Stan Purdum was a parish minister in Ohio for several years. He currently works as a freelance writer and editor. He writes curriculum for Cokesbury and edits Emphasis and Proclaim, both nationally circulated preaching journals. He formerly was executive editor of Homiletics, the most widely used preaching resource in America. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University Theological School. Stan's other books include Roll Around Heaven All Day and Playing in Traffic, both accounts of his long distance bicycle journeys, as well as New Mercies I See, a collection of parish stories of God's grace. Stan and his wife, Jeanine, live in North Canton, Ohio. They have three grown children.
Carol J. Miller authored the Kerygma Program books on Mark, Luke, John, Acts, the Advent texts, and the Lenten texts and has written numerous curriculum pieces for Cokesbury. She received Master of Theology and DMin degrees from Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. For forty years she served United Methodist churches in Eastern Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and she now resides in Annapolis, Maryland.
Clara K. Welch has served churches in Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia as a diaconal minister and an ordained deacon. She is certified in the areas of Christian education and older adult ministry through the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Following graduation from Lebanon Valley College with a bachelor’s degree in music education, Clara taught music at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky. She then attended Scarritt College in Nashville, where she earned a master’s degree in church music and Christian education. After several years of working in the local church, she returned to school and earned an MTS at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Clara and her husband, Brian, have one daughter, Rebecca Jo.
