The Thoughtful Christian Advisory Board includes Christian educators and leaders of adult Christian education from across the United States. They review and suggest study topics, and some are authors of studies on the site. We are grateful for their contributions and support!

Elizabeth Caldwell is Professor of Pastoral Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, where she teaches courses in religious education. Prior to joining the faculty in 1984, she worked as a church educator with congregations in Alabama and Tennessee. She is the author of The Shelter, Nurture, and Spiritual Fellowship of the Children of God; Making a Home for Faith: Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Your Children; and Leaving Home with Faith: Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Our Youth.

Susan T. Erdey is Director of Electronic Publishing at Church Publishing Incorporated. She is a religious communications professional, having served the Episcopal Church on diocesan, seminary, school, and national agency levels. She is a transplanted midwesterner living in New York's lower Hudson Valley.

James H. Ritchie Jr., a clergy member of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, is under extension ministry appointment to Ritchie Faith Span Ministries, providing leadership, resources, consultation, and training in the area of multigenerational ministries. From 1987 to 1994 he was an editor of children's curriculum at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tennessee, editing vacation Bible school, music, and human sexuality resources for children and resources for parents and pastors. He developed the Created by God sexuality education resources for fifth and sixth graders and their parents (Abingdon) and teaches this study across the country. He is the author of Always in Rehearsal: The Practice of Worship and the Presence of Children (Discipleship Resources). His music has appeared for over two decades in curriculum, choral, and worship resources, including the United Methodist Book of Worship, the United Methodist Hymnal Music Supplement, The Faith We Sing, and Sing the Faith.

Carol A. Wehrheim is a writer/editor of church educational materials and has written and edited for all ages (birth to adult) over the span of thirty years. She compiles "Perspectives from the Pew" for The Clergy Journal, and her most recent book is Giving Together: A Stewardship Guide for Families (Westminster John Knox Press). She is on the sixth-grade teaching team and is clerk of session at Nassau Church in Princeton, New Jersey.

R. Ken Ostermiller is the Minister for Curriculum Development for the United Church of Christ. Ken is an adult education specialist who served UCC congregations in Wisconsin and New York and then on a UCC conference staff in western Pennsylvania. He moved to the UCC national offices in Cleveland to help introduce a lectionary curriculum and now works through the denomination with many publishers to develop education resources for adults, children, and youth. Ken is especially interested in the intersection of faith and public life and has a special interest in the natural world.

Gina Yeager-Buckley is the Associate for Ministries with Youth for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This office oversees the national youth ministry program, which focuses on advocacy, spiritual formation, resource development, and Christian education for younger and older youth. Gina is a Certified Christian Educator and elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a frequent lecturer and teacher in the field of youth ministry and Christian education.

FOUNDING ADVISORY BOARD

We will be forever grateful to the founding advisory board of The Thoughtful Christian. These creative authors and Christian leaders provided much of the teaching format and many study ideas that have made The Thoughtful Christian so quickly successful since its launch in January 2006.

Kathleen Long Bostrom has served as copastor with husband Greg of Wildwood Presbyterian Church, Wildwood, Illinois, since 1991. She is the author of Finding Calm in the Chaos: Christian Devotions for Busy Women and nearly two dozen books for children. She has also had articles published in Horizons, Presbyterians Today, The Christian Century, and The Christian Ministry.

John A. Cairns is the retired Dean of the Academy for Faith and Life at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He has been involved in local church adult Christian education for more than forty years and is the recipient of a Life Achievement Award from the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators.

Gregory S. Cootsona serves as pastor of adult discipleship at Bidwell Presbyterian church in Chico, California, and has a particular passion for nurturing others' spiritual growth through teaching. Greg is the author of Creation and Last Things: At the Intersection of Theology and Science (Geneva Press).

Freda Gardner is a retired professor of Christian education at Princeton Seminary, an elder, Moderator of the 211th Presbyterian General Assembly (1999-2000), and currently living in Rensselaer, New York. She is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Albany.

Carol A. Wehrheim is a writer/editor of church educational materials and has written and edited for all ages (birth to adult) over the span of thirty years. She compiles "Perspectives from the Pew" for The Clergy Journal, and her most recent book is Giving Together: A Stewardship Guide for Families (Westminster John Knox Press). She is on the sixth-grade teaching team and is clerk of session at Nassau Church in Princeton, New Jersey.

Dr. Y. Dianna Wright is Minister of Christian Education at First United Presbyterian Church in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also an education consultant and founded the Kuumba Center for Christian Education and Spiritual Growth in Florence, South Carolina.