This web site is sponsored by the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a project whose purpose is to develop resources to help contemporary people live the Christian faith with vitality and integrity in changing times. The Project is ecumenical in orientation and appreciative of the legacies of a range of Christian traditions. We sponsor grant programs, seminars, books, conferences and web sites for adults and youth.

The Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith
Linwood House, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN 46383-4557
email: info@practicingourfaith.com


Dorothy C. Bass
Director of the Valparaiso Project
Dorothy directs the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith (www.practicingourfaith.org), a Lilly Endowment project based at Valparaiso University that develops resources to help contemporary people live the Christian faith with vitality and integrity in changing times. The Project has sponsored seminars, books, conferences, and web sites for adults and youth. Dorothy is the author of Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time and editor or coeditor of Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People; Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens (Upper Room Books, 2002); and Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life. Her most recent book, coedited with Craig Dykstra, is For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological Education, and Christian Ministry. She is also working with a team of authors to write a book on Christian practices addressed to emerging adults.

She is a member of Christ Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Valparaiso and on the Board of Holden Village (Holden Village), a Lutheran retreat center in the North Cascades Mountains. She is the wife of Mark Schwehn, who teaches in Christ College and directs the Lilly Fellows Program at Valparaiso University, and the mother of three young adults. Together, Mark and Dorothy have edited Leading Lives That Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be (Eerdmans, 2006), an anthology of contemporary and classical texts-including fiction, autobiography, and philosophy that offers challenge and insight for those reflecting on what to do with their lives.
Don C. Richter
Associate Director of the Valparaiso Project
Don co-edited Way To Live, co-authored the Way to Live Leader's Guide, and supervised production of www.waytolive.org, an interactive site for teens and those who work with them. Don is author of Mission Trips That Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World (Upper Room Books, 2008).

A graduate of Davidson College and Princeton Theological Seminary, Don was the founding director of the Youth Theology Institute at Emory University and has taught Christian education at Emory's Candler School of Theology and Bethany Theological Seminary.

Don is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is the father of two children, Jonathan and Katherine, and makes his home in Decatur, Georgia.
Doretta Kurzinski
Project Coordinator
Doretta coordinates Project logistics, records, and communications.

Doretta is an active member of the Evangelical Free Church of America and works extensively with local outreach programs in the Chesterton and Valparaiso areas.  She has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree with a concentration in English. She and her husband, Don, have two daughters, Leslie and Emily, and she is a proud grandmother to Edward.

Susan Briehl
Project Associate
Susan co-authored Practicing Our Faith: A Guide for Conversation, Learning, and Growth and contributed to the Way to Live Leader's Guide.

Susan is a Lutheran pastor (ELCA) who lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband Martin Wells and their daughters, Mary Emily and Magdalena. She and her daughters wrote "The Story" and "Food" chapters for Way to Live. She is currently working with a team of authors to write a book on Christian practices for emerging adults, forthcoming 2010.


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