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Elizabeth Drescher, PhD
has emerged as a thought leader on the relationship between religious tradition and contemporary, digitally-integrated religious practice. A writer, educator, and public speaker who focuses on the spiritual lives of ordinary believers and seekers today and in the past, Dr. Drescher completed her doctoral work in Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union, and holds an MA in systematic theology from Duquesne University. She is a regular contributor to the highly regarded magazine Religion Dispatches, where she covers new media, popular culture, and religion. Her work has been featured in the Atlantic Monthly, the Utne Reader, the BBC, Radio Australia’s Radio National, and other national and international outlets.
Dr. Drescher has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for her work in education, new media, and contemporary spirituality. She is the author of Tweet If You ♥ Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation and, with Keith Anderson, of Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible. She is currently working on a new book, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of Religious Nones. Dr. Drescher teaches in the religious studies and pastoral ministries programs at Santa Clara University. A native of Pennsylvania, she now lives with her family in California's Silicon Valley.
Craig Mueller has served as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago since 1999. He has a master of divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC), a degree in music education from Gustavus Adolophus College, and a certificate in spiritual direction from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He is currently completing a degree in liturgical studies through the Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry program in Chicago. His thesis topic is: Any Body There? Worship in a Virtual World, focusing on the renewal of worship in a time of declining mainline denominations and rapid technological change. Mueller served as Associate Interim Director of Spiritual Formation at LSTC from 2008 - 2010, and in his parish has supervised numerous future pastors as part of their Ministry in Context field work. Publications include Soli Deo Gloria: Choir Devotions for Year A; preaching articles for Homily Service; and numerous liturgical texts and materials for Augsburg Fortress. In addition, he was primary compiler for Indexes for Evangelical Lutheran Worship, which includes a list of hymns for each Sunday and festival in the church year. A member of ALCM, Mueller has led workshops on liturgy and spirituality, chaired worship committees for several national conferences, and for three summers served as chaplain for the Lutheran Summer Music Academy.
Benjamin M. Stewart, PhD is the Gordon A. Braatz Assistant Professor of Worship and Dean of Augustana Chapel at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where he has taught since 2009. Dr. Stewart is especially interested in how the embodied dimensions of worship shape theological concepts and the Christian life. In addition to articles in Worship, Liturgy, Christian Century, and Liturgical Ministry, he is author of A Watered Garden: Christian Worship and Earth’s Ecology (2011). He is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and contributes to its Liturgy and Ecology Seminar. He previously served as pastor to a small, Appalachian community in Ohio, and as village pastor to Holden Village retreat center in the Glacier Peak Wilderness of Washington, and holds degrees from Capital University (BA), Trinity Lutheran Seminary (MDiv), Lutheran Theology Seminary at Philadelphia (STM), and Emory University (PhD).
