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

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My recent U.S. nationwide two-phase study (2023, 2025) is the largest-known empirical study ever conducted on trauma, coping, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among clergy (n = 502), and the only known research emphasis to examine PTG from a Lutheran Christian perspective.

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M.Div. | Concordia Seminary (St. Louis, MO), President’s Scholarship

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

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My teaching, research, theological, and educational interests span several interconnected areas, including:

  • exegesis and hermeneutics, with particular emphasis on the Greek New Testament;

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

  • the Lutheran doctrine of vocation and the formative shaping of life for service;

  • adult continuing education (experiential learning);

  • qualitative and quantitative research design and instruction — including interviewing, focus groups, and applied statistics

  • theological integration in Christian higher education;

  • trauma, suffering, and trials as continuing education.

Rembrandt (1633). Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee.

As an interdisciplinary educator, ordained Pastor, Chaplain, and empirical researcher, 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).

 

Contact me here

Photography by Michelle Patch