications.