David O. Bales was a Presbyterian pastor for 33 years. After retiring he taught Biblical Greek, World Religions, Biblical Hebrew, and Ethics at the college level. He has researched, written, and edited for Stephen Ministries. His stories, sermons, and articles have appeared in Preaching, Pulpit Digest, Lectionary Homiletics, Preaching Great Texts, Emphasis, Feasting on the Gospels, and StoryShare. Bales is a graduate of the University of Portland and San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Peter Andrew Smith lives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia with his wife, Meredith, daughter Hope, and dog Sophie. A graduate of the University of New Brunswick and the Atlantic School of Theology, he is an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada who has served congregations throughout Atlantic Canada and currently serves at St. James United Church and as a visiting chaplain at St. Francis Xavier University.
DJ Dent is the associate pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. He has a passion for creative liturgy and has designed art, dramas, and decoration alongside the spoken word in worship for synod assemblies, congregational worship, clergy conferences, and special events for the last 7 years as a pastor in the ELCA.
Linda Holcombe has been directing church choirs of all ages and leading worship bands for almost 30 years. She has been published in music education magazines, and has provided original music resources for Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Ms. Holcombe is currently the Director of Music at Christ Lutheran Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Dean Feldmeyer is the author of five novels, two non-fiction books, three plays and over one hundred published articles, short stories, essays and poems. He is also one of the contributing writers for The Immediate Word, a component of CSS's SermonSuite. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theater, Dean also holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School of Ohio and has studied classical philosophy at the post graduate level at The University of Cincinnati and The Ohio State University. He is currently the pastor of The Wilmington United Methodist Church in Wilmington, Ohio.
David Plant is currently pastor of Memorial United Church of Christ, Toledo Ohio. He has been a specialist in church revitalization ministries, serving 18 churches as a transitional specialist and three as a settled pastor over 40 years of ministry. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Defiance College, and his Master of Divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Marian Plant received her Bachelor of Arts from Defiance College and her Master of Divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She received her Doctor of Education from Northern Illinois University.
R. Kevin Mohr is pastor of English Lutheran Church in Bluffton, Ohio. Immediately after graduating from seminary, Mohr and his wife were missionaries for seventeen years in Madagascar. Pastor Mohr attended Heidelberg University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary for his formal education.
Roy W. Howard pastors at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland. He attained a Master of Social Work at Florida State University in 1978 and an M.Div. degree from the Candler School of Theology (Emory University - Atlanta, Georgia) in 1987; as well as a Doctorate of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington DC) in 2001.
Albert G. Butzer, III has served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, Virginia since 2007. A graduate of Tufts University and Princeton Theological Seminary, he is the author of Tears of Sadness; Tears of Gladness also published by CSS Publishing. In 2011 he received an Award of Merit (Second Place) from the Associated Church Press for his essay, "Making Sense of Difficult Texts," originally published in The Presbyterian Outlook
