This event has been canceled for 2025. Please check back soon for 2026 information!

Pastors' Academy

This event is an intensive learning and growth experience offered annually for pastors. Pastors of every denomination are invited to join us as we grow into better preachers and encourage each other in ministry. Enjoy time away at the historic retreat center, speak quietly with God in natural settings, converse with colleagues who may become friends, and come away with renewed energy for your calling.

Creation in Scripture:
​The Way Forward

Perhaps the way forward to the healing of our communities and our land is a more careful reading of all of the Bible’s creation traditions.  God the warrior still opposes chaos, oppression, and cruelty: will we do so as well?  God the sovereign still speaks a word of power and peace; will we hear, and claim our role as God’s regents, entering together with our God into the task of tikkun ‘olam: the healing of the world?  God who tenderly molded us from the earth still loves both us and the earth; can we remember our connection to the world, to all life, and to one another?  God who planted a garden in Eden invites us to reclaim the idea of the garden of God, the navel of the world, out from which God’s life-giving streams flow with transforming power into every place.

Continuing Education Units: 1

Rev. Dr. Steven S. Tuell

Picture
The Rev. Dr. Steven S. Tuell is the James A. Kelso Professor emeritus of Hebrew and Old Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. After studying at West Virginia Wesleyan College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he earned his doctorate in Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, and taught at Erskine College, SC (1989-1992), Randolph-Macon College, VA (1992- 2005), and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, PA (2005-2021).  An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Tuell has pastored churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Virginia. In retirement, he continues to preach and teach Scripture in a variety of settings.
​Tuell has written numerous books and articles on the Hebrew Bible, and with his co-authors Stephen Cook and John Strong recently completed The Prophets: Introducing Israel’s Prophetic Literature with Fortress Press (2022). His book Creation in Scripture for Westminster John Knox will be published soon; his current work in progress is a commentary on Proverbs.  Tuell blogs as “The Bible Guy” at www.steventuell.net.  He and his wife Wendy have three adult sons.

May 4-6, 2025

$320/person
Click here for WPA Conference Continuing Education Scholarship application. 

Event Information

  • Event  begins with dinner on Sunday and concludes with lunch on Tuesday. Check-in is in Groves Lodge between 3pm and 5pm on Sunday. 
  • Pricing includes two-nights stay (private hotel-style room with linens), six meals, and course tuition. Discount available for those willing to select or be assigned a roommate. Please contact Olmsted for commuter rates. 
  • Register online, print and mail the registration form, or call to register at (814) 945-6512.
  • 1 Continuing Education Unit available upon request.