My name is Don Ray. I have over 20 years' diversified experience as an ordained Pastor; theology and leadership educator; mixed methods researcher; Police & Fire Chaplain Certified in Critical Incident Stress Management (C-CISM); and more.

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My recent U.S. nationwide mixed methods study is the largest-known project ever conducted on trauma, coping, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among clergy (n = 502), and the only known empirical study to examine PTG from a Lutheran Christian perspective.

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M.Div. | Concordia Seminary (St. Louis, MO), Presidential Scholarship

Ph.D. in Education | Biola University, Talbot School of Theology (La Mirada, CA), Aquila full academic scholarship

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As an early-career academic my teaching, research, education, & theological interests of late include:

  • trauma, suffering, and trials as continuing education;

  • trauma, coping and religious coping, and posttraumatic growth among clergy and first responders, respectively;

  • adult continuing education (lifelong experiential learning);

  • Luther's theology of the cross, and the essential nature of agonizing struggles (Anfechtungen / tentationes) for Christian formation and maturation

 

“We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

 
 
 
Rembrandt (ca. 1661-1669). Return of the Prodigal Son.

Rembrandt (ca. 1661). Return of the Prodigal Son.

 

 

As a Pastor, researcher, and interdisciplinary educator, my Scriptural guidepost is the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, whom Paul entrusted to teach the people of Ephesus sound doctrine:

“The goal of the instruction is love—from within a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a faith without hypocrisy” (1 Timothy 1:5).